Year B - Fourth Sunday in Lent: Text Ephesians 2:10 0 God's masterpieces

Sermon 11^th March 2018 – 4^th Sunday in Lent

Text: Ephesians 2:10 – God’s masterpieces.

I asked a year 12 student recently what their plans were for next year when they finish High School.

It was like I had asked them to prove the existence of God or to explain the meaning of life.

They had that look in their eyes that screamed – I have no idea what I’m going to do.

And that can be a daunting situation to face when you don’t know what the future might bring.

It can also be the situation when you lose your job and you have no idea whether or not you’ll get another.

Facing the future with uncertainty can be quite frightening when you don’t know what the future is.

What can also be frightening is when you edge closer to retirement.

Sharon was quite shocked just recently when she realised I’m going to turn 60 next year.

It seems such a large number and so near to retirement age.

I reassured her that I’m not even 59 yet so let’s not panic just yet.

But in reality it is an important transition and one that many of you have made already.

There are so many variables to consider.

Will I have enough to retire on?

What will I do with all that spare time?

And then comes the next transition in life.

Do I stay in my home or move into a retirement village.

Do I try to look after myself or do I move into aged care.

As Christians we also have a transition in regards to how we serve God.

In our younger years we can be quite active in the church.

But as we get older we tire out and look for someone to take over the leadership.

As we retire from active duty in the church we might feel less appreciated.

Or perhaps you are younger but have no spare time.

Or you have spare time but have no idea what God wants you to do.

In our 2nd reading today – St Paul answers all those questions about the future.

Firstly he addresses the future for Christians so we don’t have to worry about our eternal future.

You don’t have to worry whether  you’ve done enough or whether you’ve led a good enough life when it comes to your eternal life.

Paul says: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

And that also mirrors what Jesus said: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but receive eternal life.

So if you’re worried about eternal life – don’t be.

But Paul also addresses the issue of trying to work out what God wants us to do until then.

Sometimes we can worry ourselves sick trying to find out where we fit in God’s overall plan for the world.

Well, Paul says: we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

In other versions it says we are God’s handiwork or God’s masterpiece.

We have all been created specially by God.

God doesn’t make junk – God makes masterpieces.

So no matter what you are doing – no matter what you or someone else thinks of you – God is seeing you as one of his grand designs – one of his masterpieces – just like an artist stands back and just stares in amazement at his masterpiece even if others don’t see what he sees.

But it’s that last part that really interests me:

We are created by God to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Did you hear that last bit – Which God prepared in advance for us to do?

How much energy do we expend trying to find out what it is that God is wanting us to do that we don’t realise we are doing what God has planned for us to do.

Whatever you are doing with your life, if you are doing it faithfully then it is a good work for God, even if it is undervalued by society.

Maybe you don’t think or realise that you’re doing exactly what God is wanting you to be doing and therefore you don’t see your place in the tapestry of God’s bigger masterpiece that he is creating.

The Israelites were a classic example of people who couldn’t see past their own personal needs and missed the bigger picture of what God was creating with them.

God was taking them to a new Promised Land, flowing with milk and honey; God was making them into a great nation but they grumble about the conditions they were under.

Sometimes the road we journey is tough so we need to keep our eyes focused on where God is leading us rather than the road we are on full of pot holes and winding roads.

Peter had that trouble too when Jesus said he must take the road of suffering and death but after 3 days rise from the dead.

Peter said – NEVER.

He only focused on the journey and not the destination.

He focused on the journey – the suffering and dying and missed the destination - rising from the dead.

So too were the Israelites:

The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”

Did you hear the irony there?

They complained that there is no food and then in the same breath said we detest this miserable food.

Which one is it – there is no food or the food is miserable.

Because they didn’t get THEIR way they complained

They missed the fact that God was providing them with everything they needed because the conditions were not quite what they wanted.

Maybe our lives are sometimes not exactly how we would have liked them to pan out.

But we need to remember that we are on a journey.

A journey to our Promised Land and as St Paul says - I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

In other words, I consider that the journey that I am travelling is not worth comparing with the destination of heaven.

Our Lenten journey continues and it will journey through Maundy Thursday – the day Jesus was betrayed.

It will continue through Good Friday when the valley of the shadow of death becomes a reality for Jesus.

But it will end at the destination on Easter Sunday morning when Mary and 2 disciples go looking for the dead Jesus and are stunned to realise that he has risen.

We too need to keep journeying through our Good Fridays – our Valleys of the Shadow of Death and remember that it’s not the journey that is important but the destination of Easter Sunday – resurrection morning..

And we remember that we were dead through our sins along the journey but now at our destination we are made alive together with Christ and that by grace we have been saved.

Year B - Third Sunday in Lent - Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 – How foolish!

Sermon 4^th March 2018 – 3^rd Sunday in Lent

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 – How foolish!

There are several Bible verses that I would call my favourite.

Today’s reading includes one of those:

Paul wrote, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles,"

Paul knew that there was an offensive side to the Christian message to those who didn’t understand – or as he called them –those who are perishing.

In this day and age when Christian faith is mocked, ridiculed, rejected, ignored and whatever other verb you want to put in there – there is no reason to dismay because that is exactly what Paul is speaking about.

The words "stumbling block" in the original Greek language can also be translated as, "scandal."

And that is often what the Christian message becomes; a scandal.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to try and fit into the ways of the world, that scandal has been minimized.

We have made so many excuses or exclusions to the commandments that they are hardly recognisable.

Many Christians are unaware just how scandalous God's action in Jesus Christ are

Just look at the scandal Jesus caused in today’s Gospel reading as he was not prepared to let the temple become just another part of the world.

He goes in and throws over the tables, makes whips and drives people out of the temple.

When was the last time we saw the church respond in such a way.          

Instead we try to compromise or justify so we don’t offend or turn people away from the church – has this worked?

Sadly today we have reduced the Christian faith to the most easily digested form possible!

And you know what – the world is still not digesting it.

The Ten Commandments in our Old Testament calls believers to make a definite break with the world around them - to have no other Gods, to not take God's name in vain, to remember to make time regularly with God.

In the Corinthians passage, Paul reminds us that the Christian faith revolves around a cross.

In Jesus’ time the cross meant death and defeat and shame.

So too today, Christianity is associated with death, defeat and shame.

Just as the people in Jesus’ time shook their head in derision at Jesus hanging helpless from the cross, so too people look at the church with derision and shake their heads in disbelief that we are still trying to bring our message into this 21st century.

So far as the people of Jesus’ time were concerned, the cross proved Jesus an impostor.

And that is what many are trying to prove today against the church – that we are imposters.

To the sophisticated Greeks in Jesus’ time, the idea of a dead carpenter being worshipped as the saviour of the world seemed foolish.

A message of an end of the world or judgment day seems foolish to many today.

So too today is the message of the church calling people to repent before God’s judgment brings the final curtain call on this world.

What a scandalous thought that a cross might actually produce new life!

The scandalous nature of our faith is revealed in the gospel lesson when Jesus refuses to perform a sign.

There is only one sign that the church and Christians are asked by God to show the world.

To love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour – including loving our enemies.

And that’s where the Christian message becomes scandalous and offensive even to Christians.

Luther once said, "Whatever your heart clings to and relies on is your god."

In our world today, as there has always been, there are many gods to whom we can give our hearts.

We give our hearts to the one who went to the cross for our sins.

And that’s where we lose the world when the topic of sin is introduced.

We don’t mind calling certain people sinners – the murderers, the rapists, the paedophiles, the African gangs, the Muslim terrorists..

But hey, I’m a good person;

I work hard to provide for my family – I even give to charities – don’t call me a sinner!

But the cross was not for a certain group of people that we call out as sinful.

It was for you and me.

And that’s where the cross becomes offensive because it works as a mirror to remind me that it was MY sin that Jesus took to the cross.

And the scandal is made even worse when what God did for us - loving us when we did not deserve to be loved - God now asks us to do the same to our neighbour – including our enemies..

People are happy to lift up Jesus as an example of good living – helping the poor and lonely – feeding the hungry – but that is not the Gospel message.

The Gospel message is the cross – as Paul says – we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.

The cross is a message to the world that things in the world are not right despite how progressive we believe our ways are.

Murder is murder – stealing is stealing – lying is lying – adultery is adultery – no matter what spin we can put on it.

And even if there is a reason to why – the only comfort comes from confessing it to God as a sin and hearing his word of forgiveness.

Satan will direct you elsewhere – everyone’s doing it – it’s not as bad as what others are doing – it 2018 – he deserves it.

These may explain but they don’t forgive.

Yes it may be the 21st Century but that doesn’t mean what we have done to morals is right.

The cross reminds us that we have all strayed from God and are unworthy of eternal life.

As difficult as it is to preach the message of the cross, without a cross, there would be no gospel.

Remove the cross from Christianity, and we become just another club or charity.

 It might make us unpopular but sometimes we have to go into the market place and upturn the tables.

And the first marketplace that Jesus visited to upturn was the temple – his Father’s house of prayer  – a reminder that cleansing begins in our own place – in our homes and in our churches.

The Commandments are a mirror that constantly call us back to show us where and how far we have strayed from God.

But they don’t leave us in despair but direct us to the cross where Jesus took our sin – all our failings – and nailed them to the cross to receive God’s forgiveness.

God’s love and mercy.

And then the cross sends us into the world to preach Christ crucified for the world.

And sometimes we have to upturn tables and make whips to drive people back to God.

Sometimes a word of rebuke is what the world needs to hear.

Just like a parent who has to discipline his or her children.

It’s when a parent is afraid that their child will no longer like them that they fear to discipline and try to become their child’s friend where respect is lost.

We should not be afraid to be different to the world and its ways.

If the world changes, we don’t have to change in order to accepted by the world.

If the world thinks we’re foolish for sticking to our beliefs, then that’s okay too.

As Paul said: God’s foolishness is wiser than the world’s wisdom.

If the world thinks we are weak believing in God then so be it.

I’ve often heard the church referred to as a “crutch”, as if that’s a bad thing.

A crutch is needed at times to help a person who needs support – and I’ll be the first to say I need that support, especially when I’m facing suffering or death.

As Paul also says – God’s weakness is more powerful than the world’s strength.

The worst thing we can do is change our ways so the world will like and accept us.

It won’t matter how much we change, Jesus says: You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 10:22)

It is really hard being church in the 21st century but I’m not sure it was always easy in previous centuries.

Let us remember that Jesus was put to death for his faith as was St Paul, St Peter, St Stephen and many many more martyrs including an early church father from the 2nd century named Polycarp.

He was given the choice to deny his faith and live or be put to death to which he replied:

86 years have I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?.

Let us never compromise what we believe and never be ashamed to proclaim Christ crucified because the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us – to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Year B - 2nd Sunday in Lent - Text: Mark 8:31-38 – Follow the leader

Sermon 25^th February 2018 2^nd Sunday in Lent

Text: Mark 8:31-38 – Follow the leader

One of the features of Australian politics over the past 10 years has been the instability of leadership.

In the past 10 or so years we have had the deposing of the Rudd, Gillard, Rudd Government of the Labor Party and the Abbott Turnbull deposing in the Liberal Party.

In recent times we have seen the dispute in the Coalition between the Prime Ministry Malcolm Turnbull and Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the National Party Barnaby Joyce.

Many in society believe that we are lacking leadership and hence we tend to see more and more one term governments as people become displeased with the leader and demand change.

But it’s not easy being a leader because everybody wants you to lead them in the way they want.

And as a result leaders are trying to please everyone but find when they do that it leaves people disgruntled and also lacking respect for leaders.

Good leaders sometimes have to make unpopular decisions for the good of people and hope that people see that despite the hardship they are experiencing, their leaders are looking out for their best interests.

Jesus began to teach his disciples what he was leading them into.

It is very different to what they were perhaps expecting.

They and all Israel were waiting for the new leader that God had promised – a King both in the line of David and a mighty warrior like King David who led his people to success over their enemies.

With Roman domination over their land they were hoping that Jesus would once again re-establish Israel as a mighty nation.

But now Jesus reveals what his plan is;

Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed,

Peter, acting on behalf of the other disciples is mortified:

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Mark doesn’t have what Peter said but Matthew does:

Never Lord – this will NEVER happen to you.

Peter doesn’t like what he is hearing and refuses to allow his leader to even think about it.

But it is a decision that Jesus MUST do.

Jesus too was concerned about what was going to happen and prayed to his Father to take the cup of suffering from him – but closed his prayer with “Your will be done”.

Jesus accepted his Father’s decision.

As much as they do not like Jesus’ decision – without it they are doomed.

But now comes the difficult part of following Jesus:

“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

That’s the moment that Peter and the disciples realized that the Messiah they wanted was not the Messiah made known in Jesus Christ!

The disciples wanted a leader, a Messiah, who would be a political and military leader, leading the charge to put the Romans in their place once and for all.

They wanted someone who would raise them up to a position of power and importance.

They wanted someone so powerful that their enemies would cower and flee.

They were convinced that the keys to a good life were strength and power.

Instead, they got Jesus who taught about loving others, feeding the hungry, and foretold his own impending death at the hands of the very same powers he was supposed to overcome.

This was not what they had signed up for!

It’s easy to understand why Peter was so upset;

If we had been standing there we might have been upset, too!

But then again, who among us hasn’t wanted a God who is there at the first sign of trouble and sets things right?

Maybe we have asked God for a good parking spot; a better job, a new car or the bigger house.

We believe that if we can just get a little bit ahead and become just a little more successful, our lives would be much better.

Doesn’t God owe us that?

The disciples weren’t the only ones who believed that the keys to a good life were strength and power.

More often than not, we believe it too.

But it’s not only physical possessions we expect God to provide.

When tragedy strikes, we pray for a different outcome, and yet God seems far away from us.

Those who have been at the bedside of a friend or family member who died much too soon often find ourselves staring into the cold, dark silence of death, feeling abandoned by God.

They are among the crosses we have to carry.

Many situations cause us to wonder about this God we worship.

“Why doesn’t God just fix all of this?”

If God loves us, why do we suffer so terribly?

What sort of leadership is that?

But Jesus says that the life of a Christian is not about living a life that we desire but about trusting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.

He says – whoever wants to save his life will lose it.

In fact Jesus says - If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In our world today no one wants anything denied.

We believe we have a right to everything.

To confess Jesus as our Lord means standing at the foot of the cross as he is crucified.

Having Jesus as our Lord is more than fixing our lives.

Having Jesus as our Lord is about laying down his life so we may find ours.

It is then that we realize that the suffering we see around us—in the hospital bed, in the prison, on the street, in the mirror—is none other than the crucified Christ laying down his life again and again. In the midst of our suffering Jesus fulfils his Baptism promise – I am with you ALWAYS.

“If any want to become my followers,” Jesus said, “Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

That’s why Jesus rebuked Peter – get BEHIND me Satan.

Stop taking the leadership role and follow me.

But it is not all about doom and gloom and suffering as a follower.

As we follow Jesus we know that he is leading us to a better place – our eternal home in heaven.

We cannot understand the fullness of Christ’s resurrection unless we are willing to know Christ crucified.

Easter morning finds its true meaning and hope only through Good Friday.

And so, as we continue our journey through this holy season of Lent, may we walk alongside one another but behind Christ, bearing our crosses and proclaiming the faith of Christ crucified with our hearts filled with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection and the assurance that until he has led us home “I am with you always till the end of the age”.

Year B - The First Sunday in Lent - Text: Mark 9:2-9 – Hating sin, loving the sinner.

Sermon 18^th February 2018 – 1^st Sunday in Lent

Text: Mark 1:9-15 – Hating sin, loving the sinner.

The story of Noah’s ark is a favourite among many people, particularly young children.

It is a story that is best known for the images of all the different animals lining up, two by two, to enter the ark to escape the coming flood.

It’s a story that brings out pictures of joyful scenes, happy animals and the image of a huge rainbow in the sky that again depicts joyful scenes.

Those scenes are a favourite amongst Sunday School stories and songs.

But Noah’s ark is a far cry from playful joyful scenes.

It is a picture of God’s anger at sin and human beings and how God tries to deal with the situation.

It begins with a regret voiced by God – a regret that he had ever made Adam and Eve and all humanity:

God responds angrily saying that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

God is struggling with what to do with sin and sinful human beings.

Sin that is so ingrained in humanity that he cannot separate them.

Sin that he detests so much in humanity that he loves so much.

And so God tries again.

He has one family that he respects – Noah and his family – and he will repopulate the world by saving that family and by saving 2 of every animal to breed them and repopulate the earth with them.

But what God discovers is that the water that he uses to wash away the evil in the world does not cleanse the world of sin as it soon begins again in Noah’s family despite their upright living.

God introduces a system of sacrifices.

3 times a day, morning, noon and night, the people of Israel would sacrifice a burnt offering to appease God for their sin and the sin of the world.

And once a year on the Day of Atonement, Israel would capture a goat and lay hands upon it symbolising the placement of all their unintentional sins on it and then cast the goat out into the wilderness taking their sins with it – from where we get the term scape goat – a person who takes the guilt on behalf of another.

But again, sin torments God as the people wander away from God after he had forgiven them and follow other gods who seemed to offer more.

Again God’s anger causes him to cast his people from his sight and he has them exiled into foreign lands and allows their temple where the offerings were made to be destroyed.

But again, that struggle within God between sin that he detests and humanity that he loves sees him relent time and again – in much the same way that he relented from destroying Nineveh in the days of Jonah.

And so we see this love of God for humanity that forgives the sin he detests when we repent of our sin.

As we move into the New Testament we see God’s struggle with sin continue.

He can’t just ignore it and combines his love of humanity and his hatred of sin by sending his own son to become a sacrifice for our sins as Jesus proclaims:

For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John the Baptist prepares the way for Jesus with the message “Repent” – the same message that Jesus would proclaim also - repent, and believe in the good news.

Repentance allows God to rebuild us.

This message of repentance was so important that Jesus leaves towns still crying out for healing from their illnesses to that the message could be preached everywhere.

Jesus, the Lamb of God, becomes our scape goat by which our sins are placed on him and he is cast out taking our sins with him to the cross as our once and for all sacrifice.

On this first Sunday of Lent we see the playing out of that action by God reflecting all the elements we have seen in the Old Testament in God’s attempt at dealing with our sin.

We see the waters of the flood used to drown out sinful humanity now being used to drown our sins through Baptism as Jesus begins his ministry for humanity by undergoing his own Baptism.

Immediately after his baptism Jesus is sent by the Spirit into the wilderness, a place of danger and alienation.

But God’s love for his own son ensures that he is not alone in the wilderness as Mark writes - the angels waited on him:

And that same promise and love is enacted in our Baptism where Jesus promises – I am with you always.

He never leaves us alone in the wilderness of life.

Jesus spends 40 days in the wilderness, again reflecting the flooding in Noah’s time when it rained for forty days and 40 nights.

Jesus time in the wilderness becomes a place of temptation by the devil – again replaying the scene from the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve are tempted to depart from God’s care and to provide for themselves and as a result are banished from the Garden of Eden and sent into the wilderness.

But God doesn’t abandon them.

He provides clothes for them.

He provides protection for Cain when he is banished for killing his brother Abel.

We see a God who continues to struggle with sin he detests and humanity whom he loves.

God now deals with our sin but does not allow his anger to destroy us like he did in the days of Noah.

He does not cast us out of his sight like Israel in the exile.

God now deals with our sin, as Paul says:

Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.

Instead of expressing his anger against us because of our sin, Paul says in 2 Corinthians –

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

A sweet exchange of our sin for Christ’s righteousness.

Sin still plays a heavy weight on Christians.

And that’s where the devil still does his work.

He accuses us, as his name’s meaning suggests – the accuser.

And that’s where our Baptism does its work for us as Paul again says:

Baptism now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

None of us are perfect but we are all forgiven when we call upon the name of Christ – the Lamb of God sacrificed for our sins – the scape goat who takes our sins into the wilderness but leaves us in the presence of God’s love and mercy.

In these next 40 days of Lent we will journey with Jesus to the cross.

We will have opportunity to reflect on our relationship with God and our sinfulness that saw Jesus crucified for our sins.

These 40 days will be our wilderness experience as we reflect on our sinfulness that God detests and our humanity that God loves.

Throughout the history of God, we see God’s people spending their time wrestling with God in the barren places.

Abraham and Sarah journeying to the unknown promised land - the wandering of the people of Israel for forty years, Jacob’s wrestling with the unknown stranger at the Jabbok where he walks away victorious but lame.

The wilderness can be a place of self-discovery as we too struggle with God.

God’s people never faced the wilderness alone.

For forty years, God journeyed with Israel.

For forty days, God watched over Noah.

For forty days, God stood with Jesus.

For forty days God watched Nineveh repent in ashes and sackcloth.

And for our time in the wilderness God will stand with us.

Our church, our community, our world—now more than ever—needs the wilderness.

We need to spend the time looking at ourselves in order to find new life, new ministry, and new ways of being the people of God.

We don’t like wilderness experience.

We prefer things to stay the same, for things to be frozen in time – like Peter in the Transfiguration.

We long for the way things were in the past, but God is calling us, like the people of Israel, to a new future – our promised land.

God has work for us to do and that work begins, like it did with Jesus, when we are driven to the wilderness of discovery.

We go to the wilderness to discover anew the joy of being loved.

We go to learn once more what it means to be and live as God’s loved ones even though sin fills our every inclination.

We go to listen for the voice of God calling us again.

We go to see Christ more clearly in the world around us.

We go because that is where we encounter God.

The wilderness is calling.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” Amen.

Year B - The Transfiguration - Text Mark 9:2-9 – Faith in low times

Sermon 11^th February 2018 – Transfiguration Sunday

Text Mark 9:2-9 – Faith in low times

High and low experiences are part of everyday life.

When a couple gets married they vow to love each other “in sickness and in health – for better and for worse – for richer and for poorer.

It acknowledges that even in marriage there can be the highs and lows.

So too in the life of faith.

There are times when we feel lifted up, taken up to a place a little closer to God and God's glory.

There are times when we feel we are hearing God speaking to us, telling us things, giving us direction, comfort, joy.

But these times are not always long lasting.

These times do not come often, no matter how much we strive for them.

In fact most days we probably live our lives down on the ground, unaware of the wondrous, transforming power of God at work in the world and in the life of the church.

What we fail to see sometimes and struggle with is when we focus only on the up or down times in life and in the church also rather than seeing them both as experiences with God.

It can make it seem that God slips in and out of our lives and somehow we have to capture and hang on to that high point and avoid the low points all together.

That’s what happened on the mount of Transfiguration.

Peter's mind is on glory, not on suffering and loss.

Peter wants to build 3 shelters – 3 places for Jesus, Moses and Elijah to stay so he doesn’t have to let go of this highpoint in his life.

But there’s a couple of problems with this sort of thinking:

Firstly, what about everyone else?

Peter is really happy to stay up there with his 3 heroes but what about everyone else?

What about Jesus ministry to those who still need to hear his message?

Remember last week’s Gospel when the people wanted him to stay in their town and heal everyone: he said: “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Jesus doesn’t want Peter to remain on the mountaintop but to go back down into the valleys – back into the low lands to share their experience of Jesus’ glory to give hope to others.

He realises that Peter doesn’t quite understand yet about Jesus true glory – and he won’t until he has claimed the ultimate victory of defeating death.

And so he instructs Peter, James and John not to tell others about their experience until after he has risen from the dead.

Likewise here at church is not where God needs us.

He needs us back in the world.

He needs us in our workplaces – in our schools, in our hobbies, in our sports, in our families and frieands sharing with them the Christian hope of eternal life.

We come here to church to receive that mountain top experience as we hear our sins forgiven – as we experience God’s Word and Sacrament – but we come down from that mountain top and back into our valleys.

But the other reality that Peter ignores by wanting to maintain that mountain top experience is that it ignores God’s presence in times of difficulty.

God is not only present in those mountain top experiences he is also with us in times of suffering as Paul proclaimed:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Our text says that Jesus came down from the mountain with them.

He didn’t let them go back down into the valley on their own.

And neither does he leave you alone as he promised – I am with you always.

Peter feels that he needs to maintain that mountain top experience in order to experience God’s presence.

And wouldn’t we all want that all of the time.

Wouldn’t we want to capture those moments when we feel so close to God that we could touch him.

None of us enjoy those low moments when we feel emptiness and lowliness in our faith.

But despite what we feel, the reality of Christ’s glory is here with us all the time even if we don’t see it – even if we don’t feel it.

For Peter, suffering and death aren't on the agenda when it comes to Jesus.

Remember his response when Jesus spoke of his impending suffering and death:

Never Lord – this will never happen to you.

But that is where Jesus’ true glory is going to be experienced.

That is where Jesus’ mountain top experience will be made available to all – as he is crucified for our sins on the hilltop of Golgotha.

Peter doesn’t need to build a shelter for Jesus.

Jesus is going to build a shelter for him and all of us to shelter us from God’s judgment.

That shelter is his cross.

It is not we who build a shelter for Jesus.

Jesus has built a shelter for us through our Baptism by which God has declared his everlasting covenant with us, just as he confirmed his everlasting covenant with Jesus when he confirmed his Baptism love with the words –

This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

The same words spoken at Jesus Baptism.

The Transfiguration was not supposed to be an experience for the here and now only but to give us hope for the future.

As Peter, James and John go back down into the valleys they are going to witness and experience the greatest challenge to their faith as Jesus is arrested, humiliated, tortured and then shamefully put to death.

It will be an experience that will see them abandon him at his moment of need – it will see Peter deny knowing Jesus when he needs his support.

But then after he has risen from the dead Peter will recall that experience and Jesus’ instruction to wait till he has risen from the dead.

And then all the pieces of the puzzle will begin to show the true picture of Jesus’ glory.

We too need to look beyond the individual experiences we go through and rediscover the big picture of our life in Christ.

Sadly we live in a world that is obsessed with instant gratification and many can’t deal with the low points in life.

Like Peter on the mountain top, the world doesn’t want to wait.

It wants its glory here and now.

But in times of suffering or in times of facing death, the Transfiguration reminds us of Jesus’ coming glory that has defeated death and offers us comfort and hope.

A comfort and hope that we can experience now but look forward to experiencing fully in the life to come as St Paul says in Colossians 3:

Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So, like Christ’s glory which is real but hidden behind his suffering and death – our glory is present but hidden behind our sin and flesh.

The Transfiguration brings our Christmas and Epiphany season to an end.

A season filled with joyful emotions.

And now we prepare for our Lenten journey for the next 40 days.

A journey that gives us an opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ suffering and death and to reflect on our own lives and how we have failed to do what God has asked of us.

How we too have fled from God when he has needed us.

How we too have denied God when he has needed us to speak up for him.

But as we end that journey on Easter Sunday we join with the angels and archangels – the cherubim and seraphim, Mary Magdalene and Peter and all the other witnesses of the resurrection, with earth and sea and all their creatures, we praise Jesus for his glory and the hope he gives us.