Revd Mark Bonney
I wonder how good you are on the church's calendar - a little quiz to start with: an easy one to start with ;
6 January….. Epiphany 29 June….St Peter's Day
1 November All Saints 25 March…Annunciation to the BVM 27 February George Herbert (those who watched the archbishop's enthronement may have picked that up!)
What about today 2 March? . St Chad - some of us have special reason to know that but I won't go into that.
Last one - 6 August? It's the feast of the Transfiguration, which was the story we've just heard in this morning's gospel - on this Sunday before the start of Lent we get an extra airing of this strange event.
Coupled with it in the first reading was the equally extraordinary account of Elijah ascending into heaven on a chariot of fire and horses - chosen because of the appearance of Elijah in the Transfiguration story.
Both accounts are so overlaid with imagery and symbolism of various kinds that what historical event lies at their core is difficult to ascertain - and that's not the important thing anyway. In the OT passage what's important is the handing on of authority from Elijah to Elisha - and the faithfulness of Elisha to his master. In the NT images are heaped up - the cloud, symbolic of the presence of God - the shekinah - the cloud of unknowing in which God is met and heard - here Jesus is designated as the Suffering Servant - the one who supersedes Moses and Elijah - Jesus is left alone because in the presence of Jesus their importance is diminished.
Such is the strangeness of this Transfiguration account that most commentators seem to agree on is that we don't know whether this great spiritual moment and eye-opening vision was a pre or post-Easter event. As I'm always at pains to point out, the gospels aren't history books in the normal sense of that term, but accounts written with resurrection spectacles on, the event described is written in the knowledge of the passion and resurrection of Christ - it has a sense of looking backward as well as looking forward.
And it's this looking forward and looking back that is the reason for this Transfiguration passage being used today as we come to the verge of Lent. Ash Wednesday this week - and before we start those days, like the disciples in the story, we're given a glimpse of Easter to help us on the way.
But of course we've been here many times before - some of us but half a dozen times, some of us 80 times or more perhaps! There can be a terrible temptation to think that this is yet another cycle of what we're used to. And in many ways that's good - there's nothing wrong with the familiar.
But let's think a bit more deeply.
We count our days and years in straight chronological time - and although inside many of us may cavort as 18year olds - the years outwardly the wrinkles, the arrival of yet another birthday and the size of the stomach betray something else. But we also experience time in a cyclical way -the times and seasons of the Church's year come round and round - similarly the seasons of the year - winter spring summer and autumn - Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and plain old green time - a constantly repeated cycle.
Part of the spiritual journey is marrying the two - the straight line and the circle - or perhaps rather than a circle, spiritually I hope that it's a spiral - going round and round but never quite on the same tracks and gradually getting deeper and deeper. That's to some extent why we can't know whether the story we have in the gospel is a pre or post-Easter description - because there has been so much re-visiting of the story before it appears as we have it in the gospel.
We move onwards, but very often by going over the same ground in different ways - such are the depths of life and of the Christian journey that without that cyclical aspect we will just skim the surface.
Ash Wednesday is soon upon us and we can easily think, round this mulberry tree again - and yes we are going round it again, but I want to offer you a challenge today about going around it in a different way, and one that may help the experience of it and the ensuing Lent have just a slightly different perspective.
Last week at General Synod we had a short debate about Iraq. The insert in the pew leaflet today has the message that was jointly made by the Archbishops of Canterbury and Westminster on 20 Feb, and the motion that Synod passed - it was passed 289 to 46….
One thing that came across from the debate was that Christians aren't unanimous by any means about the course of action that should or should not be taken by our government, by the US and the UN in the coming weeks. There were noticeable voices against insisting on the second UN resolution. And the reasons such people gave were to do with Saddam's past record, the dangers of letting him expand what he has, and the need to trust the Prime Minister who will have far more Intelligence than he can possibly divulge to us without jeopardising the sources of that intelligence. However the vast majority were in favour of the motion that you can read on your pew leaflet.
None of us can possibly pretend that the decisions are easy and hence there's a clear recognition of the burden of such responsibility in the Archbishops' statement.
Whatever your views about the rightness or wrongness of war, no one can be excited about the prospect. The challenge offered by the Synod resolution mirrors a challenge given out by Pope John Paul II in calling for this Ash Wednesday to be a day of prayer and fasting for all caught up in this crisis.
Most of us have been round the mulberry bush of Ash Wednesday lots of time - but how many of us have done it fasting? Not eating, not preparing meals for a day will release quite a bit of extra time to pray - the minor discomfort will focus the mind - there is a right place for just sitting and being in prayer - sitting and being with the agony of the situation and not running away from it - the agony of those who might suffer, the agony of those trying to make decisions.
But the real reason for fasting at times during Lent and at this time in particular is because it is a traditional way of expressing the fact we have sinned and fallen short of what God made us to be. It's not fashionable to be reminded that we're sinners - but we are. Fasting is a token of repentance, a way of saying sorry that costs us just a little in time and effort - so often our saying sorry for our sins is painless and over in a flash. Fasting is a way, just once in a while, of focussing just a bit more on how we fall short, and how much we need the grace and mercy of God.
A very thought-provoking contribution to the Iraq debate at Synod reminded us that Saddam might not have quite the capabilities that he has etc if we in the West hadn't given him aid and support some years ago in his campaign against Iran. Moral righteousness and purity is not easily come by - it's never as simple as we're right and they're wrong. Sin is corporate as well as individual, and whether we like it or not we're all caught up in it- and we all need to be sorrowful and make acts of repentance. And a day of fasting and prayer is a very powerful way of so doing.
Our prayer doesn't and probably shouldn't be a case of us saying lots of things to God, but just being and sitting and waiting in the silence - and waiting, and waiting… - and if we can follow the other important part of fasting and prayer, and give away the money saved to an aid charity we'll do a vast amount to help practically too.
Don't' fast if you're very young or very old - drink plenty of water - that's OK! - otherwise there's no harm to be done and by doing this with millions of other Christians who knows what spiritual energies may be released.
What's 6 March? This year it's Ash Wednesday - and a call by the Pope and our own church for a Day of Prayer and Fasting for all involved in the crisis in Iraq. May it be so to the glory of the one and only living God. Fr Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Revd Mark Bonney
Two very short stories:
"Once two brethren came to a certain elder whose custom it was not to eat every day. But when he saw the brethren he invited them to dine with him, saying 'Fasting has its reward, but he who eats out of charity fulfils two commandments, for he sets aside his own will and he refreshes his hungry brethren.'"
And a second:
"An elder was asked by a certain soldier if God would forgive a sinner. And he said, 'Tell me, beloved, if your cloak is torn, will you throw it away?' The soldier replied, 'No, I will mend it and put it back on.' The elder said to him, 'If you take care of your cloak, will God not be merciful to his image?'"
Two delightful stories, some 1700 years old, from a group known as the Desert Fathers. Lent is associated with Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness - in the desert - and what these men of yesterday have to say is still of relevance as we look ahead to 40 days that we encouraged to make a little desert-like.
The Desert Fathers of the 4th century lived in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine - they were the first Christian hermits who abandoned the cities of he pagan world to live in solitude. They felt that the road to salvation necessitated this withdrawal from a society that they felt was hopelessly adrift. The fact that the emperor Constantine became a Christian was, for many of them, only a bad thing, since the cross was then a sign of worldly power. In many ways they were radical thinkers, ahead of their time - they thought the idea of a 'Christian state' ridiculous - certainly in the sense that a Christina society could come about in its fullness in this world.
The Desert Fathers left conventional society because in the world people are divided between those who are successful and impose their will on others, and those who have to give in and have things imposed upon them. The Desert Fathers had no desire to impose anything on anyone - in a way they were anarchists - they wanted a society where all people were truly equal, where the only authority under God was the authority of wisdom, experience and love.
Although they were hermits, these men were widely sought after for counsel and advice, hence the vast collection of their sayings that exists. Sayings, that were, like so many of Jesus' short and pithy. Try this one:
"A brother asked one of the elders: What is humility? The elder answered him: To do good to those who do evil to you. The brother asked: Suppose a man can't go that far, what should he do? The elder replied: Let him get away from him and keep his mouth shut."
Very few are called to be hermits - even fewer to live in the desert - but the 40 days of Lent are a reminder that even though we're not called to literally be in the desert, there is a place for the desert in the spiritual lives of each and every one of us. On our Christian journey the desert is a very important place - It's the place and the time when we're alone and still and silent with God - when we withdraw from the world of 'doing' and enter the world of 'being' - being with ourselves and being with God who is the source of our being.
The desert may be our bedroom, it may be the park, it may be the car, the church - wherever we're alone with God, behind that closed door and with our real self and God.. That is our desert.
Perhaps some of you have heeded the call made to Christians by the Pope and our own Church to make today a day of fasting and prayer - that may well have been a desert type experience. Make some more use of that during this Lent.
We can hear lots of sermons about prayer - go into any Christian bookshop and there are rows upon rows of books about prayer, and people avidly buy them - course are run about prayer, there are workshops and study days and all the rest - but in then end there's no substitute for actually getting on with it and doing it - of being still and silent and waiting upon the Lord. A plethora of books and reading are no substitute for creating some desert space to be with God and to allow his transforming Spirit to work with us - it's not us who pray in the end anyway, prayer isn't yet another activity in a world that's already frenetic with activity - as St Paul says, it's the Spirit who prays in us - the desert space gives the Spirit a chance to be heard.
A final Desert Father saying to conclude:
"A certain brother enquired of Abbot Pastor saying: What shall I do? I lose my nerve when I'm sitting alone in prayer. The elder said to him: Despise no one, condemn no one, rebuke no one. God will give you peace and your meditation will be undisturbed."
May God bless our desert places and give us a holy Lent. Amen.