Moses climbs up Mount Sinai - up THAT mountain- and disappears into the cloud at the top, the cloud that somehow represents the presence of God. There he stays for forty days in that haze, time apart in the presence of God receiving from God the ten commandments and other laws and teachings for the children of Israel.
{said slowly}
Then… he climbs… back… down … the mountain
{at normal pace}
But when he gets there people won’t look at his face. They glance away, they avert their eyes. Something has happened to Moses while he was up the mountain and his face is glowing bright and people are scared.
………………………………………….
Four hundred years later
Elijah climbs up the Mountain - some say That mountain - no cloud but thunder and earthquake that somehow represent the presence of God. He covers his face with his mantle lest it too should glow bright like Moses’s did. He comes to the mouth of the cave. And then the Voice.
……………………………………………
Nine hundred years later - Jesus climbs up a mountain. An unknown mountain, though some say the same mountain. With him he takes three special friends - Peter, James and John. The four of them spend time apart in the presence of God praying. And Peter James and John are having the trouble that many of us will have when we are praying. Perhaps you are praying on the tube and your mind begins to wander, perhaps you are praying you are praying at home in a comfy sofa and you begin to nod off. John, Peter and James are nodding off…
{exited tone of voice}
Then suddenly something happens. Something happens to Jesus’s clothes- they are no longer the dull gray tunic and trousers of someone who of necessity has bought the cheapest cloth. They are no longer dirty with the dust and debris of days on the road. They have become white - pure pure white - like a fresh coat of paint only whiter. And something happens to Jesus’s face - perhaps like what happened to Moses’s face - perhaps more so.
And two figures appear - Can it be? Yes, it is! Moses and Elijah! The great law giver, the great prophet. The two figures whom in days of old God met on the mountain. And here they are, Moses and Elijah. And Jesus is talking with them. The disciples are afraid. Peter tries to say something. He doesn’t know what he is saying. He stutters out something about building shelters.
Then the Cloud - just like that cloud from Mount Sinai that Mount Sinai. Then the Voice.
And then it is all over, and the disciples don’t know what to make of it, and they don’t know what to say.
……
Two thousand years later, and here we are in the Uk -where over half the population claim to have had a religious experience. Quite a startling statistic when you consider that a huge proportion of people say they don’t believe in God and only 8% of the population go to church. Yet according to surveys that have been done, the majority of this country claim to have had a Spiritual experience.
The accounts about Moses and Elijah and about the disciples on the mountain aren’t explicitly about how we should deal with spiritual experiences, but the letter from Paul is exactly about that. He is deliberately taking lessons from Moses’s rather unusual experience on Mount Sinai and applying them to our experience.
Now its quite clear that St Paul isn’t expecting us to have had quite the same experience as Moses. Some of you may have had quite potent experiences of the presence of God. I don’t know what because each one of them is unique. For most people it will have been something less dramatic than Moses. Perhaps a sense of awe as you go up to receive the sacrament, perhaps a sense of overwhelming peace as you are praying or being prayed for. Perhaps for some of you it might include that peaceful state known as resting in the spirit and for other it may have included when your mouth bubbles up in that unknown praise that we call tongues. But however dramatic your experiences of God may have been, I bet if I asked “how many of you have suddenly had your faces physically glow like something out of the X Files?” I bet I would not get many hands up.
So like St Paul - we need to take the unique experiences of God - Of Moses, of Elijah and of the Transfiguration - and apply them to our more everyday experiences of God.
And the first lesson I’d like to take is that these experiences should have an effect on us. For St Paul it was one of great boldness -
“Since we have such a hope we act with great boldness”
“Now the Lord is Spirit, and where the Spirit of God is there is freedom”
For the children of Israel it was more the opposite - terror! Peter may have been filled with boldness when he wrote about the experience later in his second letter - but while he was on the mountain top it was more his pants that were being filled… He was terrified.
Terror or Boldness
Yet for a lot people today it seems to be more a case of “Oh… that was interesting”. Half the country in surveys say they have had a Religious, a Spiritual experience. They have had that sense of God, that sense of the divine, and yet in many cases, it seems to make no difference in their life So many people who have an experience of God - yet so few who respond by coming to worship.
It’s like the time when Jesus heals 10 lepers - ten people whose lives are turned around - and yet only one comes back to say thank you.
And even us - in the middle mass we can be caught up in the mystery and awe of the event - and yet by Tuesday morning how much of an impact will it be making on our lives? Are we too missing the point?
I remember about something I heard a preacher say once. For years he had prayed for God to send a miracle. “Lord if only you show us a miracle, we will all have faith, everything will be so easy, Everything will be different.” Then one Sunday at church, they prayed for somebody there. I can’t remember what the condition was - but quite instantaneously there and then the person was healed. But the shocking thing was - the next Sunday, it was as if nothing had happened. It was, as I said, like the story of the ten lepers.
For so many of us in our contemporary society, even if there were to be something as dramatic as that we would say “Oh how interesting” and act as if nothing had happened. So when he children of Israel looked at Moses and were terrified, when Peter, James and John looked at Jesus and were terrified - I am not saying they were right (I think St Paul’s attitude ofJoy and boldness is the correct one) but they were far closer to the truth than so often we are today.
So, firstly Spiritual experiences should have an effect on us. Secondly, - if we spend time experiencing God’s glory we should begin to reflect God’s Glory.
“And all of us with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of God as though reflected in a mirror are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord the Spirit”
When Moses went up Mount SInai and spent time in the presence of God, his face began to physically glow. Now I wonder if you have ever had this experience meeting someone who is exceptionally prayerful. Their face may not physically glow but they have an inward glow. That is God’s call for all of us - that the more time we spend in prayer with him we should begin to develop an inward glow. Moses spent 40 days on the top of mount Sinai - we are about to begin the 40 days of Lent - what an excellent time to spend in the presence of God getting shiny. Of course like Moses you’ll probably be the last to know. Paradoxically, if you think you’ve got it, you are probably not there yet, while the more people genuinely have that glow, the less aware they are of it.
And thirdly we learn that spending time in the presence of God gives us new understandings. Moses spent time in the presence of God and came down with not just the ten commandments but reems of instructions and laws. Elijah spent time in the presence of God and was shown he was not alone and given a new mission to anoint Kings and prophets. John, Peter and James spent time up the mountain at the transfiguration and came to a new understanding of Jesus as God.
And as St Paul puts it, when someone is not yet a believer, when the scriptures are read, it is as if a veil was over their minds. “But when they turn to the Lord, the veil in removed”
Now that may sound arrogant, but don’t forget St Paul is writing out of his own experience - from being a pharisee, having spent years studying the Torah, and yet completely missing the point of the Scriptures - to the Damascus road experience and in a flash coming to a radical new experience of what they are all about.
For those who don’t believe it can be like there is a veil over their mind. My friend Nigel (who is not a Christian) once said that that when Christians speak about God, he can feel like a primitive tribesman who suddenly encounters New York City - he just can’t get his head around it.
On the other hand, my friend Elaine said to me that when she was first confirmed she barely understood a thing. Yet after just a few years of spending time in God’s presence - praying, going to church and being part of a house group, it was as if she understood it so much better. She didn’t use the language of a veil being removed from her eyes, but I could imagine her doing so.
So - if that is lesson to be learnt from our Spiritual Experiences, that still leaves one question burning like the burning bush - How do I get a spiritual experience? You may be like the many people who answered the survey and said they had had a spiritual experience. Hopefully what I have said will have helped you to interpret it and workout how to respond. Or alternatively you might be feeling a little left out, you have never had an experience like that and you wonder why not and how to get one .
Well firstly remember that God is sovereign. If he wants to act he will, and if he doesn’t he won’t. Fr Steve Benford, now Bishop Steve Benford tells of how he would look at people being prayed for. As hands were laid on them they would collapse under the power of the presence of God and rest peacefully in the spirit on the ground. “Why, Lord, does this never happen to me ?” - he thought - and yet when Fr Steve would pray for other people - and almost immediately THEY would begin to sway and sink gently to the floor. Why indeed?
Secondly - if such a huge proportion of the country say they have had a spiritual experience, then the chances of God acting in this way must be higher than you or I would initially think.
And thirdly,there are lessons from the bible passages. When Moses wanted to hear God he took time out and went alone up Mount Sinai. Elijah might have been quite burnt out and angry with God but he still took time out and went up the mountain and there he heard the still small voice. John, James and Peter might have been so exhausted that when they tried to pray they fell asleep, and it may not have been their suggestion - but they still followed Jesus’s lead, took time out and went up the mountain .
And if we want to hear God, we too need to take time out to pray. There’s an internet meme that says “if you want to hear God, make time for silence because the world shouts but God whispers” - like Elijah hearing the still small voice.
Sometimes of course God does speak loudly - like in the voice from the Cloud that the disciples heard on the Mountaintop. Or in the voice at Jesus’s baptism where Some said it thundered. God is sovereign. But if we are too busy to hear, we won’t
That’ why it is important to take time out each day to pray. Never think “because I can’t set aside much time it isn’t worth it. That’s one of the Devil’s classic lies. He loves to make the perfect the enemy of the good. He’ll tell you too that because you forgot to pray yesterday and the day before there’s no real point trying today - just face it you are a failure at praying - and that too is a lie. Every day is a fresh day to pray.
It’s why it is important also to take time out each week to go to mass, to receive Jesus in the bread and wine. Perhaps you miss it because you have to work on Sunday - why not make it up by going to a midweek mass? Perhaps you can’t be there at 10am because you are going out for the day? Why not set your alarm earlier and come to the 8am? Perhaps you are away for the week and can’t get to St Barnabas? Why not get to a different church where you are?
Taking time out regularly to be with God is really worth it. That’s what Jesus and James and John and Peter did when they went up the mountain to pray - and look what happened to them. God wants to meet with us
God wants to speak with us.
But if we are too busy, how can we expect to hear?
............................................................................................................
A sermon for the Sunday next before Lent
First preached St Johns Bethnal Green 25/2/2001
Preached St Barnabas Northolt 23/2/2020
..........................................................
If you have read all the way to the end of this sermon, presumably you have found it helpful. If so, (if you are happy to do so) please give the sermon a five star (or at least a four star) rating. The better star ratings a sermon gets, the higher it comes up search engines. So you are helping me (thank you) but you are also helping other people get to read this. Thank you.
