Sermon for Sunday next before Lent – ‘Transfiguration’ preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday 2 March 2025 by The Reverend Rebecca McDonnell (Exodus Ch 34: v 29 – end; Luke Ch 9: v 28 – 36)

 It seems somewhat sobering to arrive at church today, the last Sunday before lent, with the weight of everything happening in the world let alone our own lives, heavy in our hearts and minds. Today is the day we pivot, turning our faces towards Jesus in the wilderness, and off not too distant, Jerusalem. It is the Sunday we will bury the Alleluia, after the distribution of the Eucharist, to remind ourselves of the season that lies ahead. That time when we seek to draw ever closer to God in fasting, in prayer and in penitence. Our readings today speak to us of transfiguration, and the transformation that occurs in the presence of the divine.

The transfiguration of Jesus is one of the core stories of Christ’s life, present in all three synoptic Gospels and 1 Peter. In Greek Orthodox tradition it is known as ‘metamorphosis.’ I like this take; could we see lent as period of metamorphosis? The story comes just after Jesus’ first passion prediction, which sees our focus shift towards Jerusalem and the events of Holy Week. This Lukan version is distinctive in that he says they went ‘up the mountain to pray.’ It is just one of the occasions that prayer is the setting for the major events of Jesus’ life and ministry.

Lent is a time of prayer, a time to ascend a metaphorical mountain and set aside time with God. Prayer is our first and one of the most vital callings as Christians. Martin Luther is accredited with saying ‘I haven’t much time today, so I will pray for 3 or 4 hours.’ In our busy lives we can’t give that much time to prayer, but we learn to prioritise it. I was recently on retreat, away from parish and family distractions, and the quiet chapel and peaceful surroundings made prayer easy. But that isn’t what day to day life looks like. It would be lovely to ‘cocoon’ ourselves through lent, to engage in a proper metamorphosis to emerge like a butterfly at Easter. But that is not realistic.

This week our schools will celebrate World Book Day, and one of their challenges is be photographed doing ‘extreme reading.’ Cullin took a Bible up onto the Abbey roof yesterday! Maybe we could engage in ‘extreme praying?’ We don’t need a mountain, but we need to keep turning to God to ask His help to carry our burdens, and the worlds, to continue our moulding in His hands. I wonder what extreme praying would look like to you this lent.

Once up the mountain, Jesus’ face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. The prophets Moses and Elijah appeared alongside him. What is Jesus’ link to these two prophets in particular? They were leaders, and both saw God’s glory, and both had revelatory mountaintop experiences. Jesus is not just continuing but also fulfilling their legacies. In his desire to try and interpret the situation, out of hospitality or maybe just awkwardness, Peter offers to make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. This is a link to the festival of the Booths. Maybe he was just trying to prolong the experience, but he has misread the situation; but how often do we do that?

Then, just as Peter has spoken, there comes the voice of God from Heaven. This is a parallel to God speaking at Jesus’ baptism, which marked the start of his ministry, and here at the transfiguration it proceeds and empowers the beginning of the end. God speaks to the disciples directly, ‘Listen to Him!’ Thinking about prayer, and setting aside time for God, how do we listen? How does the voice of God, or the encounter with the divine change us and empower us to go out into the world in His service.

This is a glimpse of the divine that alters our perspective, if not our circumstances of the world order. How the disciples thought and felt was changed by this moment, not anything at the bottom of the mountain. Likewise, we can be changed by prayer, even if we don’t perceive it radically changing anything around us (at least not all the time or in the way we expect.)

Our Old Testament reading is also one of change and transformation with Moses, the great prophet and leader Jesus was seen with on the mountain. The story of Moses’ face shining after an encounter with the divine on Mount Sinai has an interesting interpretation history. It can be understood as shone, or to be radiant. One misinterpretation was around confusion between the Hebrew noun for ‘horn’ and the word for brightness or light. This has led to some quite amusing paintings of Moses coming down the mountain with horns!

But Moses was changed by his encounter with the divine, he made himself a veil which he lifted every time he went into to be present with God, and when he come out, he shone. This lent let’s take up the extreme praying challenge and commit to our own metamorphosis. How can we make space on our metaphorical mountains to be in the presence of the divine, and come out shining, ready to take that light out into the world. We can feel to be surrounded by darkness and fear on all sides, but in we rest in the greatness, power, love and grace of God.