Transfiguration, Ash Wednesday, Lent and beyond.

Uncalculating love 

And You are love: uncalculating love.

When we kick You in the teeth,

Your sole concern is whether we have 

stubbed our toes.

George MacLeod from Growing  Hope.

These words from George Macleod, founder of the Iona Community, reflect a very earthy understanding of God whose passion is for creation and its well being, which includes us. It hints, I think, at the God whose concern is such that Love becomes incarnate in Jesus, and in spite of how humanity responded, the concern always remained whether we are okay.

So Christmas has gone and this week through three services we have had the Transfiguration, Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent with a reflection on temptations. It has all come upon us so quickly. I know life moves at the same pace but it really does feel as if life speeds up the older you get. 

Of course the season of Lent has the element of how you handle temptation as witnessed in the gospels by Jesus’s time in the wilderness.

• Tempted to turn stones into bread
• Tempted to perform a miracle by throwing himself off a building
• or tempted to bow down to another in return for control of the world.

They are some major choices, all of which were rejected. Jesus instead chose to follow the path of Love and risk everything by continuing to be vulnerable for the sake of others. Concerned, ‘are we okay’?

But what about us? 

This year I’m tempted by going to another church for their Lent course as well as our own church. In fact we went there for the evening Ash Wednesday service, and the sermon was a well thought through and creative reflection. It was a very positive message. This other church is very clear what will happen for five weeks, and it’s an attractive option. It starts with refreshments at 6.45 and then begins at 7pm ending at 8pm with all the topics clearly laid out. It looks creative, practical and imaginative. 

So I think I will go and hopefully it will prove fulfilling. It’s a good temptation!!

Church leaders do not always realise how important it is to convey what people are being invited to. For those of us who have grown up within church communities we give a lot of slack to church leaders, and as leaders we expect a lot of our congregations. What is essential is that in the end we are need fed, and if it’s dull we will go elsewhere.

Last Sunday the Transfiguration was the focus. A story told of how in a moment of time the full reality of Jesus was revealed.

When it comes to worship and daily living I find myself reflecting afresh on how the outward appearance of being Holy does not bring substance. Rituals and words in themselves are not enough. Substance is something much deeper. It reveals integrity in life lived. All the way to the cross Jesus lived that way knowing when to ditch the rules when substance was revealed in loving everyone regardless of how people might view him.

I can hardly believe already this week we have been to three services, all very different, and in three different worship settings with three very different sermon styles. 

As many people have discovered I to sense the Holy is often to be found, in fact mostly to be found, in the ordinary. That’s what happened all the time through the ministry of Jesus. At the time the disciples didn’t fully see it.

So a gospel story of transfiguration may or may not have been a turning point in the journey of Jesus. Perhaps the gospel writer wanted to make it such. Maybe it was for those three disciples an Epiphany moment giving a glimpse of who Jesus was, fully man fully divine, not that they got it then. Just as Peter’s declaration “You are the Christ’ was a moment but still not fully understood at the time when spoken of what that truly meant. It was only later post resurrection, they came to understand it all. 

Transfiguration! It’s just a glimpse and some scholars suggest it may in fact really be a post resurrection story. The story contrasts with the daily life lived out by Jesus where he perceived, and helped others perceive, the breaking in of God’s Love in the ordinary

• a grain of wheat falling to the earth, 
• accepting and touching lepers
• turning the tables over in the temple
• fishing in the lake                                                                                                               

these were every day places, every day events, but look more closely and you see the divine, the Holy which permeates the whole of creation. 

Ash Wednesday was a positive reminder of what God can do and we can become. No beating ourselves up, rather a reminder of a God who loves us in spite of, and because of our weaknesses and our potential, we just need to open ourselves up a bit more to allow God to fill us. Oh yes we may recall from where we came and where we will go physically, ‘from dust you came and to dust you will return’ But the transformation is our very being, the substance of which we are, which returns to our creator. So no need to fear.

Finally at a midweek communion the challenge of temptation, no not about what we are giving up. Rather to pick up the thread of Jesus life, and to choose the path of Love, and risk all by becoming vulnerable as Christ did, and so truly walk his journey to the cross and resurrection.

Gosh all that in one week how much more is there to come.

What a wonderful thought that when we still lash out and complain to God, that God is more concerned have we hurt ourselves.

Uncalculating love 

And You are love: uncalculating love.

When we kick You in the teeth,

Your sole concern is whether we have 

stubbed our toes.

George MacLeod from Growing  Hope.