Exodus 24:12-end; 2 Peter 1:16-end; Matthew 17: 1-9Lent and mystical encounterIt’s hard for me to believe that Lent begins again in only three days from now. Time seems to move so quickly. Once again, the Church gives us the story of a mountaintop experience to reflect upon - that of the Transfiguration of Christ. This is paired with the story of Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai.Now, if you’re anything like me, you might think about Lent with a certain amount of dread. When I mention to my children that Lent is coming up they can see no good in it. For them, it is simply a time when they can’t eat as much sweet stuff as normal.And we can so easily think about things in that way: Lent is just about giving things up and having less fun and so on. Thought about in this way, Lent is very depressing. It can even be life-denying and a kind of rejection of God’s good creation.But what if we reframe this slightly? Let’s say that Lent is not so much about giving stuff up or even doing more but about seeking an encounter with God, seeking a mystical union with the divine presence.I believe that making changes in our regular patterns of behaviour can be very beneficial. The effects can be physical, psychological or spiritual. So, if I said to you, that Lent gives you an opportunity to be united with the divine presence and so to know greater peace, love and joy, might that be a slightly more attractive picture?But the key to all of this is making the decision to prefer God to everything else. It is to recognise the futility of life without God and of pursuing ends which are less than God.To quote the mystical poet Rumi:‘God said,“The world is a play, a children’s game,and you are the children.”God speaks the truth.If you haven’t left the child’s play,how can you be an adult?Without purity of spirit,if you’re still in the middle of lust and greedand other wantings, you’re like children…The same with the fightings of mankind.It’s a squabble with play-swords.No purpose, totally futile…Don’t wait till you die to see this.’Rumi, A Children’s GameWe see something of this reality in the mystical experience of Moses and the disciples in the story of the Transfiguration.Both of these mystical encounters take place on a mountaintop, far away from the civilised world and the concerns of ordinary life. Moses is told to wait upon the mountaintop. He takes Joshua with him and delegates his great responsibilities to Aaron and Hur. The cloud of God’s glory covers the mountain, and Moses waits for six days in that silence until, on the seventh day, the voice of God calls to him out of the midst of the cloud.How does six days of nothing but silence strike you?Again, in Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration, we are told that Jesus took Peter, James and John with him up the mountain “after six days”. Six days before, Peter had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, and Jesus had told his disciples to take up their crosses and follow him.This six day wait links the story of the Transfiguration with the story of Moses on Mount Sinai. The point being that the same glory that was revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai was revealed to the disciples through Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Both were manifestations of the divine presence.A point I would like to emphasise is that both encounters involved solitude, quietness, and waiting. In Scripture, these things almost seem a prerequisite for an encounter with the divine presence. Perhaps we can learn from this.Lent is not about doing moreOne of the mantras of the modern world might be “more is more”. We are constantly being told that we do not have enough: money, pleasure, success, leisure. Whatever it might be.And this constant hectoring creates a sense of unrest and anxiety. We imagine that, in some state in the future, we will obtain that which we have been seeking and be at rest. But, of course, we can never get there because there is always more.It is important to see that something like this can apply to the spiritual life also. We can think all we need to do is make more effort: more church, more Bible, more prayer, more devotion. And there may be times of course during which taking up practices can be helpful.But Lent gives us an opportunity to take a kind of spiritual stock take: Is all of this activity really helping me in my search for God? Maybe I need to slow down a bit and think about what might be helpful.Let’s talk about a core discipline of Lent: fasting. There is so much to say. But consider that fasting is about not doing something for a time – not eating. What happens when you stop doing something like eating? Well, you get a bit hungry or very hungry depending on how long you do it for. And you make space and you leave time. And, in this sense, you become a little bit more like Moses on Mount Sinai and Jesus in the wilderness.We need time and space and silence to encounter God. Fasting opens up a space. It opens a space in our diaries. It opens a space in our bodies. And it opens a space in our hearts.Consider one of the other themes of Lent, which is abstinence – “giving things up”.Why might we abstain from something? We could take any example. Say some kind of food or drinks: alcohol, coffee or sweet things. One of the things we find when we decide to abstain from something is that we are quite dependent upon that thing emotionally or psychologically. The very thought of giving it up is painful. And so, when we do give it up, a kind of space opens. And we can allow ourselves to feel that little sense of need. We can take that sense of need to God in simple prayer, asking that he might meet that need, asking, in fact, that he might show us that this need is always for Him anyway. And so, when we open that space for him, he gives us the gift of himself.I would also like to suggest a practice that I am sure will be beneficial for many people, which is an “Information Fast”. I was speaking earlier about silence and quietness. The fact is that we cannot achieve quietness on the inside if we don’t have it on the outside. That goes not just for sound but also for information. I have got no idea of the physio-chemical processes that are at play in the interaction between my body and my smartphone or laptop. But I am certain that, if I have too much of this type of interaction, there is a kind of internal noise and stress which is difficult to negate. Conversely, if I switch off from all of these things – social media, the internet, messages, emails, online news, scrolling, checking things, listening to podcasts – then somehow I also switch off internally, and it’s like a peace emerges from the stillness.It is no exaggeration to say that filling up every space we have with staring at a phone has become a very common practice in our world. Do we ever stop and ask ourselves what we are doing to ourselves and, more importantly, what effect this is having on our internal, spiritual lives? It is like all of us are taking a drug that hasn’t been tested and the long-term effects of which are not known, and that we are doing this all the time.Maybe Lent could involve some radical changes. Maybe it’s no podcasts, no scrolling, no social media. Just for Lent. You can go back to it afterwards. But perhaps you won’t want to.Again, this is not about doing more. It’s about doing less. It’s about stopping and making space for God.What shall I do with this space?You might ask, “What shall I do with this space?”Firstly, please resist the urge to fill the space with more activity and more busyness. See it as an opportunity to refresh your soul. Perhaps you will do nothing but wait in silence, as Moses did on Mount Sinai. Perhaps you will use it to be more attentive to the things of God in prayer or meditation.You may use the time to walk in quietness and open yourself to the presence of the divine in the natural world.You may become aware of somebody who is near to you whose needs are known. And you may have time and energy to attend to that person’s need in some way.Whatever you do, do it calmly and with gentleness. The answer is not more. The answer (and the great challenge) is less.Holy BaptismThis morning, we have the great pleasure of baptising a new member of God’s family. In the Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul tells us that baptism is a kind of symbol of death and rebirth. This is all the more clear when we baptise an adult: it is a turning away from life lived without reference to God and a turning towards a life lived in conscious fellowship with God and obedient to his purposes.It is thus the ultimate way of making a space for God. For as we are baptised we offer God ourselves: our lives, our bodies, our souls. God has set things up so that we can offer ourselves freely – or not – to him. And this is ultimately all that we have to give.When we baptise, we also renew our own baptismal vows, remembering that we were given the gift of faith by our parents or that we were brought into God’s family, the Church, when we were slightly older. But, wherever we find ourselves on this journey, this ritual gives us an opportunity to repledge ourselves to God and to realign our hearts with him.We must always remember that joy is the purpose of God for us. (And this remembering is especially important as we enter the Lenten season.) Everything that we offer to God – our lives, our deaths, our habits bad and good, our pleasures, our pains – are given so that we might draw closer to him and so be deepened in our joy. And so, brothers and sisters, let us rejoice now and always.In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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