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ACNS 3332     |     ACNS     |	   3 MARCH 2003

Morning Sermon by Archbishop Rowan Williams at Canterbury Cathedral

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Sunday 2 March 2003, 11am

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

It's only fairly recently that our church has begun to commemorate the
transfiguration of Jesus on this Sunday just before Lent. We associate it in
the calendar with the festival in August. But here we are, before Easter,
celebrating, commemorating, this story in the Gospel, in a way which, at
first, seems rather puzzling. But if you think of it, the effect of hearing
the story of Jesus' transfiguration this morning - just before Lent - has
the effect of framing the whole of Lent between two parallel stories. A
story of Jesus going into a lonely mountainous place to pray, attended by
his three closest friends: Peter; James; and John. A story in which Jesus,
as he prays in solitude, enters into a mystery so great that His friends
shrink from it and have no words for it. Because, you see, at the beginning
of Lent we have that story of the transfiguration and at the end of Lent the
story of Jesus going to pray alone in the garden of Gethsemane. The same
story? Yes, but how very different. In both Jesus prays alone; in both there
is a revelation of the Father; in both those three friends shrink in terror.

To frame the season of Lent in that way is to tell us that out Christian
life is always, so to speak, lived between those two stories, between those
two poles, those two moments of prayer and revelation. On the mountain of
transfiguration, as the Gospel tells us, Peter, James and John see the veil
lifted. They see, as it were, that behind and within the human flesh and
blood of Jesus there is an unbearable light and glory: a radiance better
than any light on earth. They see that His flesh and blood - though it is
flesh and blood just like ours - is soaked through with that glory and
brightness which is the work of God. They see that His human nature is shot
through with God's own freedom. And then at the other end of Lent they see
that that radiance, that glory and brightness and liberty, is exercised and
made real in accepting the pain of the cross for the love of humankind. They
see that the blinding power of God is exercised not in crushing and
controlling, but in the sacrifice of love. Perhaps it begins to make sense
that we live between those two visions. We can't understand the glorious
brightness of God unless we see that God's power and splendour is entirely
focused on that sacrifice of love which sets us free and gives us life. And
we can't understand the darkness and the terror at the end of the story, at
the end of Lent, unless we see that in the depths of that is the glory of
God. And that, of course, is why St John, in his Gospel, again and again,
refers to the crucifixion itself as Jesus being made glorious. The dazzling
freedom of God, the total weakness of God, bound together, woven together,
in one vision, in one person, in Jesus Christ.

If our Christian life, like Lent itself, is framed between those two points,
that teaches us something of the vision that we need to have as Christians.
Things are dark, things are threatening. What do we do, like good Christian
human beings? We panic. Or things are going well, things are successful.
What do we do, like good Christian human beings? We gloat. But if our lives
are lived indeed between those two stories, then both panic and gloating
should be impossible for us. Things are dark and difficult. The world is a
terrible place, full of the threats of violence. The church is a terrible
place. Do we panic? We look into the depth and see how the freedom of God is
there even in failure, even in crisis, to bring life and love. Things are
going well: this is a little less usual, I grant you. Things are going well,
the church looks wonderful, the world looks peaceful. What do we do? We
think of how power and peace and security must be turned by our sacrificial
giving into love. So these stories tell us not only of how glory and
sacrifice are blended together, woven together in Jesus. They tell us how to
understand His church and His world. How in our discipleship we have to
weave together the vision of glory and the call to sacrifice. Black armbands
and champagne are equally only a part of the story because the mystery of
Jesus Christ is precisely that glory is most fully opened up, its depths
revealed and, in the very darkest moment of Jesus' self loss and self
sacrifice, all of that infinite power which is God's is directed like a
laser beam, to the welfare and the healing of you and me and the very
weakest and most forgotten of God's children.

William Blake, a couple of centuries ago, prayed to be delivered from single
vision and Newton's sleep. By Newton's sleep he meant the scientific world
view as a thing in itself which gave you a one-eyed vision of the world. But
it's not a bad image to think about. It's very easy for us to have one-eyed
vision and the Gospel requires us to have full, binocular vision.

Just to finish, I can perhaps share with you a memory from my time in Wales
when I made a visit to a primary school and, a week or so later, met one of
the parents of a child in that school who told me that she had been very
puzzled when her little girl had come home and said they'd had a visit that
morning from the optician. She was a bit puzzled about this, she didn't know
that opticians regularly went round schools but investigation revealed, in
fact, that the visit had in fact been from the optician of Wales no less.
Opticians correct your vision, opticians help you to see properly out of
both eyes. It may be that modest redefinition of the task of an Archbishop
by a primary school child in Gwent is a vocation worth thinking about.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

___________________________________________________________________

For details about the Enthronement of the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Most Revd Rowan D Williams, visit http://www.anglicancommunion.org/

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