Weekly letter from St Luke's - 12 February 2021

Dear Parish Friends

I look forward, as I always do, to sharing worship with you on Sunday. This week is the last Sunday before Lent and we celebrate the Transfiguration. The 9am service sheet and notice paper are attached.

The gospel passage is the account of Jesus taking Peter, James and John up a mountain where they see him ‘transfigured’, shining white, with Moses and Elijah (the great Old Testament lawgiver and prophet respectively). As the cumulation of the season of Epiphany this yet again shows us of who Jesus is, the one who stands between the Old and the New Testament (or Covenant), the one who stands between earth and heaven. If the disciples had only seen Jesus in terms of a healer and teacher, or in the line of the Jewish promised Messiah, they now get a glimpse that what they had seen was only the tip of the iceberg. The glory that is the Kingdom is not bounded by our human understanding.

I am reminded here of the classic story by the 19th century English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott. ‘Flatland’ describes a square’s journey through a two-dimensional world. He is visited by a three-dimensional sphere, but all he sees is the circle of intersection and cannot understand what the sphere is telling him, until he is levitated out of flatland to see the third dimension, and then returned, changed.

The disciples return down the mountain, but were changed by the experience, the glimpse of heaven. In the weeks and years ahead they were reminded of this. We too can experience such moments, and in time of dark can recall and reassured of God’s continual presence.

Next week we begin the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. It is a tradition that the ashes are produced by burning last year’s palm crosses, so if you still have yours, please bring it on Sunday.

Yours in Christ

Rev’d Timothy