Second Sunday –Lent-A 20^th March 2011

Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm: 33   2 Tim 1:8b-10   Matthew 17:1-9 

1. On Wednesday of this week, we had the story of Jonah and the King of Nineveh. When the King heard Jonah, he repented. He had a change of mind – in Greek (meta-noia). Conversion or repentance involves a change of a mind frame. Today’s first reading we have Abram having a change of address. He moves from Ur, of the Chaldees to Palestine. As we contemplate these two pictures: Nineveh and Palestine, I would like to suggest a move from the idea of “Change” to the idea of a “Call.” There is a calling with a pan. God intends to create a chosen People, a gather, an ecclesia, a church.  It involves us also working around a mindset. We ordinarily think of a Church as an institution attached to a building also called Church.

Here we think of a community which centuries later would split up to form three major religions: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in that order of seniority.

(Sidebar) It is a pity that these three groups with the same father, should seek to kill and massacre in the very name of the One who called Abram. This Holy One whether we are not allow to mention the name, but refer obliquely to the Holy One as Yahweh or Adonai – or as Christians we call God/Trinity, or whom the Muslim call Allah would say to Abram’s descendents, “You will be my people and I will be your God.

2. So we see Abram leaving his land. We do not know why exactly. It could be that he was moving away from hostile neighbours. It could be the stories of greener pastures attracting him. It could the natural ebb and flow of migrating nomads. However all three of these major religions saw Abram’s move as a response to a direct calling from God.

3. Abram’s experience of moving has been the story of each of us gathered here. Either we ourselves or our grandparents or ancestors further back came from Ireland or the UK, from Europe or further east in the Orient. Others came Africa or Spanish speaking America. Our first call in most cases was for a better, more economically prosperous life. In some cases where there has been persecution because of greed or religion, people have fled more or less like the Israelites left Egypt. But as people of faith, we have seen the hand of God in this move. We give thanks to God for our new homeland.

4. Paul would emphasize this calling that second letter to Timothy. The letter came as a support, an affidavit for Christians who were suffering. The Jewish converts were putting pressure on them. These wanted the Gentile Christians to undergo the ritual of circumcision just as Abram underwent that ritual. Abram’s faith, they claimed was not enough. He had to have the sign of circumcision. The Gentile Christian’s faith was not enough either.

 Paul how would say that the Jewish Christians were putting the cart before the horse in their interpretation of the Abram story. Abram’s faith justified him before God. The ritual of circumcision was merely a seal or stamp of approval. In our day and age, it would amount to a graduation photograph or even the graduation certificate. The hard years of study and the passing of the exams is enough.

5. Our calling to be Christian is not based on what we have achieved in this life. It is not based on the degrees in theology or philosophy. It is not based how influential we are in society. It is a calling by God set before all time. It is a calling as God called Abram long time ago. God has called us for a purpose. We can see this purpose in Jesus Christ

• who has called us from death into life.
• who has called us from darkness into light.

6. This sets the scene for the story of the Transfiguration. This miracle or sign as St. John would like to call the deeds of Jesus is not like any other of his miracles.

• It is not a cure of: the blind, lame or leper
• It is not a sign like: changing water into wine, miracles of the loaves and fish, or even walking on the water or the miraculous catch of fish

This would be more in line with a manifestation shown by

• A star in Bethlehem
• A voice at the time of the Baptism

Peter, James and John could be discouraged by what they would see as Jesus prayed in agony in the Garden. Now they would have an experience that would hopefully keep their faith from taking a nosedive then.

For us, it is a sign of things to come. Jesus would say to Thomas, “Blessed are they who have not seen but yet believed.” The transfiguration for us is what we can hope for as we answer a God who has been calling us from before all time.

Lord we wait until the tide turns
Until the distant becomes near
Until the far becomes close
Until the outside becomes within
Until the ebb flows.
Lord we wait until the tide turns
Until weakness becomes strength
Until the fearful become brave
Until the fractured becomes whole
Until the ebb turns.
Lord we wait until the tide turns
Until the ordinary becomes mysterious
Until the empty becomes full
Until two become one
Until the ebb turns,
And we become transfigured like You.
And so we wait and answer the call of the Lord.