Easter Day all age eucharist 31st March 2013

This morning we reach the last of our series on the Apostles’ Creed as we look at belief ‘in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting’. All through Lent we’ve been looking at the Creed in Church and in school collective worship as a build up to what happens on Easter Day.

What happens today? You can see on p5 that we renew our baptismal vows. This includes being asked whether we really believe in the Christian creed and whether we really turn to Christ, repent of our sins and renounce evil. We’re invited to say the equivalent of ‘yes we do’ and get a special sprinkling with holy water to wake us up to being baptised Christians that are really alive.

Turn back though for now to the front page of the service booklet and Mrs Mowforth is going to explain why on Easter Sunday, of all days, we’ve got a picture of a train!

HM to summon the children forward to explain the way the Bluebell railway has ‘risen again’ through the opening of the northern extension. The children continue quietly playing with the train set after making it up.

The history of Bluebell Railway was its creation 150 years ago, partial closure 55 years ago and full re-opening at Easter 2013.  In the same way the history of the world is its creation 14 billion years ago, partial spoiling by the evolution of human life a million years ago and its being redeemed by God’s coming 2000 years ago.

The Christian interpretation of world history is less agreed than that Heidi gave of the Bluebell Railway but the most brilliant human being, Albert Einstein said for someone to say life on earth evolved without the help of a greater being than ourselves is equivalent to saying a dictionary was the product of a print shop explosion! Faced with the 3 billion components of the human genome, how can people be so blind to the obvious evidence for divine intelligence?

Just as the reopening of the Bluebell was achieved by years of planning, fund raising and hard work removing the tip so Christianity’s greatest achievement at Easter was made possible by God’s forward planning and bitterly hard work in sending his Son Jesus Christ to remove the barriers of sin, doubt, fear, death and the devil.

At the heart of Christianity is no theory or doctrine but a happening – Christ’s resurrection. This happening is moreover a first instalment for made like him like him we rise. The whole point of Christian faith is an opening of humanity to a dimension of life beyond this world that’ll be finally revealed in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

It’s beyond our imagining but not beyond our believing. Centuries of critical scholarship by historians have brought no evidence to undermine the resurrection of Jesus. Some would say this happening is the more confirmed by this process of enquiry. And then – a big ‘then’ - if the resurrection of Christ is true it can’t be separated from the promises of Christ which include resurrection for his followers.

Forty years ago I submitted a Doctoral thesis on ‘the molecular dynamics of polythene and Teflon by neutron scattering spectroscopy’. My thesis involved testing theories about the forces between the chains in both polymers by seeing how these forces affected a flow of neutrons I blasted them with at Harwell’s then nuclear reactor. Testing theories by Japanese theoreticians gave me insight into how our life as Christians tests God’s faithfulness and into belief in ‘the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting’.

In my research I tested calculated theories such as this smooth so-called dispersion curve with experimental measurements on samples such as these put under a neutron beam that are put on the curve with their error margins. I was able to extrapolate from my experiments to the best theory.

The faithfulness of God in Jesus Christ is something we can experience on earth through answered prayer, guidance given, healing received and so on. These experimental observations, if you like, test the bible and the creed. We can measure answered prayer, guidance and so on but we can’t evaluate our future resurrection nor the life everlasting before we attain to it. Belief in the last sentence of the creed is built on a promise from a God who’s delivered on promises to the human race for 14 billion years and to you and I for one, two, three or four score years. It’s an extrapolation of our experience of his faithfulness to hold faith with him to provide for us, as his beloved children, when our earthly bodies expire. 

Our Lord’s resurrection is the first fruits of a great harvest to come.  ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone,’ Jesus says, ‘but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (John 12v24).  Jesus is that grain.  The righteous will be his harvest.  ‘Christ has been raised from the dead’, St Paul affirms, ‘the first fruits of those who have died’ (1 Corinthians 15v20).

Christianity centres on the body of Christ. Believers are part of that body. They are incorporated by baptism and in an ongoing manner through Holy Communion. The resurrection body is a fulfilment of this incorporation. Jesus promises that ‘those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day’ (John 6v54). In the same way Paul teaches that ‘if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you’ (Romans 8v11).

The joy the Lord gives to our spirit is destined to expand and fill the universe in the resurrection of the dead at his return.  Jesus spoke of joy in heaven over every soul that opens itself to him.  The Easter liturgy resounds with joy as an anticipation of what is to come, as we have sung:

‘Now let the heavens be joyful! Let earth the song begin!
Let the round world keep triumph, and all that is therein!
Let all things seen and unseen their notes in gladness blend,
for Christ the Lord hath risen, our joy that hath no end’.

Palm Sunday 24th March 2013: I believe in the forgiveness of sins

Like Muslims it could be said that Christians have five pillars that support their faith: The Bible, The Creed, The Sacraments, The Commandments and The Lord’s Prayer. During Lent we’ve been refreshing our grasp of one of these pillars - The Apostles Creed during the renewal of baptismal vows. Though it has twelve articles of belief we’ve split it into five. 

On the first three Sundays of Lent we looked at belief in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Church. Next Sunday we’ll look appropriately at the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. This morning’s article is the forgiveness of sins so I want us to consider these four questions: What is sin? What is forgiveness? Why do we believe in the forgiveness of sins? How do we receive the forgiveness of sins?

What is sin?

·         Something young people do not know or care about (Survey of the beliefs of "generation Y" (15-to-25-year-olds)) shows they don't have any real sense of sin.

·         Sin is as alien to the contemporary mind as fetching water from a well or darning your socks  (Guardian)

·         Alas so is the sense of a personal God which defines sin – a failure in our relationship with God. A culture that doesn't even care about sin has truly cut itself off from God's grace and is therefore sinful in the most profound sense.

·         Sin, as defined in the Bible, means "to miss the mark." The mark, in this case, is the standard of perfection established by God and evidenced by Jesus. Viewed in that light, it is clear that we are all sinners. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 3:23: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 

·         PALE gas is a mnemonic for the seven deadly sins – pride, anger, lust, envy, gluttony, avarice, sloth which miss the mark of seven God-like qualities: humility, patience, chastity, love, temperance, generosity, diligence.

·         In his Divine Comedy Dante ranks sins that damage the community such as pride, violence and fraud as more damaging than sins of the flesh.

·         Culpability for sin links to how seriously an action was intended

What is forgiveness 
Letting go of the need for revenge and releasing negative thoughts of bitterness and resentment. 

In January of 1990 after the fall of the Berlin wall Erich Honecker, the brutal and hated dictator of East Germany, found himself sick and homeless. So despised was he that no one could be found to provide him shelter. They contacted Pastor Uwe Holmer who directed a church-run convalescent center in the village of Lobetal. Pastor Holmer had bitter memories of Honecker and his regime. Honecker had personally presided over the building of the wall, the wall that separated Holmer's family and kept him from attending his own father's funeral. He had even greater reason to resent Honecker's wife, who ran the East German ministry of education. Holmer's ten children had been denied admission to any university because of their faith. It would be easy for Pastor Holmer to turn Honecker away because the church's retirement home was full and had a long waiting list. But because Honecker's need was urgent, Pastor Holmer decided he had no choice but to shelter the couple under his own roof! Pastor Holmer's charity was not shared by the rest of the country. Hate mail poured in. Some members of his own church threatened to leave or cut back their giving. Pastor Holmer defended his actions in a letter to the newspaper. "In Lobetal," he wrote, "there is a sculpture of Jesus inviting people to himself and crying out, 'Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' We have been commanded by our Lord Jesus to follow him and to receive all those who are weary and heavy laden, in spirit and in body, but especially the homeless… What Jesus asked his disciples to do is equally binding on us."

 Why do Christians believe in the forgiveness of sins?

·         To believe in Christianity is to believe in new starts.  The Resurrection of Jesus is the greatest new start ever given to humanity and the forgiveness of sins flows from this.  

·         The interpretation in scripture of Christ’s death and resurrection: If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.1 John 1.9 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2.38

·         The Apostle's Creed associates faith in the forgiveness of sins with faith in the Holy Spirit, the Church and in the communion of saints. This is because Our Lord gave the Holy Spirit to his apostles it came with authority to forgive sins: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

·         Is God fair to forgive? People can react very unfavourably to talk of Christian forgiveness, especially in the case of very hurtful sin.  The God and Father of Jesus has holiness that is affronted by wrong. That holiness which is above us is coupled to a love that is beyond us. Jesus came to give us what we need before he came to give us what we deserve.  If God is fair He goes beyond fairness. He treats us as really much better than we are.  His holiness and mercy came together on the Cross of Jesus.                       

How do Christians receive the forgiveness of sins?

·         By facing up to and not excusing our sins. C.S. Lewis: The trouble is that what we call "asking God's forgiveness" very often really consists in asking God to accept our excuses. What leads us into this mistake is the fact that there usually is some amount of excuse, some "extenuating circumstances." We are so very anxious to point these things out to God (and to ourselves) that we are apt to forget the very important thing; that is, the bit left over, the bit which excuses don't cover, the bit which is inexcusable but not, thank God, unforgivable.. What we have got to take to Him is the inexcusable bit, the sin. We are only wasting our time talking about all the parts which can (we think) be excused. When you go to a Dr. you show him the bit of you that is wrong - say, a broken arm. It would be a mere waste of time to keep on explaining that your legs and throat and eyes are all right. You may be mistaken in thinking so, and anyway, if they are really right, the doctor will know that.

·         Christianity is not guilt-ridden because it encourages people to do something about sin. It is in fact guilt-ridding! 

·         Through the church Christ offers forgiveness. The church does this supremely in baptism and then through prayer, scripture promises and sacramental ministry. 

·         In sacramental confession the priest acts for Christ in welcoming sinners who wish to confess aloud.  This rite echoes Christ’s story of the prodigal son who returned to his father’s embrace. The whole point of sacraments is to give outward and visible signs of inward and invisible gifts from God. The inward gift of forgiveness is brought with visible assurance for many by their coming to the priest, as God’s representative, to receive an individual word of forgiveness. For other Christians it is more a matter of taking God at his word in scripture. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins (1 John 1v9).

There is a condition for being granted forgiveness: penitence, being truly sorry for your sins.  You cannot be truly sorry without resolving to put right the damage you’ve done as far as it can be put right.  There is one other condition for receiving forgiveness: the readiness to forgive others.

·     
 To believe in the forgiveness of sins is to believe in a God who is more ready to give us what we need than he is to give us what we deserve. He treats us as really much better than we are and challenges us to do the same by being ourselves generous to those who are in our debt.  

Mothering Sunday 8am 10th March 2013

It is a strange paradox that this year’s Gospel for Mothering Sunday is that of the Father’s love.

It’s not deliberate, just that we’re in the year of Luke and no Lucan passage is more Lent suited than that of the Prodigal Son! The fact Lent 4 is Mothering Sunday is secondary so far as the Lectionary goes. It’s a universal Lectionary and many countries don’t keep Mother’s Day today.

In the story of the Prodigal Son we have a beautiful demonstration of

what Lent is all about – the healing joy of repentance.

At its centre is the welcome home of the prodigal. I love the King James Bible version of this story with its rich cadences:

But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: 23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Luke 15.23-27

What wonderful words! They serve as no other words to give us invitation to seek God as our Father.

That paragraph provides the heart of the story involving three characters each of which we may find ourselves identifying with.

First the openness of the prodigal - how ready am I to admit my mistakes? As Christians we believe we are sinners in need of grace. What is so surprising about a sinner sinning? 

Yet many of us are slow to seek forgiveness from God or neighbour.

Our slowness links to the judgmentalism around typified by the elder brother in the parable whose attitude is far from forgiving!

Lent is a time to challenge that judgmental ‘elder brother’ within each one of us. It’s a time to challenge the habitual sins that get on top of us. C.S.Lewis once wrote a caution about despairing over our habitual sins:

I know all about the despair of overcoming chronic temptation.  It is not serious, provided self-offended petulance, annoyance at breaking records, impatience, etc. don't get the upper hand. No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep on picking ourselves up each time.  We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home.  But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard.  The only fatal thing is to lose one's temper and give it up.  It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us: it is the very sign of His presence.  Daily Readings p122-3

The main figure in the Parable is the loving Father who represents God. Jesus teaches God is always helpfully present to us in his holiness and ready to show us the dirt and dysfunction in our lives.  He makes himself present in practical love to remedy our situation - the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard.

Our Lord cleanses us of sin and guilt by practical demonstrations geared to our humanity. That’s particularly true of the sacrament of reconciliation also known as sacramental confession in which we play the part of the prodigal in a re-enactment of Luke 15. There is great freedom to be attained through celebrating this sacrament so misunderstood in Anglican circles. We have set times for this sacrament in St Giles nearer Easter or you can make an appointment.

The father may represent God but he is also an example of the love a parent, father or mother, is called to show his or her children. Lack of affirmation by parents, lack of generous reconciliation in family life, is the root of much domestic misery.

In Henri Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son the author speaks of his being inspired by Rembrandt’s famous painting of that title. The gnarled yet welcoming hands of the Father in Rembrandt’s picture symbolise God’s hands stretched out for us upon the Cross.  They challenge us to pay the price ourselves for a more affirming attitude to those falling short around us.

The great inspiration of this book is the Christian call to a ministry of affirmation.

Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate as Jesus said elsewhere.

As we come to the altar this morning on behalf of ourselves or those on our hearts we come as the prodigal son knowing our need of forgiveness. We come repenting of the ‘elder brother’ in us and all that critical spirit that subtracts from the joy God wants in our hearts. We come finally for grace to be like our Father, capable of love for sinners.

The bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard.

Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. 

Lent 2 24th February 2013 I believe in Jesus Christ

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.  

How could God who’s everywhere become one man?

Universals lead to particulars cf a lifetime of 33 years, a teaching ministry of 3 years and a passion of 3 days climaxing in 3 hours.

• Contemporary for galactic and subatomic realms show some sorts of connection between the macroscopic and the microscopic
• Thomas Merton expresses this in a famous analogy: As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the ray of God's light and fire to a point that sets fire to the spirit of man.
• Chaos theory: The emergence of God at one point, to show us his face and his love, is in harmony with scientific truth, as much as the emergence of a beautiful rainbow on a stormy day.

What does it mean that Christ died for us?

• substitutional view where Jesus is seen to die in our place.  Example of a law court where judge goes to back of court to pay fine of poor mother of three imprisoned for theft.
• sacrificial view of atonement the blood of Christ provides the sinless victim who alone can expiate sin. Christ loved [us], giving himself up for us as an offering and a sweet smelling sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5v2). Cf eucharist.
• exemplarist view that Christ’s example of love effects atonement just in revealing God’s love. When a tree is felled you see the beautiful rings within its trunk.
• triumphant view of Christ who leads believers in his victory procession: Thanks be to God who always gives us in Christ a part in his triumphal procession (2 Cor 2v14). 

Where’s the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus?

Christianity is the only religion refusing to talk of its Founder as a past figure.  Buddha and Mohammed have graves but Jesus…

• The change in the disciples from Gospel accounts to Acts: fearful men and women end up confronting authorities
• The strangely matter of fact and reserved accounts of the resurrection in NT.  The disciples don’t recognise Jesus.  Would that have been relayed if the resn were invention?
• Would the role of women as witnesses, controversial in those days, be included in a constructed tale?
• The Christian church changing its weekly holy day from the Jewish Sabbath to Sunday, that being the day of Christ’s rising.  What a change for pious Jews! 

Why should we believe in judgement of the living and the dead?

• God’s investment in the human race.  He is due to get a return on that - history has this purpose: to prepare a holy people for God’s possession. The church is this, a bride being prepared without spot or wrinkle (Eph 5v27)
• Ultimate righting of wrongs vindicating God’s justice.  In Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov two brothers argue about the evil in the world focussing on the suffering of children and whether there is ultimate justice. Jesus’ suffering shows us the judge of the world isn’t aloof.
• How can judgement be possible?  As sure as a computer memory contains a million records, so the memory of God! Christian tradition distinguishes an individual judgement at the moment of death and a general judgement which at the Lord’s return. After death scripture speaks of two ultimate destinies, heaven and hell.
• Mercy As the video of my life is prepared for showing on judgement day Christ has power to edit out the unacceptable points if I give them to him.  
• Hope To believe in Jesus Christ who will come to judge the living and the dead is to face the future with an infectious hope. If faith shows you that the whole world is in God’s hands so is its future. All will come right in the end! 

Lent 1 17th February 2013: I believe in God

The Apostles' Creed 

• Lent is being used to helps us examine our faith afresh
• ‘I believe in God and the spiritual but not dogma’ is current and we need to be informed to counter this eg What sort of God? New Age impersonal force?
• Easter baptismal renewal involves Apostles’ Creed – hence value and origin of Lent in preparing for this renewal
• The Apostles' Creed sets forth Christianity as someone put it "in sublime simplicity, in unsurpassable brevity, in beautiful order, and with liturgical solemnity." It’s a Godsend to teach the Christian Faith as we seek to make simple, clear, direct and above all effective communication of the truth that is in Jesus (Eph 4:21).

First official mention at the Council of Milan in 390AD. Most scholars trace it back to an old Roman Creed from the turn of the first century and the three baptismal questions of the early church. Memorised then by the faithful, as it is today, hard copies were probably less at a premium in the early centuries explaining the lateness of the first 4^th century documentation. As Anglicans we encounter the Apostles’ Creed at BCP Morning and Evening Prayer. Baptism and confirmation rites. There are actually three creeds in use. The Apostles is simplest, then Nicene, then Athanasian. The other two creeds originate more in the eastern church and are more developed in their theology.

I believe in God the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth   

     

• What’s the evidence God exists?

 The cosmological argument of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274):

1                      Whatever begins to exist has a cause

2                      The universe began to exist

3                      Therefore, the universe must have had a cause.  We call that cause God.    NB Big Bang seems to fit this

The design argument eg. William Paley (1743-1805) who argued that the complexity, order, and purpose of a watch indicate intelligent design, as do the complexity, order, and purpose of the universe.  The moral argument based on conscience. The existence of morality is a pointer to its author – God.  This is sometimes expressed as the view that there could be no right and wrong unless God existed. More subjective is the personal experience argument Friedrich Schleiermach (1768-1834) God’s existence cannot be demonstrated rationally but only perceived by one’s feelings.

• Why believe in a personal God?

There are reasonable evidences for God’s existence but Christianity goes beyond reason. To catch the full beauty of Christianity you need to engage with the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. God has sameness with us as a loving Father yet is different – an almighty God, three persons in one Godhead. Christian faith thrills to that awesome difference yet rejoices in the sameness Jesus reveals.

• How can God be almighty with all the suffering in the world?

Love needs free will etc. The Cross of Jesus is key. An interesting thought on earthquakes - without tectonic plates life would be denied the invigoration of the minerals inside the earth, even if the plates move at a cost to life itself.

• How can belief in a Creator be squared with evolution?

God is creator now as then, holding us in being as we, unlike God, do not possess being in itself. Darwin, the father of evolution allegedly lost his faith not through his research but through the loss of his daughter. Darwin's colleague Kingsley saw evolution revealing God as cleverer than ever seen before in his giving us potentiality to make ourselves. This potentiality, linked to genetic mutation producing new forms of life, has 'ragged edges' eg cancer and 'blind alleys'.

Ash Wednesday 13 February 2013

The unexamined life is not worth living. That's wisdom of the ancients and its part and parcel of Christianity.

As Lent starts it's writ large for us, individually and through a modest programme in our community.

I don't know about you but I find self- examination flows too often from the unpleasant consequences of my shortcomings than from a godly routine.

I hope to redress this in Lent and, the words almost stick in my mouth, I would be grateful for any appraisal you might have for me that may be a God send.

To live in the knowledge of God's love is an immense privilege. I believe there's nothing I can do to make God love me less. I believe there's nothing I can do to make God love me more.

Wonderful! If I’d only God to consider! Alas there's a lot I do that makes my neighbour love me less and my failures have capacity to make me love myself less.

Here's the nub of our resistance to self-examination. Human beings can only bear so much reality. We are so easily defeated as we're so frail. Our foolish pride gets wounded by knowledge of failure. Would that we lived more comfortably with our capacity to fail trusting the mercy that surrounds us!

Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.

Yes you're frail, God says in scripture, you're mortal, but, for all of that I love you and, as scripture says again, offer you a glorious trajectory little lower than the angels.

That's why it's worth examining ourselves so we keep on an upwards course. The Church encourages us to examine ourselves daily, before the eucharist and in the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent so that our mortal being may be kept on an immortal course for our salvation and that of the whole world.

Self-examination lays hold of the good in me to be cultivated besides identifying the bad to be uprooted.

I remember receiving counsel from a Mirfield Father on this. He suggested I regularly switch my method of self- examination from the list in Galatians 5 of the works of the flesh to the verses immediately following that list the fruits of the Spirit.

Identify the good - the love, joy, peace, patience, self-control and so on - that's growing in your life for thanksgiving and cultivation. Then get weeding that pride, sloth, lust and so on.

Thanksgiving for what's good in our lives is a vital part of self-examination.

Identifying and putting that good to use - intellect, sense of humour, capacity to care for others and so on - is as important as tackling our bad tendencies.

We only live once and each one of us,  in the Christian understanding, will have to give account of our lives on the Day of Judgement.

Our own self-appraisal anticipates that Day and will make it more favourable for us as we direct our lives towards where they're best applied. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

May God grant you a happy and holy Lent through growth in self knowledge and self application to his praise and service.

Sunday before Lent 8am 10 February 2013

I looked in the mirror before I left the Sacristy to commence the eucharist.

I'm sure each one of you has already cast a glance at yourself in a mirror today.

Some of us spend longer before the mirror than others. As we age I somehow think we find it harder to dwell there

I want to think a little about mirrors this morning.

Mirrors of the soul.

Glass mirrors at one point replaced looking in water as an aid to seeing and brushing up our physical appearance.

How can we see and brush up our spiritual appearance?

Friendship is the answer. Friends are most precious in that they have access to our heart of heart as well as having our best interest on their own heart.

Without friends, without intimates, how unbearable we'd be! A soul never corrected and put in its place! A soul never affirmed or praised or loved!

Most human depth and awareness is attained through friendship and this extends to the spiritual life. We should value and seek out especially friends who can bring us closer to God.

Peter, James and John so valued their friend Jesus!

In today's Gospel of the Transfiguration these men literally became mirrors of his soul as he made to reflect his inner glory as God of God and Light of Light upon them.

As Lent approaches we friends of Jesus in this age have his invitation to the same intimacy granted Peter, James and John.

‘Look to me and be radiant’ he says in Psalm 34v5.

'All of you, with unveiled faces, seeing my glory' he says in 2 Corinthians 3v18 'as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into my image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from my Spirit'.

To land this divine invitation somewhat I invite you to make Lent a time to warm your soul by looking to Jesus and seeking his irradiation through the extra opportunities for worship and self examination as well as community events linked to corporate and self-improvement.

Seek him, when and where you can, as the true mirror of your soul - in the bible, in the eucharist, in spiritual reading, in nature's splendour, in a godly friend or spiritual director - seek the Lord -  look at him  - and see your disarray!

Look to Jesus, see yourself in his light, brush yourself up and shine all the more with his light!

'Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.'