Sermon, Sunday Next Before Lent, 15 February 2026
Readings: Exodus 24.12-18; 2 Peter 1.16-21; Matthew 17.1-9.
Theme: The Mountain of the Lord
In the scriptures of the world’s religions and philosophies mountains are often considered to be sacred places. In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures they often function as the backdrop for divine appearances. Holy mountains are also found in the Asian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, with Mount Kailash in Tibet being sacred for both religious traditions. Mount Olympus occupies a special place of significance in European culture. As the highest mountain in Greece it was known since ancient times as the place of the Greek gods, and scenes of war between them and special events in the lives of the gods take place there. Mount Athos, the home to the Orthodox religious monastery dating to at least the fourth century AD was also previously the home of the ancient Greek gods and this Christian tradition of seeking God in the wilderness which the monastery represents has its origins in much older religious and philosophical traditions of Asia.
And, in many ways, religious and philosophical traditions sit on top of one another like geological layers forming sedimented strata. They share their heritages like parents gifting their DNA to their offspring. Because of this it is no wonder that the sense of holy awe, of sacredness, accompanies many of our most beautiful mountains and mountain ranges.
We are fortunate in the chaplaincy to live in the shadow of many such beautiful mountains. As I look out of my study window, I am graced by the sight of the Sierra Bermeja mountain range, covered by angry storm clouds these last days. The range has a red or purple colour at certain times of the day and confers the name ‘Bermeja’ (vermillion) on it. No wonder mountains have inspired such awe and fascination and often carried a sense of sacredness that makes them places of mystery and special encounter between heaven and earth.
Temples, like mountains, are also viewed as holy or sacred places. They are often built on mountains to underline this and play the role of mediating spaces, places which connect heaven and earth and join these two domains into one reality. One sees this in the beautiful Muktinah Temple on the Himalayan mountain range that is so sacred to Buddhists and Hindus, and in the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens that was considered to be the dwelling place and shrine to the Greek goddess Athena. Civilizations are built upon such mythological and historical strata that have been communicated to us through the stories of ancient writers and poets such as in the Greek literature of Homer and Hesiod.
All three of our readings for the Sunday Next Before Lent speak of mountains in a sacred way. The first, from the Book of Exodus is the scene of the ratification of the covenant made between God and Moses on Mount Sinai. The Second Letter of Peter adverts to the transfiguration episode, that is also the reading chosen for the Gospel of this Sunday. In each of these incidents, pyrotechnics usually accompany the theophany: the manifestation of the divine. Thunder and lightning, fire and clouds, the sun and dazzling light all add to the drama of these accounts of divine revelation on the mountain of the Lord.
Nature, in these episodes, reveals the glory of God, as Psalm 19.1 reminds us: ´the heavens declare the glory of God´. And this is not by chance. As the creator of heaven and earth, God leaves God´s fingerprints on the creation. When we recognize its beauty; its awesome power, our minds are led to acknowledge the one who has created this as, all beautiful, all powerful and all glorious.
The appearance of the glory of the Lord on that high mountain in the company of Peter, James and John is a moment when a new temple is revealed out of the dazzling light. This is the temple of Jesus, who will from now on be the one in whom heaven and earth are united through the transfiguration of his earthly body. This transfiguration reveals to us that, as Psalm 24.3 bids us, if we want to truly ascend the mountain of the Lord, we must do so through the resurrected body of the holy one of God, Jesus. He is the only portal between heaven and earth. Through him the glory of the Lord shines on all our paths up the sacred mountain.
In biblical literature since ancient times, Mount Sinai has represented the place of encounter with God. It was the high point in Arabia and was often depicted in the Old Testament as the place where a certain reset would happen, when God communicated a message to the Israelites. One has only to think of the fiery vision of the wheels within wheels and fiery throne in Ezekiel’s extraordinary vision recounted in Ezekiel 1.1-28, which represents a collective vision of God on Mount Sinai to realize that this sacred mountain is lodged deep in the psyche of the Old Testament authors and connect the message of the prophets with the law and the covenant. In the New Testament, Arabia, the location of Mount Sinai, is also the place where Paul goes following his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Here Paul works out just what it means for him to now understand that Jesus is the Messiah he had been waiting for and whom he will now herald for all the nations.
Mountains do this to people. They make us stand back and realize that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. This may simply be an experience of being a part of nature. But it can also be an experience that we are a part of something or rather someone even greater than the wonders of nature: God. On that mountain of the transfiguration, Peter, James and John realize that through the appearance of Moses and Elijah, Jesus is identified with both the law and the prophets. This identification reveals who Jesus really is. He is the one in whom the law and the prophets are fulfilled. He is the consummation of the covenant. The message of the law, to provide the codes or patterns of behaviour for the people of God, and the message of the prophets that this God is always faithful, even though his people are not, are united in the Word of God who became flesh in Jesus. He is the ultimate message communicated to us that God is with us. The one who unites heaven and earth and is for us the holy mountain of the Lord who leads us into the new heaven and earth that is inaugurated in the resurrection of his body and its ascent into heaven on the Mount of Olives, the Mountain ridge in the East of Jerusalem.
May this Sunday next before Lent be a time for us of awesome wonder as we greet the return of the sun after many days of rain. May it also be one of gradually turning our minds to beginning our preparations for the long ascent up the mountain of the Lord that, each year, Lent represents.