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Patches of cloud and a blue sky as seen from an aeroplane.

2nd Week of Lent (A)

The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father's house, for the land I will show you.’

Genesis Chapter 12, verse 1

In the reading from Genesis, we hear about an event that happened almost four thousand years ago. God calls Abram to continue a journey he started some years before - a journey that was spiritual as well as physical. A journey that would see him travel perhaps three and a half thousand miles and become the father of nations.

      In the Gospel from Matthew we’re told about the Apostles Peter, James and John witnessing Jesus transfigured. They saw his face shine like the sun, his clothes dazzlingly white. They saw perhaps a glimpse of the future kingdom, something of Jesus’ divinity. And yet this wasn’t a different Jesus. This was the same Jesus they had been travelling with day after day. The same Jesus they had seen preaching and curing the sick. What the Apostles saw of Jesus had always been there, but just hidden from their sight. In a way Abraham was also transfigured as he made his journey. Abraham became the person that God had called him to be from the womb. The person that had always been there, but had been hidden.

      Abraham was, of course, born Abram in Ur in Mesopotamia. Perhaps you’ve spent time studying maps of the Ancient Near East. But in case you haven’t, Ur was very near to Basra in modern day Iraq. Almost certainly, Abram would have worshipped the local gods, but on his journey he came to know the one true God. The aspect of Abraham’s relationship with God that is both the most striking, and at the same time the most difficult to understand, is when the Lord asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son. As you know, he went ahead and made the preparations unquestioningly. Of course God spared the life of Abraham’s son, but the fact remains that he had been ready to give to God what surely must have been the most precious thing he knew.

There in their presence he was transfigured; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as dazzling as the light.

Matthew Chapter 17, Verse 2

      Each one of us must become the person we were called to be from the womb. Abraham’s story teaches us that it will probably cost more that we would like to give. Our own culture has probably done quite a good job of persuading us that it is in fact more blessed to receive than to give. But if we let Jesus teach us the incredible unquestioning generosity of heart that comes with living his version of the phrase, we will truly have been transfigured.

Mark Howe

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