By Rev. Nancy Brunt
Holy Trinity Anglican Church
We are about to enter the time in our church year when Jesus heads to Jerusalem and Holy Week when these events are the focus. It’s quite a journey, and it all started again on Wednesday!
The journey ahead brings us Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week, and ultimately Easter. It also brings us an invitation, an invitation to journey with the story of our faith, an invitation to live into the rhythm of the church year, an invitation for transformation through intentional time with God, an invitation for a journey with God to see where God is working in and around us.
One thing I find so encouraging about the disciples is how long it takes them to work out what’s going on with Jesus. Who He is, what his mission is. And if you remember that the first gospel wasn’t even written until 20 or 30 years after the first Easter it gives you some idea of how long it really took them to piece together how this extraordinary man, Jesus, could also be God himself.
Suddenly in the midst of the ordinary world and in the presence of Jesus everything is changed. Heaven touches earth and for a short time the glory of God is visible. Did heaven “descend,” did the mountain get “lifted up?” No, it’s just that the curtain between the two was opened and you could see into the heavenly. It’s not the touching place that’s only there for a short time, just the visibility.
We may not be privileged enough to have those mountaintop moments, but we are called to remember them and seek them. The great blessing and benefit and grace shown to us in Christ should make us bold. We have every reason to be both proud and grateful for all the things that He has done for us, and the difference He wishes to make in others’ lives.
We can be bold in discerning the hand and works of God, with no need to be hesitant, and uncertain, just as we can be bold to share Jesus with our neighbours.
So be encouraged as we go into Lent, the resurrected Christ is with us throughout our journey of life, whether we are in darkness, or whether we are on the mountaintop, He journeys with us and is the only one we should listen to.
