The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

If you had been present at Holy Hamsters on Thursday you would have seen Jesus all aglow. In fact he was  bearded action man doll dressed in Ist century Palestinian style being lit up with three torches.
We wondered what this strange story might be about. What really happened to Jesus? Why did he go up the mountain? He had of course been very busy. He had been travelling all over the place teaching and healing.  He had been leading a training course for the disciples so they could go out and teach and heal people as he did. When they had reported back, he fed the 5000. Then he needed some quiet time to pray – that’s why he went up the mountain.  He took three friends with him, I suppose because it could be dangerous to be on your own on top of a mountain. But he didn’t talk to them – he sat on his own to be quiet. And as all his thoughts and worries drained away he became very, very still. And he closed his eyes and it seemed so quiet it was like sitting inside a cloud. And as he became still so he began to feel a kind of glow deep down inside him. And the glow made him feel opened up – but opened up for what?
 And then it seemed to him that there were two people talking to him. And what they were telling him was shocking – his story wouldn’t have a happy ending – he would go to Jerusalem to die. But  the way they talked to him somehow made him feel brave. The bad news they were giving him didn’t take away the glow. In fact the glow helped him to listen to them. In fact the glow seemed to be getting stronger – growing inside him almost as though it were coming out through his skin. And yet at the same time he began to feel more and more alone with his eyes closed. The voices had stopped talking to him – here he was, knowing he had to die and with only this strange sense of light inside him – a light which might not last. And then suddenly the light ceased and instead he heard another voice – but this time not at all like the voices he had heard before. This voice seemed to grow from inside him but soon it seemed as though he was inside the voice, it was bigger than he was, it was bigger than anything – not loud, not deafening, just a voice that seemed to reach to every where. And the voice was speaking about him, about Jesus himself. And the voice was calling Jesus his son and saying that he was loved and chosen – and people should listen to him because there was no one else like him to speak for his Father God.
And then Jesus knew it was all right to go down the mountain and get on with his life. And though his three friends didn’t speak about it – they always knew that it had been good to be there with Jesus on top of the mountain.
So why should we listen to this story today? Why might it be an important story?
During Lent the children here and at school are going to do the ‘Love Life, Live Lent’ course. It’s a course which is all about changing the world one small action at a time. And the course suggests one small good thing to do on each week day of Lent.
But interestingly one thing the course doesn’t suggest is going up a mountain to be quiet like Jesus. Maybe because there aren’t many mountains in England. But there are hills and this church is almost on top of Hampstead Hill. So what might it mean for us to be quiet like Jesus on top of our hill? We come to church to be with Jesus in the gospel readings and in the bread and wine. We come to be with the welcoming Jesus, and the teaching Jesus, and the healing and comforting Jesus, and the noisy Jesus and the quiet Jesus.
In this month’s magazine I talk about a picture I once saw of Jesus’ mother Mary. With wide open eyes and a finger on her lips. It reminds me of the youngest children coming into assembly in the Parochial School. Often they have their fingers over their lips too. So I think if we are going to Love Life and Live Lent we might all, grown-ups and children, imagine we have our fingers over our lips for at least some of our time in church. And we try to be quieter in church to make room for God so that we can feel the reassurance of God inside us and hear the voice of God telling us what we must do. And then perhaps we can all begin to glow like Jesus – at least on the inside. Amen