Walking together – being transformed

Walking together – being transformed: Holy Trinity Church, Coventry, 7th February

The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration
Saint Elias Orthodox Church
Austin, Texas

The transfiguration must be one of the most puzzling events in the gospels: Jesus, appearing to three of his disciples, in glory, together with two Old Testament characters, Moses and Elijah. It is a popular subject for iconographers: showing the terror of the three disciples, the stature of Moses and Elijah, and in the centre, the transcendent glory of Jesus.

So what is the transfiguration all about? What does it have to do with Walking with Jesus? And what does it have to do with our other reading today, of Moses and the veil?

It is worth looking at the two characters who were with Jesus:

Moses – representative of the law, tradition, rules and regulations;

Elijah – representative of the prophets, vision, justice

Both represent something very good. The law and tradition give us something solid to build on: the past, our history. The prophets give us a vision of and hope for the future. We need both.

‘Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.’ (Deuteronomy 4:9)

‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 29:18)

Jesus himself affirmed the law and the prophets:

‘Don’t suppose that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy them; I came to fulfil them.’ (Matt 5:17)

So, both are good, but neither of them are ultimately able to transform us completely.

It is as though there is a veil over the reality that we are seeking. So 2 Corinthians talks about the veil that Moses wore after meeting with God (this is described in Exodus 34: 29-35), and how, even then in the first century AD, a veil is worn when the scripture is read. Paul goes on to describe how a similar veil covers our minds, so that we cannot fully understand what we read in scripture: ‘Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds’ (2 Cor 3:15). In Paul’s earlier letter to the Corinthians, says, ‘As for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.’ (1 Cor 13: 8,9)

Moses and Elijah both encountered God (Exodus 33: 18-23; 1 Kings 19:9-13). Neither, however, was permitted to see God’s face:

‘Moses said, “Show me your glory, I pray.” And [the Lord] said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you… But, you cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.”’ (Exodus 33: 18-20)

Removing the veil

I think that one of the key points of the transfiguration is that now, in Jesus, that veil is removed, and we are able, through Jesus, to know God for who God is; as it were, to ‘see God’s face’.

So, in the icon, both Moses and Elijah are able to look at Jesus, in his glory, without any veil. Jesus himself said, ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the father’ (John 14: 9). John starts his gospel stating that ‘Nobody has ever seen God’ (John 1:18), but that Jesus has made God known:

‘And the Word became flesh, and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth’ (John 1: 14).

So Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians which we read today, says that ‘when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed’ (2 Cor 3: 16). It is as though he is saying, if we look at Jesus, and walk with Jesus, we will begin to see what God is truly like.

And, in doing so, we ourselves will be changed, transformed:

‘And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.’ (2 Corinthians 3: 18)

So this is about each one of us being transformed, changed into Christ’s likeness, each of us becoming more of the person God intends us to be: our true selves.

How are we transformed?

This is all about grace – we are being transformed; it is not about us struggling to change.

According to Richard Rohr, only two things in life are truly transformational: great love and great suffering.

Jesus is the essence of this transformation through suffering and love: we see this, for example, in him washing his disciples’ feet, the last supper, his crucifixion.

That is something, too, that I have found in my experience.

Four years ago, many of my friends sat with me in Holy Trinity Church, as we remembered my wife, Helen’s life, and shared our tears over her sudden death.

But Helen, in those two weeks before she died, in a beautiful retreat centre outside Manila, discovered something of what it truly means to be God’s beloved child: standing under a waterfall, making rainbows, and knowing the amazing grace of God’s love washing down over her.

Helen making rainbows in the waterfall at Tanay, Manila, January 2012

And I, too, over the past four years, have experienced something of that same grace. Of knowing that I, too, am God’s beloved child. Through the tears of losing Helen, the stillness of quiet dawns in the months that followed, the peace of silent retreats in Wales, and the new-found joy of marrying Lois, I believe that I, too, am being transformed.

Which brings us to the question of how we are transformed. Both of our passages today suggest that we are transformed by looking at Jesus, contemplating his love, gazing into his face.

Tom Wright puts it like this:

‘And all of us, without any veil on our faces, gaze at the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and so are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory’ (2 Cor 3:18)

However, we cannot just look into the face of Jesus. He isn’t here, we can’t see him. So it has to mean something more than that.

Perhaps it is more to do with the whole concept of walking with Jesus: spending time with Jesus, getting to know him, finding out who he really is, and listening to what Jesus might be saying to us about who we really are and how we can live life fully.

This painting of the transfiguration by Sieger Koder I think captures the event quite differently from the typical icons. In Koder’s painting, the disciples, rather than falling away in terror, are portrayed in attitudes of prayer or contemplation. The transfiguration occurred in the context of these disciples spending time with Jesus over three years, listening to his teaching, getting to know him, walking with him.

So, for us, being transformed is a consequence of spending time with Jesus, listening to his teaching, getting to know him, walking with him.

As part of that, we, like the disciples, can spend time in contemplation, perhaps using our imaginations to enter into the presence of Jesus and to listen to him: to, as it were, gaze into the face of Jesus.

I want to explore briefly what it means to walk with Jesus and get to know him. I will pose three questions which I would encourage you to go away and spend time with. I will give some pointers, but leave it to you to fill in the substance.

What do we see when we spend time getting to know Jesus?

Not our usual image of success/power/beauty: ‘He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him… like one from whom men hide their faces; a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering’ (Isaiah 53:2-3)
Jesus knew that he was God’s beloved child. There are two accounts in the gospels of God speaking directly about Jesus. Both record God speaking of Jesus as his own, beloved son:
- At his Baptism: ‘This is my son, my beloved one, I am delighted with him’ (Matthew 3: 17)
- At his Transfiguration: ‘This is my son, my chosen one’ (Luke 9:35) or ‘This is my son, my beloved; with him I am well-pleased’ (Matt 17: 5)

Ideas for contemplation:

Read through one of the gospels. As you read, make a note of what it tells you about Jesus: what was he like as a person? What were his priorities? How did he interact with other people? How did he relate to God?

How do we walk with Jesus?

Through stillness and silence (but beware, this can be painful)
Read, with fresh eyes, the life and teaching of Jesus (e.g. Beatitudes, Sermon on the Mount)
Encounters with those who are suffering, those who are broken (Matt 25: 31-46)
Embracing our own suffering and brokenness (2 Cor 4: 7-12)

Ideas for contemplation:

Take some time just to be still; find a quiet place where you can be uninterrupted. Try a centering prayer or one of the approaches to contemplative prayer on this website, and allow God to speak to you in the silence.

What happens when we walk with Jesus?

We see something more of our true self
We recognise that we, too, are God’s beloved children
We are transformed to become more like Jesus (our true self) = beatitudes; fruit of the spirit (love-inspired transformation, not 8 Essential Qualities!)

Ideas for contemplation:

Write a letter to yourself, as if from God. What would God want to say to you in a letter?

Spend some time with the following Examen questions:

In what ways have I been transformed to be more like Jesus over the past few months?

In what ways might God be wanting to transform me over the next few months?

‘But remember: that transformed version of you is known and present to God right now. God dwells in eternity, and is already intimately acquainted with this version of you. If you can trust this, then you can reach out and allow God to help you step through the veil between time and eternity. On the other side, in the hidden place where he waits for you, you can be your truest self. That is the self that can be naked and unashamed, that can look, unflinching, straight into the face of God. And when we look into that face and know ourselves beloved, it will be the most natural thing in the world to lay all that we have and all that we are at his feet.’ – Susan Pitchford, The Sacred Gaze, p50

It is by spending time with Jesus: walking with him, gazing into his face, taking his life and teaching seriously, and above all, by knowing that we, like Jesus, are God’s beloved children, that we are transformed.

I want to finish with an amazing tale of transformation from two of our friends in Servants, who spent 16 years living in a slum area in Cambodia.

Amongst our neighbours in Chbaa Ampou in Phnom Penh, the person in whom we most saw all this worked out was our friend Om Khuen. A deeply sincere Buddhist, she was the most gracious, caring person we knew in our community. And yet, there was no earthly reason she should have been. Like most Cambodians, she had suffered enormously under Pol Pot’s regime. Moreover, she’d been press-ganged into a forced marriage by the Khmer Rouge, and was trying to make the best of it even though he was a hopeless alcoholic, more often drunk than sober. She worked hard, running a shanty “grocery store” in our slum (really a bamboo bed with a tarp strung over it), but she never made any money – mainly because her clientele were so poor, and out of her big heart she kept extending them credit. She struggled almost single-handedly to keep her family of three girls and a boy together.

And then, during our first year in Cambodia, another horrible tragedy struck her family. Vibol, her son and oldest child at 21, the apple of her eye and as an apprentice gold-smith, part of the family’s hope for a better future, was murdered. Not far from where we lived, he’d been mugged for his motor scooter, and had fought back. He was stabbed multiple times and bled to death.

Life moved on, as it always does. But below the surface, deeper things were putting down roots in Om Khuen’s heart. One day, seven years after that horrible murder, Om Khuen dropped by to see us, her voice quivering with emotion. She told us that after all these years of observing the Christians in the village, seeing how they behaved, and weighing it all up, she had decided she wanted to become a follower of Jesus, too. We were, of course, both thrilled and stunned. But then, a few weeks later, our excitement over Om Khuen’s decision—and our respect for her as a person—grew even greater.

Om Khuen had been eagerly attending the cell group (Bible study) gatherings in our neighbourhood, and one evening Om Kheun dropped in to share with Susan and me something she believed God had spoken to her. She had read in the gospels that Jesus calls us to forgive those who have wronged us (to forgive their debts). With this new insight, she had examined her heart and found that there was

something tainting her relationships in the village. Over the years, she had extended so much credit to other families that it now amounted to hundreds of dollars (a huge amount in a little slum economy). Om Kheun realized that she felt angry and frustrated with those who owed her so much, because she would be so much further ahead in life if they paid their debts. But she also realized that those poor families were deeply ashamed of the debts they would never be able to repay, and they avoided her as much as possible. She neither wanted to feel bitter, nor to be avoided. Inspired by what she read in the gospels, she decided to wipe the slate clean. Taking her record book in hand, she went from family to family, and before their eyes, drew a line through their debt, declaring it ‘forgiven.’ At the stroke of a pen, they were set free—and so was she.

Kristin Jack (Servant’s Quarters, November 2015 p9-10 www.servantsasia.org)

I want to be part of a church in which we are seeing that kind of love-inspired transformation.

February 3, 2016February 3, 2016

Scars across humanity

This being the inaugural sexual abuse and sexual violence awareness week (#itsnotok), it seems pertinent that I should have just received my copy of Elaine Storkey’s new book, Scars across humanity: understanding and overcoming violence against women.

What a powerful, accessible, and challenging book.

Elaine Storkey, a feminist sociologist and theologian, has painstakingly explored the issues of violence against women across the globe, starting from the premise that violence against women is never acceptable.

“There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.”

– United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Elaine has somehow managed to combine the dispassionate objectivity of academic rigour with a very human compassion for those countless women who have suffered as victims and survivors of violence. Drawing on her encounters with women across the world in her role as President of the International Aid Agency, Tearfund, Elaine has carefully compiled both data and human stories from as far afield as the United Kingdom and Ecuador, the United States and Afghanistan, to provide a comprehensive overview of the nature and impact of violence.

But Elaine does more than simply record facts and stories on issues as diverse as rape, trafficking, selective abortion and female genital mutilation. Through the pages of the book, she offers a unique critique of both sociological and religious understanding of women and their place in society, and our cultures that permit such violence to occur.

“Rape travels alongside trafficking and prostitution as the exercise of power over vulnerability. And that power is often layered and multi-faceted, pitting the economic, political or social status of the perpetrator against the insignificance of the victim. When the unbalance is made even more uneven by the lack of safeguarding measures, or indifference from authorities, trying to bring redress can simply feel like a task too overwhelming, and impossible to achieve.”

– Elaine Storkey

The book makes for harrowing reading. But it is a book that is also full of hope, presenting a vision of a future in which violence against women is no longer accepted, stories of change and progress, and holding out the possibility of healing and restoration for those affected by such scars across humanity.

“And I have seen the ugly face of hatred

As it ripped my flesh and seared my soul

Mocking my refusal with malicious, brutal force.

But I am learning to erase that gaze

And seek instead the gentle face of love

Which stoops to soothe my fear with tender touch

And travels patiently in step with me

On the long journey towards peace.”

– Survivors’ workshop

February 2, 2016February 4, 2016

#itsnotok: Sexual abuse and sexual violence awareness week

This week is the inaugural Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness week ‘#itsnotok’ (1-7 February 2016), a national awareness campaign supported by BASPCAN, the NSPCC, NAPAC and other organisations.

In support of this, we have published a special virtual issue of Child Abuse Review:

Child Sexual Abuse and Children’s Rights

This collection of eleven papers, all of which are available on open access, has been selected from a much larger body of work that BASPCAN has published in Child Abuse Review over the past 24 years. Each paper has helped to stimulate the ongoing debate in respect of child sexual abuse and children’s rights to better protection and therapeutic services.

In an accompanying editorial, Jonathan Picken, Independent Consultant; and Chair, Education and Learning Sub-Committee, BASPCAN points out the timeliness and importance of this issue:

Papers published during this period helped shape professional practice and supported colleagues who were often severely criticised for their attempts to bring the scandal of such abuse and exploitation to the attention of the public. It is apt, therefore, that the recent critical assessment of child sexual abuse (CSA) in the family network, ‘Protecting children from harm’ (Office of the Children’s Commissioner, 2015) should highlight the true prevalence of sexual abuse across England and help continue the campaign to ensure rights enshrined within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) are fully recognised and protected.

I would encourage you to read Jonathan’s editorial and the associated papers of the virtual issue. Sexual abuse and sexual violence are crucially important issues that are not going to go away. Perhaps more than any other kind of maltreatment, sexual abuse hits at the core of a person’s identity, and leaves deep scars. We owe it to women and children the world over to take this seriously and to continue to strive to improve our responses to sexual abuse and violence, working to prevent such violence and to support those affected by it.

Like many other authors whose work has helped inform our understanding of CSA, authors of these 11 papers have contributed much to the ongoing battle to end such abuse and exploitation. Their work is celebrated here in the hope that it will continue to provoke debate across the coalition of partner organisations coordinating #itsnotok and efforts to raise awareness of sexual abuse and violence and the services available. The associated week of action comes at an opportune moment as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse chaired by Justice Goddard progresses its work. The need for similar investigations across the five nations perhaps finally vindicates the efforts of BASPCAN members and other colleagues who have continued to highlight the needs of those affected.

Virtual Issue Contents

The pattern of child sexual abuse in Northern Ireland
(Volume 1, Issue 2, 1992)
M. T. Kennedy and M. K. C. Manwell

Pornography and the organization of intrafamilial and extrafamilial child sexual abuse: developing a conceptual model
(Volume 6, Issue 2, 1997)
Catherine Itzin

Prevention of sexual abuse in children with learning disabilities
(Volume 7, Issue 5, 1998)
Ana Maria Martorella and Ana Maria Portugues

The neglected priority: sexual abuse in the context of residential child care
(Volume 8, Issue 6, 1999)
Meg Lindsay

Assessment and intervention in cases of suspected ritual child sexual abuse
(Volume 10, Issue 4, 2001)
Bernard Gallagher

Commercial and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK – a review
(Volume 14, Issue 1, 2005)
Elaine Chase and June Statham

Twenty-first century party people: Young people and sexual exploitation in the new millennium
(Volume 22, Issue 3, 2013)
Margaret Melrose

Dealing with a problem that doesn’t exist? Professional responses to female perpetrated child sexual abuse
(Volume 16, Issue 4, 2007)
Lisa Bunting

In Demand: Therapeutic services for children and young people who have experienced sexual abuse
(Volume 21, Issue 5, 2012)
Debra Allnock, Lorraine Radford, Lisa Bunting, Avril Price, Natalie Morgan-Klein, Jane Ellis and Anne Stafford

Disclosure of child sexual abuse: Delays, non-disclosure and partial disclosure. What the research tells us and implications for practice
(Volume 24, Issue 3, 2015)
Rosaleen McElvaney

Social work intervention to protect children: Aspects of research and practice
(Volume 1, Issue 1, 1992)
Olive Stevenson

January 27, 2016

To a semi-circle 2: seeking joy

I greet you once again – transected;

put asunder, rent in twain.

This sudden loss – so unexpected;

fullness fractured, comfort slain.

Those shadowed hours creep, oh so slowly.

Earth’s deep pain: a silent roar.

We see in part that thing, most holy

promise of a brighter shore.

Tears of grief rain down, unbaden

the sun, concealed, completes her arc.

The dove returns once more, unladen,

weary of the lingering dark.

Till from aloft the lookout shouts, “Ahoy!”

The half-bow that we see against the rain

is but a herald of a world made whole again.

January 23, 2016January 23, 2016

The anarchism of the Gospel

The BBC's adaptation of Tolstoy's War and Peace — BBC’s adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace

Giles Fraser’s latest Guardian column on War and Peace is one of his finest yet.

It is a while since I read Tolstoy’s great epic, and I found myself uninspired by the first episode of the BBC’s adaptation of it, but I remember at the time thinking that there was great truth and wisdom in its pages. Giles Fraser captures this magnificently, pointing out how Tolstoy’s practical, non-violent theology was a threat to both the church and the state.

“War and Peace is an extended argument for that most foolish of moral wisdom: pacifism”

With some of my recent blogs and Facebook posts, trying to explore issues of social justice, non-violence and radical hospitality, and through friends around the world who are standing up for similar principles, I have become acutely aware that such a path is often seen as both foolish and threatening.

“Tolstoy reminds us that to be a Christian is to be a fool and a social outcast, that anyone who wishes to follow Christ has to be prepared to die as an enemy of the state, nailed to the cross. It’s a little bit more than a few verses of Shine, Jesus, Shine on a Sunday morning.”

I would really encourage you all to read Giles Fraser’s piece:

Tolstoy’s Christian anarchism was a war on both church and state

January 9, 2016January 9, 2016

In support of our junior doctors

“If you attack the people who provide the care in the NHS, attack the quality of care they are able to give their patients, attack their motives for providing that care, then they feel it personally and respond passionately”

Mark Porter, BMA Council Chair

I am hugely proud of the NHS, having been a part of it now for nearly 30 years.

Like my junior doctor colleagues I want to be able to continue to provide safe care for children and families and to make a difference to people’s lives.

January 4, 2016

Parental beliefs and child protection

In 2012 a young infant was admitted to a London hospital, having been found unresponsive in his cot by his parents. A post-mortem examination showed that the child had died of florid rickets caused by severe vitamin D deficiency (Windibank, 2014). The parents, strict vegans with strong religious beliefs had refused any medical intervention for their child, including routine immunisations and health surveillance. They also refused vitamin D supplements, recommended by doctors when it was identified that both he and his mother were deficient. When the child became unwell with an infection, the parents did not seek any health care, stating that they were awaiting a ‘sign from God’.

In June 2015, 3 Muslim women from Bradford, UK, disappeared along with their 9 children, aged between 3 and 15 years. It is believed that they travelled to Syria via Saudi Arabia and Turkey, that their motivation was that they didn’t want their children growing up in England, and that they had a brother who was understood to be fighting with extremists in Syria (BBC, 2015).

In both these situations we could assume that the parents loved their children and would not have wished any harm to come to them. The parents were apparently motivated by their beliefs; we presume that none perceived their actions as abusive. And yet, all these children were either seriously harmed or at least potentially put at risk of harm.

Parental beliefs have the potential to be a great force for good in a child’s life and development; they also have the potential to cause great harm. Deciding when the state has a duty to intervene and act in contravention of a parent’s beliefs is fraught with legal and ethical dilemmas. However, it is not an issue we can ignore, particularly given all we know of abuses suffered in religious institutions, and a growing awareness of the risks posed by strongly-held fundamentalist beliefs (Gilligan, 2009; Sidebotham & Appleton, 2012).

The latest issue of Child Abuse Review, published just before Christmas, explores these issues. The issue includes papers on the complexities of exploring child protection within Islamic contexts and attitudes towards corporal punishment, both of which I discuss in the accompanying editorial. In addition, there are papers on child protection in sport; sex offenders’ awareness of online security; young people’s understanding of parental substance misuse and domestic violence; and the needs of child protection workers.

Click Here to see the Editorial and full list of contents

BBC (Producer). (2015, 9.9.15). Missing Bradford sisters: Mother ‘didn’t want children to grow up in UK’. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33201176

Gilligan, P. (2009). Considering religion and beliefs in child protection and safeguarding work: is any consensus emerging? Child Abuse Review, 18(2), 94-110. doi: 10.1002/car.1059

Sidebotham, P., & Appleton, J. V. (2012). Understanding Complex Systems of Abuse: Institutional and Ritual Abuse. Child Abuse Review, 21(6), 389-393. doi: 10.1002/car.2253

Windibank, O. (2014). Serious case review: Baby F: D.O.B. 01/01/2012: D.O.D. 14/06/2012: independent overview report. Bexley: Bexley Safeguarding Children Board.