Mark 9:2-13

`So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean' (Mark 9:10).

1 Philip did not want a eulogy at his funeral; he wanted the Gospel to be preached. I was surprised and moved when he asked me some years ago to preach at his funeral; and I certainly hoped that it would not be as soon as this. But I understood what he wanted and why. Indeed the very first time I heard Philip speak - at the church anniversary of my church in Leicester when I was still a teenager - I realised, almost for the first time, that the Gospel could be made relevant to our contemporary situation. So with some trepidation I will try to do the same.

2 Philip loved mountains, as I do. But he walked in his native Wales and in Scotland, whereas I am simply a Lakeland fell-walker. So I have taken the story of the Transfiguration in Mark's Gospel, as an archetypal mountain-top experience for Christians. The same story appears with slight differences in Matthew and Luke, but Mark's version has the advantage that it is clearly located between the disciples' response to Jesus's question about who he is and the subsequent teaching that the Son of Man must be betrayed and killed, and three days later he will rise again. Not only does the broader context frame this story: the Transfiguration story in itself is, as it were, God's ratification of Peter's confession that Jesus is the Messiah; and it looks forward to the suffering of the Messiah and his rising from the dead. So immediately we see that the idea of a mountain-top experience is not a simple one. What is experienced there may be revelation, but it is certainly not in any sense an escape from the world below. Philip understood that; and probably most if not all his own mountain¬top experiences had that dual character. The union of the majority of Churches of Christ with the United Reformed Church, which was for Philip and many others of us such an experience, was tinged with sadness that not all came with us. Yet, whatever the experience of Transfiguration was - and although we readily use the word, precisely what happened or is supposed to have happened remains obscure - it is clear that this confirmed the relationship of Christ to God that was initially disclosed to Jesus himself and John the Baptist at the time of his baptism.

3 Jesus was seen with Elijah and Moses, who were understood to represent the Law and the Prophets. But there is an implicit reference to resurrection here, which Mark then makes explicit in verses 9 to 13. Elijah did not die, but was taken up to God in a whirlwind, as described in 2 Kings 2. Only the other week I was struck by the lectionary reading from Deuteronomy 34 concerning the death of Moses, which says that Moses was buried in a

valley in the land of Moab, but no one knows his burial place 'to this day' (v 6). This is a remarkable statement about such a significant leader in Israel. It may be a caution against ancestor worship; it is certainly a reminder that life, rather than death, is what matters. Each in different ways, I suggest, indicates that the paramount importance of life is life with God - Moses, we are told, was the only one who saw God face to face. Yet there are some people through whom we may catch a glimpse of what God is like, either in what they say or in what they do. For me, Philip was such a man. All such glimpses are partial, nevertheless they are a preparation for that day when we shall know as we are known, which is the Christian understanding of resurrection.

4 Anyone who climbs a mountain knows that eventually it is necessary to go down again. This is the most difficult part of any climb, not only physically - though that can be hair-raising at times - but also mentally. We do not want to go down after such an experience. Margaret and I climbed Scafell this summer on a nearly perfect day. I don't know how many more times at my age I shall climb such peaks again. But I took some photographs, which through the marvels of modern technology and the assistance of the University, I can now use as screen savers on my computer; and I find it immensely satisfying in the midst of a busy load of emails to look at the background picture and recall what that summer experience was like. The problem with Peter's apparently worthy suggestion that the disciples should make three tents of meeting for Jesus, Elijah and Moses seems to have been precisely that it evaded the necessary descent to the plain; and when they do go down they immediately discover that the other disciples had been unable to cast out an evil spirit.

5 Philip never shrank from the problems of the plain; indeed in everything he did he recognised the needs of people. This was seen not only in practical ways, such as his commitment to the widespread community work of the Balsall Health Local Ecumenical Partnership in inner-city Birmingham, where he worshipped while he lived there; but in his recognition of what was needed in order to enable people to see new ways of doing things. In his address as Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Reformed Church in 1984, Philip said, 'We almost certainly have too many meetings, but in how many of these meetings is there meeting?' When we were planning the process of seeking the support of Churches of Christ for active steps towards Christian Unity towards the end of the 1960s, Philip insisted that every congregation should be visited; and he and several others of us did that not only once but twice, patiently seeking to dispel doubts and encourage vision. The fact that the positive response to the proposal to open negotiations with the Congregationalists and Presbyterians was greater than to the initial invitation to the churches to commit themselves to seek visible unity testified to the effectiveness of the method, time-consuming as it was. Later at the British Council of Churches the meetings with the I.R.A., in which he shared with others, and perhaps most of all his visit to the Falklands and Buenos Aires immediately after the Falklands War symbolised that concern to meet the people on the ground. Similarly his meeting with Pope John Paul II, when he visited Britain in 1982, confirmed his earlier conviction from the experience of the Churches' Unity Commission and the Churches' Council for Covenanting that steps should be taken to involve the Roman Catholic Church more directly in the British Council of Churches; and this led eventually to the Inter-Church Process and the end of the B.C.C. in its existing form. And it was typical that he spent the last five years of his ministry as a beloved pastor of this church.

6 It is in the mystery of Holy Communion that the combination of the cost of discipleship and eternal presence of God with us is realised most fully. This was at the heart of Philip's faith and life. In this supreme drama God can he known. In that same Moderator's Address, Philip said that the Word once made flesh is to be made flesh in us. `Jesus at all times pointed men and women to his father, for to know God is to live and Jesus was concerned with the discovery of life for all people. That God can be known is good news.' Christians reconciled to God need to live reconciled lives, to overcome barriers between Jew and Greek, bond and free, male and female. And precisely because the overcoming of those barriers had to be seen in order to be credible, Philip was committed to the visible unity of the Church. For him that was a Gospel imperative. All this was part of life on the plain, away from the mount of transfiguration, but a necessary response to that experience.

7 In all this the resurrection of the dead is central, both symbolically and really. It is symbolically central, because in discovering God, in discovering what God is really like in Christ, people can be said to leave their old lives behind and receive a new life - a new beginning. But it is really central, because baptism effects what it signifies and brings new life to those who receive it in faith - a life that never dies. It is not that this life is merely a shadow - Philip attached too much importance to the incarnation ever to believe that; but rather that physical death cannot extinguish that divine spark which can be awakened within each one of us. The experience of transfiguration points to a reality and a destiny, which transcends the inevitable suffering of this earthly existence. For this reason though in the midst of life we are in death, as Paul puts it (2 Corinthians 4:4), nevertheless ultimately nothing that can separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:39). This we call the communion of saints. At this time of grief and mourning, our hearts go out to Greta, Ghislaine and Jonathan; may they be strengthened by the knowledge that we are praying with and for them. Just as John was carried away in the spirit to a great high mountain where he saw the holy city coming down out of heaven from God (Revelation 21:10), so we pray that Philip too has seen his Lord on the mount of transfiguration; and we look forward with joy and eager longing to the time when God will wipe every tear from our eyes; for death will be no more, and mourning and crying and pain will be no more; and all things will be made new (Revelation 21:4-5).

Let us pray:

Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands that have taken holy things.

May the ears that have heard your word be deaf to clamour and dispute.
May the eyes that have seen your great love shine with the light of hope.
May the tongues that have sung your praise also speak the truth.
May the feet that have walked in your house ever walk in the light.

May the bodies that have tasted your living body be restored to newness of life.