Sermon for Cape Town Diocesan Family Day Service - Transfiguration Sunday

Diocesan Family Day Service

Transfiguration Sunday

St George's Grammar School, Mowbray

2^nd MARCH 2025

Readings: Exodus 34: 29 – 35; Psalm 99; 2 Corinthians 3: 12 – 4:2; Luke 9: 28- 36

May I speak in the name of God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dear Bishop Josh, clergy colleagues, dear people of God, I greet you all this morning as we break bread together in this family service. Thank you everyone for coming together to meet as a Diocese. Thank you to the diocesan office staff and the logistics committee who put together the programme for our time together today. A special thank you also to the Diocesan Liturgical Team, as well as all those who have planned this celebratory service. Thank you also to the principal, staff and Council of St George's Grammar School for opening the school and grounds to host us.

Busy as I often am with ministry in the wider Anglican Church of Southern Africa and beyond, it’s wonderful for me to be home in the Diocese and part of this service, meeting as a family. We last met virtually on the Feast of St Thomas in 2020, under the difficult circumstances when Covid-19 was hitting our communities and the world. We had to meet then to affirm the presence of God amidst the challenges we faced at the time. This year, we meet on Transfiguration Sunday as we prepare ourselves for the beginning of our Lenten journey.

The Gospel reading (Luke 9:28ff) gives us a picture of what happened at the Transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of Peter, John and James. As Jesus was praying on a mountain, His appearance and garments took a heavenly brilliance, and He was joined by two men who had long departed from this world. These men spoke to Jesus about his departure, that is his death and resurrection, thus confirming the prophesy made in v. 22 ‘that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, be killed and on the third day be raised’.

Jewish tradition expected the Old Testament figures of Moses and Elijah to reappear at the end of time. They represented the law and the prophets, and both had unusual departures from this world. This explains why, in this Gospel passage, Peter suggested to Jesus that he, John and James should build three tabernacles or dwellings, one each for Moses, Elijah and Jesus, either to honour the three or to prolong their stay up on the mountain.

However, Peter had misunderstood the purpose of the presence of the two men who had come to speak to Jesus. The true significance of their presence was found in the heavenly voice that assured the disciples that the Jesus whom they confessed to be the Messiah was indeed the Son of God, not despite his coming ordeal – his appearance before Pilate and his agonising death on a cross – but because of it. The real message to the disciples was that they were to obey Him – and Him alone.

Sisters and brothers, the assurance that our reading from Luke gives us, namely that Jesus is the Son of God, helps explain Paul’s bold confidence, reflected in the reading from Corinthians that the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:12ff). Unlike Moses, who according to Exodus (Ex 34:32ff) had to put a veil over his face to hide the fading radiance, in Christ the veil is set aside. All of us, whether we are prominent or obscure, good or bad, white or black, have the privilege of looking upon the glory of the Lord – our Father as revealed in Christ – with unveiled faces.

As people of this Diocese, what can we draw from today’s readings? What does the story of the Transfiguration mean to us today? What can we do to remove the veils that stop us from seeing the image of God in our neighbours?

Last Monday, at a meeting of our church’s Synod of Bishops, which is attended by bishops from across Southern Africa, we heard a powerful appeal from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, a prominent member of our church and a member of the Order of Simon of Cyrene, the highest honour we can give to lay Anglicans.

Speaking passionately from the heart, Dr Ramphele told us of new research which shows that one in three women in South Africa have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Twenty-four percent have experienced violence at the hands of an intimate partner. And research also shows that nearly seven in 10 men believe that wives must obey husbands, and 15 percent say husbands have a right to punish their wives for wrongdoing.

Our society, Dr Ramphele said, is in the grip of an epidemic of gender-based violence that affects the majority of families in every community. To address this crisis, she called on the churches of our land to develop new ways of ministering to people who are deeply wounded by the multi-generational traumas they have suffered since colonial and apartheid days.

Against that background, it is my earnest hope that we will experience this wonderful celebration here at St George’s Grammar School today as a mountain-top experience; one that prepares us to leave here, metaphorically speaking, with shining faces, transfigured and transformed, ready to tell the world of God’s love in Jesus Christ and to live out our faith in ways which will bring healing to all God’s people in every community in this Diocese.

In order to help bring that healing to our communities, we must, as I said in the latest edition of Good Hope, start by cleaning our own house first. Last November, when the Church of England revealed the horrific abuse perpetrated in Britain and Zimbabwe by one of our former congregants, an expatriate from the UK, I told you that the Diocese and I are accountable to you, our church members, and to society, to ensure that all our churches are safe spaces in which to worship and minister.

Accordingly, the Synod of Bishops on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a set of proposals to keep you safe. Most important for you in the parishes, we will be asking every parish to nominate Safe Church Officers, to be trained under the auspices of the Safe and Inclusive Church Commission. We will require the names of those officers to be listed in parish service bulletins or, where those are not produced, to be posted to your noticeboards. While people will still be able to report abuse to a central office operated by our Safe and Inclusive Church Commission, we want to mobilise teams of experienced lay people who know their parishes best to play a leading role in protecting others.

Friends, the splendour of Paul’s God-given ministry of the new covenant, superior to that of Moses, spurs him on. It is the undeserved gift of God’s mercy, for Paul fully realizes his own unworthiness. What is a family in Jesus’ eyes? Those that are doing the will of God (Matt 12:50). In other words, the relationships that count are not physical, but moral and spiritual. It is to belong with Him to the family of the one Father in heaven and to do His will. It is my hope that we can be that family of Jesus.

It’s been a difficult few months in the Diocese, but as I’ve said before, we cannot allow ourselves to be defined by setbacks. We’ve taken the first step to overcome our difficulties by identifying what the problems were, and now we must move forward in hope, and trusting in God.

Let us also keep our focus on the other, major challenges that affect every one of us in our society. Pray that we will recognise that the chasm between the rich and poor cannot be tolerated any longer, and that we will act on that recognition. As we prepare for Lent, our New Struggle as South Africans must be to regain our moral compass, end economic inequality, bring about equality of opportunity and realise the promises enshrined in our Constitution and hope for a better future.

Let us also re-dedicate ourselves to the struggle against complacency, greed, nepotism, and the lust for power. Let us intensify the struggle against the pursuit of narrow self-interest, personal gain, status, and material wealth – a pursuit we see reflected in the attitudes towards our country and our achievements displayed by ideologues in the Trump Administration who reflect apartheid-era thinking. As demonstrated in the recent letter to Americans by more than 400 white South African Christian leaders, the groups claiming to represent Afrikaners who risk inflaming racial tensions by appealing for foreign intervention against our government constitute an unrepresentative minority of our people; the vast majority of South Africans are committed to the struggle for true justice, including economic justice.

In conclusion, I invite you this Lent to turn to loving ways and to become conduits of God's peace. This year's Provincial Lenten Bible Studies, which you can download from the ACSA website, are a wonderful resource for thinking and praying over what it means to be a peacemaker in South Africa today.

God loves you, and so do I. God bless this Diocese, South Africa and the world. Amen.

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