Sermons at St. John’s Presbyterian Church The Glory of the Lord as though Reflected in a Mirror

Transcribed from the sermon preached February 14, 2010

The Reverend Max Lynn, Pastor

Scripture Readings: Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12 - 4:2, Luke 9:28-36

Have you seen the presence of God shine in a face? Have you ever been on a mountaintop as a storm approached?  Perhaps you saw lighting or the clouds came right at you, and then engulf you.  Now, I wonder, have you ever been asleep on a mountain, and been woken up by an incoming storm?  Perhaps you even dreamt of the storm as you were waking up.  Or maybe, in worship or at the beach, in a garden or a delivery room, you have had an epiphany, a transfiguration where you see or feel the Spirit illuminate your soul, your view of God and God’s view of the world. Peter, John and James had such an experience with Jesus on the mountain.  Paul is reminding Corinthians that for much of institutional religion, it is thought that a mediator must be provided:  a priest who shelters us from the bright light and judgment of God. But in the grace of Christ we are free from the need for that mediation.  We have direct access to the light and Spirit of God. We come to church not to be provided a priest mediator, but to reflect the spirit of God to one another.

Just before our Exodus reading in ch. 34, the Israelites make a golden calf.  They had grown impatient waiting for Moses who had been up on the mountain for six weeks.  So, with the leadership of Aaron they make an idol and have a big drunken orgy.   The people turn back to the gods and ways of the culture that had enslaved them, and God calls them a “Stiff necked people.”  Even God is challenged. As we start out for something new, get off the old beaten path and into the unknown wilderness in search for freedom, when challenge comes, we are tempted to return to the old ways.  Accustomed to looking in one direction for so long, our neck is stiff.    God is angry and wants to punish the people, wipe them all out, but Moses convinced God not to. "If now I have found favor in thy sight, O Lord, let the Lord, I pray thee, go in the midst of us, although it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thy inheritance."  Still Moses was so angry he smashed the tablets of the law.  Recovering from their anger, God and Moses start anew, literally, with a clean slate. 

So Moses cut two tables of stone like the first; and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone.
[5] And the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
[6] The LORD passed before him, and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

The word chesed or “Steadfast Love” is the Hebrew scripture equivalent of “grace” in the New Testament.  We know that if the holy name of God is uttered twice in a row, whatever follows it is especially important.  Despite God’s anger and fury over the idolatry, and the stiff-necked nature of the people, the first thing God wants to make clear to Moses is that grace abounds in God.  Steadfast love endures.

Scott Hoezee comments: “What makes that grace, that loving kindness of God, truly luminous is precisely the fact that grace is not the same thing as moral laxity or softness. God does not and cannot merely shrug off the sin that marred his creation. If redemption and forgiveness come, then they come the hard way via a God who has done the cosmically difficult thing of looking everything that wounds him square in the face and still finding the ability to blot it out.

If God says he forgives you, it is never because to God it was no big deal anyway. No, grace is strong precisely because it co-exists with justice. Grace is lyrically beautiful exactly insofar as grace comes into play in just those places where something so serious has happened that a holy God recoils in horror. But if, despite your sin, you see on God's face a look of love and not horror, it's because God has done something miraculous: he has forgiven that which is at complete odds with his nature as a perfect divine Being.” http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php Scott Hoezee. Still when Moses comes down the mountain shining with the light of God the people are afraid, so he veils his face. 

Now when Jesus goes up the mountain Peter, James and John are with him.  It doesn’t say that it is nighttime, but the disciples are weighed down with sleep.  Jesus is up praying by himself, and the disciples see his robes, bright as lighting.  He is talking with Moses and Elijah of what is to come, his death and resurrection, the gracious event that removes the need for the veil, and gives us freedom and direct access to God.  It seems from this scene that he is one of them.  But also, with the conversation, they are in on his plan.  Jesus glows with God’s light.

It may sound strange to some that freedom is associated with connection to the Spirit, connection to God.  Most often freedom is associated with individualism, with disconnection, with doing what we want when we want and not following orders or laws or tradition or whatever. The freedom Paul is talking of comes from grace.  When to do something wrong, unkind or unjust or dishonest, then we become entrapped in guilt, shame, denial, or justification.  Even by going against the law we are still entrapped by it.

Or, the opposite can be the case.  We may be so consumed by following the letter of the law, whether it be the law of Moses, the law of our parents, the law of the popular and beautiful, that even when we are doing well we are obsessed.  We may become workaholics or shopaholics, trying to keep up or excel. 

A Buddhist master and his student were walking along and they came to a river which they had to cross.  At the same time a woman came along.  The monks crossed and the woman was shortly behind.  Now the monks were prohibited from touching a woman, but when the woman slipped and began to be swept down, the master reached in to grab her and place her safely on the shore.  They walked for a while and finally the student asked, Master, we are prohibited from contact with women, yet you touched the woman at the river.  The master said, I left her on the side of the river, and you are still carrying her.  This story is like Jesus healing on the Sabbath.  Jesus said the law was made to do good not harm.  Sometimes we can get so caught up in what we are supposed to do that we are not free to do what is right.

In preparation for a youth backpacking trip we went over what to bring.  Not on the list were music, video games or make up.  Several of the 8^th and 9^th grade girls were threatening to boycott if they couldn’t bring make up.  Robin, a cute red head who had been trying especially hard to fit into the really cute, popular girls group was despondent.  At last, when the popular girls decided they could go, Robin decided to go too.  The first two days everyone moaned and groaned about everything.  The girls talked about how bad they looked.  The great thing about backpacking with a youth group is, with all that open space, kids get a great deal of freedom.  Gone are most of the rules of the city street, the house, the church building, the school pool or playground.  They can start fires, jump off rocks and throw rocks, and go off hiking long distances from camp.  Yet it takes some time to stop thinking about what we are used to doing.   Often, kids will even get nervous when they discover the limits are so broad:  They will sit around camp telling stories of big foot, bears, snakes, or creepy men in farmer johns.  Finally by the third day, in the afternoon the kids stopped talking about what they didn’t have, and they ventured out and about.  They came back to camp excited and full of life.  The camp fire that night was a joy.  By the fourth day the kids were up and away, swimming and hiking around the lake.  By late afternoon some of the kids had started a fire and Robin, having hiked and swam all day, came back from taking a bath and sat down on a log.  Gone were her thoughts of make-up; gone was her concern for following the popular girls.  She simply glowed with joy, beauty and freedom.  I truly believe she was exactly who God created her to be in that moment.  Everyone saw it.  Someone said, Robin you look great.  With a big smile she said, I feel great!” She said this without thinking, with such power and confidence it surprised even her. She caught herself off guard and then smiled big and broad.

The point is not to create another commandment, thou shalt never wear make up.  The point is actually the opposite, we can be free from the social and self criticism and idolatry that says we are supposed to look a certain way, we can be free from the commandment, thou shalt always wear make up.  The freedom to be one self, not in an acting out kind of way, but in the way God created us to be…That kind of freedom is a better beauty aid than make up no matter where we are,  and no matter how well we fit some social definition of perfection. Grace is God’s valentine to us. By God’s grace, Robin had been transfigured.  By God’s grace, our veil is removed.

Listen to Paul once again.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 

In Christ we find both forgiveness for our sins and affirmation of who we truly are, so that we are free from envy and competition, free from the dualistic comparison of bad and good, pride or shame. We do not lose heart and do not practice cunning.  We can do and be our best and shine with joy and thanksgiving.  This is the good News of the Gospel.