Looking at God Straight On

How do you start a firefly race? Line up the participants; then somebody shouts, “Ready…Set…GLOW!” (Boy, is that an old one!) Scriptures to be read this upcoming weekend address the idea that Men Of Old glowed because they looked at the face of God–and so do we! Some folks, then and now, would like to believe this to be a scary experience, an immersion into the Holy that they’d rather avoid. Yet God keeps coming (often in a cloud) to transfigure all who bear a Godly image into a lively reflection of Grace…

EXODUS 34:29-35 tells how Moses, after receiving the tablets of the Law/10 Commandments, came down Mt. Sinai to form the Hebrews/Israelites into a community around these Laws. “The skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.” Moses was transfigured through his intimacy with God, and so shall ALL be who adhere to these basics. But some couldn’t handle the immediacy of change, so Moses donned a veil out of compassion. People of faith are called to be in intimate proximity to God.

Paul alludes to this occurrence in his Second Letter to the CORINTHIANS 3:12-18: he says that Christ alone can remove the veil which even then shielded the hearts of the Hebrews from the holiness being revealed to them. You may remember that when Jesus died the veil which shrouded the Holy of Holies from profane view was torn in two so that EVERYONE could see God face-to-face. And yet our own transformation into the image of Christ is one of gradual increments as we become more and more involved with the faithful ethics of love and justice. “And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as if reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

The Gospel, LUKE 9:28-43, is the well-known tale of Jesus taking Peter, James & John up the mountain of Transfiguration to pray. While there they saw him aglow as he talked with Moses and with Elijah–the Law & the Prophets–just as a holy cloud enveloped them. Again, not for the first time nor the last, a great Voice told them to pay attention to the holiness in their midst. Are there other voices that we need to block? Even though veiled by this cloud, the disciples still knew that God was present. Despite Peter’s weak attempt to preserve the moment and capture the Holy, they had to descend from the mountain to business-as-usual in the rest of the world, that is, making whole the boy who had convulsions. The passage is to read as a whole, contrasting the intention of God with the brokenness and suffering of Creation still waiting for redemption.

These readings, at face value, remind the hearers that intimacy with God changes our demeanor and disposition. They also urge those who glow only occasionally to get closer, by faith and by action. We once taught Bible-school kids a little ditty (with apologies to Spike Jones and some others): “Glow little Christian, glimmer, glimmer; Shine little Christian, shimmer, shimmer…” And there was probably more to it, but you get the idea! Get close to God, light up the rest of the world!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com to share the fire and the fear of readings assigned to the upcoming weekend….