Fr. Philip Sang: Reflecting the Glory of God

Sermon delivered on the Sunday next before Lent (Transfiguration Sunday), February 10, 2013, at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Columbus, OH.

Lectionary texts: Exodus 34.29-35; Psalm 99.1-9; 2 Corinthians 3.12-4.2; Luke 9.28b-43.

May the Words of my mouth and meditation of our hearts be acceptable to you oh Lord my rock and my redeemer. In the name of God, the Father, the son and the Holy spirit. Amen.

It is God’s intentioned priority to reveal His glory to mankind so that you and I will assume our created place in His wonderful plan. From our readings today the question that arises is: what are the consequences or results of seeing the glory of God? God’s glory is the physical manifestation of the Divine Majesty. When we encounter God’s glory, the first thing that happens to us, is that we are propelled to the attitude and posture of worship. We assume our rightful place as creatures before our creator. We cannot stand in God’s presence. We are humbled, and we come to understanding that God is God and we are not.

The second thing, that happens is that our faces will reflect, like mirrors, what we have seen and experienced. In the Gospel reading today Jesus was “transfigured” before his disciples.

  • Who He was became VISIBLE to the three disciples with Him.
  • What was inside became visible outside.

The Greek word used for the change was Metamorpho, which means to change form.
This same word helps us understand what is supposed to happen to us as well on our encounter with the glory of God. It has been used two times in the NT:

  • “Do not model yourselves on the behavior of the world around you, but let your behavior change, (that’s the word “metamorpho”), modeled on your new mind.” (Romans 12.2)
  • “And we, without unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are changed (metamorpho) into the image that we reflect. This is the work of the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinth:3:18)

In  Exodus 34:29-35 we see the first time God’s glory is reflected on someone’s face as we read in our lesson earlier Moses had the glory of God reflected upon his face when he came down from the mountain after a meeting with the Lord.  Moses had been in the very presence of God, and as a result, his face shone for some time. The passage says literally, that the “skin of his face shone.” In fact, the Hebrew word that is used there is “qaran” which means to “shine or emit rays of light.”

Actually what happened to Moses’ face was remarkable and never before seen by people.  The passage let us know that when Aaron (his brother) and the people saw his face glowing, they were afraid!

In the Transfiguration of Jesus, something similar happened to Him. His entire being became dazzling white, including his clothing. But the difference between Jesus and Moses was that Moses had God’s glory shining ON him. Jesus had God’s glory shining THROUGH Him.

This is a significant difference, because as Christians, we must seek the latter and not the former. In the letter of Apostle Paul to the Corinthians he is teaching about Moses’ experience: Paul says in verse 18 “And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” Paul contrasts Moses’ radiating face, which shone briefly after seeing God, with the radiating faces of Christians, who can radiate constantly because the Spirit is with them constantly, and whose radiating is a sign of ongoing spiritual transformation.

  • Church, no one ever radiated like Jesus Christ. He is the perfect mirror image of the imageless God. Just as how He was transfigured, to display the divine nature inside of him, we understand that when we face the face of our Lord Jesus, we behold God’s light mirrored.
  • Our task then is to mirror to others something of the light and love of God which Christ mirrors to us.
  • We are called to be ones who radiates with the spiritual presence of God,
  • We are called to be those who mirror the Holy One. We are to be mirrors of God.

What produces that glow of godliness in our faces?

  • It is not how perfect you are that produces the glow of godliness.
  • t is not how sinless you are.
  • t is not how holy you act.
  •  It is not even how many good works you do that will produce this glow of godliness.
  • No amount of moral or psychological perfection will produce the glow of godliness.
  • Church, only one thing will produce the glow of godliness in us…the nearness of God.

The word of God tells us that the truth sets us free from our limited human self, so we can lose – and find – ourselves in God. Just imagine being set free from self-consciousness, from self-concern and fear, in order to be released into a constant awareness of God’s presence and glory…that is our destiny and God’s design for us. The wonderful thing about Jesus paying for our sins and our failures is that we don’t have to look at ourselves and be concerned about what we are doing or not doing. If we are looking at Him, we will produce fruit. Many a times we focus so much on our own performance that we lose sight of the fact that God has given us the grace to be forgiven and if He has forgotten our sin, then so should we. We must do one thing above all else. Seek His glorious face.

Have you ever had one of those self-tormenting dialogues with yourself, where you are down on yourself, mad at yourself, frustrated with your situation, that you simply can’t meet someone’s expectations, or even your own expectations…and you are feeling worthless.

  • I believe this is the time God’s voice wants to shout to you, “It’s not about You!”
  • He’s done that to me. Reminding me always that it is not about me measuring up. It is not about my performance.

Brothers and sisters, we must look away from ourselves. To Christ. To His glory. There is no other way we can reflect His glory in our lives. It doesn’t come by TRYING to glow…it comes by looking at His glory, by abiding and seeking His face more than we seek anything else. Putting him first.

  • We need to spend time with the Lord in heartfelt prayer (talking with the Lord) and Bible reading (letting Him talk to us).
  • Are you spending time each day seeking the Lord?
  • Is it obvious to others that your faith in Jesus is vibrant, real, and life-changing?
  • Will others desire to know the Savior by seeing the difference Christ has made in your life; by seeing the joy, peace, contentment, and serenity that are yours BECAUSE you keep your eyes on Him and confidently commit all into His hands?
  • Does your countenance (face) glow?
  • Maybe it doesn’t physically, but is there a spiritual glow about you that others can see?
  • Can they tell that you have been with Jesus?
  • In Acts 4:13, in reference to the apostles says, Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Others around them, including their own enemies, could tell that they had spent time with Jesus, had walked in His presence, had been in close relation to Him. How about you? Can the same be said? Let us turn our eyes upon Jesus, let’s look full in his wondrous face, and the things of earth will grow dim, in the light of his glory and grace.

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit Amen.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield: My Train Wreck Conversion

From Christianity Today online.

What a great story about redemption and God’s faithfulness and grace! Check it out and see what you think.

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

My Train Wreck ConversionThe word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn’t hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that “knowing Jesus” meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.

Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.

As a professor of English and women’s studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren’t for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson’s quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: “Feminism,” he sneered, “encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians.” Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.

Read it all.