Take Off Your Sunglasses
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When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, the people of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God.
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God.
But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples,
Imagine being one of the people waiting at the camp at the bottom of the mountain for Moses to come back from his meeting with God to get the tablets of the law. Here is your mighty leader who has been hanging out in God’s presence on the top of a mountain and when he gets back, it’s been so powerful to be in the presence of God that his whole face is glowing bright. I can imagine that would have been a little bit freaky.
Now think about poor Moses. He had to put a veil over his face to keep from frightening the people because he’d been so changed.
How great must God’s glory be that just being around God’s presence like Moses was changed his very face!
In the Gospels, we read that a few of the disciples got a chance to see that powerful Glory of God. Peter, James, and John – the closest inner circle of followers. Not only do they see the full glory of God shining in Jesus that day, they see a glimpse of eternity – two powerful prophets who have gone before them shining in the light of God and talking with Jesus. They are confronted with the Glory of God on the top of a mountain.
So naturally, Peter goes into planning mode. He seems to entirely miss the point of what’s going on. Jesus has been talking about his death and the meaning of all this and gradually letting the disciples in on the bigger picture. Here they are at the climax of that. . . and Peter offers to build some little houses for Jesus and his glowing friends. This seems like a really weird response, but think about it. How often do we worry about planning and building and doing before worrying about simply sitting down and admiring the glory of God?
Peter’s response here is a little reminiscent of the story of Mary and Martha in which Martha is running around like a crazy person trying to prepare for Jesus’ stay at their house while her sister is just sitting at Jesus’ feet hanging out with him and taking in every word.
God’s glory is there for those who are willing to see it. Even the demon in the healing story that comes immediately after this sees it and responds with terror. But it’s a fine balance to find that our response isn’t one of building little houses we don’t need before having sat in the presence of God.
I’m assuming that not too many of us in the room today have had literal mountaintop experiences that left us glowing like Moses. I’m not seeing many veils out there this morning. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve never physically seen Jesus standing in the room with me, let alone glowing and talking with Moses and Elijah. But that doesn’t mean that the glorious presence of God isn’t here with us now. God didn’t retreat and decide to leave us alone for a while.
It’s just that sometimes, we’re a little like Peter. We’re so busy trying to do for God that we forget to be with God. You’ve heard me time and time again talking about how we need to live out lives that look like the gospel message. There is nothing wrong with doing. But that has to come from a place of being – of just sitting and dwelling with God.
Sunglasses are a good thing. The sun is powerful and it can do serious damage to our eyes. So when we go out in the sun, we put on our sunglasses. Or at least we should. (That’s my health conscious public service announcement for the day – remember your sunscreen too, folks.) But sometimes, it’s totally inappropriate to wear them. I don’t care how cool you look in your shades, if you wear them indoors, especially somewhere with low light, you’re going to have trouble seeing things well. And nobody looks cool while they’re tripping over the table.
Sometimes, like Peter or Martha, we’re so used to wearing the sunglasses of being busy and doing stuff that they keep us from seeing the glory of God – from sitting and dwelling in it. In a fast-paced world of shiny, blinky technology and constant media chatter, it’s easy to forget altogether that God still shines in the world today – that God’s glory is still all around us if we’ll take off our dark glasses and see it.
This week I saw God’s glory in an unexpected tale of reconciliation and healing in relationships. It’s not my story to share, let alone from the pulpit, but suffice it to say, that here was no miraculous physical healing, there was nothing overtly noticeable about the situation in general, but WOW! Was God’s glory all over it. It was one of those seemingly everyday things that God was just clearly the boss of. Nobody glowed brightly – there were no veils needed. In fact, there were probably only three of us in the room who knew exactly how powerful that moment was. But it’s little, seemingly everyday moments in which God often shines the brightest. When we take off those sunglasses – busy-ness, noise, patterns of sin in our lives, pride, self doubt, unforgiveness, greed, (the list can go on and on), we are able to grow more and more attuned to seeing God in those moments. Some of us have many, many pairs of sunglasses on that have to be removed on at a time so that as each pair comes off, we can see God’s glory just a little bit better.
On Wednesday, we will gather together for our Ash Wednesday service to mark the beginning of Lent. Lent is more than simply giving up chocolate or soda or facebook for a few weeks. It’s about taking a serious look at ourselves to see what sunglasses we’re wearing when we shouldn’t be. We take these off by spending time in scripture, in prayer, and removing distractions from our lives. I’ll be making available this week a devotional guide that steps through the gospels. It’ll be here for Ash Wednesday and next Sunday. Carving out daily time to read scripture, to pray, to listen, to seek the glory of God is vital to our lives.
The church as a body is not exempt from that either. We must be active in the community – as we are – but we also must make prayer and worship a priority or all we’re doing is building pointless little houses like Peter wanted to do. Our actions must be grounded in an awareness of the glory of God – the glory that was so powerful it made Moses GLOW. When they are, we will glow. Probably not physically – although I won’t begin to say what God will and will not do – but that’s what marks a person or a church as different.
As we sing “How Great Thou Art” this morning, think carefully about the words – especially in the first verse. This song is about seeing glory in the everyday things that we take for granted. When is the last time you looked at the stars and just stopped to contemplate how incredible God is for having even thought of something like that? Sometimes we tell kids that thunder is “angels bowling” in order to help alleviate their fear, but do we really hear it and think, “Whoa. God is BIG!”? Sometimes, we want to mentally rush through the first couple verses to get to the shouts of acclamation, but we have two whole verses – half the hymn – dedicated to seeing God in the day around us. The breezes, the song of the birds. God’s glory is everywhere – even here.
As we sing this, I want you to set aside all the blueprints for little houses, take off the sunglasses, and just consider the wonder and glory of our God. How great God is!