We have two children. One majored in engineering. The other majored in theater, with a minor in Music, in Appalachian Studies and in Political Science. One lives in a tiny cabin at Cedar Crest Camp surrounded by 500 acres of woods. One lives in a Huntsville neighborhood with his wife, Jillian, a goldendoodle and two cats. One gets a haircut every four weeks, like his mom and I. The other has taken the vow of a Nazarite (“No razor shall touch his head” Numbers 6).  Sometimes, I fall into a clique and say “how can my two children be so very different”. The truth is: they are not that different. The same doctor delivered them and they had the same chocolate cake for every birthday. Both were high school Math-athletes for Mr. Van Zant  and completed Disciple Bible Study with George Jensen.  They had exactly the same undergraduate GPA.  Both warm up the room with kindness, good humor, and thoughtful conversation. They are loving, well-read, hard working, thoughtful, and considerate.     

So often we focus on differences, but I wonder if we deeply knew we are all deeply loved by God, if we might be better able to see our similarities? Today, the lectionary gives us three stories: Moses’ face glowing on Mountain Sinai, Jesus’ transfiguration, and our seeing God’s face of God as if in a mirror. 

The Apostle Paul likely grew up with some church trauma. Paul describes growing up in “the strictest sect” with “the strictest interpretation” of the law. (Acts 22 & 26)  Once a zealot Paul became the foremost Christian advocate for inclusion. Perhaps, some of  that zealous thinking sneaks in at times as Paul goes too far in deconstructing the faith he grew up in.  In 2 Corinthians three, Paul recounts Moses’ experience on Mount Sinai and focuses on differences. But I wonder if we might become more whole, more holy, and more holistic by focusing on the shared experiences of Moses, Jesus, and Paul. Perhaps, we might become more fully Christian by seeking to understand our Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal friends’ perspectives?   

Moses and God were arguing. That is not the first line of a joke, but the beginning of Exodus 33. Believe it or not, God is tired of putting up with us and ready to walk out on us.  Moses argues, pleads, and maybe even shames God into not abandoning the nation. Before we judge God, we might consider if we have been tempted to walk away from a community, a nation, a family, or church? We are pretty good at finding holy reasons to not love our neighbors.  But thanks be to God, Moses wins the argument with God, and having gotten God’s mind right, Moses asks God a favor. “Show me your glorious presence.”   

 “Show me your glorious presence.”  Let me see you. God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock, covers Moses with a protective hand and God appears in radiant splendor, pausing in front of Moses and declaring “The Lord! The Lord-God is compassionate and merciful, very patient, full of great loyalty and faithfulness, showing great loyalty to a thousand generations, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion.’   The mountain shakes, sparks fly,  lightening dances, a cloud engulfs the entire mountain, and the people waiting for Moses grow anxious. 

When “Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the Ten Commandments in his hands, Moses didn’t realize that the skin of his face shone brightly because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses’ face shining brightly, they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called them closer… and in time they worked out an arrangement, Moses put a veil over his face to hide the glory. Our Jewish friends tell us it is the law more than Moses that glows. “Your word is a lamp to my feet  and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119) Bathed in radiant glory, the very light of God, the reflective holiness lingers on Moses’ face and on the Law in his hands.  

Jesus takes Peter James and John up onto the mountain to pray.  This coming Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. I hope you will join us at 6:30 PM. Our Ash Wednesday passage comes a few verses after the transfiguration where Luke notes “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem”.  During Jesus’ transfiguration, Elijah and Moses talk to Jesus about events in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the home of the church-in-state complex, the capital “city that kills the prophets”.(Matthew 23)  The crowds, the chaos, and the cross loom ahead. Jesus makes time for prayers, staying up at night under the stars.  Once in Jerusalem, after the Last Supper, Jesus will again find refuge in prayer until Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss  

Prayer undergirds everything that Jesus does. If you want to be like Jesus, pray more. One of the traps good people fall into is doing good things while neglecting the care of our souls. Worship, meditation, fellowship and prayer keep us connected to faith, hope and love.    

While praying about the coming trouble and trauma, Jesus’ face changed.  His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning, some translations say “white”. Dean Yolanda Pierce in The Wounds are the Witness: Black Faith Weaving Memory into Justice and Healing, reminds us that God spoke to Abraham, Sara, the Shepherds, Magi and Jesus in the dark blackness of night. Peter, weighed down with a lack of  sleep, awoke to see Jesus’ glory. As with Moses and the commandments, a cloud came around them and the glory of the Lord overshadowed them and they were terrified, but God spoke from the cloud, “This is my child, my beloved; listen to them!”  Then it was over and no one talked about it for a long time.

Romans 8 declares and and our youth choir sings:

No matter what the world says, Says or thinks about me, I am a child, I am a child of God. No matter what the Church says, Decisions, pronouncements on you,You are a child, you are a child of God. And there is nothing and no one who can separate,  they can’t separate you from the truth that you’re someone. You are family. You are meant to be a child, a child of God. You are a child, a child of God. (A Child of God by Mark Miller)

Peter suggested building a monastery or shrine up on the mountain, but Jesus knew that our mission is not to retreat from the world, but to transform the world, and so after dwelling with God in prayer, Jesus led us back down to the crowd, the chaos, and the cross.

In Second Corinthians, Paul woos us into our deepest incarnation, into our belovedness: “You are a letter of Christ… written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God… Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same (divine) image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

When we look in a mirror, who do we see?  Who do you see? Yes, we see ourselves. Look at yourself, you are a child of God!  See the glory of the Lord. See in that mirror the face of God transforming us. See God who is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in goodness and forgiving of every sin and rebellion.  Look at the face of God, the Love of God, the Glory of God and let that Love transform you: degree by degree, day by day, decision by decision, promise by promise. 

I brought a little prop. Look into the mirror and see the face of God smiling at you. Maybe write “BELOVED” over your bathroom mirror to help you remember who you are as you get ready.  You may not be all God calls you to be, but hear the good news, “you are a child of God” and God is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving of every sin and rebellion!

Moses’ face glowing, Jesus’ transfiguration, Wesley’s heart strangely warmed, seeing the glory of the Lord as you look in your bathroom mirror, finding awe on the mountain top, or in the face of grandmother clutching her rosary beads… defy our words. There are no explanations, this glow comes from the Spirit.  It is not explainable or reducible. The beloved glow is born from above, from prayer, from the deepest places of human and divine love, justice, hope, community and experience. If we try to box it up, define or deconstruct it we will surely suffocate it.  Friends, prayer be the most human thing we ever do? Adam and Eve walked in the garden with it, Abraham found it under the stars,  Moses on the Mountain top and in arguing with God.  Elijah heard it not in a whirlwind but in a still small whisper. Isaiah heard it as the Temple trumpets blasted out praises.  Ruth found it chatting with Naomi,  Jesus shared it while just talking with a woman by the well. Prayer knocked the murder out of Paul’s breathing and wooed him to love.  Disciples find it feeding the hungry and praying the Prayer Jesus taught us.  Oh  let us practise prayer until we believe we are children of God, and so we may allow Love to transform us degree by degree, day by day, glory to glory, so that light, love, justice, faith, and hope might radiate out from us degree by degree, flicker by flicker, and in transform our world. Amen