Transfiguration Sunday - February 14, 2010

2 Corinthians 4:³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. ⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Did you know that our liturgy is not just a bunch of random parts thrown together half-hazardly, only to being united by the fact that they take place within the same hour of worship? No, it is a beautiful summary of everything God has to say to us. Every major doctrine has at least a place of emphasis in the liturgy. It helps us keep in mind that this worship is chiefly God’s service to us in the Word and secondarily ours to him in receiving what he has come to give us. That is why we begin “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” It’s all about Him, not us, and he has exactly what we need. After this we confess our sins, so as to set our hearts ready to receive the gospel. First, we confess what we are by nature; then we confess the sin found in our actions; and finally we confess that we come into the house of God deserving of death. Now we are ready to hear the marvelous words that God, in his mercy, has forgiven our sins in his Son, Jesus Christ. But the fact remains: we’re still in this world; we still have all kinds of needs. If we are to survive, we need God’s mercy. So we sing “Kyrie,” or “Lord, Have Mercy.” Then we sing “Gloria in Excelsis” in thanksgiving for this meal just begun.

To further illustrate the unity of our liturgy, notice how there is a common thread found throughout each lesson for the day. Take the lessons before us this morning as an example. Each one highlights the glory of the gospel. In Exodus, we see Moses’ radiant face fade away because the people were not to think that the ministry of the law through Moses was God’s final word to them. There existed a more glorious word that endures forever, the light of the Gospel. In Luke, we witness the glory that belongs to Jesus as true God as it is permitted to shine through his human nature. But eventually they had to come down that mountain, because that glory is a sight that is reserved for the believer when he enters eternal life. Until then, we are to look intently on the glory of the Son of God as found in the message of the gospel. So too, the Apostle Paul in our lesson speaks specifically about the fact that the glory of Jesus Christ is revealed in the gospel. He is the Light, the Light in which we live. A light that shines through the Gospel, shines in this dark world, and shines in our hearts.

So, what are we talking about when we speak of the glory of the gospel? Our lesson starts in an odd place, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” Now remember, whenever we read the Bible, unless we are starting at Genesis 1, there is always a context – something that has come before. Such is the case here.

In the middle of the previous chapter, Paul had been talking about Moses. Our first lesson described the privilege Moses had of speaking to God face to face. After each of those visits, Moses’ face glowed. The radiance the people witnessed was the glory of God reflecting off Moses’ face. But there was a problem. The reflection never lasted very long. Soon it would begin to fade. That’s why, whenever Moses finished reporting to the people what God had said, he would put a veil over his face – so that the people wouldn’t notice the glory was fading. So what was the point of all that? The point Paul makes is that the glory of the old covenant, the covenant of the law, was a fading glory. But the glory of the new covenant, the covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus endures forever. The true glory of God was not found in the law, but in gospel, the message of Jesus.

This, of course, has profound importance for our understanding of how we can approach God. When we talk about God’s glory, there are a lot of things that we could focus on. We could focus on the glory of God’s holiness, the fact that he is sinless and perfect. We could focus on the glory of God’s power, or the glory of God’s majesty as supreme ruler, or the glory of God knowing our every thought, word and deed. We could focus on the glory of God’s omnipresence, the fact that he is everywhere, that there is no place we can run and hide from him. All these attributes display the glory of God, but from the sinner’s point of view every one of these in the end can only fill us with terror. If God’s glory is found in his holiness and perfection, in his justice in punishing every crime, and in his almighty power to carry out that punishment, the only realization that we can come to is that we are done for.

Yet, listen to how Paul talks about God’s glory, “[He]made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The true glory of God is the glory of God in the face of Christ. Look at the resolution on Jesus’ face as he turns to enter Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday – knowing full well the hell that awaits him. Look at the sweat dripping from his face like great drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. Look at the blood running down his face from the crown of thorns. Look at the love on his face when he spoke, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Look at the compassion on his face when he turned to the criminal, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Look at the forgiveness won and the work of salvation complete when he said, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

In the face of Christ the sinner sees the true glory of God. There we see the depth of God’s forgiving love. This is a glory that, when it shines into the heart, has the power to change the heart forever.

That’s why it is such a tragedy that the god of this age has so much success blinding the people of this world to the true glory of God. The reference to the god of this age is, of course, a reference to Satan. Satan knows that God’s unconditional, forgiving love in Jesus is the heart of the glory of God. Satan knows that that forgiving love has the power to render him completely powerless. The only way he can fight back is to obscure and hide that glory in any way he can.

We need to be on guard to the power of darkness at work around us! Obviously, one of the ways Satan hides the glory of God’s forgiving love is by keeping people from seeing Jesus. Look at all the false religions Satan has devised to keep people from finding the truth. If that weren’t enough darkness, Satan has devised, perhaps, an even greater delusion. That lie which says there is no real truth. He pours out the poison that there are many ways to heaven, “Believe what you want about what you want and everything will be ok.”

Another way Satan keeps people from seeing the glory of God’s forgiving love is to distract them from things that may cause them to think about God and eternity. Get people so focused on this life that they don’t have time or opportunity to think about anything else. The observation was once made that Satan may even do all he can to keep anything difficult from coming into people’s lives because that might cause them to blame God and start thinking about him.

For those of us who already know Jesus, Satan still seeks to hide the glory of God’s forgiving love by taking advantage of our natural insecurities and doubts. Could God really love me? Look at all my weaknesses and failings. Look at all the mistakes I’ve made. No matter how many times I promise myself I’m going to change, no matter how hard I try, I keep doing those same old things. If that’s you, see the glory of God’s forgiving love in the face of Jesus as he pictures his love in the embrace so freely given by the father to his prodigal (lost) son. See the glory of God’s forgiving love in the face of Jesus as he reinstates Peter, the disciple who denied him three times.

Satan also hides the glory of God’s forgiving love by trying to convince us that as great as Jesus work of salvation is, it isn’t enough. We need to do something – to earn that love or at least pay God back. So he tries to get us to think that showing up at church, saying our prayers, being nice to our spouse, are the good deeds which earn God’s forgiveness. If that’s you, remember our gospel lesson. As Jesus revealed his glory there on the mountain, were Moses and Elijah talking about what they could do to pay God back for all he had done for them? No! The conversation was about Jesus’ upcoming suffering and death. They were talking about the cross, where Jesus would freely pay God back for all the evil we’ve done. This is the true glory of God. This is the Light in which we are to live.

And when this is the Light in which we live, the gospel will shine in our hearts. In our text, Paul makes special mention of his role as a believer, as someone in whom God has allowed the light of the glory of his gospel to shine. He says that he does not preach himself. The word for preach literally means “herald,” as in the sense of a messenger who announces something. This is what we are. We are heralds with a message to announce.

And that message is not about us, but about Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Savior of the world. Our debt of sin to God is so large we could not even begin to figure out how to pay it back. But the gospel tells us that debt is paid – forgiven completely in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Now that the light of the gospel shines brightly in our hearts we can go out into the sin-darkened world and let this light shine, as Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).

We do this by reflecting the glory of God’s forgiving love when we forgive as God has graciously forgiven us. It is seen in the way we dedicate our lives to people and address their needs. The glory of Jesus’ love was seen in his compassion, trust in God, his patient acceptance of suffering, his patient endurance of others, his attention to those whom the rest of the world considered outcasts. As Jesus’ love shines in our hearts, God’s Spirit fills us with the same compassion, trust, patience and unconditional love.

My dear friends, how fitting are the readings today as we close the Epiphany Season. Before we walk down the mountain to Jerusalem with Jesus, we get to look intently at the light of the gospel – Jesus. This properly prepares us for the season of Lent, where Jesus’ death especially shows Jesus’ glory, because he entered into that death willingly, to suffer the punishment for the sins of the whole world. God empower us to take time out of every day to focus on Jesus and let the glory of his gospel shine in our hearts and light up our lives. Amen.