Exodus 34:29-35
Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, 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 spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face, but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off until he came out, and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining, and Moses would put the veil on his face again until he went in to speak with him.
Luke 9:28-36
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking about his exodus, which he was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but as they awoke they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us set up three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” not realizing what he was saying. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
Sermon Text
Transformation! To go from one thing to another. This is what we are pursuing as people of faith. We believe that God became human, that that God-man walked this earth to teach us the way we should walk, and then faced death and triumphed in resurrection so that we all might likewise be raised into glory and new life. We proclaim a gospel that is centered in God’s transformative power, but to be transformed we must do something – we must look upon the Lord, and find that the Lord looks back at us.
Each year the church takes a moment, before the austerity of Lent, to look up to God’s revelation of Jesus’s true glory on a mountain long ago. The human Christ was for a moment fully glorified as only his later resurrection would make possible, in the presence of his Father he was made into what he was always meant to be. The perfect human, the fullness of the Word of God’s divinity, the perfection of the body through the power of God’s Spirit and the will of the Divine Father. From glory into glory, Christ stood on that mountain as a testament to what God could do and would do with all flesh in the World to Come.
For the disciples who stood on that mountain, the scene was enough to inspire them to wish to build tabernacles to house the glorious visions in front of them. Yet, another person had seen the glory of God before they had. Moses, one of the three figures present on the mountain, would climb the mountain and receive God’s teachings to bring back to God’s people. That visitation did not just change Moses in his mind, but in his body as well. The flesh of his face, the uncovered portion of himself as he sat with God, had been transformed. Though it was a fleeting transformation, reverting to its normal matter within a few days, it was something that people made note of. More than that, they were afraid of it. To enter into God’s presence was to be changed, and that transformation was something the people were not ready for.
In our modern day life, I think we too are afraid of looking at God and being transformed. God offers transformation to anyone who would seek it, but so often we settle for things as they are. When the people of Israel escaped Egypt, they were barely out into the wilderness before they started wishing to go back into slavery. Why? Not because it was better – but because it was what they were used to. We would gladly take painful normalcy of liberating change. It’s true of institutions as well as people. The idea of change is so intolerable, that we will often never make a change until the pain of staying as we are consumes us.
We are not making nearly as large a journey physically – rarely does God’s call in most people’s life send them far from their home – yet we are often just as fearful of making a change. We know who we are now, we have created bounds to our individual selves and established just the right amount of walls around ourselves to make us feel comfortable. When God comes knocking at the door, asking us to open it so that God may enter in – we know that a renovation will follow that entry. When God enters the space, and when God starts making changes, then suddenly we lose our sense of self-ownership, we let ourselves be reshaped into something different – and even if that different self is better… Do we really want to find ourselves changed?
Moses would climb the mountain, but there’s always an implication that he wanted something else in his own life. When he brings the Word of God to the people, he describes it as being, “close to them,” as if him going up the mountain wasn’t necessary.[1] Had the people been truly looking for God, they might have found him, but instead they sent Moses, “to Heaven, that [he] might bring it down for them.” The journey was reluctant, it seems, on Moses part, but the results were obvious and beatific.
Coming off the mountain, from meeting Christ face to face, he could not help but be transformed. His face shone out with rays of light, a reflection of the glory he had been present with up on Sinai’s heights. The transformation was temporary, he needed to return to the mountaintop for it to return to his face, but this outward sign reflected an inward change as well. Every meeting with God shaped Moses to be more like the God he was beholding, and to behold the Lord is to take part in our life’s truest purpose – to know, and to be transformed by, our God.
How do we behold God? Where can we find God in our daily lives? As Moses said long ago, “[The word of God,] is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” The scriptures are before us, this table is set so that we may encounter Christ in the moment of his sacrifice on our behalf, and the Spirit rests in your heart to guide you day after day. We can behold God, we can behold our Lord, and we can walk away from seeing God, transformed fully by the experience. We cannot cover our faces to hide from God’s light, we cannot suppress that light by locking away in a place of worship. It must be allowed to shine fully, as it did at the Mount of Transfiguration and at Sinai, that all the world may be changed by it.
Firstly, it must change us, and firstly we must allow ourselves to see God, and to have God see us. The wonders that follow, the change we allow to happen in our hearts, that is all a consequence of that first step. Look upon God, be transformed, may it be so. – Amen.
[1] Deuteronomy 30
Teach us to Number our Days 