UVEILED FACES

Through the grace of Jesus Christ we are freed to live joyfully and abundantly in God’s merciful love. Is that how we live? Or, do we seek to veil ourselves in concern over what others think about us, fearful of appearing foolish? Do we seek to veil ourselves in the weight of past sins, fearful that God has not, or cannot forgive us? Do we veil ourselves in feelings of insecurity, envious of others who seem more secure in their faith than we do in our own? Do we veil ourselves in a curtain of self-interest, consumed by our personal thoughts and feelings, unwilling and unable to make room in our lives for anything that does not focus on us and our needs.

In this text before us this morning we are presented with an encounter between God and humanity in which the people who experienced it were forever changed by the experience. Not unlike the disciples watching Jesus’ luminescent figure speaking with Moses and Elijah, each one of us here this morning has experienced God’ grace and love. I say that with confidence, because otherwise you would not be here.

At some point in your life you experienced God’s loving grace extended to you personally and your life was forever changed by it. But then that moment passed. The question is; Do our thoughts, our words, and our actions, still reflect the joy we felt in that encounter with God?

There are of course the big dramatic moments of divine grace. For example, think about the time you first realized that God loved YOU! Our fundamentalist brothers and sisters in Christ call this experience “being born again.” Maybe it happened to you when you were an adult. Maybe it happened to you as a teenager when you went through the process of confirmation. Maybe it happened while you were a small child. In any case, at some point, every Christian comes to realize that he or she is personally loved by God. I am not talking about God’s love in general. I am talking about the realization that God loves you individually and personally.

Such a moment as that is a moment of grace. In those moments, our faces and our lives become unveiled. In those moments we have bright shiny faces. Faces which reflect the glory of God for the world to see.

Then there are also the less dramatic, yet no less important, moments in life when we know God is present. When a friendship begins with someone we least expect it from. When, after a horrible argument an apology comes unexpectedly and a relationship is restored. Or, when you find yourself giving to others without expecting anything in return; when these things happen to us in life, they are also moments of grace. They are moments when God’s presence is strong in our lives and we feel renewed, refreshed, and revitalized.

Then, as these special moments (big or little) pass, we easily settle into the daily routine of life again. We become absorbed in the routine tasks of living. Going to work/ Cleaning the house. Doing the laundry/ Shuttling the children to and from school. Paying the bills/ Going to the doctor. Going to the grocery store.

The truth is that once the special moment has passed, once we come down off the “mountain top” or the hill top and become absorbed in our daily routines it is easy for us to again veil ourselves in our sinfulness; to be shrouded in our sinfulness.

Through our faith in Jesus Christ we are being transformed, day by day! As we trust in Jesus Christ we are being renewed and refreshed. As we trust in Jesus Christ we see that God is not so much interested in seeing us follow a set of rules as God is interested in being in relationship with us - day in and day out. God’s voice told Peter, James, and John, to listen to Jesus. That is to say to follow him. To be in a relationship with him!

In response to the transfiguration event in which they clearly saw Jesus’ divine nature, Peter offered to build a monument to the moment. Yet what God really wanted was an on going relationship with the three disciples. God also wants an on going relationship with you.

God is not interested in an edifice of obedience stuck in this very moment. In the transfiguration event everything is dynamic; constantly moving. The divine cloud moves quickly on. So are our lives of faith; dynamic and growing. We are called to be dynamic in our obedience as well.

We tend to see our ability to obey the rules as the precondition necessary for a relationship with God. This understanding is exactly the opposite of what scripture reveals. In scripture, obedience to God is a response to grace, not its precondition. In the transfiguration event, God revealed Jesus’ divine nature to Peter, James, and John first. Then, he commanded them to “listen”, to obey.

So often we criticize ourselves for being judgmental, for being immoral, for being this or being that, and then we feel God cannot or will not grant us forgiveness. We so often cling to sin. Yet as we repent from our sin, whatever it may be, we have already received God’s grace in Jesus Christ! The only real question is whether we are willing to take off the veil of sinfulness which hides our bright shiny redeemed faces? Are we willing to trust that God has given us new life?

Basically, the challenge we face is one of trust. It may be true that most of us have not experienced a dramatic “transfiguration” style revelation of God’s presence. However, it is also just as true that each of us has experienced serial moments of grace that are more hill top than mountain top yet they are moments when we felt renewed, refreshed, revitalized, by God’s presence in our lives. We are called, then, to trust that God is with us not only during those mountain top and hill top experiences of life, but also when we descend to the flat plains where most of life is lived.

It is, then, our challenge as disciples of Jesus Christ to carry with us those feelings of renewal and refreshment we receive during those special moments as we carry out the routines of our lives. It is our challenge to live with our veils of sin lifted from our faces.

For example, when we are in the heat of an argument, let us remember to unveil our face and see the other as a child of God, someone that Jesus Christ found so valuable that he died for that person.

Or, when we find ourselves unfulfilled and our lives apparently without meaning, let us remove the veil of self-reliant individualism and remember that God created us and will someday call us home. Every life that God creates is intended to live in community with God and therefore has meaning.

Or, when we find ourselves discouraged about our failure to live up to the promises we have made to God and to each other, let us remove the veil of perfectionism and remember that we are human beings and we make mistakes, and that God loves us and forgives us no matter how bumbling and fumbling we may be.

Let us then live as people of faith. Let us live boldly in the sure and certain hope of God’s amazing grace. Let us be courageous and live with our veils removed, and our faces shining in the sure and certain hope that we are God’s children.

In Jesus Christ, God loves us, forgives us, and frees us from the veils of human sinfulness. Are we living it? AMEN.