"From Glory into Glory" February 10, 2013

At the start of worship the Baptismal Font was covered with a lace table cloth, inside which was filled with Dry Ice. When pouring Water from the pitcher at the start of worship, the font began to spoke and steam, and clouds of mist enveloped the Baptismal Font. Exodus 34: 29-35 Luke 9:28-43 On Tuesday of this week, February 5, 2013 the Reformed Churches, that is the Presbyterian, the Lutheran and the Reformed Church in America, met with representatives of the Vatican, and agreed to accept one another's Baptism. We are in a vastly different time than the church has known before. Where in earlier generations, we believed in the Enlightenment, that through knowledge, through logic and understanding we could know the Truth and derive The Right Answer; in the 21st Century we have come to realize that each of us, everyone, has their own glimpse of the truth, a slightly different reality and perspective. The question is whether we are headed into a new Dark Ages, where faith and the Church seem to disappear from reality, or whether we can listen and build on all we believe and know, mystic, archaeological, scientific, virtual and experiential, to go from glory into glory. So it is that in Bible Study, as one who has been to Seminary, I can explain what the scholars have concluded and know, as one who is ordained I can explain the orthodox understanding of the Church, but your interpretation, your experience as a believer, your story is perhaps just as valid as the most learned archaeologist, and in the juxtaposition of our relationships, we glimpse the degrees of glory. In a recent Bible Study, one person described that knowledge of God as the Great Creator and Judge, the Alpha and Omega, makes us as believers want to do right, challenges us to be on the side of the sheep rather than the goats. As quoted in the Proverbs: Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Fear of being wrong, fear of being judged and spending eternity in a place of weeping and the gnashing of teeth was for that individual's supreme motivator. Yet listening to their description, it occurred to me that throughout the first 20 years of my life and more, and the foundation of all I believe, I had not heard the judgement and wrath side, but only the love, the glory, the forgiveness and holiness of God. In imitation and response to that love, caring and empathy, compassion for others, had been an automatic way of life. Neither was wrong, for these two represent the duality of faith, the incarnation of one who is both fully divine and fully human. But perhaps throughout the Enlightenment we have tried so hard to demystify, to explain and interpret and make real, that the Church has emphasized the humanity of Christ, Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, at the expense of the mystery, the holiness, the glory of God. Reading these passages this morning, what strikes me is about the passage from the Exodus, is how the experience of God changed Moses. The story describes Moses had come down from 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai bearing the 10 Commandments our Covenant with God cast in stone for all time. And as he came down the Mountain, he encountered the people worshipping the Golden Calf of their own making. Moses smashed the idol along with the Stone Tablets, because they/we had violated the first several, that the Lord our God is One, against making an idol, having any other Gods, respecting and honoring the Name of God. Moses went back up the Mountain to plead for God's people, and when Moses comes down the mountain the second time bearing the stone tablets of the Covenant, emphasis is not on the Commandments. There is hardly any mention of what Moses was bringing to the people, but that the experience had changed him, had made his face shine. This one who had been the Liberator, Moses who had stood toe to toe with Pharaoh, Moses who had brought the 10 Plagues upon Egypt, Moses who had parted the Red Sea, Moses who had spoken with God at the Burning Bush, and Moses who received the 10 Commandments, serving both as Messenger of God and Giver of The Law to the People of Israel, had been changed by pleading the case of the people to God, by living in relationship with God. Description of “Moses' face shone, so he covered his face with a veil from the people”, is a spiritual experience, a moment of faith, of holiness and glory. On the Day of Graduation, I recall my father saying that if my mother had lived she would be so proud. I remember not another word from Graduation, for that was all I needed to receive. On our wedding day, we passed a long stem rose through the door, with the words “I love you.” I am exceedingly thankful that the days following the births of our children there were not a series of tragedies, because I could not cease smiling, at the wonder of the birth of a child. Over and over again throughout life, there are these moments out of time, in which your face shines, in which the glory of God is experienced beyond our ability to describe. A few weeks ago, a two year old was in worship beside their family. Standing on the pew as the church sang the opening hymn, the child saw people al around them. Once everyone had been seated, the two year old began peaking over the pew behind them to smile, then disappear behind the pew. Like an infection of joy, that toddler's smile spread across the people of God in worship, changing us from glory into glory. Luke is the only one of the Gospels to try to explain to us that what Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus was The EXODUS. Far more than his death, his departure, a get away, the Exodus had been the defining moment for the People of Israel. Before they were the Kingdom of David, before they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, the people of God had been known by The EXODUS. Who are we? We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, we cried out to God, and Almighty God heard our prayers and rescued us with an outstretched arm, parting the Red Sea, then crushing Pharaoh and his Chariots. What will define Jesus, is not the incarnation of his birth, not the several different miracles and parables that he taught, but the EXODUS, of opening a way of SALVATION for those who follow. It is natural, it is human, to want to share with others experiences which change our lives. The most basic purpose of religion, is the Routinization of Charisma, trying to capture an experience and make it available for others to experience in the same way, especially for the next generation. Simon Peter witnesses this glorious holy moment, and his first thought is how to preserve this, for others to know. But the point of faith, the essential difference between religion and experiences of faith is that religion is about preservation of the experience, routinization so coming back we can find this place again; where faith changes us. The beauty and power of what Luke reveals, is that rather than building booths atop the mountain to be able to come to recapture this experience, they came down the mountain and found a parent grieving over the circumstance of their child. The words of the parent, are like the words from heaven upon the mountain: “This is My Child. Pay attention to their needs.” What the disciples had seen was a child who was ill. A Child who was convulsed and the convulsions threw the child into fires. They had prayed for the circumstance, to no avail. Jesus prayed that the evil spirit would come out of him. How often, especially here in the church, we are elected to serve as Deacons or Elders, we go through Confirmation, we sing in the choir, we prepare the sacraments, we go through life, and all we do is pay attention to the circumstances. Instead of recognizing, none of us, no one has ever been immersed and emerged as fully developed in faith. We are changed by Degree, from Glory into Glory, from what we have known to what God is revealing. It is intriguing, that when Moses came down the mountain he had not needed to hide himself from God. But each time he had been in relationship with God, he then covered his face with veil, because his being in relationship with God frightened other people. They did not fully understand, and so were afraid. I think the greatest lost of the Reformation, was that we so separated from our Catholic Sisters and Brothers, that they claimed the Mystery of God, and we the understanding of God. The Catholic Church emphasized the Sacrament even at the exclusion of the Sermon; while the Protestant Churches emphasized the Sermon and our understanding, even at the exclusion of experiencing the Sacraments.