Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday (February 22nd)

When a couple is first dating or going out, there is often a level of spontaneity involved. There is the excitement and the experience of the unknown that goes along with every date, every kiss and every conversation. There is a lot of give and take, pushing the boundaries and then pulling back in all parts of the relationship. A couple needs time to understand when to tell a joke, for instance, where to draw the line for intimacy and how to talk about hot-topic issues with one another. There are a lot of unspoken rules affecting a beginning relationship, places where you can take a wrong step and destroy a budding romance in one fell swoop.

And the difficult thing is that everyone has a different set of “ten commandments” that you have to figure out and live by in order to continue being in a relationship with them. Sometimes “thou shalt not kiss on the first date” or else you are a shallow pig. Sometimes, however, if you don’t at least try to steal a smooch, it shows that you are either a prude or else not interested. If you invite your new boyfriend to go see “Spamalot”, based on Monty Phython, you will either be seen as fun and eclectic or dumb and immature. Finally, in a new relationship, even going to church might be a “you shall” or “you shall not” depending on how interested a person is in religious activity.

Rules and unspoken customs help us understand one another, find common interests and, eventually, they might even help you find someone you’d like to spend the rest of your life with. But once a couple has become married, the unspoken laws that helped define the relationship as valuable can begin to steal joy from that relationship. Spouses can no longer see their mutual love behind the wall of expectations and demands. Kissing is no longer a fun activity but becomes a necessary expectation of marriage. Kids are no longer dreams but demanding little nightmares. And the little things that you loved so much about your boyfriend or girlfriend years ago might annoy you now . . . a lot!

The joy, the freedom and the happiness of a marriage gets hidden beneath a bunch of other junk. Important junk. Interesting junk. Maybe even necessary junk. But its stuff that keeps you from enjoying the love you were meant to enjoy.

The Christian life can get to be the same way after awhile. You can’t see the freedom that comes with Jesus Christ behind all the rules of Christendom. You forget about the happiness you used to find at a worship service and instead only notice all the hypocrisy of those around you or the failings of the church. And the joy that used to fill your heart when you prayed to God gets overshadowed by the despair of dreams not fulfilled, prayers not answered and pain built up. Jesus is still there but you can’t see him. What is it in your life that gets in the way of your seeing God’s glory?

In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he tries to get at this problem by relating it to a story these people would have known. The story of Moses and the ten commandments.

Do you know the story? After Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and out of slavery to Pharaoh, they traveled to a mountain where God led Moses up and blessed him with a special gift: the Law. Two stone tablets that held what we call the ten commandments today. But when Moses came down something was different. The story says that, “the skin of his face was shining so that everyone was afraid to come near him.” This wasn’t simply a problem with oily skin, God’s glory was reflecting off Moses’ face. So, Moses would put a veil over his face when he talked to the Israelites. It kept them from being scared, but it also hid God’s glorious reflection from their eyes. Only when Moses went in before the Lord would he take off the veil.

The apostle Paul compares this predicament in the life of Moses and the Israelites to what happens in our life and our relationship to God. When we hear the Law, God’s rules and expectations, what we are supposed to do and not supposed to do, “the veil is still there” Paul says. We can’t see past it. We get so wrapped up in following the law that we forget everything else, most notably Jesus. We can’t see God’s glory. We can’t see the end of the law.

Why is this? There are two temptations when hearing the Law. The first is pride and the second is despair. When you hear that you are supposed to love your neighbor as yourself you may give yourself a little pat on the back and say, “Hey! I already do that! Yea me!” That’s called pride. When you have decided that you are living a holy life, beyond the reach of sin and temptation, you can’t see Jesus any longer because there is an obstacle in the way—YOU! The veil covering your face is your own ego and pride and there just isn’t enough room for Jesus. It gets too crowded in your mind and your heart. When pride takes over there just isn’t a need for Jesus and his promise of salvation because you figure you’ve got the talent and strength to please God all on your own. Unfortunately, pride is usually just the first step on your way to the second temptation, despair.

Pride and despair are bosom buddies. It’s usually just a matter of time. As soon as you decide that you’ve got everything figured out life throws you a curveball and you find yourself on God’s bad side. You’ve gotta know that those who’ve made a killing in the stock market over the last several years are the most likeliest to be in a deep depression right at this moment. Not because they are worse off than anyone else in America, but because they have fallen the farthest. The same is true when we think our faith is running on all cylinders—often, rough roads appear that lead us on a collision course with suffering. One moment you are standing tall and the next you are lying flat on your backside.

Despair puts a veil over your face as well and hides Jesus from your sight just as deftly as pride does. In this case, the veil looks like money problems or marriage problems. Add to this the self-loathing for being so full of pride before and the veil over your eyes can look more like a steel curtain. Unmoveable and unbreakable. What is it in your life that hides God’s glory from your eyes?

When you hear the law, what you are supposed to do and what you are not supposed to do, you tend to forget all about Jesus and focus on what you’ve done or what you haven’t done. Only by looking at Jesus is this veil set aside, Paul says. Only when one turns to the Lord is the veil removed. Moses took the veil off of his face when he spoke to the Lord and saw his glory. In the same way, Jesus helps you see beyond the law and realize it has an end.

Here is one of my favorite Martin Luther quotes, “The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done. The Gospel says ‘believe this’ and everything is done already.” The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done. How many married couples can relate to THAT statement. Just insert your beloved’s name at the beginning, “Blank says ‘do this’ and then they say ‘do this’ and then they say ‘do this’ and on and on and on with no end in sight. It’s no different with God. There is always something else to do, someone else to help, some way better to feel, some time more to pray, some way to be a better person. The Law says ‘do this’ and it is never done! Never!

The Gospel, on the other hand, says ‘believe this’ and everything is done already. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you can believe that he has accomplished everything for you. When you look at Jesus Christ just remember those famous words of his, “It is finished.” That goes for every rule, every law, every expectation and every demand in the book. Even in the book called the Bible. Christ has finished it for you. The law can keep pitching the balls over and over again, non-stop, but Jesus is going to hit them out of the park for you every time—fastballs, sliders and even those pesky curveballs. It’s only when you start thinking it’s YOU who’s up to bat that you’ll find yourself striking out.

This doesn’t mean that you can pretend that the law doesn’t exist. But knowing about this veil gives you an important piece of information. One day, the law will be put out of its misery. One day, you’ll open your eyes and instead of seeing a veil you will see God face to face. Then the unaffordable house payments, the bad economy and your high blood pressure will be history and very unimportant. And every time you hear about Jesus, pray for his presence or trust in his name, you can take off that veil for a moment and realize that the glory of that day is in your future. You see, when you realize that the law has an end, you can finally start following it freely. You can allow the law to work fully, one-hundred percent, as frustrating and demanding as it can be because you know that it’s lifespan is limited to this world. It is temporal, not eternal. It is temporary, but Jesus Christ is forever.

For now, the law says, “Do this and it is never done.” But while you are running this race with all the demands and expectations God and people put on your life, keep your eyes on the prize. Not too far off in the distance is your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and he has made a promise for you. He’s finished the race already. He’s done it for you. And if you haven’t noticed, he’s also right here at your side, strengthening you to keep doing all that you are called to do. Strengthening you to keep running the race of life and faith. While you are sprinting ahead with all that God calls you to do today and this week, don’t forget that you are free to look away, at any time, take off the veil and look to Jesus in order to remember, that truly, all the work has already been done for you. In fact, it is finished. For now, enjoy the run until the day when you stand face to face before your God and there is nothing left to hide his glory from your eyes. Amen.