“The Glow of God” by the Rev. Dr. Don Wahlig, March 2, 2025, Year C / Transfiguration - Exodus 34:29-35 · Psalm 99 · 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 · Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

THEME:  Shine the light of God’s love in Jesus Christ for others.
 

Have you ever seen a couple who are obviously and deeply in love? There is something about the way they look at each other. You can see it in their faces. It’s almost as if they have a certain glow. As it turns out, love really does make our faces glow, and there is biological science to prove it. When we are in love, we experience a surge in hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. By increasing the flow of blood, nutrients, and oxygen to our skin, these hormones improve our appearance. So, yes - love actually does make us glow.

Something similar happens to Moses when he converses with God. This is the fourth time that Moses has spoken with God up on Mt. Sinai. After each of the previous three visits, when he came back down, there was no change in his appearance. This time, however, there is. His face is shining – absolutely beaming. So, what was so different about this encounter? 

The difference is that on this trip, God has responded to the ultimate rebellion of his chosen people by revealing his true nature. In truth, the people have been rebelling ever since they left Egypt. From the moment they crossed the Red Sea they started complaining to Moses and doubting God. For 250 miles, all along the way down the Sinai Peninsula, the people continued to complain. And every step of the way, God and Moses came through. Finally, when they reached Mt. Sinai, God told Moses the time had come for God’s people to get to know him. But when God tries to speak to them directly, they are petrified. So, they tell Moses to speak with God on their behalf.

Moses does exactly that. On his third visit to the mountaintop, God gives Moses the law and the instructions for building the Temple once the people reach the Promised Land. But then the unthinkable happens.  Even as God is revealing to Moses what his life with his chosen people will be like, the people down below are building their own god. They are worshiping a golden calf. It is the ultimate irony, and ultimate idolatry. When Moses comes down and sees this, he breaks the stone tablets and chews out the people. As furious as he is, he knows that God is even more angry. So, he heads back up the mountain a fourth time to intercede on the people’s behalf. God is so angry that he proposes to wipe out the people and start over with Moses, the way he did with Noah.  But Moses intercedes on the people’s behalf and God relents.

But God is still angry. He says he will not go with the people to the Promised Land. Again, Moses intercedes, and again, God relents. Then Moses asks to see his glory. So, God reveals to Moses his true nature. As he passes in front of Moses, God declares, “Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.” 

Moses is overwhelmed.  Never has there been a god so gracious and merciful, so loyal and loving. Then God renews his covenant with Moses and this troublesome people. He inscribes a new set of tablets. He sends Moses back down the Mountain with a tangible sign of his love. The sign is right there on Moses’ face.  It is the glow of God. The meaning is clear for all to see. God’s grace and love for his people are profound, perpetual, and inexhaustible. As they draw closer to his Word, they draw closer to him, just as Moses has done.

The same is true of Jesus and his followers. As Peter, James, and John witness Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, they too experience the nearness and radiance of God. They come to understand that Jesus is the living Word of God. In him, they experience the fullness of God’s love and grace. And ever since, Christians the world over have come to experience the living Word of Christ, especially as we gather to worship. 

Martin Luther, the great Protestant pioneer, famously declared that when the Word is proclaimed aloud, preached, sung, and prayed, Jesus himself becomes present in a powerful way through the Holy Spirit. The question for you and me is do we experience that here? Do we perceive Jesus in a profound and powerful way in worship?  That question reminds me of a joke. After a young preacher delivered a long, boring sermon, his parishioners filed out of the church. At the door, most simply nodded, saying nothing.  At the end of the line was a thoughtful, long-time member, the grand dame of the church who always commented on the pastors’ sermons.  She shook his hand, and said, “Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God.”

“Really?” the pastor said. “Wow. Can you tell me why?”   “Well,” she said, “It reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding, and the Love of God because it endured forever!”

Needless to say, I hope your experience here is different! And when we receive communion in just a moment, I hope that you will experience God’s love in the presence of Jesus Christ in a way that is both real and powerful. When we do, the Holy Spirit lights us up in a tangible way. I think we have all experienced this. I experienced it right here in this very service last week. Whenever that happens, we need to remember Christ’s warning not to keep that light to ourselves. Christ tells us to share it with others. When we shine God’s love on them, they light up, too. We glow, and they glow with us.  This is the very heart of evangelism. We all know that, but we are not always so sure how to go about it. 

We can lean on the advice of our wise friend, the best-selling author and pastor Brian McLaren. Instead of a sales pitch, he says, sharing the Good News of Christ’s love means cultivating spiritual friendships. That means listening to others, actively trying to understand their hopes and joys, their struggles and their suffering. It means companionship – taking the time to walk with them in their day-to-day lives, sharing their burdens, and lightening them when we can.  It means an invitation – a warm welcome to consider the possibility of God’s love for them. And the challenge to experience it and embrace it in Jesus Christ, because he is real and in him, so is God’s love.

Unfortunately, most Christians are not willing to do this. A recent survey found that 56% of Christians believe that their faith is an entirely private matter. In the words of Jesus, they are hiding their light under a bushel. We need more Christians willing to invest themselves in building authentic friendships with non-believers, not for the sheer purpose of converting them, but out of genuine love and sincere friendship. That is what leads to true, lasting conversion – the conversion of their hearts and lives, and ours.

As we do, let’s remember that the light of God’s love is always most apparent and most effective in the darkness. There is an old story about a little boy whose family threw him an outdoor birthday party on a sunny summer afternoon. As a birthday gift, his parents gave him a flashlight. The boy eagerly unwrapped it. He was immediately taken with it. He turned it on and went around the whole yard shining it on every tree, bush, bird, and squirrel. Nothing seemed to happen. He tried again, but still nothing seemed to get any brighter. Finally, the boy said to his father, “Dad, this flashlight doesn’t work.” The father just smiled and said, “Son, it works, but you only notice it working when it’s dark.”

Friends, that is how God’s love is. It is most apparent where it is needed most: in the darkness. Lord knows there is plenty of that in this world.  Where is the darkness in your life? Maybe the darkness is where you work.  If so,  remember, you are not there by coincidence. God put you in that job and in that workplace for a reason. That reason is not just to earn a living. God put you there to shine the light of his love on others who work with you.

The same is true where we volunteer, where we shop, or anywhere else we go in our community. 

It is true in our public lives, and it is true in our personal lives. All of us have friends and family who are living in darkness. They, too, need us to shine the light of God’s love on them to point the way to Christ who is God’s living Word, his love incarnate.

Friends, we know that Jesus is the light of the world.  The question is will we shine the light of his love on others?

May it be so.