Transfiguration – Sunday 11th February

That word from Paul’s letter to the Christian in Corinth raised that issue of how I and we live with people who don’t know Jesus yet.

I often wonder what is happening to them. People I know Somehow, they can hear and see the good news of God’s hope and grace in our actions but can’t really ‘hear’ it and ‘see’ it as they just keep on living without any reference to the Jesus of the Bible and all his transforming gifts of grace at work in us.

This became apparent to me many times over in the effort to plant a church from scratch. We spent eight years church planting before coming to St Petri. I don’t know how many hours I put into relationships with non-believing people with the intention to live the good news among them. The hope was that they would see him in me and that the veil would be lifted and they would come to Jesus and find healing, life, forgiveness, and an end to ego and shame and confusion over who they are and what they are here for and etc.

Truth is, that veil seemed to stay in place a lot! Hardly any of them entered our orbit of Christian community in any form. A few did, and that was pure joy. Sometimes there was a slight moment of light, but the light would soon be covered again, and life would go on as normal.

This may be your experience too. I wish they could see. I pray that they one day will. So, what are we to do with this veil that seems to be over the things we say and do that bear witness to the light and love of Jesus?

We have some options.

1. Give up on the message; just don’t speak it anymore. Be kind but don’t say much.
2. Speak it more with more force! ‘Give it to them’! Don’t worry about trying to listen or understand, just tell!
3. Just blame them and leave them alone. Stick to church people or keep church talk for Sunday morning. The rest of the week, just talk about anything else.
4. Give up on the belief that anything can really change; that the veil can lift, and light can flood in with our words and actions bearing Jesus? Hunker down and keep this religion; this faith of mine private; one of many options; don’t impose, don’t challenge…..

Paul says none of these are the way to go. There is a better, more life-giving way to go, and it starts with God.

The work of transforming people is powered by God. We can’t control it or make it happen.

In the Small Catechism, we say that it is the Spirit who creates faith in the human heart. We confess,

In Philippians 2:13, Paul would surely agree.

So, God is powering the work of lifting that veil, but we are engaged in that work too.

So, what about those who do not or will not believe? Are they without the Spirit? Does God just leave them to muddle through on their own, spiritless, faithless and out of hope? Or even worse, do they suffer the fate of King Saul, being afflicted by an evil spirit? Paul seems to suggest just this.

Paul says the good news we carry is ‘veiled’ to some people.

There is a reason for this. If the good news God speaks and lives out through us is veiled — hidden, obscured, unknown — it is only veiled to those who have been blinded by the “god of this world.”

Strong term. Reference to ‘The Accuser’; the “Satan’, appears in the New Testament. He is called “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), and the “wisdom of this world” (1 Corinthians 3:19), and the “course of this world” which is laid out by a spirit that urges disobedience (Ephesians 2:2). Only here is Satan called the “god (theos) of this world.”

Sounds like that veil is not shifting!!

But how can that be? Is this gospel we live really that weak? Paul says, ‘No’, elsewhere

So what is Paul saying?

Paul is definitely saying the Accuser is always hammering people. Satan does not want your friends and family to ever get it. He loves to cover up, hide, twist and obscure any good news speaking and doing we may do so people are left in their pride, self-interest, sorrow, pain, disease, despair in the hope they will be destroyed by death.

But, thankfully, we are not left here.

The gospel is still alive because Jesus is still that shining light they saw up close on that mountain.

Peter, James and John got to see him unveiled fully! They were blown away by that….and terrified…. They saw his light and they heard what they are to do with it – ‘Listen to him”.

So, life with people who can’t hear Jesus begins with we ourselves listening to Jesus.

And then, Paul goes here. We speak anyway.

How do we live with veiled people? Listen to Jesus’ words and speak them in word and deed.

We do this with this moment of transfiguration in mind. The veil was lifted for a moment, and they truly saw.

We do this with the torn curtain in the ancient temple in mind. It was ripped open the day that death died.

The Light has shone, and you have seen him and heard him, in water and word, bread and wine, holy fellowship with other unveiled faces gathered in Jesus’ presence by the Spirit’s power.

So, we listen and we speak and we do. Sometimes the Sprit’s light is veiled for some and sometimes it gets through, and darkness is exposed, and love let in.

And here’s the really good news: This “veil” is no match for the light of God and the light of Christ. He will eventually outshine it all.

As Jesus says in the Gospels,

Friends, don’t lose heart or cave in by not speaking the truth of things from the Word to people around you.

I know this is not easy in our time.

But here it is clear that the doubts and the heart-ache we feel can go somewhere. It can go into our loving words and actions trusting that veils can lift, and light can stream in and transfigure people.

In fact, we ourselves can tell that story. We are already partly transfigured. We are risen people already with one foot in God’s new heaven and earth – only as in a dim mirror, yes, but one day clear as a bell.

We deal with the heartache or the anger or the frustration by keeping on listening and speaking and doing good news.

And we boldly live it this way because the veil can still lift: it has happened for you and it can for them because the Holy Spirit is powering all this.

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