Sunday 2nd March – Glow On – Pastor Adrian Kitson

When I was still in Primary school, there was news of a total eclipse of the sun about to happen. Teachers, parents and news bulletins on TV all talked about this rare moment coming. I remember all of us kids getting worried about what might happen.

On the days leading up to the big event, we were told that we must not look directly at the darkened sun because even though it looked less bright it would still make you go blind! (Bit scary!)

Well, most of us did what we were told and lived to enjoy good eyesight to this day. That day, there was the possibility of being hurt by looking at something too bright. That is the same idea Paul is working with here.

Paul recalls Moses’ glowing face as he came down from a holy communion with the Lord on Mt Sinai. Like a friend gently telling you that you have got a pimple on your nose, as Moses came down someone told Moses he was ‘glowing’ a little too much, and it was freaking people out. They made a veil for Moses to cover up the glory written all over his face.

Paul says we Christians carry this glory of God. But unlike Moses and his little veil, we Christians are free to glow, and in fact should.

‘Glow on’! he is saying.

Peter, James and John got to experience this glowing moment on that other mountain – Transfiguration hill somewhere in Judea.

Like the moon eclipsing the sun and diminishing its devastating effect on the eyes, so that same glory cloud often present on Mt Sinai all those years ago shields them from this glorious glowing moment when they got a first-hand a sneak peek at the full glory of Jesus as time seemed to stop and history overlapped with Jesus and Moses and Elijah having a holy chat in the cloud.

So, there is glowing glory everywhere today.

Paul goes on …

If the old out of date covenant relationship written on those two stone tablets of the Law of God came with a bright enough glory that Moses glowing face spooked the people out, how much more glorious is the ministry of the Holy Spirit we have received?

And

God was the One giving the Law and God is the one who has given us this good news that outshines everything.

It is this glorious good news of resurrection to new life that we carry in our bodies. It is written all over our faces. So, let it shine! Be bold! Go ahead and glow!’

How do we keep this message unveiled?

¹³ We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.

Paul’s work and our work is very different from Moses’ work. Paul speaks with great boldness, clear words and freedom to the conflicted Corinthians who have been disparaging and doubting his ministry. He is not like Moses who hid the glory of God. Paul is called to glow openly and unashamedly. And so, he does.

But this is what the Corinthians did not like about Paul.

NT Wright makes the comment that the Christians in Roman Corinth

I suspect not much has changed. Our world wants this dim Christianity; this sleepy message, this convoluted theory with big words and theoretical meaning. Not real life, real challenge, real and clear to-the-point words of Jesus.

Truth be told, so do I, often. Give me theories and debates and ideas and concepts. They don’t require anything much of the real me. They can stay in the world of just ideas and concepts. Don’t give me the Sermon on the Mount or those accounts of total transformation of everyday people or the suffering or the cross or the empty tomb and the call to repent and believe. They mean to make me change, to turn to God, to give up myself …

But to us distracted or weary or unsure Christians Pauls says, “No. I will not be direct and blunt and bold and clear. So should you all”. It is because we have this glorious future of resurrection in God’s new creation, no matter what, that we have to speak boldly and plainly.

And by the way, says Paul,

So we are free to glow Jesus love and hope.

That is how Christian ‘glow … unveiled.

But then Paul pushes the ‘veil’ thing a little further. There is a veil still.

Paul could say that his ministry was more glorious than Moses.

Paul had better glory than Moses because he met the Son of God himself on that Damascus Road. Moses only got some stone tablets.

But hang on. The whole point is that Moses did actually have God’s glory too – glory enough for him to have to cover his glowing face from the people.

So the problem here is not the glory of God and how it is revealed but to whom it is revealed. The problem is not God shining his glory, it is people not handling it.

There is still a veil over people.

Paul says that same veil still covers God’s law when it is read at the local synagogue.

The law of God would reveal God’s glory and point the people forward like a story searching for an ending in the coming of Jesus the Messiah, but those whose hearts are not ready for this are veiled.

Paul knows all about that veil. He lived with it. He is a Jewish man. There was a time when he could not see or even imagine that Jesus of Nazareth could be God’s Messiah for the world.

But, he tells his story in a couple places and his whole life’s work written in those letters to Christian coverts shows that that veil covering his heart was definitely lifted!

When a person repents, turn around and faces Jesus, the veil is not required. When we let the gospel come out of the big words, and ideas and theories and allow it to speak true and clear and plain and simple then we are face-to-face with God’s glory.

What will help us glow with this freedom and boldness in a world that only wants ideas and manageable truths? What will help us keep glowing God’s gospel so that the veil might be lifted for a friend or stranger?

More miracles? More spiritual experiences on mountains? More strategies for evangelism? No. The people around you now.

The way we be bold and free and positively glowing, without fear, comes as we look at each looking at Jesus’ glory. With ears on Jesus’ word and eyes on each other we see the Spirit working to heal, change, soften, and shape everyone.

Ahh. So that is what happens when Christians gather is so crucial and so good.

That’s why worship is not ‘in-house’ but the power for going out of the house!

I look at you as are looking at the glory of Jesus and I see the Spirit glowing from you.

In you I see the Sprit’s healing work, shaping work, calling work, softening work and vice-versa for you.

What we see together in Jesus and in each other is where boldness, clarity and heart come from in this Christian life.

Friends, ‘we have this ministry’ and we are all heart.

From the mountain tops to the valley floor, we glow glory – the light and life of Jesus the Crucified and Risen’s gifts of grace.

Peter James and John would eventually speak plainly of the glory they knew in Jesus.

Peter says:

We are here because they did not veil what they saw, heard and learned from Jesus in complex, hard, long tricky words. They simply told the story simply.

Don’t lose heart, friend. Keep it simple and let him shine.

Let’s help each other gaze into the glorious face of the Saviour and look at each other and see the Spirit at work healing, changing, shaping each other and then tell it simple.

It is how we ‘Glow on’!

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