Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on February 19th 2012
A printable PDF can be found here
We’ve heard today in our service the accounts of Moses face shining with the glory of God as he delivered the 10 Commandments to Israel, and of the disciples Mountain Top experience of the Transfiguration. We will reflect on Moses experience. I’d like to focus on just one aspect of that account by asking the question “What can make our lives shine for God?”
The simple lesson that Moses brings us is that we can only shine for God by spending time with God, in God’s Presence, communing with God, sharing with God our hurts and frustrations and our triumphs and victories, taking on board the life lessons that God teaches us.
Every worship service can be a mountaintop experience. Every time we gather there can be a window through which God’s love blazes down upon us and calls us to reflect God’s love towards others.
What were the things that caused Moses to shine?
1. Moses life shined because he talked with God
How’s our prayer life? Seriously, how goes our prayer life? Where on our list of priorities is ‘talking with God’? Moses shined because he had carved out a place in his schedule for talking with God. We talk to each other, we talk about each other, we talk on the phone, we talk to ourselves, we talk in committees, we talk to our pets. Some of us talk to our plants.
I have to confess there have even been days when some mechanical object such as a car or a computer has broken down, that I’ve found myself talking to it, as though some verbal encouragement is actually going to be recognized by an inanimate object. Am I the only one to have had a television set that never seemed to respond properly without a slap to the side and a few well chosen words? “What’s wrong with that picture... now... slap.. well that fixed it!”
We are verbally active in all sorts of situations, but without coming into the presence of God to share our lives with God, then we are never going to shine in our relationship with God. Moses shined because he talked with God.
2. Moses life shined because he accepted God’s Word
Prayer is not just about talking to God. It’s also about listening to God. Moses, when he went back up the mountain had a lot to talk about. God had already given the commandments once, and angered by the people’s worship of the Golden Calf, Moses had smashed them to pieces. “That’ll fix ‘em”. Leaving aside the question as to how breaking something can fix something, it was clear that Moses had a lot of issues to deal with.
The people were faithless, the whole thing was falling apart. Even those closest to him had fallen from God’s ways. This was not a good day for Moses. Yet spending time in God’s presence changed things. God reaffirmed the word that had been spoken and Moses had a new set of the same commandments to take to the people.
Often it seems to work that way. God doesn’t always give us something new, but recalls us to what we had long forgotten. When we approach the scriptures with a prayerful attitude, the Bible becomes for us an album of messages to our hearts. God’s Word challenges and instructs us. Moses life shined because he accepted God’s Word.
3. Moses life shined because he had a Servants Heart
Moses had confidence because he knew who was in charge. He came down from the mountain, not in his own authority, but with the authority of God stamped upon him. When he spoke the people knew that the commandments he delivered to them were not things he had made up but had been given by God.
Peter, James and John, on the Mountain of Transfiguration, when they saw Jesus with Moses and Elijah, when they heard Him declared the ‘Son of God’ by a voice from the heavens, as they witnessed the glory of God, they were inspired to serve. Yes, they had questions. Yes, they would face difficulties. But what happened on the mountain left them forever changed for they knew they had been on holy ground.
If our lives are to shine for God then the beam needs to be directed towards others. Not for our own glory, but for the glory of God. As we develop a heart for service then we also gain the authority to participate in others lives in meaningful ways. Until we develop a relationship with people that doesn’t really happen.
Like Moses when he came down from the mountain, and like the disciples as they headed to the valley, for sure we will face difficulties and challenges. We will have to deal with the consequences of our own and others actions. We will have to deal with all that every day stuff common to all people. We are not promised an easy life but we are challenged to take up a cross.
A reoccurring theme throughout the New Testament is that Jesus came to be the light of the world. He told those who wished to follow Him to let their light shine. He let them know that the light He had placed in their hearts was not something to hide away and keep hidden but to be shone brightly into the darkness of this world.
To be a disciple is to be a living lighthouse for the love of Jesus Christ. A lighthouse that weathers the storms and guides others through the storms in their own lives. A lighthouse built on the solid rock of the promises of God. A lighthouse that is well maintained through participation in worship and study of God’s Word. Our calling is to be that lighthouse for others.
You remember the old chorus? “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!”
Moses came down from the mountain and He was shining. Jesus went up and the mountain and Moses and Elijah and He were shining. The disciples, Peter, James and John, came down from the mountain and they were starting to learn about shining. We need to leave this place with our light still shining!
So let me offer you again the three simple ingredients to a shining faith.
- Talk with God.
- Accept God’s Word.
- Be prepared to act upon what ever God calls us to do.
Such are things we can contemplate every time we worship. We worship the One who shone with an even greater glory than Moses, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died upon the Cross and was raised by God on the third day. The Living Lord who calls us by name and knows every circumstance of life through which we are traveling.
May His Spirit now be with us, speaking to us as we turn to prayer, inspiring us to serve and granting us the power to shine in those things to which we are called. AMEN.
Rev Adrian Pratt
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