A Glory like no other

Transfiguration Sunday March 2, 2019 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Year C A Glory like no other Children’s time…….. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. Object: A veil or very fine piece of netting. Good morning, boys and girls. What do you like most about Jesus and the things that he taught? (Let them answer.) How many of you love Jesus and wish that he were with you right now? (Let them answer.) Some people say that they don't understand Jesus or that they can't find him anywhere. They say that Jesus is like a person hiding behind a veil. (Put your own face behind the veil or netting.) It is kind of hard to know who a person is if they wear a veil. Don't you think that a veil is a good disguise? (Let them answer.) If everyone wore a veil, it would be very hard to tell who they are. We would have to guess if it was you or one of your friends. We would never be sure who anyone was. But that isn't true. At least it is not true for people like you and me. God is not hiding from us. As a matter of fact, God is always asking us to study and learn more about him. He wants us to know him as well as we can. He sent Jesus to tell us about him and Jesus taught other men to be his disciples so that they could teach us. God tells us to pray and talk over our problems and our joys with him. God tells us to come to church where we can meet other Christians who know about him and who want to share what they know with us. God doesn't hide from us, but instead, he does everything that he can to help us know him better. But some people like to think that God is wearing a veil. They like to think that God is hiding from them so that they don't have to live the way God teaches us to be. They think if they keep telling everyone that God is hiding, everyone will soon believe it and then everyone will be like them. The bad people in this world always like to pretend that they do not know what is right and what is wrong. That way, it doesn't make any difference what they do. They like to think that God is hiding. But you and I know differently. God is not behind a veil or a screen. He tells us something about himself every day and he wants us to learn what he tells us. Don't let other people kid you and tell you that God is hiding. God is not hiding and the only people who are being kidded are the people who tell you stories like that. God is happy that you know him, and he only wants you to know him better. 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Common English Bible (CEB) 12 So, since we have such a hope, we act with great confidence. 13 We aren’t like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the Israelites couldn’t watch the end of what was fading away. 14 But their minds were closed. Right up to the present day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. The veil is not removed because it is taken away by Christ. 15 Even today, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But whenever someone turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit is, there is freedom. 18 All of us are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord as if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 4 This is why we don’t get discouraged, given that we received this ministry in the same way that we received God’s mercy. 2 Instead, we reject secrecy and shameful actions. We don’t use deception, and we don’t tamper with God’s word. Instead, we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God by the public announcement of the truth. Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible The question that seems to be on everyone’s mind recently, is what happened at General Conference last week. I have tried to be very careful in answering that question, because in a lot of ways, it all depends on your perspective. Every four years, delegates from all over the united Methodist Church gather to make decisions about the church. In 2016, they called for a special general conference just to discuss the churches stance on sexuality. So last week, they gathered and discussed two different plans on how the church would be structured, and what the official stance on sexuality would be. Presently, according to the 2016 Book of Discipline, the book says that homosexuality is not in keeping with Christian teachings. That means that the united Methodist church does not recognize homosexual marriage, and that those who openly claim that lifestyle cannot be ordained. There are many people in our churches, who want to be recognized as Christian. So the bishops came up with a plan to give each church and each annual conference a chance to decide for themselves if they could change the official stance or not. And even if there were different opinions, we would still be one united Methodist church. Another plan was presented – called the traditional plan which would leave the language as it is, and put sanctions on pastors and bishops who disobeyed. As the delegates gathered for three days, the first day they voted to prioritize which proposals were most important to talk about, the next day they discussed and perfected the plans and the final day they took an official vote. The traditional plan was passed and the one church plan was defeated. There were a few other plans discussed to allow churches to leave the denomination and keep property, and for pastors to keep their pension. The whole conference had to end at 6:30 pm because we had to be out of the conventional center. So the final vote was taken at 5:30, and once the traditional plan passed, it was referred to the judicial council to see if the plan even fits in with our consitition. So the easy answer to what happened, is nothing, we wont know until we get a ruling in late april. The longer answer is that it seems that each person took away from the proceedings what they were looking for. Those who were conservative were happy with the vote, but they were planning to leave the denomination anyway. The liberals took the vote personal and felt that the church doesn’t love them and they started to protest. And now, people are in their feelings, and asking what it next for our denomination. Many pastors and bishops have made statements about next steps. The president of the council of bishops reminded us of what our bishop said before the conference even started. That on February 28th – we will still be the united Methodist Church, and we are still called to serve God and to be in mission to the world in order to transform the world into a better place to live. I felt that the message of 2 corinthians was an important message for us to think about on this transfigurations Sunday. In it, Paul makes two very important points. First he says that our understanding of God is like wearing a veil, we cant see things very clearly. In order to understand the ways of God all we have is our perception, and all of our perceptions are limited and flawed. But Paul goes on the talk about the old covenant and the new covenant. For many of us, that is the difference between the covenant of the jews and the covenant of the Christians. The covenant of the jews still stands and is alive and well, we call it the old testament. It talks about the laws of God, of obeying the laws, and keeping the original understanding of God. Whereas we understand the new covenant, to be the new testament, where we learn about Jesus. Paul says that the new covenant is like taking the veil off and seeing God clearly. And yet we know that God still loves both groups of each covenant. I think that is an important lesson for united Methodist today as well. It seems that all general conference did was highlight our differences. It seems that each person left more convinced that they were right and the other side was wrong. I am often hesitant to say what happened at general conference, because I am not on either side. I see the point of both sides. My personal concern is more for the unity of the church, of the church being able to live together. Even though each have a different understanding of God. All throughout religious history, in every generation the understanding of God changes. And the tension between the old and the new becomes unbearable. Very early in our biblical history, God changed God’s name from el to jah, then the tension between the old testament and the new testament. Today we live in a world that is changing, and its attitudes on sexuality are changing too. Today, most states have allowed same sex marriage. Today if you fill out a form you can chose male, female, or nonbinary. And more and more people are choosing nonbinary. Many parents have went from allowing their boys to play with dolls, to saying that they are not going to raise their child as a boy or girl – they will let them choose who they are when they are an adult. Even here, as I teach the parenting class – one of the first lessons points out in Genesis,that God created us male and female. But our youth today don’t want to identify as either. With all of these changes, in the next generation or two I think this religious discussion on sexuality will become a moot point. Yet we will still be the Methodist church in some form or another. My prayer is that as the church, we spend less time attacking one another, and more time interacting with our changing culture. God never stays the same god is always changing. I think that it is important as our young people are redefining identity, they the church be a part of that conversation. So does the church follow God or does God follow the church? That is the point of this whole debate. But I felt that 2 Corinthians gives an important message in times like these. Since we have such a hope, we act great confidence. We don’t get discouraged. We can hold our heads up high and be United Methodist – There is nothing wrong with the discussion that our church is struggling with. And God will win in the end. A God that stands with all people, whatever they believe and whatever they feel. But as we enter into the future, we can enter it with hope and confidence – to serve, to be in mission and to believe in God. Amen. Additional illustrations……. Sermon Opener - Face to Face - 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 The 2010 drama film “The Social Network” portrayed many interesting features of Mark Zuckerberg’s development of his online creation. But they missed a big one: the name he chose for his baby --“Facebook.” Let’s face it: humans are obsessed with the unique, defining nature of our faces. The arrangement of our eyes, nose, mouth, chin, cheeks, forehead, never ceases to amaze and fascinate us. More than 5000 distinguishable facial expressions have been identified, and that is probably just a start on the human face. The 18th century German satirist Georg Lichtenberg called the human face “the most entertaining surface on earth.” How could we possibly resist pursuing and endlessly perusing an online site called “Facebook?” We recognize friends — and enemies — by their face. Bank robbers wear masks to hide their faces, knowing full well that, no matter how clear the pictures of their bodies might be, without a full view of their face, they cannot be accurately identified. When the Protestant Reformers came across images of the saints and the Virgin Mary, they defaced them on paintings and had their faces gouged out of carvings and sculptures. Babies look at faces — learning how to put the pieces together and how to recognize and trust the familiar, and reject and be fearful of the unfamiliar. It is in our human DNA to look into the face of others for critical, life-preserving, information. “We find ourselves in the faces of others” says Siri Hustvedt in her novel The Summer Without Men (2011). We become human through our relationships with others. In short, long before “virtual life,” human beings were walking, talking “Facebooks.” Our language reflects this fixation. We speak of taking things at “face value,” or of doing an “about face,” or of “facing off” against opponents. We “face the music,” make “face time,” and when dishonored we “lose face.” “Face cards” carry the most value and to stand “face-to-face” with another signifies being in the most valued of positions. One of the most advanced new computer identification techniques is the science of “facial recognition” — computer programs that can scan and identify individual faces without any other physical information. In the “transfiguration” scene described in this week’s gospel text (Luke 9:28ff), Jesus’ face shines…