Bible reading
Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? …
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside … when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3. 7 - 18)
Meditation
After Moses has been in the presence of God on Mount Sinai to receive the Law, his face shone with the light of God; so much so, that he put a veil over his face whenever he was not speaking with the Israelites. The experience of being in the presence of God irradiated Moses in a way which meant that he reflected something of God’s light.
At Mount Sinai the Israelites, as a whole, had been given the chance to become a nation of priests enjoying the kind of intimate, direct relationship with God that Moses developed. Moses learnt to mirror God from his conversations and debates with God; so much so, that his face began to shine with the reflection of God’s glory. But the people of Israel never really learnt what God is like because they would not speak with him face to face. They kept him at arms-length by using Moses as their mediator and by trying to keep rules which they knew but didn’t fully understand. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3.18 that we have the opportunity to be like Moses, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. That transformation comes as we dialogue, debate, argue and converse with God.
Many of the great figures in the Bible seem to have viewed prayer as being more like a constant conversation with God than they did a scheduled time for making requests. Other people in the Bible who had these kinds of conversations with God include: Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, Job, Jeremiah, Jonah, Habakkuk, Jesus, and Paul. Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi, sees Abraham as being the starting point in scripture for this kind of dialogue between God and human beings and says that there begins with Abraham “a dialogue between Heaven and Earth which has not ceased in 4,000 years”. He calls it the dialogue in which God and Man find one another.
When we find God in this way that is when we, like Moses, with unveiled faces, will see the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, and will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another so that our faces begin to shine with the reflection of God’s glory.
Prayer
Great God, you said, ‘Let there be light,’ and light came into being. Your light is most clearly seen in Jesus, who is the light of the world. Enable each one of us, with unveiled faces, to see his glory as though reflected in a mirror, and be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
Great God, you said, ‘Let there be light,’ and light came into being. May our lives reflect your life and our faces shine with the light of Christ.
Like Moses may we enter into the dialogue in which God and human beings find one another. May we learn to dialogue, debate, argue and converse with you. With the poet-priest George Herbert, may we pray, ‘Ah my dear angry Lord, / Since thou dost love, yet strike; / Cast down, yet help afford; / Sure I will do the like. / I will complain, yet praise; / I will bewail, approve: / And all my sour-sweet days / I will lament, and love.’
Great God, you said, ‘Let there be light,’ and light came into being. May our lives reflect your life and our faces shine with the light of Christ.
We recognise that much of life in the city is struggle: the struggle to keep the children from crime; the struggle to make the money last the week; the struggle to find energy after a heavy day at work; the struggle to keep the house decent; the struggle to find quiet space in overcrowded rooms. And especially, the struggle to find space to be conscious of your presence: energy to live out your loving forgiveness. Yet somehow your blessing is discovered in the struggle, just as Jacob wrestled and struggled with you. And although he was left with a limp, your deeper blessing never left him. Lord, we pray for our friends and neighbours that they may know your blessing in this struggle of living and their faces shine as a result.
Great God, you said, ‘Let there be light,’ and light came into being. May our lives reflect your life and our faces shine with the light of Christ.
Blessing
Seeing God’s glory, dialoguing, debating, arguing and conversing with God, blessing in struggle, faces shining with God’s light. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.
Van Morrison - In The Garden.
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