A New Catechism...A New What Now?

For the last year, we have included the Heidelberg Catechism as part of our Worship Program.  It and daily lectionary readings formed a portion of our program for ongoing, daily consideration of matters of worship and faith.  With the beginning of Lent, we closed out the last Lord's Days of the Heidelberg Catechism so we could introduce something new.

A Catechism is more of a teaching format than anything else.  The material is set up as a series of questions and answers for those who are studying the work.  In the Book of Confessions, there are three catechisms.  This includes the Heidelberg, which I grew up with, as well as the Westminster Longer and Shorter Catechisms.  All three were written during the Reformation.

Using that question and answer format, for the Lenten Season, we are going to consider questions of more immediate relevance to the church and its function.  This first week will be questions and answers about why we go to church on Sunday.  We will post them to this blog early next week. 

From here, we are gong to consider what goes into a worship service and, more basically, what is it even to worship God?  Questions and comments are always welcome, in fact, they are encouraged.  This is very true for this catechismal form because, unlike those included in the Book of Confessions, there is not a gathering of experts to wrestle with the questions, but only one, very fallible pastor. So be inquisitive, be gentle, and be ever learning more about our joyful faith in Jesus Christ.

When Jesus Was Called to Offer the First Fruits of His Ministry To The Devil

These are the passages for Sunday's worship.  One is the command that the people bring the first fruits of the blessings of the Promised Land and offer them to God.  The second is the temptation of Jesus after the Spirit came upon him.

What if the Devil's coming to Jesus to tempt him was the Devil's way of usurping God's authority, seeking the First Fruits of Jesus' own ministry?

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
26:1 When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.  3 You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4 When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5 you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous.
6 When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7 we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9 and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God.  11 Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.

Luke 4:1-13
4:1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,
2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. 3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." 4 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

5 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  6 And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours."  8 Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' 11 and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"  12 Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

13 When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

“Removing the Veil of God’s Glory”

March 3, 2019    Sunday Sermon Texts and Manuscript

Exodus 34:29-35

Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

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. But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but 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.

Therefore, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.

          Exodus gives us the founding stories of the Hebrew people, what they would all know, like one of the Sunday School stories we learned growing up.  The Israelites came out of Egypt, freed from slavery after the ten plagues and the drowning of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, and they came to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God.  At this mountain, Moses first received the Ten Commandments.  Now he goes up daily to bring back the rules about building the tabernacle, the House of God.  Being in the presence of God transforms Moses.  His face, as Exodus puts it, “shone because he had been talking to God”.

          And it scared the BLEEP out of the people whenever he came down looking that way.  It kind of makes sense, Moses face looking like some kind of divine halogen bulb in a culture where the campfire is the brightest human-made light?  It was so scary that he would have to wear a veil among the people until such time as the reflection of the Lord’s glory finally faded away.  He would unveil again in the presence of God.

          This story carries with it the strength of legend.  If I was going to share this passage as a Children’s Time, it would go something like, “When God led the people out of slavery in Egypt, God led them to God’s Holy Mountain.  There, God warned the people not to touch the mountain, because all of it was Holy.  Only Moses was allowed to go up on the mountain.  Whenever Moses spoke to God, God’s glory was SO powerful that it reflected on Moses’ face!  He would come back to their camp and his face would be GLOWING!!  That was so terrifying that he would put on a veil when he was down in the camp so as not to scare the people with the power of God.  Can you imagine?  If you went up on the mountain with Moses, your faces would be glowing with God’s glory when you came down too….”

          Paul uses this story in our passage from Corinthians.  His church folks there would be drawn from the synagogue, the Jewish folks who have come to believe in Jesus and the Gentiles who, while not converting to Judaism because Judaism doesn’t do conversion the way we Christians think about it, were deeply into the Jewish faith and active at the synagogue, they would have known this story as well.    

          Paul wants to take this familiar story and move forward with it, move into how it has been changed in the light of Jesus.  

          The veil that lay across Moses’ face, separating the people from the glory of God, becomes a metaphor for Paul.  The people did not want to look upon the glory of God, Paul argues, they hardened their minds, an expression used to mean they got stubborn about obeying God.  This expression is used a lot because the people were stubborn, a lot.

          The glory of God was right there, and they were not embracing it.  They kept doing their own thing.  The prime example is a few chapters before.  Moses was up getting the Ten Commandments, the most important chunk of the law.  He was up on the Mountain of God for too long so the people demanded that his brother Aaron, his second in command, make for them a Golden Calf as an idol to worship.  The people hardened their minds right there at the base of God’s mountain and worshipped this god of their own making right in front of God’s face. It was a miracle they were not destroyed for it.  No wonder they could not face the glory of God reflected in the face of Moses.

          Paul takes it from there, “to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside” and “to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but 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…”

          In Christ the veil is set aside.  When one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed, because the Lord is Spirit and where the Spirit is, there is freedom-freedom from the veil.  What is the Spirit?  It is the Holy Spirit, that which came down upon the church at Pentecost.  And now they see the glory of the Lord as if it was reflected in a mirror. 

          Moses reflected the glory of God because he came face to face with God.  And it frightened the people so much, he masked it with a veil.  That was then.  Now, through Jesus, God, who is Spirit, who entered into us at the event of Pentecost, now reveals the glory of God to each and every one of us, like we were looking at God in a mirror.  And what is it that we see in the mirror?  We see ourselves.  So that glory of God is being reflected in each and every one of us.  

          As we look at that reflection of God’s glory in each of us, Paul continues, “we are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”  The glory that was reflected in the face of one man-and veiled to boot-has become the glory that, through Christ, shines through all of us.    

          “Therefore,” says Paul, “since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”  Because it seems the people in Corinth were losing heart.  He goes on to say, “We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's word…”  To press the metaphor, these things seem to be lowering the veil over the glory of God in the people of Corinth.  But Paul will not allow that to happen, so “…by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.” 

          We do not have the same circumstances here, yet this passage speaks to us also, now.  “Since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”  Let’s be real, who here hasn’t felt that a veil has been descending on the ministry of this church?  Who has not lost heart along the way?  What’s our attendance?  Under a dozen for how many weeks?  How long will the heat be out?  When will families return?  What are we going to do with empty rooms that look like they were just left?  When are we fixing the leaks?  If the veil has fallen now, how long before the curtain falls?

          But it isn’t our work that we are doing here.  It is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry.  If we have turned to the Lord, the veil has been removed, ONLY in Christ has it been set aside.  What does that mean?  It means we need to take a moment and look around. 

          I don’t mean we look around at the empty seats and lament.  I don’t mean we look around at our ‘strategies’ for doing church and see what tricks and patterns and procedures we might play with to increase our ‘market share’ or ‘public visibility.’  Rather, when we look around, do we look at one another and see the glory of God reflected in the face of our friends and fellow church goers?  If we were to take a moment and seriously consider the question, am I reflecting the glory of God?”  Because, according to the Confessions of the church, the chief and highest end of all humanity is to glorify God and to fully enjoy God forever. 

          That is the result of accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  That is the result of being ‘saved’.  That is the result of turning our lives over to Jesus Christ.  That is the result of the free gift of salvation that God gives to us by the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  That is why Jesus laid down the Lord’s Supper as a sacrament, a sacred command, the remembrance of His body broken for us, His blood shed for us, it is the journey to our salvation.  All of that is to break down the veil that masks the glory of God from being made real in each and every one of us.

          In Jesus, we may be five in number, we may be one hundred and five in number, we maybe a thousand and five in number, that is not what is important.  What is important, as Paul tells us, “it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”

Amen

The Glory of God? In Our Faces?

The bottom line call for tomorrow is for Christians to embrace that which we have been given.  We have been given the gift of the glory of God.  We have been given the gift of Jesus, God's only Son, the glory of a Son to his Father, the glory of a Daughter to her Mother, the glory of a Son to his Mother, the glory of a Daughter to her Father...as we desperately look for language as limited, created beings to begin to try and capture what it means to be God.  It's never enough.

What is the glory of God?  It is who Jesus is for us.  It is what Jesus has done for us.  We are sinful, fallen beings.  Our relationship to God has been broken in every person who has walked in God's creation.  We can point back to Adam and Eve and Original Sin as the origin, but each one of us carries our own guilt for transgressing the law of love...love God and love Neighbor.

We can be like mirrors of the glory of God.  We can reflect the love of Jesus, the love that led him to surrender his life on our behalf.  We can shine with meaning in a world desperate for it.  We can shine with purpose in a world that keeps adding more and more and more to our plate of experiences.

We need to be blown away to realize once again that "Jesus loves me....ME..."  And we need to absorb that joy into our souls so that we can reflect that love when we come face to face with others.  And God has a way of sending us those people who really need what we have to offer.  The glory of God that I reflect can become the glory of God they can reflect in turn.

Dropping the Veil, Full On Into the Mirror

     From the veil that Moses wore to prevent the people from fearing him when he came down from the mountain of God, the glory of God literally showing on his face, Paul takes us, as a body, to being full on reflections, as from a mirror, of the glory of God. 
     The church once asked the question, and I will paraphrase a little to update the language, "What is the chief and highest end of humanity?  The answer that was given, true at the time of its writing during the Reformation and true today:

     Humanity's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy God forever.

     As Moses stood in the presence of God and had the reflection of that glory literally shine out from his pores, we have come to the place of the church where the Lord, who IS Spirit, come down upon each and everyone of us from the outpouring of Pentecost.  From that blessed moment, the glory of God can and shall come through every person called by our Lord Jesus Christ.

     The question is...will we?

Can We Follow This Parting?

     Paul talks of the parting of the veil, of the revelation of the glory of God, coming through Christ, coming through the Lord who is the Spirit in the context of what is happening in Corinth.  We don't have a real sense of the problems, but Paul gives us a couple of clues.
     At the end of the passage, he talks about how he and his colleagues have renounced the shameful things that one hides; how they refuse to practice cunning or falsify the word of God.  If they are NOT doing that, the implication is that somebody IS, which is why Paul writes to them in the first place.
     Lets be frank, our own church is not so much suffering from these so much as a malaise of falling away.  Attendance is in the basement.  Our purpose is...open.  What is next?  Paul gives us a good insight into that, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.
    As we approach the Lenten Season, grabbing hold of God's mercy is the path to stay true to the glory we are called upon to reflect to the world around us.

Parting of the Veil

In the book of Exodus, when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving instructions from God, he was fully exposed to the glory of God.  And it affected him.  He would come down off the mountain, back into the camp of the Israelites, and his face would, quite literally, be lit up.  It was so powerful that Moses would put on a veil so as not to frighten his fellow Hebrews. 

This continued for some time as Moses would travel back and forth, receiving from God the plans for the tabernacle, the House of God among God's people.

Paul picks up on that in 2 Corinthians.  But his focus is not on the veil, but rather on the veil being removed.  Moses would hide the glory of God reflected in his face out of respect and toleration toward the rest of the Israelites in camp.  Paul talks about how, in Christ, the veil is removed and we stand before the world as mirrors, reflecting that same glory of God.

Except that glory is from the Lord who is Spirit.  That Spirit came upon us at Pentecost.  Step by step, we can be greater and greater revelations of the glory of God, when we give our lives over to Christ.  It is in that reflection that the ministries in which we engage will reach out and touch the world.

The passages for Sunday worship are Exodus 34: 29-35 and 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2.  I invite you to read ahead and reflect (pun intended) on what it means to demonstrate the glory of God in our lives.