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
to 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 Servant’s 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, were inspired to serve when they saw
Jesus with Moses and Elijah, when they heard Him declared the ‘Son of God’ by a voice from the heavens, and as
they witnessed the glory of God. 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.
