The Rev. Canon Dana Colley Corsello: To God be the Glory!
The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:
The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6: 24-26
Good morning, friends. Today, we’re celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. And today, we’ll be talking about glory. Glory…the glory of God…to God be the glory… glory to you, glory to me… Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, glory to God in the highest.
Do you believe in the glory of God? I do! I believe in God’s glory and the glory of God’s revelation. I like to think that I see that glory everywhere in nature, in mountains and oceans and animals and trees, in the souls of other human beings, in you. But then I am charged with preaching about the Transfiguration—and I find myself fumbling for words when challenged to define ‘glory.’
Glory: Is it a substance? A medium? Some kind of glowing plasma through which God reveals and we humans perceive? Or is it a form of spiritual currency; something invisible but vital that we offer up to God, just as we offer up our singing voices and the material wealth we put in the collection plate? For me, “glory” is one of those abstract religious words we intuitively understand but have difficulty defining, even though we sing about it in our liturgy and profess it in our creed each week. Before I take a stab at that, let me review some history with you.
The Transfiguration was recognized in most parts of the Byzantine Empire by the 9th century but its observance was not fixed in the Western Church until Pope Calixtus III marked this day in 1457, as a thank offering for the Crusaders’ victory over the Islamic Turks at Belgrade. This is why we’re celebrating this feast day today. Normally, it falls during the week, but this year, the feast fell on a Sunday. What is interesting and even more unfortunate, August 6 also marks the infamous day in 1945 when the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
I would argue that Jesus would have nothing to do with either of these events as they exemplify humanity’s grotesque sin of death and destruction.
The transfiguration—when Jesus is revealed as God’s revealer, radiant with divine love, an incandescent mystery that the disciples witness with their own eyes—cannot commemorate a so-called victorious holy war. That’s bad theology. Those of us Christians who abide by the common lectionary must acknowledge the historical context of the 15th century, and in doing so, reject the glorification of war. The only thing our scripture tells us to glorify is God. Folks, I want you to settle in this morning because to understand the theology of Jesus’ transfiguration, we’ve got to do some serious bible study.
So let’s begin with our Exodus scripture this morning when Moses comes down from Mount Sinai with the replacement tablets of the 10 Commandments. Remember: Moses went apoplectic and destroyed the first version after he discovered the Israelites had gone behind his back and fashioned for themselves an idol of a golden calf when he was up on the mountain receiving the stone tablets. And to understand why Moses’ face glows after he comes down from his second meeting with God, which lasted no less than 40 days and 40 nights, one must know that Moses, with flagrant chutzpah, makes one of the most brazen and startling requests in the Bible. He asks to see God’s glory as proof that the Lord still considers the Hebrew people his chosen ones, and that the Lord will keep his covenant to guide them all the way home to the land of milk and honey.
Moses says to God, “Show me your glory, I pray” (Ex. 33: 18). In this monumental moment, God proclaims God’s own name, Yahweh: the eternal, omnipotent, the one and only Deity of Israel, and says, “You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live” (33:20). Yet, after Moses receives the second set of tablets, the Lord descends in a cloud and passes before Moses with this self-profession: ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty” (34:6-7a).
You see my friends, God’s glory is a physical manifestation of the divine that not only inspires awe but illuminates the character of Yahweh, the one the Israelites are to worship and praise with their entire being. The Hebrew word for glory, kabod, can be translated first as “weight” and second as “magnificence.” The Greek word doxa has the simple meaning of “heaviness” and was used to express the worth of a person in terms of majesty, brightness or honor. So think of God’s glory as awesome, indescribable, as eternal splendor, majestic, luminous love lit up like a celestial fire. Theologian, John Piper, surmised that Yahweh’s glory is “the perfect harmony of all of God’s attributes into one infinitely beautiful and personal being.”[i]
This brings us to the glory reflected on Moses’ face. For one thing, he doesn’t realize he’s beaming. For another, the veil he wears is not for himself, but to protect the people from being overcome by it. Do you remember that episode from the sitcom Friends when Ross over-bleaches his teeth and they glow like he’s holding a black light up to his mouth? It’s kind of like that. But here’s the thing: Moses doesn’t shine as a result of his own charisma; it is a reflected glory, like a full moon lit up by a sun that has been hidden by the turning of the Earth, and nightfall. It is a glow that comes from being in the presence of the holy one.
As C.S. Lewis postulated in a sermon entitled, “The Weight of Glory,” Moses’ face shone because he had found favor with God. The simplistic definition of glory is to be known, appreciated, and delighted in by God. Lewis wrote, “The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God…to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness…For glory means good report with God, acceptance by God, response, acknowledgment, and welcome into the heart of things. The door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last.” [ii] End quote.
Is this the same celestial approval that consumed Jesus on another mountaintop? Of course! Jesus’ glory renders Peter, James, and John terrified, blinking and confused as he pulsates like a fusion-reactor of divine light and power. And if that weren’t enough, the same theophanic cloud that spoke to Moses engulfs them too, a cloud that is more than weather; it is alive, it smells like lightning. This is Yahweh announcing his delight in his beloved son, imbuing him with glory. “This is my son! My chosen one!” the Lord exults. “Listen to him!” (Luke 9:35).
It has taken me many years of studying the transfiguration texts in the gospels to be able to understand and articulate a basic but important premise. The glorification the disciples witness with their own eyes confirms Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, the Messiah. But even more, it shows them there will be life beyond the cross and they will live it. There will be chaos and there will be blood. Jesus will be arrested, tortured, crucified, and resurrected. But when the disciples witness Jesus transfigured, with Moses and Elijah by his side, they see through; they see God’s hand and purpose in Jesus’ life and beyond. What I am trying to say is that they shouldn’t have been so surprised and frightened when Jesus was resurrected from dead and then ascended to be with God, not to mention the Holy Spirit’s wild rush on them at Pentecost. But they are mere mortals.
The point is, as the Rev. Marietta Anschutz wrote, when all is said and done, “The mountain was the way for God to prepare this human band of companions for the sacred journey, to offer something to hold onto when they descend into the crushing reality of the world below.”[iii]
Now this brings me to my final point, and this relates directly to you. Jesus said, “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:15-16). My friends, how is God’s glory reflected in your face, in your demeanor, in your body language? I know you have found favor in his sight. One of my favorite biblical words is “countenance”; I love the purposefulness of this word. It projects so much more than “facial expression,” doesn’t it? “Countenance” is ‘facial expression’ dressed up in its Sunday finest. To wit, “The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace” (Numbers 6:26).
God’s aura, God’s countenance can literally bless us and so can yours. So I ask you, have you ever taken stock of your own countenance? I think it would behoove everyone if we performed a regular “Countenance check” both individually and corporately. Is yours glum, indifferent, arrogant, sad, smug, off-putting, negative, and sorry? Or is your countenance welcoming, open, joyful, expectant, non-judgmental, gentle and loving? Does it depend on the day?
C.S. Lewis, in that same sermon preached about possessing this glory, “We are to shine as the sun, we are to be given the Morning Star. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”[iv] This is the weight of God’s glory—glory as beauty, splendor, delight—it can emanate from our hearts too and then be reflected in our countenance. Please know that I know you hurt and that every moment is not a happy one. I am not suggesting we live with plastic faces for mere show. No, just as for Moses, the gift of glory begins in close proximity to God. To be in the presence of Christ Jesus through prayer, praise and worship is the first step to a countenance adjustment. Just what you’re doing here today!
It’s really that simple. At any time, at any place, you can transfigure your countenance to reflect the glory of God. What a gift that is! To God be the glory! Amen.
[i] John Piper, “God Created Us for His Glory” Desiring God, July 27, 1980, https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/god-created-us-for-his-glory.
ii The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis, preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on June 8, 1942: published in THEOLOGY, November, 1941, and by the S.P.C.K, 1942
[iii] Maryetta Madeleine Anschutz, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 1: Advent through Transfiguration Sunday (2010 Westminster John Knox Press, 2010).
[iv] ii The Weight of Glory, by C.S. Lewis, preached originally as a sermon in the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on June 8, 1942: published in THEOLOGY, November, 1941, and by the S.P.C.K, 1942