Freedom Unveiled

Text:  2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2

Theme:  "Freedom Unveiled"

The Transfiguration of the Lord

February 10, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

¹² Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. ¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. ¹⁶ But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate^[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. ² Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

 

For countless people, today is just another midwinter Sunday.  It's a day of rest on the weekend before the work week gets underway.  It's a morning to sleep in, have a slow and leisurely breakfast, read the papers, walk the dogs,  play with the kids, surf the web, or watch TV.  For a lesser number of people, for those who follow the rhythm of the seasons -- and even the seasons of the church year, today is an important Sunday. 

 

It is the Transfiguration of the Lord -- the liturgical "bridge" between the time of Christmas and the time of Easter.  It is the Last Sunday after the Epiphany.  An epiphany of the Lord is a disclosure of His glory.  We saw it in the Christmas star, the voice from heaven and the descent of the dove at the Baptism of the Lord, and the turning of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana.  Now, in the Transfiguration, we hear of a big blast of glory as Jesus is transfigured on a mountaintop with Moses and Elijah of old.  Physically, Moses and Elijah had died long ago.  But then again, we remember that God is not the God of the dead but of the living. 

 

 

We are told that these pivotal characters in the Old Testament spoke with Jesus about his "exodus" that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.  The word "exodus" simply means "the way out".  But the question is:  the way out from what? 

 

For Moses and the Israelites long before Jesus, the way out was the exodus event where the God's children were set free from over four hundred years of slavery under the Egyptian pharaoh.  Through Moses, God told Pharaoh -- over and over again:  "Let my people go." But Pharaoh was a tough nut to crack, but crack he did.  And God's kids walked to their freedom from bondage, through the Red Sea, on dry land. 

 

But what of the Lord's exodus?  What way out was in store for Jesus?  In Luke 9:51, we learn that "As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem."  The adverb, "resolutely", more literally means that he "set his face" to go to Jerusalem.  To use language that we all understand, Jesus was focused "like a laser beam" on His upcoming passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. 

 

The forces of bondage and the spirit of slavery in the world were out to get Jesus from the start.   King Herod tried to kill the infant King of the Jews.  Even the magi must have sensed intuitively that Jesus would die because one of the gifts they brought was myrrh, a gum resin that was used for burial.  People in His own home town of Nazareth, as we learned last Sunday, tried to kill him.  How could this little lad who worked in his dad's carpenter shop become a dangerous subversive that had to be taken out? 

 

You know, we can talk about the exodus of the Israelites all those years ago, and we can thank God for it.  We can celebrate the exodus of the Lord Himself when, when He rose from the dead, He burst forth from the bondage of death.  "Death could not hold him," the Scriptures declare.

 

But my task -- in fact, our common task -- is to bring it closer to home.  So the question must be asked:  what about our exodus?  What do we need a way out from?  What is it that has us enslaved? 

 

Maybe it's the bondage of mental illness, or alcoholism, or chemical dependency.  Each day I drive by University Behavioral Health, just down the road from here, and I notice that the parking is always full.  There are less and less empty chairs at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and Narcotics Anonymous meetings in our own town.  More and more teenagers and early 20somethings fill those chairs. 

 

Or perhaps it's the crippling bondage of worry.  The elephant in America's living room is that people are worried sick about what the future will bring, so they turn in on themselves and they isolate.  That little "committee" in their brain goes into session, and they sketch out scenarios that are all doom and gloom.  They end up creating more problems for themselves.  Their minds are like bad neighborhoods:  it's not safe to go in into them alone.   One is reminded of the dictum of Mark Twain:  "In my life I've had many problems; most of them haven't happened."  Again, there are all kinds of slavery.  Maybe you're enslaved in a marriage or a relationship that can no longer function or that has become abusive. 

 

Advancing years and age presents its set of problems too.  People feel trapped in a body that can no longer function as it once did, and that has to be as frustrating as it gets. As matters get worse, they wonder whether there will be the resources -- both economic and human -- that can help them.  It seems we've done much to increase the quantity, or the length, of life, but we've not do so well at expanding the quality of life. 

 

More and more, people find themselves in a kind of cycle which sometimes becomes a vicious cycle.  They do the same things in life over and over again and expect a different result.  At some point in time, they've had enough and they create their own exodus, their own way out.  There's a manhunt going in California right now for a police officer who has done just that; he's taken matters into his own hands.  According to his rambling manifesto, even the system of redress for grievances has enslaved him. 

 

Then there's the bondage and slavery of what I call the default position.  It goes like this:  if there's a problem, I didn't cause it.  Here in the twenty first century, we've developed very shrewd and sophisticated mechanisms to point the finger of blame at the other guy.   Ever watch a congressional hearing on C-Span?  We like to think that our sidewalk is always clean while the garbage is on the other guy's side of the street.  Yet, it's hard to deny the dictum of Teddy Roosevelt:  "If you could kick the person in the pants who is responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month!"

 

Is there an exodus for us?  Is there a way out?  The good news for today is that the answer is yes.  For many folks -- if not, for every one of us at one point or another -- we know that exodus is out there; we know that freedom is to be had somewhere, but we just don't see it, or we see only bits and pieces of it.  It's like it is veiled from us -- like the face of Moses was veiled, as we heard in the reading.

 

Nevertheless, St. Paul declared to the Corinthian Christians:  Only in Christ is that veil taken away.  "Whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

 

You know, we Americans are big on freedom and liberty.  We claim, in our founding documents, that liberty is an unalienable right.  It can't be taken away from us.  But yet, we still, in the same breath, would say that we are so often enslaved by so many things -- almost to the point where we conclude that that right to liberty is no longer ours.

 

Today's readings from God Word fasten us to where real and lasting freedom and liberty begin:  with the Spirit of the Lord. 

 

The Spirit of the Lord is not going to get you to exchange one bondage for another.  The work of the Spirit is not to conform you but to transform you. When true freedom is unveiled, that is what starts to happen. 

 

Many people today see religion as NOTHING more than conformity to a set of rules.  Don 't buy that devilish lie for a minute.  Unveiled freedom, the kind the Spirit of the Lord brings, does not conform you.  It transforms you. 

 

As St. Paul says,  we have this hope and so we are very bold.  We have this ministry, and so we do not lose heart.  The Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of real freedom, transforms us each and every day, more and more, into the soft, gentle, rugged, strong, blessed, and saving image of Jesus.  "If the Son of man sets you free, you shall be free indeed!"  That's good news for the folks at University Behavioral Health; it's good news for the folks up the road and right here at First Presbyterian Church; it's good news for the whole world! 

 

Amen.