That Glow We Know

 

That Glow We Know

 

Exodus 24:12-18
24:12 The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

24:13 So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God.

24:14 To the elders he had said, "Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them."

24:15 Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain.

24:16 The glory of the LORD settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud.

24:17 Now the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

24:18 Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

 

Here's a good “church word” for you—transfiguration. It’s Transfiguration Sunday in the liturgical year, a day that celebrates Jesus’ trip to the mountaintop where he winds up in the presence of Moses and Elijah, and begins to glow like a Coleman lantern. We are to surmise that this glow is what one takes on when they are in the ultimate “presence of God,” and I’m sure it didn’t hurt that two of the Bible’s greatest prophets showed up as Jesus’ escorts in this affair. For this gala affair, Jesus took the “human trinity” of Peter, James, and John from his little band, and are we at all surprised that, while all three of them witnessed the arrival of Moses and Elijah, and saw Jesus “transfigured” into an Identified Glowing Object (IGO), it was Peter who went bananas over the scene and wanted to “build tabernacles” for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, so they could all stay on the mountain and groove? Were it today, while all of the twelve would have common experiences with Jesus, hearing his teaching, being eyewitnesses to his miracles, and so forth, it would be Peter putting it on Facebook, we can be pretty sure.

 

Clearly, Moses was the “Jim Lovell” of the transfiguration event. Like the veteran astronaut (Gemini 7, 12 and Apollo 8) who became the steadying influence for an otherwise rookie crew during the Apollo 13 crisis, Moses had been to the mountaintop with God before. This was Jesus’ first transfiguration, and it was a first for Elijah, if we don’t count HIS spaceflight on the fiery chariot. We don’t know what they all talked about, but one wonders if the talk included Elijah giving the prophetic line to Jesus on what he was about to face, and Moses, offering wisdom and consolation, that Jesus was the culmination of the great plan for all of God’s people that the great prophet had received a hint of on Horeb a number of centuries earlier. The scriptures give us no hint of the content of that conversation, but the “glow” that overcomes Jesus is a sure sign that God affirmed it, and signed a pact with Jesus in light, that things were going to happen just as they were supposed to. Every one of us needs affirmation, from time to time, and it would appear that this “everyone” includes the Son of God. And God went all out, too—not just with the glow, but sending Moses and Elijah? Wow, these were two political and theological “heavy hitters!” 

 

Fire, clouds, and light are God’s “calling cards” in the Bible. Pillars of fire and clouds guided Israel through the wilderness after they were set free from Egypt. Clouds shrouded the “Mountain of God” (Horeb) when God was present, and today’s text says that God’s presence also appeared as a “devouring fire” there, in the sight of the people of Israel. We know that when Moses descends from the mountain his face glowed with a shine probably similar to the transfiguration of Jesus. Fire, clouds, and light. Fire purifies, clouds, while they may obscure things, also symbolize “change,” as in the weather, and light, well, numerous times the Bible tells us “God is light.”

 

The “glow” of God’s presence is not necessarily always borne of the literal giving off of light that could be measured with a light meter, but that “glow” on the faces of persons who have been in the presence of God is often quite real. I’ve seen it on the faces of people who were prayed for at an altar rail, on the face of some about to depart this life when they gaze beyond those gathered around their beds and see the face of their Savior, and on the tiny faces of infants as they are being baptized into the family of God. As I write this message, what some are calling a “revival” has broken out at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. Thousands have descended upon the chapel at that college, joining students who have been inside for days, experiencing the presence of God in an unusual way, not unlike Moses on Horeb or Jesus in the Transfiguration. Calling this event a “revival” harkens back to an earlier time in Christendom; maybe today it should be dubbed an ”in-breaking” or a “visitation of the Spirit.” Whatever we might call it, its genuineness and impact will be measured by time, changed lives, and maybe the “glow” that some have seen on the faces of those who there have “entered into God’s presence.” Even as a “revival” had occurred at Asbury College before, might it be that God chose that site as a “mountain” upon which to “visit” a couple different generations of God’s people? Seems to me, that is what is happening in these two “mountaintop” stories in the Bible. The place, itself, might not be important, but it BECOMES important when God says, “Meet you at the pole!”—or at Jumonville, or in the college chapel.

 

I’ll bet many of you who may read this message have had your own “mountaintop” experiences with God, be they with a group, or alone with God. And while there may not have been witnesses around to see a “glow” on our face, you remember a warmth deep inside yourself. And like the unusual nature of what is going on at Asbury, you knew it was different, you knew it was good, and you knew it was given to you by God. The reason the Bible talks about “the heart” so much is that these things FEEL like they are happening right there in our chest, don’t they? And if you haven’t yet had one of these experiences, your time will come—just be faithful and keep trusting God!

 

One of the dangers of “mountaintop” experiences is that we have a tendency to want to preserve them, or sustain them. That was Peter’s line on the Transfiguration event—“Let me build three tabernacles for you guys and we can just stay up here!” It is a danger of Asbury-type “revivals” or numinous experiences like that, too. They feel so good, and may exhibit such life-changing power that we just don’t want to leave them. Like old Polaroid photos, we want to coat them with that lacquer stuff to keep them forever. Or, we may fight to sustain them after “Elvis has left the building.” Let us never forget the blessing these kinds of unique experiences are, but let us also not forget that God is the host of them, and when God says they are over, they are over. We have no power over the fire, the cloud, or the light of them.

 

That’s not to say that the efficacy of them goes away. I believe a couple of books were written about the February, 1970 chapel revival at Asbury College, and I have known a number of friends who were students there at that time, and whose lives were permanently blessed and altered by that event. Who knows what will come of the lives touched by this “visitation”? I don’t know what to make of the number of “outsiders” who have felt compelled to drive long distances or hop a plane to “take in” the happening at Asbury? Is the Holy Spirit calling these people there? Are they coming out of their own spiritual curiosity or need? Or are they like the crowds that hovered around Jesus, knowing that something “big” was happening, and they just wanted to be in on it? Frankly, I wouldn’t fault them for any of these reasons, but I do hope they don’t get in the way of a “revival” that happened at a college chapel for a reason, and it was probably centered on the 1200 or so students at that institution. Still, even as Jesus could hone in on a woman with an issue of blood in a pressing crowd, or could hear the muffled cries of a lame or blind man in the midst of a mob, I’m sure God can assure that those who have the greatest needs will be touched. The one thing I can deduce from what I have read and heard of the Asbury happening is that this is that “glow we know.” While I am a 68-year-old, liberal/evangelical, ordained elder who has seen his share of weird religious “manifestations,” many of which were ginned up or artificially promoted—things that tend to make me quite skeptical of stuff like this—I DO believe that something wonderful is happening at Asbury, and again, the witness of time and “transfigured” lives will be the proof in that “pudding.” It SO just sounds like something God would be up to in these rapidly-changing times we live in—again, “that glow we know.” One caveat here—pay attention to the witness of the Spirit coming out of this over the weeks, months, and years ahead. Do NOT be surprised if you hear these younger “revivalers” speaking of being called to more diverse understandings of their faith, and to working for more inclusiveness and diversity in the Body of Christ. “Old Line” evangelicals won’t like this, but they should not turn their backs on it, as God may be doing a “new” thing in this “awakening.” 

 

Did you ever wonder what God DID with Moses for “forty days and forty nights” on the mountain? I hope he fed him, or Moses would have been a mess, coming down with those stone tablets. And what of the text telling us that “God wrote” the commandments on the tablets? The time frame of “forties” mentioned by the author is a typical biblical number. And ascribing the actual scribing of the tablets to God was probably a writer’s shortcut, as I just can’t wrap my head around God “sitting down” at a slab of stone and chiseling out the decalogue. Maybe that is why Moses was up there so long—he was “God’s secretary” to get these foundational laws down in writing? If we try to take the Bible too literally, we miss out on the opportunity to ask these interesting questions! We know the outcome, though—the ten commandments that became the base for all of the laws of Israel that guided God’s people in life, and their life with each other, and their life with God. And then Jesus, who said he came to “fulfill the law, not destroy it,” built upon those teachings for us all to live by them. Let us apply this same “outcomes based” evaluation to what God is doing on the latest “mountaintop” at Asbury University.

 

As the Asbury event winds down at some point, watch for emergence of testimonies, listen for the witnesses, expect transfigured lives, and keep an eye out for the “glow we know!” Amen!