Bible Study Guide for Sunday, February 27, 2022

 

• Exodus 34:29-45
• Psalm 99
• 23:12-4:2
• Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)

 

The readings this week deal with the Transfiguration of Jesus and the shining face of Moses, and Paul’s contemplation of the latter in second Corinthians.  As I read them, the Old Testament and the gospel reading are about the interactions between the temporal and the Divine. Or rather how what is Holy baffles, confuses or frightens what is terrestrial. In the Old Testament reading Moses descends from Mt. Sinai with the two tablets of The Law, however his face is shining, and it frightens the Israelites, so that he puts a veil over his face when he is among the people. In the New Testament Moses appears yet again, alongside Jesus, only it is Christ whose face has changed and who is shining. However once again, the mortals who are on the outside of this interaction struggle and ultimately fail to understand what is happening.

So why does what is Holy confuse or frighten us, even if we are, like Peter, desperately eager for it?

Holiness is used to describe things set aside for God and consecrated to Him, but it also has connotations of being singular and of a sort of solid authenticity.  The flipside to this means that holiness is by its nature “other” not only in terms of the “in the world but not of it” cliché but what is holy is set apart to the point that it is almost unmediatable. Humans therefore have very little frame of reference for it when they encounter it.  Whenever Angel appear they always open with “Do not be afraid.” And when God asks most people to do something the most common response is backtalk. Moses himself tries to make his stutter into an excuse before the burning bush.

In these readings we see the two main reactions that mankind often has to the Sacred. In the case of the Israelites, it is fear, and wishing that it could be contained or go away. In the case of Peter is its abundant and deeply confused enthusiasm channeled in a useless direction. As Peter sees Jesus with Moses and Elijah, he immediately suggests that they make tents and hang out a while only for it to be immediately revealed that this was a momentary flash of Christs transcendent glory and not a chance to hang out with some very cool ghosts.

So, we cannot truly understand what is Holy, in its ineffability; yet we are as Christians called to be Holy. According to Paul we are not to be like Moses, we are not to veil our faces or our Godliness. I’m glad that Paul is so self-assured in this commendation, but I routinely fail at his. I deeply desire to be Holy and to be pure of heart, but I know that this will by necessity also be alienating and inherently misunderstood by my peers, my friends and my family.  And that thought absolutely terrifies me.  There are many aspects of my Christian life that I struggle deeply for and are central to my sense of self that I will almost always omit from conversations with my secular friends.  Maybe that is a spiritual failing unique to me, but I don’t think it is, I think many of us are more like Moses than Paul would like.  Though I hope and I pray that some day we may stand radiant in the glory of who God desires us to be and be fully understood and loved in His light and by those that surround us.  But for me that seems to be a long way off.

– Ben Watts

 

When have you encountered God’s will in your life and been entirely wrong about it?

What desires or attachments are keeping us from fully embracing God’s plan for us?

What in our Christian life are we afraid to bring to our secular life?

What in our secular life are we afraid to bring to the church or to God?