We trust what we can see and touch.  Very often to verify that something happened we will ask “did you see it?” “Did you hear it?”  On the Feast of the Transfiguration our readings Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Peter 1:13-21 and Luke 9:28-36

speak to seeing God’s face and living. 

In Exodus 32, Moses had asked God to see God’s face and Moses understood God to answer him saying, “you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.”  This was an understanding in Old Testament times.  Moses was only able to see God’s back.

Today’s readings invite us to see God’s face and live through Jesus Christ

I dare say we have experienced God in so many ways and seen so much of God’s character, that I do believe we have seen God’s face many times.  God is not a human being but we tend to give God human traits; so when we speak about seeing God’s face, we expect to see a physical face with ears, nose, eyes and mouth.  But God’s face is seen in God’s character.  

God reveals Godself in ways we can receive and understand. Thus, when we encounter God, our lives are changed. We experience a transfiguration, or transformation. 

Our readings tell us:

1. Seeing God Changes Us

2. Seeing God’s Glory Strengthens Our Faith

3. Seeing God’s Face Means Listening to Jesus

Seeing God changes us – In Exodus, Moses comes down Mount Sinai carrying the 10 commandments after spending forty days in God’s presence. Without realizing it, his face is shining. The people are afraid to come near him because they can see that something about him has changed as a result of him spending time with God. 

We are no different.  We become like the people with whom we spend the most time. If we spend our lives surrounded by anger and bitterness, those attitudes often rub off on us. But when we spend time with Christ in prayer, reading Scripture, worshipping, and participating in Holy Communion, His character begins to shape ours. We see God’s face and live. 

Sometimes we don’t even notice the change, but in time others see it.  Our demeanour is different; our attitude is different.   Life we understand is not about trying our best to look holy but about staying close to the Holy One.

Seeing God’s Glory Strengthens Our Faith

Luke tells us that Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain to pray. While He was praying, His appearance changed. His face shone with glory, His clothes became dazzling bright, and Moses and Elijah appeared speaking with Him about His coming death in Jerusalem.

The disciples were overwhelmed and ecstatic about the experience.  And we too are ecstatic when we can see God at work in our lives.  We treasure these moments when God’s presence feels especially near be it in a moving church service, or a time of answered prayer or just evidence of God’s providence. I had such an experience the other day and I cannot stop speaking about it.  We wish those moments could last forever.

Jesus had brought the disciples to the mountain to experience God on a different level and to prepare them, so that when he was arrested and crucified, they would hopefully be able to make sense of it, and understand that it meant more than they were seeing physically. 

Years later Peter writes about this event in today’s Epistle, 2 Peter 1:13-21. He says, “We had been eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter is here saying, “I know who Jesus is because I saw His glory. I saw the face of the divine in him” That experience sustained him through persecution, imprisonment, and eventually martyrdom.  We too should let these ‘aha’ moments with God sustain us – the times when we see God’s face. These sustain us in our low periods, when we doubt, when the way seems dark. 

Many of us can look back on moments when God answered a prayer, carried us through illness, provided when we thought there was no way, or gave us peace during grief. Those experiences become reminders of God’s faithfulness when life becomes difficult. It is an encounter with God. It is seeing God’s face and living. 

These experiences reminds us that what God has done once, God will do again. 

Seeing God’s Face Means Listening to Jesus.

On the mountain God said “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him.”

It is what we are called to do.  Earlier I spoke about experiencing God through worship, reading scripture and some thing that happened to us.  In all of these experiences, we heard God speaking. We listened and understood what God was doing. 

God did not tell the disciples to build monuments or remain on the mountain. God said listen to my son.  In Listening to Jesus Christ we must follow him. We must follow him through the difficulties of life – the cross, the vices, the sin we repeat constantly. The things each of us struggle with. The God who says listen to Jesus shows God’s face in these times and point us how to live.  So we are called and challenged to see God’s face and hear God’s voice in our daily lives by actively reflecting on where did we meet God today?

When we come to church, we receive God through the spiritual food in the Holy Eucharist where we are nourished with His grace.

We see God’s face in acts of love, mercy, forgiveness, and compassion.  We are transformed, transfigured by the goodness of God and are inspired to walk in the same way extending that goodness grace and mercy to others.  We are called to carry it into our homes, workplaces, schools, and communities. Like Moses, we are meant to reflect God’s glory—not with shining faces, but with lives that reveal Christ.

We live in a world where there is a lot of uncertainty, where the next step isn’t clear.  A world where everybody is looking for something, where everyone is looking for hope.

God calls us to reflect the brightness that Moses shone and Christ exhibited.  Like Moses, we must climb the mountain and spend the time to get the commandments.

Like Peter, James, and John, we must listen to Jesus.

Strengthened by God’s presence, we go into the valleys of everyday life to serve others.

Our Eucharist reminds us of this journey. We come into God’s presence. We behold Christ by faith. We are nourished by His grace and spiritual food. Then we are sent into the world to love and serve the Lord. May we never stop seeking God’s face. May we listen to God’s beloved Son.

And as we behold His glory day by day, may our lives reflect God’s light so that others, seeing Christ in us, may come to know God and live.  Amen.