“Love Frees”- Pastor Hines (10:30am) February 27, 2022

 

“Love Frees”- Pastor Hines (10:30am)

February 27, 2022

Moses worshipped on Mt. Sinai also called Mt. Horeb. It is not unusual for Christians to go away to the mountains for a retreat, for a special time to focus on our relationship to God, to as the song says – to hear God more clearly, to love God more dearly, to follow God more nearly.

God called Moses to come away with God on Mt. Sinai. Moses went and fasted for 40 days just like Jesus. Every number and every word has value, they mean something. Forty is the number for trial and testing hat reveals guilt or innocence. When Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, God’s people were worshipping a golden calf. It grieved God very much. Moses, being the hot-head that he was, broke the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. Moses went a second time onto Mt. Sinai in order to hear God’s judgment on the people, to make a plea for mercy, and to get the Ten Commandments rewritten.

Moses’ mountain top experience was very, very intense, so much so that he was changed. Haven’t you seen people and their faces change and look different than normal. At times a pregnant woman has a glow about her. Newlyweds keeping the honey in the honeymoon have a certain look of joy and satisfaction. Sometimes our emotions show on our face and in our bodies more than other times. A recent bestselling book is entitled The Body Keeps the Score. Persons who spend time in prayer shine with a light as Moses did that day coming down from his time with God. His face was described as shiny and bright. You get the impression that those who looked at Moses after he had been with God were stunned. They felt like a spotlight was on them, even like headlights and high beams were in their face. Paul tells us that Moses wore a veil, a covering that shielded the people like a visor, brim of a cap or sunglasses.

The people were afraid. It can be suggested that they were afraid because they were ashamed and afraid of what the consequences of their idolatry might be. They had made a golden calf and they worshipped it. They were guilt-ridden. Perhaps the veil was a way of becoming incognito.

Paul tells us in verse 13 that Moses wore a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing and perhaps being blinded by the end of the glory that was being set aside. This wonderful sight was right in front of their eyes. They could see this bright light. In spite of their knowing that the light was a loving message from God, Paul says in verse 14¹⁴ but their minds were hardened.

Moses’ heart was not as hardened, he had the glory of God on his face, but he was still a hot head. He had anger issues. He was intense and God was not having it. God disciplines God’s children in love. Moses had so much anger in his heart that he did not make it to the Promised Land. Moses became a fugitive of the law of humanity after he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and buried him in the sand. Eventually, the sand fell away and the murder became public knowledge.

We hear of hard hearts and hot heads in Russia. All humans may at some time wear a veil to separate ourselves from the good, the holy, the beautiful. Those who study history have a choice and make a choice to mimic the good… or the evil. A praying Christian woman said to me this week that Hitler had a resolve, not to conquer the world through bombs and guns, but through lies. Satan’s lies are to die for, but the truth sets us free. The one whom the son sets free, is free indeed. The veil that separates from God is removed in the presence of Jesus.

In Verse 16 Paul says  ¹⁶ but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. The holy and wonderful and beautiful are revealed, understood, accepted, even desired.

Even though Moses submitted to God and was used of God, Moses missed the Promised Land. As for the others, it took them 40 years and a whole generation to get there. Life teaches us over and over again that our righteousness comes from the Trinity. We are righteous not on our own but because of our Father-Mother God, and Jesus the Son and the Holiest of Spirits. We are not our own source of good; we have been bought with a price. We’ve been redeemed. My colleague Rev. Gilbert Caldwell used to say, “We are the church in spite of ourselves.” We do well to do what Moses did, go away to a high place and be with God, and worship God.

Pastor Tony Tilford is a poet, songwriter, proponent of healthy grieving, having spent 15 years as a hospice chaplain, and the author of a Spiritual Fitness manual. He provided the handout that guides us in our understanding of worship today. The handout is called The Four Levels of Worship. It raises the question, what kind of worshipper are you? With so much glory on his face, we know that Moses was set free to worship God on Mt. Sinai also called Mt. Horeb.

The first level of worship is thanksgiving and gratefulness. We begin to worship when we can pray, “Lord, I thank you for life, salvation, health…”  

Secondly, we bow below God, not above God. We praise, exalt, approve of and glorify God. We recognize God’s nature as good, holy… We can say “Lord, you are magnificent, majestic, Holy, high above all things…”

The third step that Moses, no doubt, took in worshipping God was adoration. Moses spent 40 days on the mountain top with God. There was mutual admiration and devotion. Moses loved God just as God loved Moses. That is good for us to remember when we worship whether as a congregation or alone in some high place. You are loved and adored by God!! When we worship, we develop a bond and our hearts overflow with love and longing to be with God, to see and know God, to be curious and keep a conversation going with God, to want to be like God.  

Finally, Pastor Tilford suggests that the ultimate step in our worship is perhaps the most challenging for most. The ultimate step in worship is to surrender — To give up completely, to agree with God, to let go of our will in favor of God’s will. To surrender is to abandon any thoughts of what we demand, but realize we are dependent on God. We are obligated to do God’s will because we have made a covenant to do so.  Worship is serious business with serious results. Worship is removing he veil. Like the masks we have worn in the pandemic,  a veil makes it hard to recognize each other and hard to hear what is being said. Removing the veil frees us as Paul says in verse 17.

¹⁷Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

May we go all the way with God today and worship in the Spirit and in the Truth. Amen.