Make your face shine, and we will be saved.

 

Wednesday, October 4, 2023


Psalm 80

1 Kings 18:1-20

Matthew 9:27-38


Observance: Francis of Assisi, friar and preacher (d. 1226)


Make your face shine, and we will be saved.


When we consider God as the source of all good, we embark on an exercise too enormous for our minds to comprehend. The best we can try and do is imagine all the good things that could possibly come to us. But this still only touches the fringes of God’s goodness. Thinking on all the good things God gives us still only leaves us in the effect; how can we move to the cause?


Biblical authors have tried all sorts of images to try and communicate just how wonderful God is in His source-of-all-goodness. He is a shepherd; we are the sheep. He has raised up a Son of Man to be so strong for Himself to rule over us in love. He has transplanted a tender shoot and cared for it as the great Gardener of souls.


Yet still we humans try to look for the good things God does, instead of looking to God as the source of all good; as goodness made manifest; transcendent goodness.


If God had a face, it would be beautiful. If that face were to turn upon us in loving-kindness, we would experience good things. But if that face were to shine: now that would be getting us somewhere.


All God has to do is to make His face shine in order to save and restore us. Everything we could possibly imagine that would be good would be swept away as trivial. Goodness itself; the goodness of God, the goodness that is God, is so far higher than any of the good things He gives us (and He gives us plenty of those). We give glory to God, not merely for the good things He gives us, but for the awesome majesty that is goodness personified, the Lord Almighty.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday, September 12, 2022

  Monday, September 12, 2022 Psalm 33 Habakkuk 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:1-14 In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. The lectionary has taken us from the beloved disciple to one of the most beloved of Paul's epistles: Ephesians. Paul must have loved this church very much: we get a sense of his fondness for them and their shared sense of purpose and worship just from the introduction. In what is likely just an introduction to a letter in the style of the ancient Roman world, Paul has managed to squeeze in the entire, wondrous story of God's work of redemption. Paul has framed it the way it ought to be framed: in a pastoral, encouraging tone. He has three main points here (remember, Paul proceeds logically to build up an argument, unlike John who circles around his main point). First: God intended to save us before the world was formed. Think back to the first l
Read more

“Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.”

  Monday, September 11, 2023 Psalms 28; 29 1 Kings 7:51-8:21 Acts 26:19-32 Observance: Deiniol, bishop (d. 384) “ Short time or long – I pray to God not only you but all who are listening become like I am, except for these chains.” The great many blessings of being under the protection of the blood of the Lamb fill our hearts with joy and peace. To have the Almighty Creator of the universe, the One who sits above the flood, filling the temple of our being with the cloud of His presence is what it truly means to be human. Every day is filled with adventure; every night turns to the rest of the victor. Certainly there are chains: sometimes they are physical chains, the suffering of being a Christian among people who do not love the Lord. Sometimes they are spiritual; the attacks of the powers of the air who try to distract us from the One we love. But they always fall away. Our Rock of Ages always frees us; always brings us out of the pit of despair. A won
Read more

Monday, September 19

  Monday, September 19 Psalm 45 Nahum 1:15-2:9 Ephesians 4:17-28 ...be renewed in the spirit of your minds... It is far too easy to read some of these Pauline lists of virtues and vices and feel like we have gone back to the dark days before the Reformation. The idea that if we behave ourselves then we can call ourselves “good people” is pagan, not Christian. Paul feels very strongly about how Christians behave, he “affirms and insists” upon it. But it is because of what has already happened that we should mind our step, not because of where we are going. Christ's resurrection is many things, but one aspect relevant for Paul's teaching this morning is that it demonstrates to us the radical new reality in which we now live. We too have passed (spiritually) from death to life; therefore, we experience a “renewal of our minds”. Instead of treading water until we die, we live lives. Everything now makes sense: God has spoken, so we have logic. God made us in His im
Read more