When we were kids one of the funniest things on television was when a cartoon character like Sylvester the cat would get a piece of his fur caught on something and it would unravel like a knit sweater. I thought it was cool that there were things out there held together by a common single thread.
And while it is overly simplistic to try to find a single thread in the story of God and His people, it is not beyond imagination to weave our way back through story after story about the dynamic ways in which the Lord sets His people free. The church today must somehow recapture the thread of existing in order to set captives free. When Jesus read from the scroll in his hometown, he announced that he came to set the captives free. The passage he read from Isaiah was once read to people who were beat down in exile on their way back home to dwell in the presence of the Lord as free people no longer held captive. And while we camped out at the end of Exodus, as free people leaving Mount Sinai, we encountered a strange symbol of God’s promise to be present among us.
So we waited. We stood there at the base of the mountain, waiting for Moses to return. He came down the mountain. And his face shone.
“Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. Afterwards all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.” (Exodus 34:29-35)
People today are looking for shining faces. Non-church types are watching to see whether our faces shine, whether we reflect the light of Christ that sets captives free. Going to church on Sunday morning is all well and good. But telling people where you go to church is not the same as letting the world witness us setting captives free. The body of Christ today must engage the world in such a way that gets about the business of light, redemption, and liberation. I love the way Edward Fudge characterized this recently: “The day has come to stop playing the ‘Guess the Right Religious Organization and Win a Trip to Heaven’ game. Now is the time to put all our trust in the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. To do that is to be ‘converted to Jesus.’”
Moses’ face shone simply because he dwelt in the presence of God in order to set captives free. Isaiah spoke to the people on behalf of God to remind them of promises unbroken by the Lord. Jesus came as the light that penetrates the darkness so that we would no longer be held captive by sin and death.
I have gone back over the past month and finished reading Henri Nouwen’s, In the Name of Jesus. Having read the book now for the sixth time, I am once again convicted by his words to ministers, as well as to the church.
Though no longer with us, Nouwen still has much to say to Christians. His final chapter is called “From Leading to Being Led.” He confesses how much his ministry had to do with a desire to be in control. He was the one with the answers; his job was to be the guy who was right.
This seems far away from Moses’ shining face, miles from Isaiah’s good news to the people that they would be set free, and certainly foreign to Jesus’ emptying of his power in order to join us in our disorientation.
Nouwen writes, “One of the greatest ironies of the history of Christianity is that its leaders constantly gave in to the temptation of power—political power, military power, economic power, or moral and spiritual power—even though they continued to speak in the name of Jesus, who did not cling to his divine power but emptied himself and became as we are.”
For those of us church-types today, are we willing to examine ourselves and discover how often we expend our energy on our desire for power? Are we ready to let down our guard long enough to question the extent to which we are truly, actively engaged in setting captives free?
Nouwen continues, “It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, ‘Do you love me?’ We ask, ‘Can we sit at your right hand and your left hand in your Kingdom?’”
The job of Moses in the desert was clear: Announce to the people God’s expectations, and shine the light of God, not the light of Moses.
The job of the church is no different: To be an oasis in the desert, and to announce to the world God’s expectations as we shine His light, not our own.
One more quote from Nouwen: “The task of future Christian leaders is not to make a little contribution to the solution of the pains and tribulations of their time, but to identify and announce the ways in which Jesus is leading God’s people out of slavery, through the desert to a new land of freedom.”
When Jesus read from Isaiah 61 that day in Nazareth, he did not do so to begin a kingdom of power. He did not put himself on display with a new word. Instead, he read a common passage of Scripture. He read a passage of Scripture that would tell the story of what it means to have the presence of the Lord, what it is to live in a world where God is with us.
“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a garland instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, to display his glory.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)
Amen.
