Shine, Jesus, shine

It all started with Facebook Live that so many of us began to experiment with during COVID-19.

The U.S. government forbade public gatherings, and churches were included in the order. Thus “two weeks to stop the spread” morphed into several months with no public meetings. Our church, like many others, was thrust into the broadcast business without warning.

Our first efforts were feeble, indeed.

We struggled with getting a good Internet connection in our worship place, and then we used my laptop computer as our broadcast camera for a few weeks. In a test focus, I noticed how close I was to the camera and how shiny my face was. It wasn’t necessarily the shekinah glory of God, but the gift of sebum, a natural skin lubricant.

My dermatologist always tells me to shut up and be glad I’ll never have wrinkles.

But that day a nice lady who was planning to sing for us pulled me aside and powdered me down. I must say, I looked better on camera.

I told this story recently when I preached about Moses’s shining face, and another nice lady gave me my own compact so I could powder myself down on Sundays!

Moses’s shiny face wasn’t sebum, but his time with the Lord.

Moses returned to Sinai after his first disappointing experience. The first time he received the law from God, but broke the tablets when he descended and found the people dancing around a gold calf. Now he went back for 40 days to hear again the Lord’s commands. This time his face shone so brightly that he had to wear a veil.

I’d always thought he had to wear the veil because the brightness blinded others, but the text says he did because the people were afraid.

The apostle Paul used this story as an analogy in 2 Corinthians 3. He explained that our faces must shine with the presence of God’s Holy Spirit: “But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. So, all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord – who is the Spirit – makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image,” (1 Corinthians 3: 16, 18).

I must confess that my face doesn’t always shine with the presence of the Holy Spirit, for I sometimes speak words that sting, treat others in an unkind way and fall short of doing what I know to be right.

Paul’s word is a challenge to every Christian to remove the veil of stubborn humanity we often wear and allow God’s spirit to shine through us and honor him.

Reflections is a weekly faith column written by Michael J. Brooks, pastor of the Siluria Baptist Church, Alabaster, Alabama. The church’s website is siluriabaptist.com.