May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:16-18)

In Christ's name and to his glory, dear friends: Today we are hearing much about the "glory" of God. The glory of God is one of those interesting and maybe a little mysterious concepts in Scripture that we have trouble understanding or explaining. If I asked, "What is the glory of God?" I think most of us would have trouble giving an answer. This is reason enough to gather at Jesus' feet today - to gain understanding about God's "glory". And God wants to give us more than just a good answer to the question "what is God's glory"? He wants us to go away from here knowing in our hearts what God's glory means for you & me personally, the comfort and courage that his little phrase gives. We have as our central thought: GOD'S GLORY IS HERE. Let's see what that glory is and what it means for us.

"God's glory" is a term the Bible uses for times when the Lord appeared to give forgiveness and mercy to people and the hope and peace that come with forgiveness of sins. We see and hear God's glory in today's readings. Elisha saw his mentor taken up to heaven. It is God's glory to take redeemed sinners to heaven. Peter, James and John heard Jesus, Moses and Elijah speaking of Christ' sacrificial death that was soon to take place. God is in his glory when he is carrying out his plan to rescue sinners from Satan's hands. And in this reading from 2 Corinthians Paul is speaking of the eternal glory of the Gospel of forgiveness in Christ Jesus. God's glory is God's mercy and forgiveness in Christ. The greatest thing that God does is save sinners. That's when he is "in his glory", doing what he loves and does best.

That God's glory is his grace and mercy is seen in what happened to Moses at Mt. Sinai. This is where Paul takes us in 2 Corinthians - to Mt Sinai. It was a glorious few months that the Israelites spent at Mt. Sinai. God was setting in motion his wonderful plan to use the nation of Israel as the vehicle or container to bring his Son into the world. God gave special laws about worship, diet and life that were to remind the Israelites of how much they needed this Savior from sin that was coming into the world and to keep the Israelites separated from the other peoples of the earth so that God could bring Jesus into the world through just Israel. Everything at Mt. Sinai centered on God keeping his promise of a sending a Savior. The rules and laws were only temporary, prepatory, serving God's glorious plan to bring his Son into the world. To show the temporary nature of Israel's role and these Old Testament Laws God used an object lesson. When Moses came down from the mount his face was shining with God's glory. As he spoke the people watched and listened in amazement. Then, when Moses was done for the day, he put a veil over his face, hiding the glory. Soon the shining glory left Moses' face. When the people saw him the next morning he had a normal face. God was telling the Israelites - my rules and laws are important. They show you how much you need my forgiveness. But more glorious and lasting than my rules is my Gospel of forgiveness. My mercy is my true glory. And that glory will come to you by Jesus, not Moses. So when my law, when Moses has done his important work, then it's time to cover him up so that you can focus on what is really important--my mercy, not the demands of the law. My glory, says the Lord, is my grace.

Paul speaks sadly of his fellow Israelites who were unbelievers and did not see that God's glory was his mercy in Christ. He says, in a way, they have a veil over their faces so they cannot see God's glory. The veil is unbelief. Their unbelief was this: they missed the temporary nature of God's Old Testament laws and rules. They began to think that God's Old rules about diet and worship were God's glory rather than how these rules pointed ahead to Jesus and separated Israel from others so God could bring Jesus into the world through Israel. To put it simply they thought: the great thing about God is that he tells us how to live. Now we will obey and then we will be God's children because we obey, so they thought. But they were fooling themselves. They really didn't obey God perfectly. And they were blind to the only way to get free from their sin - the glorious forgiveness that God would bring through the Messiah.

Today, we will be blessed as we ponder again that God's glory is his mercy and forgiveness in Christ. Then, and then alone, will we see God as he really is. He is mercy and grace for us who desperately need his mercy and grace. Still today people go to churches and often those churches are void of God's glory. What I mean is this. The people come thinking that religion is all about finding out what we have to do. Do, do, do, give, give, give. That's all God wants, that's what most think of God. The veil remains for so many because they don't come to confess their sins and beg for mercy, but they come looking for God's pat on the back. And so God's glory goes over their heads. And sadly, many churches misrepresent God. God is portrayed as demanding or, just as bad, unconcerned if people sin. Confession of sins is considered useless. And where sin is not addressed, forgives is a mute point. And there is no glory any more because God's glory has to do with mercy and forgiveness centered on Christ. Away with the blinders! Lord, keep us seeing your glory. Keep us focused on repentance and forgiveness. Then our time here will be hours of being in the presence of your true glory.

And what is more, God wants us very much to see that his glory is not just to look at, but is to be a factor in our lives. Just as he made the sun up in the sky, not merely as a display of his power, but also a practical source of life since by it he warms our earth and makes things grow so we have food. So also God's glory has a practical side to it. God wants his glory to be a factor in our lives. Paul says that we who stand in the presence of God's glory, his mercy and forgiveness in Christ, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.