“Connecting with Jesus, One Another, and Others in the Unconditional Love of Our God (Together, in a variety of ways)” “Being Clear About Our Love Identity” – Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Luke 9:28-36

On the campus of Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, there is a statue of Booker T. Washington standing over a slave and lifting a veil “…so that the light of education can strike his face.” The slave has a book in one hand and uses the other to help lift the veil. In the eyes of the slave, one sees hope. The caption under the statue reads, “He [Booker T. Washington] lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry.”[1] Yes, connecting with Jesus, one another, and others in the unconditional love of God lifts the veils that blind humanity from displaying the glory of God in word and deed. Yes, the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 25 come alive in human lives.

Like Booker T. Washington, followers of Jesus are to lift veils and live with unveiled boldness. Michael Horton in his book A Better Way writes, “Today people want to see God. Not content with hearing God’s Word, they want to see God’s glory.”[2] Today is Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. The glory of God was shown to Peter, James, and John that day twenty centuries ago. Like then, but today even more so, people want to see the glory of the Lord.

In Luke 9:28-36, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him and led them up a high mountain. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than any amount of bleach could produce. Elijah and Moses were talking with Jesus. Peter exclaimed, “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” But a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him.”[3] The disciples looked and only Jesus remained.

In 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2, Paul utilizes the Old Testament story about the veil of Moses as an analogy to talk about the Christian life. He focuses our religious memory back to the scene where Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the tablets of stone on which were chiseled the Ten Commandments. You recall this story in Exodus 34:29-35. The people focused not on the tablets, but on the face of Moses. Moses’ appearance had been shaped by his experience with God. Just as the Hebrews looked at Moses and knew he had been talking with God, so people should be able to see in the face of Christians evidence that we have been with Jesus.

Unfortunately, that has not always been the case. Many of our doctrines have become veils which systematize the faith and often hide the love of God. Christians must not hide behind the veils of doctrine and practice. In a country where the disparity between rich and poor is growing and children die of the effects of poverty, a veiled faith will not work. We must do more than discuss hunger, deliberate on the crises facing immigrants and refugees, debate the ethical demands of being homeless, explore the reasons presented for why members of the LGBTQ+ community are the way they are, and pay lip service to racism, sexism, and ageism.

The lesson of the Transfiguration is this: if we have experienced salvation in and through Jesus Christ, then we are to live with veils removed, engaging the needs of society, and partnering with others to make systemic change. The Transfiguration teaches us that when captivated by the very presence of God we are not to veil that experience and hide it from others. To the contrary, we are to go into Wichita with the good news that in Jesus Christ life is inclusive of people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, the rich, the poor, the mentally and physically challenged, the hungry, the immigrant, the refugee, and the homeless.

Look at the Table. See the body and blood of Jesus given and poured out for you. Look at the Table and see unconditional love not held back, but freely shared. Live with boldness characterized by love for God and others because you have been changed and continue to be changed by the Word, living, and written. Veils come off, one by one. The poor, LGBTQ+ community, wealthy, immigrant, refugee, hungry, homeless, racist, sexist, and ageist are encountered by God. Live out your love identity. Yes, you are the best Jesus someone sees. Amen!

This sermon was preached on Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday,

2 March 2025 by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright Ó 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Adapted from Robert Warden Prim in David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, editors, Feasting on the Word, Year C, Volume 1(Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009), 451.

[2]Michael Horton, A Better Way (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2002), 36.

[3]Luke 9:33 and 35

“Learning From and With Our God of Unconditional Love (Together, in a Variety of Ways)”

“Loving on Fumes?” – 1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50, Genesis 45:3-11, Luke 6:27-38

It is true that we drink from our own wells. Yes, what you fill your life with becomes nourishment. So, if I read the Bible, pray, engage in life-long learning, attend worship, participate in a small group, give from my life’s wallet, and serve others, I am filling my life with things that display God’s unconditional love. Thus, when I need a drink of God to sustain me, which I always do, the well is nearly full. What’s in your well?

Hassan John, a Christian pastor from Jos, Nigeria, is regarded as an “infidel” by Muslim extremist Boko Haram insurgents and has a price on his head of 150,000 Naira (about 800 American dollars). He goes to his church each day not knowing whether someone will murder him in order to claim the price on his head. As an Anglican pastor and as a part-time journalist for CNN, the 52-year-old Hassan has often been surrounded by violence and bloodshed in northeast Nigeria. He’s seen friends shot dead or injured in front of his eyes. As a reporter, he has often rushed to the scene immediately after bombings. He has narrowly escaped death himself. Hassan said, “You see it again and again and again. You get to places where a bomb [planted by Muslim extremists] has just exploded. There are bodies all over the place. You visit people in the hospital. You go back and meet families, you cry with them, you console them, you do the best you can with them all the time.” But this violence and hatred has not stopped him from reaching out to his Muslim neighbors who need Christ. After he helped a small Muslim girl who could not go to school after her father had been killed in the violence, he started to reach out to other orphan children. Soon he was helping 12 Muslim women, then 120. Young Muslim men in the area are starting to ask if they can find help as well. Hassan’s evangelistic outreach involves eating meals with Muslims. Hassan explained, “Now in Nigeria that is a big thing. You don’t eat with your enemy because you are afraid that you will be poisoned. Now [in an attempt to share the gospel], Christians build friendships with Muslims; it is just so marvelous.”[1]

Hassan John’s well is full of God’s unconditional love. Grace, , God’s faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge are just a few ways that people can experience God’s unconditional love in and through your life. But there is a cost when our lives are low on God’s unconditional love. If we live as Christians in survival mode, our faith is in survival mode, that is, our well is low on “God.” We become discouraged, depleted, and almost hostile toward God and others. As Gradye Parsons reminds us in Our Connectional Church, we mustn’t focus on what we lack, but on God’s abundance and place our lives and our churches in the place to drink from God’s deep well of faithfulness.[2] And that faithfulness is rooted in grace, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. So, loving on fumes is a life that avoids change because its hard and holds on to fear because of the unknown. But God’s will requires us to risk and have courage.

The decisions we make each day, matter. Just like filling up the car with gas matters. Cars don’t work well on fumes. Nor do Christians. In 1 Corinthians 15 we learn that what we put in our bodies is either perishable or imperishable. That is, it will sustain us in loving God and others. Our bodies are the temple of God. What we do with them for the number of days we have on the planet matters. Our lives, preresurrection and postresurrection, are freed from the fumes of sinful sources that supply our wells when we take seriously that faith in Jesus Christ actually joins us with God’s grace, faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. Jesus’ power, person, and purpose are for us, not against us.[3] Genesis 45, in its focus on Joseph and his family, indicates that the greatest act of grace is the gift of forgiveness. God forgives us. We accept it. And we are to do the same, practice forgiveness. Forgiveness fills our tanks with good “God stuff” for the journey. Not to receive or give forgiveness is like putting an intravenous line of “Pop” in your body to quench a thirst. And Luke reminds us that life is not easy. Living with the mantra of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” will defeat us in the end. Seeking retribution is an example of loving God and others on fumes. Retribution is not life giving. It is life consuming.^[4]

Hassan John did not love on fumes when he loved his Muslim neighbors and orphaned children. Loving on fumes has no love to give away. Robert Darden writes, “The more love we give away, the more love will come back to us, in greater measure, until it cannot be contained.”[5] God will fill you with love overflowing. Fumes are replaced with God’s grace, faithfulness, the ability to forgive and not judge, and unconditional love. What’s in your well? Amen. 

This sermon was preached on the Seventh Sunday After Epiphany, 23 February 2025

by the Rev. Dr. Steven M. Marsh in the Great Room and Sanctuary

at Grace Presbyterian Church in Wichita, Kansas

Copyright Ó 2025

Steven M. Marsh

All rights reserved.

[1]Matt Woodley, editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: Clement Ejiofor, “Boko Haram Placed a Bounty on Christian Pastor from Jos,” Naij.com (12-3-15); personal interview with Hassan John in Nigeria.

[2]Gradye Parsons, Our Connectional Church (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 55-64.

[3]I am grateful for James C. Miller’s thinking and writing in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 262-263.

[4]In preparation of this sermon, I have benefited from the thinking of Brent A. Strawn, Stacey Simpson Duke,  John W. Wurster, James C. Miller, Maria Teresa Davila, Wes Avram, and Robert F. Darden in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery, Cynthia L. Rigby and Carolyn J. Sharp, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2018), 255-257, 257-258, 259-260, 261-263, 263-264, 265-267, and 267-269.

[5]Robert F. Darden in Joel B. Green, Thomas G. Long, Luke A. Powery and Cynthia L. Rigby, editors, Connections, Year C, Volume 1, 269.