Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA5wLieJBvk
Program Transcript
Transfiguration Sunday—Removing the Veil
Like a thick fog lifting, revealing a landscape that was hidden moments before, Transfiguration Sunday reminds us of a time when the disciples saw Jesus in his true glory. On that mountain, their vision was cleared, and they glimpsed the fullness of who Jesus is—a moment that let them see beyond the everyday into the reality of God’s kingdom.
Today, we celebrate this lifting of the veil, the first step of transformation, when what once was unclear or hidden becomes fully visible. When the fog lifts, we see beauty, light, and truth in ways that weren’t possible before. This lifting of the veil invites us to move closer to God’s kingdom, allowing us to see the world as God intends—filled with his light, love, and justice.
(B-roll: A foggy morning scene, with sunlight gradually piercing through, symbolizing the veil being lifted.)
Many things can act as veils in our lives, keeping us from fully seeing God’s presence and purpose. These veils might be fears, misunderstandings, doubts, or distractions. They make us see the world only as it is, rather than as it could be in the fullness of God’s kingdom. To experience true transformation, we must be willing to set aside these barriers, opening our eyes to see through God’s eyes.
(B-roll: Close-up of a person gently pulling back a curtain, symbolizing the act of removing the veil to reveal something new.)
[Pause]
When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, the disciples saw his divine glory, shining like the sun. In that moment, the veil was lifted, and they glimpsed a reality they hadn’t seen before. This same light of God is meant to shine into our lives, clearing away what hinders us and revealing his kingdom—his rule of peace, justice, and compassion. When we remove these veils, we begin to see not only who Jesus is but also who we are called to be as his followers.
(B-roll: Sunlight breaking through clouds, illuminating a mountain landscape, symbolizing revelation and clarity.)
[Transition]
Today’s Psalm reminds us of the holiness and majesty of God’s presence. It invites us to worship and revere God, who is exalted above all nations and yet near to each one of us. Like the psalmist, we are called to approach God with reverence and humility, asking him to remove whatever stands between us and his kingdom vision. We invite him to lift the veil so that we can see his love, his justice, and his power more clearly.
(B-roll: A person kneeling in prayer, their face lifted toward the sky, symbolizing humility and the desire for a clearer vision of God.)
[Conclusion]
On this Transfiguration Sunday, let us ask God to lift the veils in our lives. May He remove the barriers that keep us from fully seeing his kingdom and experiencing his transforming love. As we journey with him, let us embrace the light that reveals who he is and who we are called to be. And as we worship, may we remember the words of Psalm 99, which remind us that our God is holy, mighty, and near.
(B-roll: A close-up of a hand lighting a candle, with the flame illuminating the room, symbolizing God’s light that reveals his truth to us.)
[Reading: Psalm 99:1-5]
(B-roll: Images of nature, mountains, and people gathered in worship, reflecting the reverence and awe described in the psalm.)
“The Lord reigns; let the nations tremble.
He sits enthroned between the cherubim; let the earth shake.
Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
(B-roll: Final shot of a person standing on a mountain summit, looking out over a clear, sunlit landscape, symbolizing the vision of God’s kingdom revealed.)
As we lift our eyes, may we see clearly and follow boldly, for our God is holy and worthy of our worship.
Program Transcript
Transfiguration Sunday—Removing the Veil
Like a thick fog lifting, revealing a landscape that was hidden moments before, Transfiguration Sunday reminds us of a time when the disciples saw Jesus in his true glory. On that mountain, their vision was cleared, and they glimpsed the fullness of who Jesus is—a moment that let them see beyond the everyday into the reality of God’s kingdom.
Today, we celebrate this lifting of the veil, the first step of transformation, when what once was unclear or hidden becomes fully visible. When the fog lifts, we see beauty, light, and truth in ways that weren’t possible before. This lifting of the veil invites us to move closer to God’s kingdom, allowing us to see the world as God intends—filled with his light, love, and justice.
(B-roll: A foggy morning scene, with sunlight gradually piercing through, symbolizing the veil being lifted.)
Many things can act as veils in our lives, keeping us from fully seeing God’s presence and purpose. These veils might be fears, misunderstandings, doubts, or distractions. They make us see the world only as it is, rather than as it could be in the fullness of God’s kingdom. To experience true transformation, we must be willing to set aside these barriers, opening our eyes to see through God’s eyes.
(B-roll: Close-up of a person gently pulling back a curtain, symbolizing the act of removing the veil to reveal something new.)
[Pause]
When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, the disciples saw his divine glory, shining like the sun. In that moment, the veil was lifted, and they glimpsed a reality they hadn’t seen before. This same light of God is meant to shine into our lives, clearing away what hinders us and revealing his kingdom—his rule of peace, justice, and compassion. When we remove these veils, we begin to see not only who Jesus is but also who we are called to be as his followers.
(B-roll: Sunlight breaking through clouds, illuminating a mountain landscape, symbolizing revelation and clarity.)
[Transition]
Today’s Psalm reminds us of the holiness and majesty of God’s presence. It invites us to worship and revere God, who is exalted above all nations and yet near to each one of us. Like the psalmist, we are called to approach God with reverence and humility, asking him to remove whatever stands between us and his kingdom vision. We invite him to lift the veil so that we can see his love, his justice, and his power more clearly.
(B-roll: A person kneeling in prayer, their face lifted toward the sky, symbolizing humility and the desire for a clearer vision of God.)
[Conclusion]
On this Transfiguration Sunday, let us ask God to lift the veils in our lives. May He remove the barriers that keep us from fully seeing his kingdom and experiencing his transforming love. As we journey with him, let us embrace the light that reveals who he is and who we are called to be. And as we worship, may we remember the words of Psalm 99, which remind us that our God is holy, mighty, and near.
(B-roll: A close-up of a hand lighting a candle, with the flame illuminating the room, symbolizing God’s light that reveals his truth to us.)
[Reading: Psalm 99:1-5]
(B-roll: Images of nature, mountains, and people gathered in worship, reflecting the reverence and awe described in the psalm.)
“The Lord reigns; let the nations tremble.
He sits enthroned between the cherubim; let the earth shake.
Great is the Lord in Zion;
he is exalted over all the nations.
Let them praise your great and awesome name—
he is holy.
The King is mighty, he loves justice—
you have established equity;
in Jacob you have done
what is just and right.
Exalt the Lord our God
and worship at his footstool;
he is holy.
(B-roll: Final shot of a person standing on a mountain summit, looking out over a clear, sunlit landscape, symbolizing the vision of God’s kingdom revealed.)
As we lift our eyes, may we see clearly and follow boldly, for our God is holy and worthy of our worship.
Psalm 99:1–9 · Exodus 34:29–35 · 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 · Luke 9:28–36 [37–43a]
This is the last Sunday after Epiphany, a time of revealing the love and nature of Jesus Christ. Our weekly theme is removing the veil, and our readings today focus on the first step of transformation: removing that which hinders our vision of what God’s kingdom is like. This theme is reflected in our call to worship Psalm, which refers to God revealing Godself to Moses, Aaron, and Samuel from a pillar of cloud. Exodus 34 recounts that whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak, he would take off his veil. The Gospel account in Luke 9 shows the disciples Peter, James, and John having a similar reaction to Jesus at his transfiguration. After witnessing the vision, Peter’s response is to ask Jesus if they could build dwellings for him, Moses, and Elijah. We, like Peter, can miss the point of mystical divine experiences. We can become swept up in wanting to somehow perpetuate the experience. But these are glimpses of our union with God — evidence of what is always there but unseen or unrecognized due to our distraction or distorted perception of reality. Our sermon text, found in 2 Corinthians, addresses how our veiled or hardened minds can prevent us from correctly perceiving reality.
The Water We Swim In
2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2 NRSVUE
There’s a common joke about fish that was used by the late author and essayist David Foster Wallace in his commencement address at Kenyon College in 2005. It goes like this:
Two young fish are swimming along, and they pass an older fish who nods at them and says, “Good morning, boys. How’s the water?” The two younger fish swim on for a while until one of them looks at the other and says, “What’s water?”
In his commencement address, Wallace was making the point that our orientation toward the world and the way we create meaning is absorbed from our culture, education, upbringing, and life experiences. Because we are literally immersed in culture — it’s the water we’re swimming in — we can be unaware of and miss the implications for our faith.
For example, we can be unaware of how we engage in discriminatory behaviors and the way unspoken narratives influence policies and systems. Research studies have documented this. In 2004, economists Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan conducted a study about racial discrimination. They responded to help wanted ads in Boston and Chicago newspapers with made-up résumés that were randomly assigned African American or white-sounding names. Otherwise, the résumés listed equivalent experience and qualifications. The study results showed that white-sounding names received 50 percent more callbacks for interviews and also more positive responses to the resume quality than in the case of the resumes paired with African American-sounding names. Bertrand and Mullainathan found that this racial discrimination was consistent across industry, employer size, and occupation.
In 2021, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago repeated the experiment, filling out “83,000 fake job applications for 11,000 entry-level positions at a variety of Fortune 500 companies” (NPR). In their report titled “A Discrimination Report Card,” these researchers found that “the typical employer called back the presumably white applications around 9 percent more than Black ones. That number rose to roughly 24 percent for the worst offenders” (NPR). Despite the progress made in reversing segregation and creating policies to help eliminate discrimination, these research studies show something important: an unspoken and unwritten narrative is still at work. This narrative negatively impacts the lives of people of color as well as women and other marginalized groups.
We all struggle with various forms of cognitive bias though we likely never recognize it. We may rely on stereotypes to make quick judgments without allowing for differences among people, and it’s easy to be unaware of the hurtful, microaggressions we could be committing. Here are a few of the most common forms of bias from the book Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself) by Brian McLaren (Share the ones that you discern will resonate or convict your fellowship and use personal examples.):
Confirmation Bias: We judge new ideas based on the ease with which they fit in with and confirm the only standard we have: old ideas, old information, and trusted authorities. As a result, our framing story, belief system, or paradigm excludes whatever doesn’t fit.
Complexity Bias: Our brains prefer a simple falsehood to a complex truth.
Community Bias: It’s almost impossible to see what our community doesn’t, can’t, or won’t see.
Complementarity Bias: If you are hostile to my ideas, I’ll be hostile to yours. If you are curious and respectful toward my ideas, I’ll respond in kind.
Consciousness Bias: Some things simply can’t be seen from where I am right now. But if I keep growing, maturing, and developing, someday I will be able to see what is now inaccessible to me.
Comfort or Complacency Bias: I prefer not to have my comfort disturbed.
Confidence Bias: I am attracted to confidence, even if it is false. I often prefer the bold lie to the hesitant truth.
Catastrophe or Normalcy Bias: I remember dramatic catastrophes but don’t notice gradual decline (or improvement).
Contact Bias: When I don’t have intense and sustained personal contact with “the other,” my prejudices and false assumptions go unchallenged.
Cash Bias: It’s hard for me to see something when my way of making a living requires me not to see it.
Conspiracy Bias: Under stress or shame, our brains are attracted to stories that relieve us, exonerate us, or portray us as innocent victims of malicious conspirators.
Cognitive biases are like a veil that prevents us from seeing others and ourselves the way God sees us. Cognitive biases fabricate a god that we can control, keep us from taking responsibility for our own thoughts and emotions, and often feed our projection of shame and resentment on others. Cognitive biases are the water we swim in, and unless we recognize them, they operate like a veil that keeps us from seeing clearly how we can love our neighbor as Jesus has loved us.
The sermon text talks about the effect a veil has on our spiritual transformation. Let’s read 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2.
The Context of 2 Corinthians
In their book The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, authors Marcus Borg and John Crossan refer to Paul as a Jewish Christ mystic.
Paul was a Jew and in his own mind never ceased being one. He was a Jewish Christ mystic because the content of his mystical experiences was Jesus as risen Christ and Lord…And as a Christ mystic, he saw his Judaism anew in the light of Jesus (26).
This is important to note because many scholars mistakenly view Paul’s letters as systematic theology, ideas that need to be explained, rather than a witness to his mystical experiences with Christ as expressed through his Judaism. Paul’s mysticism is referenced with imagery involving a “veil” in our sermon text (2 Corinthians 3: 15–18), but similar imagery about not seeing God clearly is found in other letters from Paul, specifically 1 Corinthians 13:12.
Paul’s mystical experience with the risen Christ not only changed him from the persecutor of Christ followers to a preacher of Christ, but it also changed his view of those who crucified Jesus — the Roman empire and the Jewish high priests. Borg and Crossan write that this transformation in Paul set up “the fundamental opposition in Paul’s theology. Who is Lord? Jesus or empire? In Paul, the mystical experience of Jesus Christ as Lord led to resistance to the imperial vision and advocacy of a different vision of the way the world can be” (28).
As we consider our sermon text from 2 Corinthians 3, let’s keep Paul’s background in mind, considering how our unconscious biases might be veiling our faces and limiting our participation in spreading God’s love in the world today. We’ll think about how transformation relates to transfiguration and why we can have hope.
Transformation and Transfiguration
2 Corinthians 3:12–15 speaks about a veil or a way of viewing the world and God that is hard and unyielding. However, v. 16–18 remarks about the removal of the veil when we turn toward God and the Holy Spirit offers and enables us the freedom to choose to see God more expansively. Paul says in verse 18:
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18 NRSVUE
In this verse, the Greek word translated as “transformed” is the same word used in Matthew 17:2 to describe Jesus’ transfiguration, though translators chose the English word “transfigured.” At the Transfiguration, Jesus was revealed in all His glory. We are being transformed into His image, “from one degree of glory to another.” As God is conforming us to the image of the Son, the veil over our minds — the unconsciousness bias — is being removed, perhaps one degree at a time. As we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is, we can’t help but be transformed in our behavior and mindset toward others and their flourishing.
From experience, we understand this transformation is not instantaneous. It is a lifelong process that deals with our past and present and leads us into the future — all in relationship with Father, Son, and Spirit. As we are healed and freed in Christ, the layers of cognitive bias that cloud our vision of others are peeled away, and we can move closer toward showing others the same love Jesus offers us.
Why We Have Hope
Our sermon text began in 2 Corinthians 3:12 with hope (“Since, then, we have such a hope”), and then it echoes the theme of hope as it concludes by saying in 2 Corinthians 4:1, “Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”
Our hope is fueled by God’s mercy, offering us a possibility of change in our worldview due to the Holy Spirit’s revelation of our biases. Professor Lois Malcolm writes,
Amidst whatever is taking place in our lives, God’s mercy is at work. Thus, we can boldly renounce the shame we would rather hide and the pernicious things it would make us do. We no longer need to be cunning or calculating; we can face up to the ways we deceitfully use God’s word to buttress our interests.
We do not have to be controlled by our cognitive biases. We have freedom in Christ, the freedom to choose love and kindness over fear, scapegoating, and hurtful narratives. As David Foster Wallace said in his commencement address, “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” It starts by knowing what water you swim in, and from there, receiving God’s mercy and the encouragement and empowerment of the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus’ example of loving concern for others.
Call to Action: Read through the list of common biases compiled by Brian McLaren and ask yourself which ones you struggle with. Offer them in prayer, asking God to work on these areas in your heart, giving thanks for mercy and the long arc of transformation.
For Reference:
Borg, Marcus J., and John Dominic Crossan. The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon. HarperOne, 2009.
Crossan, John Dominic, and Jonathan L. Reed. In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom. HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
McLaren, Brian. Why Don’t They Get It? Overcoming Bias in Others (and Yourself). Ebook.
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/recognizing-our-biases-2021-03-01/
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/0002828042002561
https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/A-Discrimination-Report-Card-1.pdf
https://fs.blog/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/
Cathy Deddo—Year C Transfiguration Sunday
March 2, 2025 — Transfiguration Sunday
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
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Program Transcript
Cathy Deddo—Year C Transfiguration Sunday
Anthony: So here we go. Our first pericope of the month is 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Transfiguration Sunday on March 2.
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness, 13 not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside. 15 Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 4 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
Cathy, Paul writes about having quote unquote, such a hope, which leads to complete frankness. Help us understand what Paul is saying here.
Cathy: I will try. So basically, what is the hope we have that leads to being bold or frank? That is being open and confident in the gospel. This is really the approach I took here.
So, from what I can gather in studying the letters to the Corinthian Christians, some in the church, and maybe many, are struggling with suffering, which is tempting them to kind of shrink back, especially suffering that stems from being followers of Jesus. Corinth, as you probably know, is a very pagan and promiscuous city, very prosperous, at least for some. And a lot of people were offended by the gospel message, and they rejected it.
Many wanted to listen to messages involving meaningless speculations. Most wanted to have reaffirmed to them what they already believed and practiced.
There may have been a hope that being a follower of Jesus would also involve less trials, less difficulty in life in general. But those who became worshippers of the true Creator and Redeemer God found themselves actually outcasts of much of the Corinthian culture, society, business. And [they] were regularly treated unfairly, were being persecuted. Maybe today we’d say they were marginalized.
In addition, part of what Paul is dealing with is that there were false teachers creeping into the church, and they were offering a more attractive message, one that promised to make them more powerful, respectable, or maybe to suffer less. And these false teachers used underhanded or manipulative methods to gain a following, which he’s sort of alluding to at the end of the passage. They offered ideologies or easy practices that sounded like what people might want to hear.
So, all these problems tempted the Christians to be less confident or bold in living out of their relationship with Christ. And the fact that they were tempted in this way is telling Paul something. Their problem is they don’t fully understand or remember the wonderful, life transforming work of God’s love that Jesus accomplished for them. They don’t grasp the hope they have in Christ.
The easy, agreeable, and pleasing messages of the false teachers are tempting the believers to misplace their hope. Well, maybe you could say, to connect it to the passage some more, that puts a veil over their hearts. Because they’re placing it in formulas for success and security, pathways to respectability in society here and now, rather than the radical and all-encompassing eternal hope that God has for us in Jesus.
They were tempted to trade in their true hope for a new heaven and earth where all things will be finally made right and new. And I would say that this then was leading them to be distracted each day in their lives now from receiving and living in a share of the real life — God’s kind of life that he was offering them.
So one of the places that Paul is speaking about this greater amazing hope that begins this passage is just a few verses after this passage in 4:17. He speaks of the painful trials he has been going through as slight and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison that is being prepared for him and for us as well.
He spoke of these trials at the beginning of the letter. You’re familiar with the beginning of it. He said there that these trials were so severe that he and his companions were despairing of life itself. But here he proclaims that the living God will bring good out of his suffering and ours in such a way that we can look at our trials, no matter how big or small they are, as slight and momentary.
As Paul has spoken of his ministry and his sufferings so far in this letter up to this point, he does so to remind them of the absolute surpassing worth of the gospel that he had already preached to them, and they had received. And so now he says, Since then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness, or as this is translated in the ESV, we are very bold.
This word means confidence, not being ashamed. And later in the passage that you just read, in verse 1 of chapter 4, Paul says, because this is our ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We do not become weary or saint. The life lived in Jesus is one of confidence and freedom in him and not becoming weary.
How can that be? Because it seems to me that we often do become weary, and we become tempted to hedge on proclaiming the whole gospel and forget its goodness and hope of glory that is ours in Christ. How do we live in this hope? Paul speaks here of living with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord.
We are to continually look away from ourselves to Jesus. We are to take real time to focus again and again on him, to hear from him and his Word, to pray as Paul speaks in other places, continually. And I think that when we shrink back or grow weary, it’s because, honestly, we’ve dropped our focus away from the living, present Jesus.
And we begin looking at ourselves, our lives, our ministries, our circumstances, which veils our vision, veils our heart. We cannot see them rightly, these various things we’re dealing with right now, except through him, as we anticipate his involvement, his oversight, his presence and purpose being worked out in them to his glory and to our good.
We can become tempted to evaluate Jesus’ presence and work in our lives through the lens of our feelings or circumstances. And I think this is part of what is going on for them. We can become tempted to add to the gospel other keys or principles or formulas that we can depend on out of fear rather than living in the growing and deepening relationship that he wants to give us because we wonder if that’s going to be sufficient for us in this broken world.
Yeah, we need Jesus. But we start thinking that we need Jesus plus, plus counting on something else that we start to regard as essential. But he’s basically saying, when we do this, we have trouble seeing Jesus for who he really is. When we are seeing him through our own lens of our issues and our situation, we kind of lose track of who Jesus is.
We need to turn it around and behold him. And then through looking at him, we can look at our lives. This is what can help us continue to be bold and confident in the whole gospel, in this hope. Paul is correcting that false and underlining view of the sufficiency of Christ. He’s indicating that what is central and essential in our lives is beholding Jesus.
Beholding is a continuing action here. It’s not something we do once. We turn again and again to Jesus, coming again under his good and life giving rule and reign, being arrested again by our vision and understanding of who he is, so that we can freely and joyfully, with frankness, live according to his will and ways, without compromise.
Our confidence is never in ourselves, our doctrines, our relationships, even our understanding. We cannot be self-sufficient or self-justifying. It makes us blind. The living God through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit is the source and measure of all life, all goodness, all truth, all beauty. This is true for all of us.
So, we live out of our trust of and hope in all of who this Jesus is. The same yesterday today and tomorrow. That’s their hope. That’s the hope that enables us to be bold. And here is the really wonderful point. I love this. God will transform us as we fix our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves. As we see and know him, as he is made known in scripture, we are led to repent and turn to him again.
Every time he helps us to see our trust has drifted to other things rather than himself. I think we know that we can’t transform ourselves. I haven’t succeeded so far. Paul does not transform himself. Paul knows this, and he lives by that reality in Christ. And this is why, at the beginning of the letter, he can praise the God of comfort, even in his deepest sufferings.
This is why he can rejoice in that glory that awaits him, and all those who put their trust in him, and even the whole creation. This is why he speaks boldly. And this is why we can.
Anthony: You know, even though 2 Corinthians 3 wasn’t written to us, it certainly, I think we can rightly say, was written for us.
If the people of Corinth were distracted, oh my, we are distracted people. We are deluged by information every day, more than we know what to do with. And so, it is so easy to become distracted. And this is one of the reasons why the repeated coming to Scripture is so important. Because when we come to Scripture, we once again get glimpses, revelation about the triune God.
And we do this by the Spirit. And so, I’m going to ask you and invite you, Cathy, to share with us, what does this passage tell us about the God revealed in Jesus Christ?
Cathy: Well, I think the most amazing thing that it tells me is that he desires a face to face, deeply personal communion. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped being amazed by that.
He wants us, he wants relationship with us, and he has done everything necessary to woo us and to grow us up in him. And he is glorified, not when we try to do stuff for him all the time, but when we trust him to transform us and to enable us to share in his glory. I just can’t get over him being a God like that.
He does not shame us, but he seeks to lift us up to share in his own life. That is the heart of who he is.
Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God.
Program Transcript
Cathy Deddo—Year C Transfiguration Sunday
Anthony: So here we go. Our first pericope of the month is 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2. I’ll be reading from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Transfiguration Sunday on March 2.
Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness, 13 not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14 But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, the same veil is still there; it is not unveiled since in Christ it is set aside. 15 Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds, 16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. 4 Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2 We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
Cathy, Paul writes about having quote unquote, such a hope, which leads to complete frankness. Help us understand what Paul is saying here.
Cathy: I will try. So basically, what is the hope we have that leads to being bold or frank? That is being open and confident in the gospel. This is really the approach I took here.
So, from what I can gather in studying the letters to the Corinthian Christians, some in the church, and maybe many, are struggling with suffering, which is tempting them to kind of shrink back, especially suffering that stems from being followers of Jesus. Corinth, as you probably know, is a very pagan and promiscuous city, very prosperous, at least for some. And a lot of people were offended by the gospel message, and they rejected it.
Many wanted to listen to messages involving meaningless speculations. Most wanted to have reaffirmed to them what they already believed and practiced.
There may have been a hope that being a follower of Jesus would also involve less trials, less difficulty in life in general. But those who became worshippers of the true Creator and Redeemer God found themselves actually outcasts of much of the Corinthian culture, society, business. And [they] were regularly treated unfairly, were being persecuted. Maybe today we’d say they were marginalized.
In addition, part of what Paul is dealing with is that there were false teachers creeping into the church, and they were offering a more attractive message, one that promised to make them more powerful, respectable, or maybe to suffer less. And these false teachers used underhanded or manipulative methods to gain a following, which he’s sort of alluding to at the end of the passage. They offered ideologies or easy practices that sounded like what people might want to hear.
So, all these problems tempted the Christians to be less confident or bold in living out of their relationship with Christ. And the fact that they were tempted in this way is telling Paul something. Their problem is they don’t fully understand or remember the wonderful, life transforming work of God’s love that Jesus accomplished for them. They don’t grasp the hope they have in Christ.
The easy, agreeable, and pleasing messages of the false teachers are tempting the believers to misplace their hope. Well, maybe you could say, to connect it to the passage some more, that puts a veil over their hearts. Because they’re placing it in formulas for success and security, pathways to respectability in society here and now, rather than the radical and all-encompassing eternal hope that God has for us in Jesus.
They were tempted to trade in their true hope for a new heaven and earth where all things will be finally made right and new. And I would say that this then was leading them to be distracted each day in their lives now from receiving and living in a share of the real life — God’s kind of life that he was offering them.
So one of the places that Paul is speaking about this greater amazing hope that begins this passage is just a few verses after this passage in 4:17. He speaks of the painful trials he has been going through as slight and momentary compared to the eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison that is being prepared for him and for us as well.
He spoke of these trials at the beginning of the letter. You’re familiar with the beginning of it. He said there that these trials were so severe that he and his companions were despairing of life itself. But here he proclaims that the living God will bring good out of his suffering and ours in such a way that we can look at our trials, no matter how big or small they are, as slight and momentary.
As Paul has spoken of his ministry and his sufferings so far in this letter up to this point, he does so to remind them of the absolute surpassing worth of the gospel that he had already preached to them, and they had received. And so now he says, Since then, we have such a hope, we act with complete frankness, or as this is translated in the ESV, we are very bold.
This word means confidence, not being ashamed. And later in the passage that you just read, in verse 1 of chapter 4, Paul says, because this is our ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We do not become weary or saint. The life lived in Jesus is one of confidence and freedom in him and not becoming weary.
How can that be? Because it seems to me that we often do become weary, and we become tempted to hedge on proclaiming the whole gospel and forget its goodness and hope of glory that is ours in Christ. How do we live in this hope? Paul speaks here of living with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord.
We are to continually look away from ourselves to Jesus. We are to take real time to focus again and again on him, to hear from him and his Word, to pray as Paul speaks in other places, continually. And I think that when we shrink back or grow weary, it’s because, honestly, we’ve dropped our focus away from the living, present Jesus.
And we begin looking at ourselves, our lives, our ministries, our circumstances, which veils our vision, veils our heart. We cannot see them rightly, these various things we’re dealing with right now, except through him, as we anticipate his involvement, his oversight, his presence and purpose being worked out in them to his glory and to our good.
We can become tempted to evaluate Jesus’ presence and work in our lives through the lens of our feelings or circumstances. And I think this is part of what is going on for them. We can become tempted to add to the gospel other keys or principles or formulas that we can depend on out of fear rather than living in the growing and deepening relationship that he wants to give us because we wonder if that’s going to be sufficient for us in this broken world.
Yeah, we need Jesus. But we start thinking that we need Jesus plus, plus counting on something else that we start to regard as essential. But he’s basically saying, when we do this, we have trouble seeing Jesus for who he really is. When we are seeing him through our own lens of our issues and our situation, we kind of lose track of who Jesus is.
We need to turn it around and behold him. And then through looking at him, we can look at our lives. This is what can help us continue to be bold and confident in the whole gospel, in this hope. Paul is correcting that false and underlining view of the sufficiency of Christ. He’s indicating that what is central and essential in our lives is beholding Jesus.
Beholding is a continuing action here. It’s not something we do once. We turn again and again to Jesus, coming again under his good and life giving rule and reign, being arrested again by our vision and understanding of who he is, so that we can freely and joyfully, with frankness, live according to his will and ways, without compromise.
Our confidence is never in ourselves, our doctrines, our relationships, even our understanding. We cannot be self-sufficient or self-justifying. It makes us blind. The living God through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit is the source and measure of all life, all goodness, all truth, all beauty. This is true for all of us.
So, we live out of our trust of and hope in all of who this Jesus is. The same yesterday today and tomorrow. That’s their hope. That’s the hope that enables us to be bold. And here is the really wonderful point. I love this. God will transform us as we fix our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves. As we see and know him, as he is made known in scripture, we are led to repent and turn to him again.
Every time he helps us to see our trust has drifted to other things rather than himself. I think we know that we can’t transform ourselves. I haven’t succeeded so far. Paul does not transform himself. Paul knows this, and he lives by that reality in Christ. And this is why, at the beginning of the letter, he can praise the God of comfort, even in his deepest sufferings.
This is why he can rejoice in that glory that awaits him, and all those who put their trust in him, and even the whole creation. This is why he speaks boldly. And this is why we can.
Anthony: You know, even though 2 Corinthians 3 wasn’t written to us, it certainly, I think we can rightly say, was written for us.
If the people of Corinth were distracted, oh my, we are distracted people. We are deluged by information every day, more than we know what to do with. And so, it is so easy to become distracted. And this is one of the reasons why the repeated coming to Scripture is so important. Because when we come to Scripture, we once again get glimpses, revelation about the triune God.
And we do this by the Spirit. And so, I’m going to ask you and invite you, Cathy, to share with us, what does this passage tell us about the God revealed in Jesus Christ?
Cathy: Well, I think the most amazing thing that it tells me is that he desires a face to face, deeply personal communion. I don’t think I’ve ever stopped being amazed by that.
He wants us, he wants relationship with us, and he has done everything necessary to woo us and to grow us up in him. And he is glorified, not when we try to do stuff for him all the time, but when we trust him to transform us and to enable us to share in his glory. I just can’t get over him being a God like that.
He does not shame us, but he seeks to lift us up to share in his own life. That is the heart of who he is.
Anthony: Hallelujah. Praise God.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- We heard about research that showed discriminatory hiring practices. How did that make you feel? Were you surprised or have you witnessed similar situations?
- In this passage, Paul was talking about spiritual blindness to the new covenant. Discuss how biases are spiritual blindness to the new command to love one another as Jesus has loved us.
- As you consider the list of cognitive biases, did you feel convicted or moved to repentance by any of them?
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are being transformed, and this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. In that transformation, does our submission to the Spirit and our participation play any role?
