“Show Me The Sparkles”
Preached Sunday, March 2, 2025
We are really into crafts in my house right now. Paint, egg cartons, stickers, glue sticks, googly eyes, construction paper, stickers, those scissors that when you cut with them make the edge of the paper all fancy, pipe cleaners, toilet paper rolls, stamps and ink pads…All of these items are probably currently on or somewhere near my dining room table. Who needs room to eat anyway? I have recently stocked up on craft kits and hid them in a cupboard to be our “emergency” craft supplies. You know, as one does…don’t we all have emergency craft supplies for when the going gets rough? Or is that only those of us who regularly care for young children…?
But you may have noticed that there is ONE craft supply that I did NOT mention. It is one that I will not, under any circumstances, allow into my home. Any guesses on what it is? Feel free to shout it out. Yes. I heard you say it: Glitter.
Only give a young child glitter if you hold a grudge against their parents. Because the thing about glitter is it gets EVERYWHERE.
Now, despite my household ban on glitter, a prayer that I have been finding myself praying over and over recently is “God, show me the sparkles…”
And in order to talk about what I mean about that, let’s turn to our story of The Transfiguration from today:
“Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory…”
We know that Jesus is God enfleshed. Divinity in a human body. And when people looked upon Jesus they saw…just a man. An ordinary man, in human flesh, looking just like the rest of us. In Jesus being transformed, transfigured, in this mountaintop experience, the eyes of the disciples no longer saw Jesus as just another human. In that moment, God pulled back the layers of reality to see the sparkles, the dazzling Divine in the presence of Jesus. Like a giant thing of glitter was dumped all over Jesus…
Now, there is precedent for this mountaintop experience - of a glittering, blinding, dazzling revelation from encountering Divinity. From the book of Exodus, Chapter 34:
“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.”
This passage is when Moses is coming down from the mountain after receiving the Torah and because he was talking to God, because he encountered God - HE is glowing. It’s like…residual radiation. That’s how DAZZLING the glory of God is, that even encountering the Divine makes YOU glow. And Moses, he didn’t even get the full glory of God that causes this residual glowing radiation of glory.
In Exodus, Chapter 33 we get this:
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord,’ and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
So to be clear…Moses didn’t even see the FACE of God. Moses saw, well, the term for polite company is…backside. And even the backside of The Most High, is SO glorious, SO Divine, SO beautiful…that Moses gets this residual DAZZLING glory that people can’t even look at his face, the face of Moses, without being blinded.
The way I see it is like this: encountering the Divine is an experience of pure beauty. Encountering the Divine is something that our human eyes can barely handle. Encountering the Divine rubs off on us, changes us, makes us sparkle too.
Moses said to God, Moses prayed, “Please show me your glory.” My version of this prayer recently for me has been, “God, show me the sparkles.” This prayer actually came to me separate from the readings of this text in Exodus and the story of the Transfiguration. It came to me because of a desire to see God at work in this world. I was inspired to start praying this prayer when I saw the absolute awe at which my child sees the world. Young children can see beauty everywhere. They find the glitter that sparkles in the tiny pebbles we step on. They see the way there is a rainbow in the puddle that to us is just an oil spill. They see unicorns in the clouds as our eyes are fixed downward.
I want to see the world as a child does - full of awe, and full of wonder, and full of beauty. And as a person of faith, I believe the ultimate source of awe, the ultimate source of wonder, and the ultimate source of beauty - is in God. I believe God is at work in our world. I believe God is present in every moment. I believe that God is only ever as far away as our next breath. God is everywhere… So why does my outlook on life so often lack dazzling sparkles? Why do my human eyes, and my human heart, so often fail to see the beautiful glory of God?
Because most of the time, even though God is all around us, we aren’t looking. And it’s hard to find what you aren’t searching for. It’s hard to receive what you don’t ask for.
Now, sometimes, God’s beauty breaks through and knocks us flat on our…backsides. A moment of such breath-taking beauty that we can’t ignore it. Like it does for the disciples at the Transfiguration. A true “mountain-top” moment - maybe that first time you held your child or your grandchild. A sunset that was simply spectacular. An action of love or generosity that was so heartfelt and genuine that it couldn’t be denied.
And yet…and yet…God is in the everyday. God is in the valley as much as God is in the mountaintop. God is in the darkness as much as God is in the sunrise. God is in the everyday, normal moments, as much as God is in those life-changing experiences. And we have to train our normal human eyes to see it. We have to look for the sparkles. We have to pray for the sparkles.
Often in our world, it can be hard to see God at work. Not because God isn't here and not because God isn't at work….but because our eyes struggle to see past this reality and our hearts get closed off along with them. So how do we open our eyes and hearts? We pray to see God. This is a prayer that is almost always answered. When we pray for awareness of God, we get awareness of God. When we pray to see God's glory, we see God's glory. When we ask to be shown the sparkles, reality is peeled back…and we see the sparkles.
Maybe we see the sparkles in the children in our midst and their joy and openness. Maybe we see the sparkles in our neighbor as we look upon them with the eyes of God, seeing them as fully beloved. Maybe we hear the sparkles in a deep belly laugh that brings levity during a hard time. Maybe we are the ones who bring the awareness of the sparkles as we spread God’s generous love in this world.
I have found myself praying “show me the sparkles.” I pray it while sitting at red lights. I pray it while sitting in meetings. I pray it when I wake up. And admittedly, I pray it when I am beginning to get frustrated and my patience wears thin…show me the sparkles. Show me how you are active in this world, Lord. Show me that your Holy Spirit is moving through me and around. Show me that your fingerprints are over everything. Show me you. Help me see you. Make me more aware that you are God and that your beauty is everywhere.
Today as we come forward for Communion, we know we will encounter God in this meal. While there are lots of places where we may be made aware of the sparkling presence of God…God promises to show up, to reveal God’s self to us, in the sacrament of Holy Communion. As you come forward today pray, “Show me the sparkles.” Or perhaps “Show me your glory” or even “Just be here with me God and let me know it.” In this encounter between us and our Risen Lord in the bread and the cup, may it help us sparkle a little bit more too. Or reflect God’s glory…or as God has shown up for us, may it encourage us to be God to others, by showing up for them. As we partake in the body and blood of Christ, may we be for the world, the body of Christ, redeemed and reconciling.
While the last thing I need in my house is glitter…we all need more God sparkles in our world. A greater awareness of God’s divine beauty in this world. A greater awareness of everything Good. A greater awareness of the Love of God in action. And through experiencing that, through our eyes being opened to the dazzling Divinity, may we, through our actions and words, reflect that dazzling Love and Beauty of God to all we meet, making our world sparkle just a little bit more.
Amen.
Now, despite my household ban on glitter, a prayer that I have been finding myself praying over and over recently is “God, show me the sparkles…”
And in order to talk about what I mean about that, let’s turn to our story of The Transfiguration from today:
“Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory…”
We know that Jesus is God enfleshed. Divinity in a human body. And when people looked upon Jesus they saw…just a man. An ordinary man, in human flesh, looking just like the rest of us. In Jesus being transformed, transfigured, in this mountaintop experience, the eyes of the disciples no longer saw Jesus as just another human. In that moment, God pulled back the layers of reality to see the sparkles, the dazzling Divine in the presence of Jesus. Like a giant thing of glitter was dumped all over Jesus…
Now, there is precedent for this mountaintop experience - of a glittering, blinding, dazzling revelation from encountering Divinity. From the book of Exodus, Chapter 34:
“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.”
This passage is when Moses is coming down from the mountain after receiving the Torah and because he was talking to God, because he encountered God - HE is glowing. It’s like…residual radiation. That’s how DAZZLING the glory of God is, that even encountering the Divine makes YOU glow. And Moses, he didn’t even get the full glory of God that causes this residual glowing radiation of glory.
In Exodus, Chapter 33 we get this:
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you the name, ‘The Lord,’ and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one shall see me and live.” And the Lord continued, “See, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”
So to be clear…Moses didn’t even see the FACE of God. Moses saw, well, the term for polite company is…backside. And even the backside of The Most High, is SO glorious, SO Divine, SO beautiful…that Moses gets this residual DAZZLING glory that people can’t even look at his face, the face of Moses, without being blinded.
The way I see it is like this: encountering the Divine is an experience of pure beauty. Encountering the Divine is something that our human eyes can barely handle. Encountering the Divine rubs off on us, changes us, makes us sparkle too.
Moses said to God, Moses prayed, “Please show me your glory.” My version of this prayer recently for me has been, “God, show me the sparkles.” This prayer actually came to me separate from the readings of this text in Exodus and the story of the Transfiguration. It came to me because of a desire to see God at work in this world. I was inspired to start praying this prayer when I saw the absolute awe at which my child sees the world. Young children can see beauty everywhere. They find the glitter that sparkles in the tiny pebbles we step on. They see the way there is a rainbow in the puddle that to us is just an oil spill. They see unicorns in the clouds as our eyes are fixed downward.
I want to see the world as a child does - full of awe, and full of wonder, and full of beauty. And as a person of faith, I believe the ultimate source of awe, the ultimate source of wonder, and the ultimate source of beauty - is in God. I believe God is at work in our world. I believe God is present in every moment. I believe that God is only ever as far away as our next breath. God is everywhere… So why does my outlook on life so often lack dazzling sparkles? Why do my human eyes, and my human heart, so often fail to see the beautiful glory of God?
Because most of the time, even though God is all around us, we aren’t looking. And it’s hard to find what you aren’t searching for. It’s hard to receive what you don’t ask for.
Now, sometimes, God’s beauty breaks through and knocks us flat on our…backsides. A moment of such breath-taking beauty that we can’t ignore it. Like it does for the disciples at the Transfiguration. A true “mountain-top” moment - maybe that first time you held your child or your grandchild. A sunset that was simply spectacular. An action of love or generosity that was so heartfelt and genuine that it couldn’t be denied.
And yet…and yet…God is in the everyday. God is in the valley as much as God is in the mountaintop. God is in the darkness as much as God is in the sunrise. God is in the everyday, normal moments, as much as God is in those life-changing experiences. And we have to train our normal human eyes to see it. We have to look for the sparkles. We have to pray for the sparkles.
Often in our world, it can be hard to see God at work. Not because God isn't here and not because God isn't at work….but because our eyes struggle to see past this reality and our hearts get closed off along with them. So how do we open our eyes and hearts? We pray to see God. This is a prayer that is almost always answered. When we pray for awareness of God, we get awareness of God. When we pray to see God's glory, we see God's glory. When we ask to be shown the sparkles, reality is peeled back…and we see the sparkles.
Maybe we see the sparkles in the children in our midst and their joy and openness. Maybe we see the sparkles in our neighbor as we look upon them with the eyes of God, seeing them as fully beloved. Maybe we hear the sparkles in a deep belly laugh that brings levity during a hard time. Maybe we are the ones who bring the awareness of the sparkles as we spread God’s generous love in this world.
I have found myself praying “show me the sparkles.” I pray it while sitting at red lights. I pray it while sitting in meetings. I pray it when I wake up. And admittedly, I pray it when I am beginning to get frustrated and my patience wears thin…show me the sparkles. Show me how you are active in this world, Lord. Show me that your Holy Spirit is moving through me and around. Show me that your fingerprints are over everything. Show me you. Help me see you. Make me more aware that you are God and that your beauty is everywhere.
Today as we come forward for Communion, we know we will encounter God in this meal. While there are lots of places where we may be made aware of the sparkling presence of God…God promises to show up, to reveal God’s self to us, in the sacrament of Holy Communion. As you come forward today pray, “Show me the sparkles.” Or perhaps “Show me your glory” or even “Just be here with me God and let me know it.” In this encounter between us and our Risen Lord in the bread and the cup, may it help us sparkle a little bit more too. Or reflect God’s glory…or as God has shown up for us, may it encourage us to be God to others, by showing up for them. As we partake in the body and blood of Christ, may we be for the world, the body of Christ, redeemed and reconciling.
While the last thing I need in my house is glitter…we all need more God sparkles in our world. A greater awareness of God’s divine beauty in this world. A greater awareness of everything Good. A greater awareness of the Love of God in action. And through experiencing that, through our eyes being opened to the dazzling Divinity, may we, through our actions and words, reflect that dazzling Love and Beauty of God to all we meet, making our world sparkle just a little bit more.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment