Seeing God's Face; St. Andrew's Church, Lisbon

Psalm 30

2 Kings 5:1-14

Mark 1:40-45

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

When you smile, the air grows warm and soft,
the earth is watered with gentle mists,
seeds sprout and spread leaves above the dark, damp soil,
earthworms pierce the crust and frolic across the surface
to the delight of fat, happily hunting robins,
lilies of the valley unfurl beside purple, grape-scented irises,
fat pink and maroon peonies, and gay California poppies,
damask roses hurl their rich fragrance to the wind,
the crazy-with-sheer-joy song of the Northern mockingbird
echoes above other chirps and sweet winged notes,
gardeners join the worms in the warm, rich dirt,
children gallop across yards and grab handfuls of dandelions
to present to mothers who will set them in glasses of water
in kitchen windows or on dining room tables, weeds
glorious after the dark of winter with the color of the sun
that grows and warms and heals in your smile.

That’s “The Sun Grows In Your Smile,” by Linda Rodriguez.

When you smile at someone it causes a reaction in the part of their brain that processes visual images, but it also causes a reaction in their soul. Children don’t really gallop across yards, but it’s as if they did. When you smile at me, my heart leaps!

I remember when my family first visited Portugal in the summer of 2000. We rented a little cottage in Colares. Shortly after we arrived I went for a walk. I was jet-lagged and disoriented and far from my comfort zone. Naturally, I got lost. I came to a narrow section of sidewalk and there on the other side was a little old Portuguese woman, dressed in black, with the skin that's turned to soft leather. I expect she was an angel. We looked at each other and realized we weren't going to get through this without some sort of extraordinary maneuver. We turned sideways and began moving carefully past each other and she looked at me and smiled. At the time I didn't understand Portuguese. Now I know that she was saying with her smile, "Conseguimos, filho." "We did it, lad." All I knew at the time was that the sky opened up and I felt my feet firmly on the ground and I was no longer lost. Something similar happens in our relationship with God.

As we’ve already seen this morning, Psalm 30 says,

“When I felt secure, I said,

            “I will never be shaken.”

O Lord, when You favored me,

            You made my mountain stand firm;”

That’s a good day. I have those. When I feel like Jesus and I are just like this [crossed fingers]. I’m bullet-proof.

“But when You hid Your face,

            I was dismayed.“

“mas se desvias de mim o Teu olhar, fico cheio de medo.” “I’m full of fear.”

That’s a bad day. I have those, too. To borrow another of David’s expressions, my heart turns to wax. I’m afraid of my own shadow. Like the guy described in Proverbs who says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets.” Everything looks like a lion.

In his excellent book, How to Improve Your Marriage Without Talking About It, Dr. Steven Stosny describes the way in which a woman’s body undergoes physiological and chemical changes in response to her husband when he turns his face from her in anger, gives her the cold shoulder. Dr Stosny says her reaction arises from a built in fear of abandonment. It´s automatic; not ordinarily under her control. I’m very much like that with God. If anything, whether of commission or omission, comes between me and the Holy Spirit, I’m just doo-doo.

This idea of seeing God’s face recurs often in scripture and it has been a primary theme in my own faith journey over the past several years. One of its more familiar appearances is that wonderful blessing from the 6^th chapter of the Book of Numbers I like to use when quitting the company of my own children:

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face to shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn His countenance towards you

and give you peace.”

The Hebrew word translated “peace” there is, of course, “shalom.” It’s a vast word you can never come to the end of.

Another familiar reference to seeing God’s face

is the one you hear at nearly every Christian wedding in the United States, from the Love Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13:

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

From these two texts, Numbers 6 and 1 Corinthians  13, and others like them, it appears that we need to make a distinction between a certain apprehension of God’s face that is possible now and a different seeing of God’s face that is reserved for the future. God, in response to Moses’ request to be shown His glory, said,

“You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live,” (Exodus 33:20),

but David, in one of the great orienting verses, one of the verses to set your GPS by, says in Psalm 27:

“One thing I ask of the Lord,

            this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

            all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

            and to seek Him in His temple.”

In my Boas Novas Portuguese translation, that verse that’s translated, “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord,” is translated  “para sentir a amizade do Senhor,” that is, “to sense the Lord’s friendship.” That really works for me. When I go about with an abiding sense of God’s friendship, that in all things, even in the difficulties, He works for the good of those who love Him, I’m golden. Unfortunately, I forget.

Christians are united with Christ. The Bible compares the relationship between the believer and Christ to the relationship between a husband and wife who, as far as God is concerned, compose a single person. When you smile you convey a sympathy that speaks of commonality, of union. With God, it works the other way round: when we guard our unity with Him, we feel His pleasure, we feel the warmth of His countenance shining upon us.

Going back to Dr. Steven Stosny, he says that throughout our lives our primary source of intimacy is . . . what? Do you think it’s talking with people? Touch? Facebook? He says throughout our lives our primary source of intimacy is eye-contact.

Many of you are acquainted with Serve the City’s Community Dinners project, wherein homeless and disadvantaged people relax, dine and deepen friendships with people who are integrated into the community. It is such fun to be an ambassador for Christ, to dine with people who are ordinarily treated as if they’re invisible, as if they don’t exist, and look them in the eye and smile and expect that the Holy Spirit of the Living God is going to raise them from the dead. It happens. People are being brought back to life. 

Pay close attention to the impression smiles make upon your soul and see if you can detect something similar in your relationship with God.