Love That Comes from a Choice

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Have you ever been told a joke and you didn’t get it?  Have you ever felt like the entire world is keeping a secret from you?  Have you ever seen a deeply religious person and wonder how or why they act and say the things they do?  Have you ever wondered how a person could deal with tragedy way better than we thought ourselves could?  Have you ever seen a person be so filled with joy, and maybe even filled with the Holy Spirit, and be curious as to how or why God made them feel that way?  Have you ever wondered why is God so easy to spot in one person’s life but not in mine?  If you answered yes to any of these questions the reason as to why can vary but Paul tries to make sense of it in our scripture for this morning.  We have to remember that there was a time when the power of Christ was veiled to Paul himself.  I would venture to say that there is veil over much of Christ’s power to all of us at certain times of our lives.  In other words, we have all been there.  Each one of us has doubted, questioned, and wondered different things about faith and God.  Yet, here we are gathered this  morning to worship a God whom the god(s) of this world have veiled us from at times.  We are gathered as a group of people to fellowship with one another, to join together as people who have all been there before.  We are gathered as family who struggle, pray and celebrate together.  

We have to ask though, why is God sometimes veiled to us?  If God truly loves us, then why would He do that?  Or maybe a better question would be to ask is why God would allow that to happen?  Paul is trying to help us to understand that God does not veil or hide himself from us.  The death and resurrection of Christ changed that for us.  Before Christ, all that we knew about God was found in serious of laws and rules.  Those laws only pointed out our sin and God wanted to get rid of it.  And not just get rid of it but God wanted us to understand that He completely vanquished and destroyed those sins.  The law was intended as a set of guidelines that would help us on our faith journey but those laws have limitations and were never intended to give us victory over death.  We must understand that Paul had a great respect for the laws of the Old Testament but again, Paul understood the limitations of the law.  Before Christ, the entire world had a veil over its face and this veil kept us from seeing God in all His glory.  When Christ died on the cross, the veil in the Holy of Holies was torn in two.  This is symbolic of God revealing Himself to us in much different way than we were used to.  It wasn’t that God had changed, not at all, but our perception of Him changes when we see God’s love and grace through the lens of Christ.  

We ought to get back to the question about God allowing Himself to be veiled to us.  Believe it or not, God allows that veil to exist because of His love for us.  God wants our worship, our faithfulness, our faith to be made out of a choice.  We often see God as a punisher, dictator, or as a God of strict and swift justice but that is simply not the case.  Yes, God desires for your faith to bring you closer to Him but He wants it to be a choice.  That is the reason God allows this world to veil or hide Himself to us.  The sole reason is one based on love.  Love that comes from a choice.  Think about the times in your life when you gave your kids the possible choices and they make the right one.  There is so much pride and love when you see that happen.  It can be as simple as holding two fingers in the air and asking a three year old how many fingers I am holding up.  And it can be as complicated as your teenager making the right decision about drugs or alcohol.  We are so swelled up with pride in those situations that we cannot hardly contain ourselves.  You know what?  God feels the same when we finally make that decision to follow Him.  God gives us the choice but He almost slants the odds in other direction.  In other words, God almost sets us to fail.  He allows the world to have our ear, He allows so much pain and suffering, He allows us to doubt His existence because the god(s) of this world to have such a loud voice.  In poker, the term is called “being on tilt” when the player is making a lot of bad decisions.  These bad decisions can be from a “bad beat” a few hands before or a player can be on tilt out of desperation.  When we are of this world, we are on tilt.  There are so many things that can keep us from God and instead of slamming down the royal flush and letting our discretions and bad decisions rule our lives, God folded His hand and laid down His life while still holding that royal flush. Sometimes it takes the desperation of being on tilt before we find our faith and for others it is a lifelong process but either way, it is only a decision that you can make.  

Maybe this analogy with help us make sense of all this.  The law of the Old Testament isn’t perfect but there are a lot of good lessons in there and they are beneficial but they are limited.  Before Christ and the law we lived in a world of darkness.  The law was a flashlight that helped us navigate that darkness.  But Christ was the sun (son), Christ was the daylight that brought us out of the darkness.  A flashlight has its purpose and it is a wonderful tool but it is limited.  A flashlight does not go on forever.  Even the best flashlight eventually runs out of power and there is an end to which it can reach but the sun’s (son’s) power is ever reaching.  Christ’s power grows with each person who decides to follow Him.  The light of God is always growing, always getting brighter with those who choose to follow Him.  

There are people and things in our lives that will veil God’s power, love, and grace to us, we may even go on full tilt and question God’s mere existence but no matter what, God is with us.  God is always there despite our best efforts to think and believe otherwise.  God’s love never gives up us.  We can go our entire lives with the veil of this world covering our eyes and God still loves us.  God’s love never runs out, there are no limitations and there is no end.  You may be wondering why make the decision to follow God now if I can make it later since His love never ends?  That a good question, only one you can answer.  Today is Transfiguration Sunday, the day on the liturgical calendar where we talk about the transforming power of Christ and if you choose to follow Christ, it will, undoubtedly change you.  Think of it like this: when you were a kid and were told to close your eyes or put a blindfold on while playing a game you most likely cheated, if we are being honest.  You either peeked through your fingers or tried to watch through the blindfold.  You could see a little, just enough to help you in the game but it is not until you completely remove your hands or the blindfold that you can see the entire picture.  With Christ in your life, your ability to see the complete picture changes drastically.  There will be shadows cast by the light but there is so much in this life that faith provides us with.  Christ ripped that veil from our eyes.  We are set to begin Lent on Wednesday and this Lenten season I would encourage you to make that choice to follow Christ in all that you do and keep making it every day.  God’s love and grace is no longer a mystery to us, our eyes have seen and our ears have heard the good news.  Go forth and spread the message of love and grace with every word you speak and every action you make.  Amen.