One of the films nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary feature was a film called Minding the Gap. The movie Free Solo won the award, and the cinematography in Free Solo was amazing; but I was more captivated by the story in Minding the Gap.
The filmmaker - Bing Liu - convinced several of his friends to let him follow them around with a camera over the course of a decade, as they all transitioned from boyhood to adulthood amidst volatile families and startling revelations, all in their troubled community. At times Liu even turned the camera toward himself, documenting his own life and family.
The opening scenes just show his friends skateboarding around town, being kids. But there’s a lot more to the story than that.
One of the friends he followed around is Zack, and early on, the film showed Zack taking on the responsibilities of being a young father. We see Zack’s commitment to doing everything he can to be there for his baby and his girlfriend. Some of the scenes are really sweet.
But the relationship between Zack and his girlfriend falls apart. We learn later on that Zack has hit his girlfriend. We don’t see this, but we see the aftermath - remember, these are real people. And we realize Zack isn’t quite the person we maybe thought he was at the beginning of the movie.
In an interview, director Bing Liu said this about his friend Zack:
“Zack didn’t feel a sense of control growing up. He felt trapped, felt like he had to run away, he felt like he couldn’t express himself, he felt like all the things he cared about, no adults validated… People talk about this with anorexia and cutting… you can’t control things externally, so I’m gonna control this pain that I inflict upon myself… When I finally showed [Zack] the film, he said, ‘I thought you were going to portray me way worse; I’m relieved actually.’”
That comment, Liu said, shows how Zack felt about himself.
Now I find my opinion of Zack changing yet again. At first I admired him for how hard he tried to be a good father. Then I judged him for hitting his girlfriend, something he even defended on camera.
But now, I feel sorry for him.
Because, in some ways, the person Zack became is a reflection of the family he grew up in, and the troubled community he grew up in.
We know this is true for a lot of people who become abusers or bullies - most of them were once abused or bullied themselves. They are a reflection of the world in which they lived.
This week’s scripture is about how one man’s life reflected what he experienced. 
The man is Moses, and after spending time in God’s presence, Moses’ face literally reflected the glory of God.
We didn’t read it, but today the lectionary also presents the story of Jesus’ transfiguration, when Jesus took three of his disciples up on a mountain, and suddenly the glory of God appeared, and Jesus himself became dazzling with the reflection of God’s glory.
All this has me thinking about the film I saw - Minding the Gap - and its portrayal of these boys becoming men, and how their lives really do reflect the environments in which they grew up: their homes, their families, their community; but also the friendship and support and love that was present even in the midst of these difficult circumstances.
Most of us probably know some people who we wish could have had better experiences to shape who they are. They’ve made some bad choices in life, or have struggled too hard to figure things out… and while each individual certainly bears responsibility for their own actions, we also see how their actions and their lives are a reflection of what they experienced in the past.
And many of us know that our own lives have been shaped by experiences in our own past, and in some ways we ourselves are a reflection of those experiences - for better or for worse.
We can’t do anything about the experiences they - or we ourselves - have had. Whether they were good experiences or bad.
But we can do something. We can help shape the experiences we and those around us have in the present. And it can make all the difference.
As Christians, we know that we are loved by God.
All Christians are loved by God. Whatever your race, your gender, your age, your nationality, your sexual orientation, your gender identity: you are loved by God. And the image of God is in you. And you are capable of reflecting that image to those around you.
Jesus models for us how this is done. Jesus knew he was the embodiment of God’s love. Jesus knew that he was a beloved child of God. Jesus knew that God’s image was in him. And Jesus reflected that image and that love into the lives of others.
And we can see how that love was intensely focused on those who had had bad experiences, experiences that would have otherwise shaped their lives, had it not been for the intervening love of God.
These are people whose lives were a reflection of the oppressive, life-denying world in which they lived. It was a time when Roman rulers only wanted to increase their own wealth and power, so they placed heavy burdens on the poor in order to make that happen.
The poor had to take out loans to keep up with the demands placed on them. When the poor couldn’t pay back their loans, the Romans seized their land.
As far as the Romans were concerned, the poor had no worth as humans; their only worth came from how they could contribute to Rome’s power and authority and wealth.
Meanwhile, the high priests were promised power and authority by Rome as long as they kept the people in line. So these leaders ignored God’s concern for the poor; they ignored God’s demands for justice; and they collaborated in the oppression.
Then came Jesus, who planted the seeds of a new kingdom, an alternative kingdom: the kingdom of God.
Jesus showed God’s love by reaching out to those who were poor. Jesus claimed the anointing of God’s spirit to specifically preach “good news to the poor.” He wanted to reflect something different into their lives. He wanted to reflect God’s love into their lives, in the hopes that their own lives might, in turn, become reflections of God’s love.
This is what the Christian faith is all about! We follow a man who was the perfect reflection of God’s love for all people.
And that man then told us that we are his body in the world. We are his disciples. We are “Christians” which literally means little Christs. Each one of us, a little Christ.
Christ is present in us and among us, and Christ calls upon us to reflect God’s love into the world, to reflect God’s love into people’s lives - especially the lives of those who have had so little in the way of love.
And I get frustrated with influential, powerful, Christian leaders who get this wrong. And I’ll call them out by name: it’s people like Franklin Graham, son of the late Billy Graham, and Robert Jeffress Jr., the prominent pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas.
One day while I was working on this sermon, Robert Jeffress Jr. described in his online devotional how his church faced a “Red Sea Moment,” when God parted the sea and made it possible for his church to achieve the impossible: building a new, multi-million dollar building.
But he forgets that God parted the Red Sea so that God’s people - poor, economically oppressed, and held in slavery - could find freedom and could escape from an economic system that allowed the wealthy and powerful to benefit from their exploited lives and labor.
Of course Robert Jeffress forgets that. Because he supports our current administration and our current tax system which recently gave huge tax breaks to millionaires and giant corporations, while the poor end up paying more even while the services they depend on are cut.
There is nothing about an economic system that takes from the poor and gives to the rich that reflects God. God’s love is not reflected in such a policy.
But love is the ultimate authority.
We claim scripture as authoritative, but even scripture says that love is the greatest, most powerful gift of all. “Faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.” As much as I am a fan of scripture and Bible study, I’m aware that it doesn’t say, “The greatest of these is how you interpret scripture.” It says the greatest of these is love.
So if we want to let God’s glory be reflected in us, we need to show love.
And we especially need to show love to those who have seen so little of God’s reflection in their own lives.
When the angel told Mary that she was to be the mother of Jesus, she praised God, saying that God “has scattered the proud, brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” [Luke 1:51-53].
Mary’s song reflects the glory of God. It shows God’s love for those who have been mistreated.
When Jesus began his ministry, he said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; the Spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” [Luke 4:18-19].
This statement reflects the glory of God. It shows God’s love for those who have been mistreated.
When Moses encountered God and came down from the mountain to the people, his face was shining. His face reflected the glory of God. This startled the people, so Moses wore a veil to hide his face.
Those Hebrews had been through a lot. They had endured generations of slavery. Love from beyond their own family, their own kin, was something they weren’t used to. It was too much for them. It was hard for them to accept this love.
That happens sometimes. A person who hasn’t had much love feels unworthy when love comes their way. They try to hide from it.
I’ve mentioned before the teenager who told me he didn’t think any person would ever love him, or that God would ever love him, because he was gay. No one had ever shown him that reflection of God. In fact, religious leaders and others in positions of power and authority had deliberately kept that love hidden from him.
So many need to see the reflection of God’s love and God’s glory shining forth. Are you one of them?
God’s glory is bright. It may take a while for your eyes to adjust, if that glory has been kept hidden from you.
But you need to know that, in God’s eyes... You. Are. Beautiful. You are worthy of being loved. In fact, you yourself are a reflection of God’s glory.
And if you allow it, God’s glory will shine through you, bringing light and love to the world.
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