Luke 9:28-36

Last week an amazing event took place. The president of Toyota went on television to apologize publicly for sticking gas pedals and mushy brakes. But he wasn't just another CEO trying to staunch the bleeding of red ink all over his company's bottom line. He was also the grandson of Toyota's founder, and he was desperately trying to "save face" - for himself and for the past and future generations of his family.

In Asian cultures "face" is everything. "Face" is arguably the most positive social value a person can claim. One's "face" is the combination of honor, reputation, responsibility, prestige, and worthiness that one must maintain within all social interactions. To "lose face" is to behave in such a way that every aspect of one's being - social, emotional, intellectual, spiritual - is diminished, disfigured, disgraced.

Just as the Inuit peoples have dozens of words for "snow", the environment that defines their lives, this concept of "face" is so critical to Japanese and Chinese cultures, for example, that there are some 98 different words to describe it. All social interactions depend on carefully maintaining these concepts of "face".

Anyone ever hear of "Facebook?" Western culture now increasingly defines "social" relationships on a place called "Facebook." On our Facebook accounts we can create the image of ourselves that we want others to see. We can edit out aspects of our lives that might be embarrassing, uncomplimentary, or just "too much information." We can post only the most flattering pictures of ourselves. We can fudge facts or write complete fictions! We can even have multiple Facebook accounts.

But we do not have complete control over our Facebook face. Others can leave messages, report gossip, or reveal secrets on our “Wall” for everyone to see. Already there have been too many cases where teenage hazing and cruelty have led to the last, desperate act of the "face-less" - ending their own lives because without "face" they believe there is no life.

Here is the #1 Rule for a TGIF World (TGIF stands for Twitter/Google/Internet/Facebook): the more Facebook the more face-time.

Let me put it another way: the more Facebook the more face-to-face, in-your-face. The more we depend on cyberspace face-offs and virtual face-lifts, the more real "in your face" time we need to make in our lives. Making "face-time" with friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, takes away the electronic filters that hide us or protect us. It is face time that makes us vulnerable, that makes us real, that makes us human.

When Moses asks God to "show me your glory," God agrees.

(from http://www.sermons.com)