"Lifting the Veil"
Sermon Presented February 18, 2007
Exodus 34:29-35
This morning we are again looking at a text from the Hebrew Scriptures, and one I never before considered preaching. However, I found something here for me and hopefully it will speak to you too.
Let's look at the background. Previously on "God's Dealing with the Israelites" we have seen Moses lead the people out of slavery in Egypt. We observed his trip up Mt. Sinai to receive God's instruction - the Ten Commandments - and then return to the people, discovering that during his absence, they have built and are worshiping a golden calf. We are familiar with Moses' anger that caused him to smash the tablets.
The tablets are beyond repair; God is angry; Aaron and the people make excuses; and Moses pleads with God to lead and not destroy the people. Moses has a great deal invested in these people! They are his people as well as God's people! I love the 14th verse of the 32nd chapter of Exodus that says: "And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people." History was changed by Moses' dialogue with God!
So Moses trudges back up the mountain to replace the broken tablets, but this time while he's gone, the people are on their good behavior! They're sorry for their sins and want to be God's people! Our text begins with Moses' return to the people, safely carrying the law of God. I'm reading from Exodus 34:29-35.
Wouldn't it be wonderful to have that kind of confirmation that you or your leader is God's spokesperson? I would like to think so! However, I have no reports that this has happened to any of us, and it isn't something a person could very well fake! Alas, we are not Moses!
Now just so you don't think I'm trying to fool you, let me explain my face! Last Thursday I kept an appointment made in November to have some pre-cancer spots removed. I didn't know at the time I made the appointment what the sermon text would be or that I would like to wear a veil when I preached this morning. I wasn't trying to make my skin glow with the treatment, but my face was really red when I left the clinic.
As Moses walks down the mountain, his face begins to glow, unbeknownst to him. God shows God's presence with him through this physical manifestation on his face. Maybe God knew that those who had recently created and worshiped a golden calf needed a sign of God's presence in Moses. However, the glow ignites fear in the people. Moses reassures them, and they come into his presence as he reads God's law to them.
But the glow on Moses' face doesn't go away, so his solution is to wear a veil when he isn't talking directly to God or to the people. His veil has the opposite effect of that of a bee keeper who wears a veil as protection against the bees. Moses wears his veil to protect the eyes of the onlookers from his radiance, because he needs to be accessible to the people. He's not just a speaker of God's word but the embodiment of God's word.
When Moses meets God on the mountain, he is more than an intermediary between God and the people. He is God's chosen one! When he returns to the people, he's in another world, and he doesn't move easily between the two worlds. The dazzling light that emanates from his face when he descends the mountain is too much for the onlookers. God's glory visually descends the mountain through Moses into the presence of the people, and Moses is the vehicle of God's presence. Those who have rebelled against God, now see a shaft of hope emerge in their midst.
The appearance of God's splendor isn't easy to interpret to a contemporary audience. Oh, we can read the story, but what does it say to us? In our culture, we are suspicious of reports of unusual signs of God's presence. For example, about 10 years ago, a great revival began in Toronto. For several years people from all over the world gathered at the church where it began for nightly services. Similar revivals spawned by visitors to Toronto sprang up elsewhere. Reports of miracles and unusual manifestations of the spirit were reported by the international media.
Because I had a former neighbor and friend who went to Toronto for a weekend to be a part of the services, I tended to believe it was of God - and I still believe that it began that way. But after a while, I began hearing reports of people barking like dogs as a sign of the Spirit's presence. Warning bells rang out!
We want to believe in miracles and signs and wonders, but when we think they may be in our midst, we put on our veils, not to protect others from God in us, but to protect us from too much of a good thing. We are too much in our heads for that anyway. We don't know what to do with God when God appears! We are like the disciples in the Gospel text who don't know what to do with the appearance of God so they suggest building booths to honor the ones who appeared to them. God's presence is just too much to handle!
And we also know that people can be manipulated into a frenzy by unconscionable preachers and evangelists, so we tend to hold the holy at arm's length. But unless we experience the holy splendor of God sometimes, we maintain a sterile faith that never moves from our heads to our hearts. There needs to be a balance of head and heart in our relationship with God. It's okay to shed tears in the presence of God and others! Removing our veils to look on God's glory requires an act of faith.
God acts for the people after they sinned grievously and then repented - after Moses stood in the gap between God and God's people, pleading with them and for them. And God continues to come to people, not causing our faces to light up like beacons, but causing our lives to radiate God's love to others.
Individually and collectively, we need newness! We need the glory of the Lord - not just for our benefit but for the benefit of others. That's the way it was for Moses. God's glory came to him, and God's people were the beneficiaries.
A large part of the power of religious faith in whatever age or culture is its ability to lift people and communities out of themselves and to place them in contact with a greater and more enduring reality. Even though it's important that our faith is relevant to the moral issues of the day, the transcendent aspect of our relationship with God can't be sacrificed without reducing faith to something other than faith. Our text reminds us of this truth. Even though what happens in this text may resemble superstition, its heart is about the transcendence of a holy God. It's what we call the presence of the numinous and the power of that reality in human life.
When we experience the holy, we often have difficulty reentering ordinary life. I have trouble with reentry following a lengthy retreat. Some have that same reentry problem after a great concert, ballet, or the music that was offered at Martha's memorial service. But reentry is what faith is all about! We are to be like solar panels that not only soak up and store energy from the sun but also use that energy to provide light and heat for others.
As I was preparing this sermon, I thought about near-death experiences that some have had, and in such experiences there is an element of experiencing God's presence. For those who watch Grey's Anatomy, the last show ended with Meredith's drowning. The preview for next week shows her rising from the table in a near-death experience.
Because we don't have radiant faces or frequent numinous experiences, we need to look for God in all people and situations. There, we can find God in the faces of people who offer us a ride, chicken noodle soup, friendship, or prayer. We can't stay in the high places forever. We have to leave the retreat center, the resort by the ocean, the cabin in the woods, the great worship experience or concert, to find grace in the trenches and the seemingly mundane encounters of ordinary life. We need both kinds of encounters.
Moses went back and forth between two worlds and the veil helped him to be approachable to the people. The point of having an experience with the holy is to be able to move back and forth between the sacred realm of the divine and the common realm of relationships, with a good balance between humility and awe!
As we head into the season of Lent this week, let's look for God in both the ordinary and the extraordinary - in the human and the divine. If you keep your minds and hearts open, I can almost guarantee that you will experience God.
