Sermon: Pentecost - veils & headscarves

From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul

Pentecost - veils & headscarves

23 May 2010 The Revd Jenny Wilkens

• Exodus 33:7-20
• 2 Corinthians 3:4-18

http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons

Those of us travelling on the pilgrimage later this week have been receiving our final instructions. One recent email advised us that we should take a light skirt that can be slipped on when necessary and a small headscarf. I am looking forward to the photo of the tour party, including the 14 men, wearing their skirts and headscarves!

Headscarves and veils, you could be forgiven for wondering where our readings were going tonight, with the rather confusing image of Moses wearing or not wearing a veil.

Yet millions of Muslim women in our world wear some sort of head covering, from the simple hijab to face-veils and the burka. I must admit to being challenged recently reading about some feminist Muslim women who advocate the wearing of veils, as they feel these promote their freedom and dignity rather than being judged on their physical appearance or being seen simply as an object for sexual exploitation. More about that later on.

But first of all we need to grasp the context of our readings this evening. And you really need to read on from Exodus 33, into Exodus 34 as well to get the whole picture. In brief, Moses has been up Mt Sinai for a very long time, receiving the law and instruction from God. The people have given up on him ever coming back and encourage Aaron to make them an idol, the golden calf. But Moses comes back down the mountain with the tablets of the law, discovers what has happened, and breaks the tablets in anger at the people's rejection of God and his law.

Moses then finds himself in the unenviable position of advocate for the people before God, pleading with God to spare the people and to still go with them on the journey into the land he has promised them.

Moses' heartfelt prayer calls forth from God a fresh revelation of who God is. Moses glimpses God's glory and hears that God, true to his character is a God of goodness, of mercy and graciousness. Moses again treks up Mt Sinai, receives the second set of tablets of the law and returns down the mountain. When he comes down, his face is shining, because he has been talking with God, and the people are afraid to come near him.

Pause for a moment to look up at our dossal hanging of the transfigured Christ, and remember that we are told in the Gospels that Jesus' face and clothes too shone with the glory of God.

So Moses covers his shining face with a veil, except for when he goes into the tent of meeting to speak with God, as we're told 'the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.' (Ex 33:11), When Moses goes in to speak with God, he takes off the veil.

This then is the context for our 2nd reading in 2 Corinthians. We really need to go back to the beginning of chapter 3 to find out what is happening. It seems that Paul is being attacked by some who question his credentials, and so Paul makes what is in the circumstances a most generous compliment to the Corinthians, "you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the Living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Cor 3:3)

Paul goes on to develop this image, and this is why he makes such stark contrasts between the old covenant and the new, between the law and the Spirit, between tablets of stone and human hearts, between Moses and Christ.

Some have felt that Paul overplays his hand here, and that he ends up devaluing Moses and the old covenant, in his efforts to stress the supremacy of Christ and the new covenant.

But in fact Paul is not denying the validity and the value of the law and the ministry of Moses. Rather he is using a well known rhetorical device of his time, the 'how much more' argument, also used in the letter to the Hebrews. If x, how much more y. If the old covenant of the law came with glory, how much more does the new covenant come with glory in Christ. If Moses' ministry of the law came with glory, how much more that of Christ which brought in the ministry of the Spirit.

Paul now moves to a different use of the imagery of the veil. He now sees it as something more negative, something which blocks a person from seeing the glory of God in God's word. He picks up a familiar argument of his: that while God's law in and of itself is good, it is the hardness of our hearts and minds that prevents us from keeping it and obeying it.

Paul goes on in 2 Corinthians 4 to speak of 'the god of this world who has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4)

Perhaps a challenge to us might be to think what veils us from seeing the glory of God, from seeing the truth of God's word? What in our society and culture and lifestyle blocks us from seeing a spiritual side to life, what smothers people, blankets them so they do not see the glory of God around them?

It's a bit like imagining we are all sitting here with IPods on, while missing the glorious music of Howell's Collegium Regale! What transient music of our culture is filling our ears and making us miss the music of the heavenly spheres? Which of the many images that flash past on our TV and computer screens are blocking us from seeing what is really important, what is really of God in our world and society?

How is the veil removed? Paul takes us back to Moses' story and reminds us that when Moses goes into the Lord's presence to speak with him, the veil is removed. Paul takes that quote about Moses and applies it to us all: 'when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.' (2 Cor 3:16). The word 'turn to' has connotations of convert, repent, turn around and face God.

When we face God, the veil is removed. But it is not all our own work. There is the mystery that God's Spirit too is at work, softening our hearts, drawing, healing, changing hearts and lives, bringing freedom. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor 3:17). This is where we find freedom from the things that bind us, that smother us and blanket us from seeing God clearly. This is where we find the dignity of knowing ourselves to be loved children of God, with the privilege of being able to look on God face to face, and to know God looks on us in love.

This is why Paul can end triumphantly with a marvellous verse of affirmation: 'all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.' (2 Cor 3:18)

I sometimes think that this would be a good verse to write out and stick up on whatever mirror you look in first thing in the morning! Many of us are not that good at looking in the mirror and seeing the glory of the Lord, seeing that we are being transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another. Often other people are better at seeing this transformation process going on in us than we are!

But as we look round at each other tonight, know that everybody is looking at somebody in whose heart and life the Spirit of God has been and is at work, healing, softening, changing, giving us life and glory. This is what we celebrate on this day of Pentecost, that God's Spirit is alive and well and at work within us and among us and out and about in God's world.

Look for the signs of God the Spirit's work among us! Look for the signs of God the Spirit's work in your life, and the lives of those around you. Listen for the music, look for the glory!

"Changed from glory into glory, till in heaven we take our place, Till we cast our crowns before thee, lost in wonder, love and praise." (Love Divine, all loves excelling, Charles Wesley)