Reading: Psalm 99, Exodus 34:29-35, Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a), 2 Corinthians 3:12-18
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, February 27, 2022
Where do we see veiled faces? We may meet a Muslim lady, who has a burka, or we will see images from the Middle East where this a widespread practice. More likely, in my current locality, the place we see a veil is at a wedding, worn by the bride.
A veil is not a mask. We are well and truly acclimatized to seeing masks! A mask is designed to protect. A veil is designed to cover up beauty. Only the husband, the one who is in a love relationship with the bride, has the privilege of removing the veil.
On this Transfiguration Sunday, I want to look with you at a 3:16 verse, not John 3:16, but 2 Corinthians 3:16; “When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed.”
Using our analogy of the husband, who because of being in love relationship with the bride, has the right to remove the veil, so it is that as we nurture a love relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can witness the glory of God at work in our lives and our world.
This unveiling of our lives by God is a process, a process of transformation that is available to our lives because God loves us. It is not something that just happens, it takes commitment and openness to change. It requires that we be receptive to the moving of God’s Spirit. It means seeking to live a servant life that is modeled on that of Jesus Christ.
In the passage we heard from 2 Corinthians the contrast was made between those who read the Scriptures with a veil over their eyes, and those who came to God’s Word with unveiled faces. The veil in that comparison is not something positive, but something negative. It stopped them from seeing the beauty.
Can you imagine a groom lifting his bride’s veil, looking at her, and then saying, “Y’know honey, I think you should keep the veil on!” Right there would be a relationship that ended abruptly. 'Make that “I do” an “I don’t think so!'
2 Corinthians 3:16 “When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed."
What made up the veil that Corinthians tells us we need to remove? Might there be things that prevent our spiritual growth and discipleship? Probably!
This veil that prevented their vision was partly a veil of fear. The people were afraid to look at Moses, who was glowing with the intensity of God's glory when he came down from the mountaintop, for fear they would have their eyes scorched out. Their idea of God was that God was a fearsome God, one who may any moment descend upon them with great wrath.
To draw close to such a fearsome God was a scary thought. How could they? They were mere mortals. What did humanity have to do with such a God as this? They approached God through a veil of fear.
This fear showed itself in that they had to constantly think of ways of ingratiating themselves to bypass this terrifying God’s anger. So, religion became a matter of works rather than of faith. “What do we have to do in order to avoid God’s judgment?”
When Jesus came, He revealed a New Way. A way not based upon trying to avoid getting in trouble with God but based on belief that the trouble with life on earth was that we did not recognize how much God wanted us to know we are God’s children, accepted, loved, and cherished, by the One who created us.
So, you find in this passage there is talk of liberty and growth and boldness, and all this through the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit whose presence was the earmark of the new relationship of trust that God had demonstrated in Jesus Christ who lived for us, died for us, and was raised for us.
We read in verse 17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Freedom from fear. Freedom from a religion that made being “good enough” the bottom line. Freedom to explore and question and make mistakes. Freedom to fall and get up again.
Sometimes Christianity is pictured as being a restricting, life denying religion. A faith that prevents progress and is helplessly bound to tradition. That was not how the Church in Corinth had experienced the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They were known for their boldness in exploring the boundaries and for their charismatic experience of God's Holy Spirit. In fact, one of the problems that Paul writes to them about was that they sometimes took their liberty a little too far, and it had led to some unhealthy relationships and practices.
We will save that insight for another day because what I want to focus on in this passage about the veil being removed, is that fact that when they were embraced by the Christian message it made them feel as though they could really see, maybe for the first time in their lives. Their vision of what God could do and what they could achieve was radically altered.
They could totally identify with the insight John Newton offers us in the hymn “Amazing Grace”... “I was blind, but now I see.” And how does that seeing… that vision come to us?
As we turn to the Lord. Truly turning to God does not leave us the same. We are transformed. We are pushed into not staying as we are. We are reminded that this will be a lifelong journey … this unveiling, this recasting of the drama, this ability to catch the vision of the Kingdom.
This idea, this hope that our lives are daily being transformed by the glory of God, is wonderfully captured in Charles Wesley's hymn, “Love Divine, All loves excelling.”
“Finish then Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee.
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”
There was a tradition in Welsh hymn singing, which came out of times of religious revival, that often the last stanza of a hymn would be repeated a number of times. I tell you, by the time you got to repeating “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” it made you feel like anything was possible.
This morning as we worship, I ask you to consider this one verse; “When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed.” I invite you to lay your life, with all its prejudices, misconceptions, sins, and regrets, before God.
Offer your fears, offer your striving, offer your hurts and your troubles, in the knowledge that our God is not a God who seeks to destroy us, but One who desires to bless you.
Seek for the Holy Spirit to effect in your life the process of transformation that this letter speaks of. Allow God to move you “from glory to glory,” allow God to build a love relationship with your life.
We are familiar with the idea of a romantic date being one where a person may share a meal in an up-market restaurant with the person who is the focus of their affections. Every month we gather around a communion table, the special guests of a loving God. Every act of worship we have an opportunity to deepen our relationship with God.
“When one turns to the Lord the veil is removed.” Allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to lift the veil, to remove the fear, to set us free. The gospel reading for Transfiguration Sunday is all about that moment on the mountain when Jesus was glimpsed in all His glory and the disciples heard a voice declare “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him!”
This moment can be a mountaintop in our spiritual walk. Today we can sense His voice and His call. Today our vision can be enhanced, and we can have greater clarity about things in our life with which we are dealing.
Let us pray God that every time we worship we will be changed. That the veil will be removed and that we will go out into the world a little more confident, seeing a little clearer, a little more inspired, a little more able to get on with the business of declaring and modeling the Kingdom of God for a world that really needs to see!
And to God's name be all glory. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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