Exodus 34: 29-35

The Medieval mystics had one goal in their lives of contemplation and discipline—to attain the Beatific Vision, to see God in all God’s glory. Few people have that goal these days. But we still love glory– substitute glory like the glory of sports, reflected glory in spectacular sunsets, attributed glory where there seems to be none. In that last phrase, I’m thinking of the glory some people see in, say, warfare. Most Americans don’t think about the historical context that gave birth to that great patriotic hymn, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” As the slaughter that was the Civil War broke out, Julia Ward Howe took a popular tune and gave it new words that came to her in a rush. So, the victory of the North over the South became an occasion of glory, an Epiphany. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord….” The song even ends connecting the Civil War with the work of Christ. It is human, I suppose, to claim the Lord as our ally and see his glory in our cause. But we must be careful. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ most powerfully in his crucifixion for “poor ornery sinners like you and like I.”

What is the purpose of a veil? Is it to conceal? It is to reveal in part? Is it to protect? It is to hint? The story of the veil worn by Moses is told in Exodus (34:29-35) and then is referenced by Paul in II Corinthians 3:12-4:2. Over the course of those two texts, the veil is examined in a variety of ways...

Over the weekend we learned about love in Iraq. Our guests were our new refugee friends from Iraq, Ziyad and Ghadah, who explained to us that their marriage was arranged by their parents. Ziyad is very much in favor of arranged marriages, explaining that parents love their children and want the very best for them, and sometimes the parents make better decisions that young lovers do. That's hard to argue with. Some of the parents in the room wanted to pick their children's spouses too. It was a very traditional courtship. Ziyad did not speak to Ghadah alone until after they were engaged. And Ghadah wore a hijab, which is a headscarf worn by Muslim women, sometimes including a veil that covers the face except for the eyes. Some Muslim women wear a burqa, which is a loose, usually black or light blue robe that covers the body from head to toe. I think all of us were fascinated by these veils worn by the women. One of our Muslim guests said that she wore a hijab when she came to the states, and a woman came up to her and said, "Listen, honey, you don't have to wear that anymore because you are in America now!" But Ghadah and the other Muslim women explained to us that wearing these veils was not a dishonor, but rather an honor. It fulfilled the Islamic requirement of modesty, but it was also a way of saving their beauty for their husband. She said it was like having a beautiful diamond that you didn't show everybody, but saved it for only special people to see. After all this talk about Muslim veils, I was surprised when I looked closely at our text for today and discovered that Paul mentions veils in this text five times!...

("In her book Speaking of Sin, Barbara Brown Taylor has a chapter that bears the rather startling title, 'Sin Is Our Only Hope'. It seems an oddly perverse title and yet Brown Taylor makes a good point. After all, if we look around us in life, we see so much that is painful. We see children abused and spouses cheated on...")