by The Rev. Dr. Max Lynn
SCRIPTURE READINGS Exodus 34:29-35, 2 Corinthians 3:12 - 4:2
Transcribed from the sermon preached on MARCH 2, 2025
Exodus 34:29-35
29Moses came down from Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. 30When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. 31But Moses called to them; and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses spoke with them. 32Afterward all the Israelites came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. 33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face; 34but whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would take the veil off, until he came out; and when he came out, and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35the Israelites would see the face of Moses, that the skin of his face was shining; and Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
II Corinthians 3:12 - 4:2
12Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, 13not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. 14But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. 15Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; 16but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And 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.
4Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
Moses goes up to the mountain by himself on his vision quest and meets God. It lights him up and he comes down all lit up. I have seen this light and felt it myself from having an awesome experience in nature. It can change the way you look. So, Paul references that Moses covered his face with a veil because his lit-up face alarmed the people. Paul turns this around in his telling of the story though – pointing out that it was the people who were veiled from the light and presence of God, in fear and guilt. They had a separation between them and God, so they had to hide.
It used to be that only people who had something to hide wore a mask. Criminals. Bandits in Western movies. I remember at a Black Lives Matter demonstration we were all out marching and then Antifa came down the street with black masks, throwing rocks and bottles. The KKK wear their white sheets to cover their sin.
Then we had covid, and everybody put on a mask and thank God for masks and scientists who did the best they could with an unprecedented and rapidly changing situation. But there are unintended consequences. Of course, the masks helped contribute to the looting during riots and group theft of department stores. The mask became a way to hide ourselves. But I have to admit that more than once when I ventured out I appreciated having the mask as a veil when I was unshaven and had bad breath or was sad from grief and didn’t want to show myself. Our face reveals who we are and what we are feeling like no other thing.
There are different ways that we mask and hide. There is a healthy modesty and comfort, but how often do we use clothes to hide things about ourselves that we don’t like? Or to avoid interaction with people who might intimidate us.
Sometimes we want to remain non-descript. It is an unwritten rule that average Joe surfers should wear black wet suits, because colored ones make it seem like you want to be seen and show off. So, if you want to show off you had better be good enough to show off. And standing out draws attention of the local wolf pack. Sometime flash and sticking out, even showing off nudity can be an attempt at distraction or veiling some sense of shame. Sometimes we are driven to pretend we don’t have fear or shame because we do, to prove to others we are free because inside we don’t feel free. Thank God for creative people and experimentation of youth, and not always going along with the crowd. And yet, we may rebel and make a flamboyant show of our supposed freedom because we are not free of the judge stuck in our heart and mind. Some of this is natural to youth, especially in our culture. You are supposed to stick out so you can fit in. But oh, how we want to fit in, how we fear not fitting in!
And of course, there are the clothes of status and class that we use to veil our lack of character – or to pretend we have character. JD Vance recently criticized President Zelenski for not wearing a suit. As if Vance’s own suit could veil his own crass arrogance and gutless idolatry.
Of course we use alcohol, drugs, both legal and illegal, and business as masks. Telephones are probably our number one mask these days. When we feel anxious or alone and don’t want others to know we impulsively look at our phone. Also, during Covid the stay home social distancing became an excuse to hide out. I felt bad for high schoolers and college students, but Feliciana and I were old and still in grief from the loss of our son, so hiding out for a while didn’t sound that bad. Zoom, God bless it, enables us to connect in ways that we never could, but it also enabled us to pretend to connect but keep distance, to veil parts of ourselves, to hide we were still in our pajamas but also to avoid intimate relationship and contact. So much of social media holds that same blessing and curse. We can connect across nation and culture to play video games, and have this fun, compartmentalized relationship without having to get real, without having to reveal our whole selves in real relationship. Pornography of course, allows us to fantasize while retaining the vale over our real humanity, over our soul.
Now part of our culture would like to think the way to rid ourselves of guilt and shame is to erase the idea of sin or God. But if all these ways of veiling ourselves are any indication, if the rise of loneliness and depression are any indication, this tactic doesn’t work. I know plenty of atheists who are burdened with guilt and shame. While there are some sins which are sins whether anyone names them as such or not, most of us get most of our guilt and shame from our family of origin. And that can be different for different people and families. For instance, “Never show your feelings.” Or the opposite, showing your anxiety and emotions is the way you get your way or get attention. Every family has its own ten commandments. If you don’t do it perfectly, dad will get mad. If you don’t keep this secret, Dad will hurt you. If you don’t do this exactly this way, mom will harumph around and pout. If you succeed, your siblings will get jealous, and your mom will think you will leave her. If you succeed and get healthy, dad won’t have anyone to nag or save. Mom wants you to do it right but not so right that she can’t find something wrong to criticize you, or a reason to save you. Sometimes getting healthy and doing the right thing is the thing that you get a guilt trip for in your family. There can be guilt feelings about letting go of grief, of allowing yourself to enjoy things again. We show our love by feeling bad. It doesn’t have to make sense to make us feel guilty. We may feel guilt or shame for what others have done to us.
The point is that what we feel guilty and ashamed of doesn’t have to be a cardinal sin, or even objectively a sin at all. And yet the guilt or shame if we feel it is real.
Now for some the way to salvation is to figure out what the commandments are, what the rules are and follow them exactly to the tee, every time all the time. Besides the fact that nobody is perfect, no set of rules are perfect and applicable for all times and places. But sin is very creative and will always find a way around the law. And sometimes sin is legal. In fact, most of the time, our biggest problem in our life comes from and is all tied up to our greatest strength. Sometimes this is appropriate and good. Sometimes the law is wrong. The preachers and poets talk too much. The lawyers, categorizers and researchers are rigid and stiff. The mother hen can be smothering. The artists and peacemakers have weak boundaries. This is why we put up the veil, because to come face to face with God we would have to admit our sin is tied up with who we are, our very identity.
Another way people try for salvation, I have already mentioned is to take the label of sin or law off those things we feel guilty for but don’t want to. But in my pastoral care experience, we might be able to argue reasonably that we have no need to feel guilt or shame, and people may tell you, you shouldn’t feel bad, but the reason and the telling don’t fix your feeling. Someone can tell me I shouldn’t feel guilty for being unable to be there to save my son, and I can understand that rationally, but it doesn’t erase my feeling.
So, Paul is arguing that the way to freedom is through grace and forgiveness, the grace of Christ, once and for all. There is not one god or one ritual for one issue here, and another god or ritual for another issue over there. It is not one kind of grace for this super bad sin and another kind for this medium sin, and another one for this thing that really isn’t a sin but feel bad anyway.
By faith, we trust that God’s grace is sufficient for each of us and all of us, we take the veil off, we admit what we feel bad for, what we struggle with, how our lives may be messed up, how we may have hurt others, and we ask for forgiveness. And we find God has already forgiven us, and that God’s Spirit resides in us to give us the power to overcome, to be free. We can let the guilt and shame go. We are no longer enslaved by it, no longer need to hide. No longer need a mask, our phone, that drink, that porn, that extra food, we no longer need to act out to fit in, no longer need that fancy suit to hide from or prove ourselves to others, because they are not our God, and they cannot save us. We can forgive them too, because we do not need them to pronounce us saved. In Christ we are free from society and culture and family. Yet in our freedom in the Love of Christ, we are called to love them. In this freedom, in this grace, God shines forth from our soul. Now our faces shine, shine with freedom, with integrity, with wisdom, with grace, with joy, with love.
II Cor 3:17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And 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.