Moses' Veil and Ours

Exodus 34: 29-35; Luke 9: 28-36
February 25, 2001
Transfiguration Sunday

THE MOUNTAIN

Picture 1 - Mount Hermon

Picture 2 - Satellite View of Lebanon and Israel

Picture 3 - Mount Hermon

Picture 4 - Snow on Mount Hermon

Picture 5 - Satellite View of Lebanon and Israel

Just west of the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee is another mountain, not so far away, not so high, not snow covered. It is Mount Tabor at the southern limit of lower Galilee. The Bible sometimes mentions Mount Hermon and Mount Tabor together. "Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name."⁽²⁾

Picture 6 - Aerial View of Mount Tabor

Mount Tabor rises 1,700 feet above sea level, not nearly as high as Mount Hermon, but still a mountain to be reckoned with, partly because of his inverted, bowl-like shape. Hosea 5: 1 indicates it was a place of worship from very ancient times. In Judges 4 Deborah gathered the tribes there to give battle to the Canannites. There is a beautiful church on the summit of Mount Tabor to commemorate the Transfiguration.

Slide 7 - Mount Tabor from the Ground

Today there is a narrow winding road to the summit, not wide enough for a tour bus. Travelers who do not want to ascend on foot must go by cabs which race up in order to race back for another fare, honking as they head into blind curves. Somehow it works, but I can tell you that the ride up Mount Tabor is a special kind of "mountain top experience."

Picture 8 - Mt. Tabor at Sunset

William Barclay thinks the Transfiguration happened somewhere on the slopes of the mountain at night. Luke tells us that the disciples were weighted down with sleep.⁽³⁾ On the next day Jesus and the disciples came back to the plain and found the father of the epileptic boy.⁽⁴⁾ Therefore, "it must have been some time in the sunset, or the late evening, or the night, that the amazing vision took place."⁽⁵⁾

THE FACTS

Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were there, representing the law and the prophets. Their presence signals to Peter, James and John that Jesus was every bit there equal and more, as we shall hear from the heavenly voice that identifies Jesus as the beloved Son, One to whom we are to listen. Remember, in the Bible "listen" and "hear" equal obey, as when your mother used to say, "Do you hear me? Are you listening to me?"

There are other reasons for Moses, Elijah and Jesus to be together.

Moses and Elijah received revelations on a mountain.⁽⁶⁾

Like Jesus, Moses and Elijah are beyond a grave and death. No grave was ever found for Moses, and Elijah departed in that sweet chariot that knew how to swing low.⁽⁷⁾

Another link to Jesus, both Moses and Elijah were expected to return and usher in the messianic age.⁽⁸⁾

MOSES

This year on Transfiguration Sunday I am especially interested in Moses and this curious veil mentioned in Exodus 34.

Picture No 9 - Michelangelo's Moses

Surely the best known representation of Moses is Michelangelo's great statue in Rome in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli, St. Peter in Chains. The church's name comes from the belief that it has two sets of chains, the actual chains which bound Peter when he was a prisoner in Jerusalem and the very chains which bound him when he was a prisoner later in the Mamertine prison in Rome. A 13^th century tradition holds that the chains were miraculously joined into one chain after they were placed together in the church! I have seen the chains in the reliquary, and looking at them did me about as much good as venerating a Baptist relic by staring at Miss Annie Armstrong's desk!

The main attraction in the church is the heroic statue of Moses carved from a perfect block of Carrara marble, which Michelangelo found after searching for eight months in Tuscany. Every one notices the horns.

Guides like to tell tourists a good story. Here are several of them, I hope, for your pleasure. Michelangelo informed man who designed the monument to Pope Julius II (his tomb is in St. Peter's) which would be behind the statue that he would carve a 12 foot tall Moses striding down from the Mount with the tables of the Law. The monument designer despaired. Who would look at this work with such a statue before it? And so he allowed a mere six-foot high niche into which Michelangelo would have to fit his creation.

The story goes that Michelangelo thundered, "I said he would he twelve feet tall, and so he shall!" If you measure from the tip of the toe all along the body to the top of head, guess what! Moses is twelve feet tall, but only six feel sitting down. (Actually the height is seven feet, eight and one-half inches, but guides omit that fact.)

Another good story - Michelangelo was so impressed with life-like quality of his creation that he is said to have thrown his chisel and screamed at the statue, "Why don't you talk?" They point to a chip on Moses' knee where the chisel hit.

And if you go to the side and follow the sight line along the index finder of Moses right hand, which rests on the tablets, he is pointing to the door. Guides tell tourists that this is Michelangelo's way of saying, "Once you have seen my Moses, there is nothing else here to see. Not even those chains to Peter." Moses is pointing to the door!

What about those horns? Oddly enough the Hebrew word for "horn" is identical to the word for "shining," kerem. "The only difference is in the vowels, which are not spelled out in ancient Hebrew, so some interpreters, including Michelangelo, decided that Moses' face had sprouted horns, not light, during his encounter with God."⁽⁹⁾ In the Bible Michelangelo would have read, the Latin Vulgate, the same thing applies. The Latin word for "ray" of light is also the word for "horn."⁽¹⁰⁾

This ray-horn confusion has persisted.

Picture No. 10 - Chagall's Moses

The contemporary Jewish artist, Marc Chagall, has it both ways. Look at the top of Moses' head. Are those two horns coming from his head or four rays shining from his head? Talk about a calculated ambiguity!

Picture No. 11- Michelangelo's Moses

The influence of Michelangelo's Moses has been far reaching. When Cecil B. DeMille was casting Moses for his 1956 version of The Ten Commandments, he knew where to look.

Picture No. 12 - Charlton Heston as Moses

Charlton Heston's features already resembled those of Michelangelo's Moses. All he needed was the beard.

Picture No. 13 - Michelangelo's Moses

This is a face of a man we must take seriously. It shines. The great New England preacher Jonathan Edwards would make his pastoral care evaluations on how much someone's countenance glowed from the impact of the beauty of God in Christ.⁽¹¹⁾ His countenance is frightening. The creased brow and firmly pressed lips are those of a powerful man, a man of potential movement and wrath. Who can face him? Cover that fearfully glowing visage. This is the face of a man who has seen God face to face and lived, the face of a man who speaks to God as a friend to a friend.⁽¹²⁾ Only God Himself could bear to see his own glory so powerfully reflected.

The right hand of Moses rests on the tablets of the Law, the foundation of the strength of the face. But as Moses contemplates the Law and his next move, the fingers of that same right hand stroke the beard gently and philosophically. He looks away from the Law, perhaps to his people, but more likely, I believe, waiting and listening for the next sound from that voice he heard on the mountain. On his face which sometimes he had to veil, I see not only strength, but also a remarkable intensity not unrelated to fear. What has Moses' veiled face to do with ours? I think the connection begins at the point of fear.

FEAR

Each year when we come to the last Sunday in Epiphany, the season of God's disclosure of Himself, the climax is this day, Transfiguration Sunday. I am always struck by it the beauty of the "mountain top experience." There is the dazzling light on the mountaintop where the disciples saw radiance greater even than dazzling sunlight glistening on the frozen snow.

This year something other than beauty and light comes through to me. It is the element of fear.

"It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."⁽¹³⁾

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."⁽¹⁴⁾

"The fear of the Lord is clean."⁽¹⁵⁾

Just beyond our gospel lesson we read fearful words, "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face toward Jerusalem…No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."⁽¹⁶⁾

Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem. The journey from the Mount of the Transfiguration to Jerusalem is the journey through Lent to Holy Week, the fearful journey we begin on Wednesday night when we come to this room for the Ash Wednesday service.

Lent begins…a season of reflection and penance, self-denial and introspection. That is the way the Christians in the West have observed Lent for centuries. But in the Eastern Orthodox Church the emphasis is on the pure light of Christ at the Transfiguration. There is joy in such light to be sure for it is the glory of the Lord. Still, the fearful element remains even with the joyful light because in Judaism the glory of the Lord is connected to the holiness of the Lord. This light-glory-holiness connection must be taken very seriously.

So let us sing, "Our God is an Awesome God" till we get a goopy glow on our faces. But be careful! Let us recall "mountain top experiences" at Ridgecrest until we recapture that "first fine careless rapture."⁽¹⁷⁾ But be careful!

We dare not stop with mere religious feelings. We turn from the mountain to walk beside our Lord, on the way to Jerusalem, heading to the crowd where there is need, a sick child, a worried father, something unclean, something demonic, bickering believers. It is on this road to Jerusalem and all that awaits there that for a third and final time in Luke Jesus says, "Follow me."⁽¹⁸⁾ On this fearful journey light, glory and holiness are inseparably.

We do not want to go to such a place, but we dare not turn aside, for if we do so, we will no longer have Jesus at our side. We will have put our hand to the plow and looked back. We will have tried to separate holiness from glory, righteousness from radiance, ministry from mountain top moments. Such matters have fearful consequences.

There is a way however, to keep the Eastern Church's emphasis on light as we begin our Lenten journey, a way to keep Epiphany's glory going. It has to do with what happened with Moses and the Israelites back on Mt. Sinai.

"What did the Israelites hear at Mount Sinai? According to one rabbinic commentator, they were so overwhelmed by the divine voice that they could only hear the first two of the Ten Commandments. Another said they couldn't withstand even that much. All they could hear was the first letter of the First Commandment: the aleph.

"But the 20^th-century historian of Jewish mysticism, Gershom Scholem, went a step further. He pointed out that an aleph is not really a sound at all. It is a mere opening of the throat. It is not actual speech; it is potential speech."⁽¹⁹⁾

What does that mean for us? It means that when the glory of God shines on us, when the holiness of God falls upon us, it is indeed a fearful thing. It is so fearful that our heads can't take it all in, so fearful that our hearts seem to stop beating, so fearful that our ears can't hear another word.

God has come upon us, God has spoken, God has begun a conversation with us, and it is now our turn to speak.

So what are we to say?

God has begun the conversation with an aleph, the opening of the throat, not so much actual speech as potential speech. And what do we hear? What do we say?

We begin with what we take from God's opening sound. "I am the Lord your God, who set you free from your slavery - you shall have no other gods."⁽²⁰⁾ That's one word.

"You shall not bow down to any other god or worship any other God."⁽²¹⁾ That's a second word.

"According to one rabbinic commentator, they were so overwhelmed by the divine voice that they could hear only the first two of the Ten Commandments." But the conversation had begun.

Please understand that our part in the conversation cannot be whatever we wish to say, whatever we wish to do. Glory and fear are not the parents of shallow sentimentality and ephemeral emotions, self-serving sentences and empty gestures. Glory and fear begat holiness and righteousness.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." "The fear of the Lord is clean". "It is a fearful thing to all into the hands of the living God."

The glory the Lord is the holiness of the Lord, and as the conversation continues God's people, then and now, respond with words of holiness seared into our spirits:

- No empty use of the name of the Lord.

- Keep a day holy to your Lord.

- Honor your father and mother

- No murder

- No adultery

- No stealing

- No false witness

- No coveting

How awesome! How glorious! God has begun the conversation. He empowers us with speech. He trusts us to respond. And all the old verses and all the old truths swirl around us. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." "The fear of the Lord is clean."

Remember those old Baptist basics, the priesthood of all believers and the autonomy of the local congregation? Remember John Robinson's letters to the departing Pilgrims in 1620, "The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his word." Those aren't inventions of Protestant Christians in the Free Church Tradition. They go back to a moment on a mountain when God trusted his people to hear an aleph. They go back to a moment on another mountain when the Son of God trusted his disciples to behold his glory. It sure puts a shine on the priesthood of all believers, doesn't it?

God has begun a conversation that he trusts us to continue, "changed from glory into to glory, till in heav'n we take our place."⁽²²⁾

No wonder Moses and Elijah were at the Transfiguration.

- A conversation had begun with Moses with an aleph on Mount Horeb.

- A conversation had begun with Elijah with a still, small voice on Mount Horeb.

- A conversation had begun with Jesus with a voice saying, "This is my beloved son…listen him.

CONCLUSION

Picture No. 14 - Mount Hermon

What has Moses' veiled face to do with ours? The connection began at the point of fear.

It continued in the radiant righteousness of God's glory.

The glory of the Lord that shines on the mountain propels us from the summit to the mountain and all that awaits there. The glory of the Lord that shines on the mountain propels us from the summit and then on to Jerusalem and all that awaits there.

Jesus is on the mountain.

Jesus is at the foot of the mountain.

And Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem.

Jesus says, "Follow me."

Each year just before we begin the Lenten Journey, just as Epiphany comes to a climax on Transfiguration Sunday, we go with Jesus and three of his disciples to a mountain. You have been to that mountain today.

Lent is about begin, but Epiphany never ends.

PRAYER

Lord God, we give thanks for shining moments.

My your glory shine on us, in us and through us

from the mountain with you,

below the mountain for the needs of your people,

and with us on our journey with you.

Amen.

(This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook Baptist Church congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.)

1.

¹ The Archeological Encyclopedia of the Holy Land, third edition, edited by Avraham Negev [New York: Prentice Hall] 1990, p. 172

2.

² Psalm 89: 12

3.

³ Luke 9: 32

4.

⁴ Luke 9: 37

5.

⁵ William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, revised edition, Vol. 2 [Philadelphia: Westminster Press] 1975, p. 157

6.

⁶ Exodus 24; I Kings 19

7.

⁷ Deuteronomy 34: 6; II Kings 2: 11

8.

⁸ Deuteronomy 18: 15; Malachi 4: 5-6

9.

⁹ Barbara Brown Taylor, "Glory Doors," Bread of Angels [Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications] 1997, p. 3

10.

¹⁰ I am aware that there is theory that Moses wore a veil to cover his skin, not because he had horns, but because his skin had been so hardened by the heat of the light of the Lord that it seemed horny. This view holds that prolonged exposure to sunlight thickens the layer of skin called keratin. The words "keratosis" and "keratin" come from the Greek word keras meaning horn. Cf. William H. Proff, "Did Moses Have Horns?" in Bible Review, February 1988, Volume 4, Number 4, pp. 30-37. I would take this view more seriously if the cover of Bible Review Bible Review had not reversed the picture of Michelangelo's Moses causing him to look off to the viewer's left rather than our right!

11.

¹¹ Lectionary Homiletics, David B. Howell, editor, February 2001, Volume XII, Number 3, "Pastoral Implications," Gregory J. Johanson, p. 27

12.

¹² Exodus 34: 29ff.; 33: 11

13.

¹³ Hebrews 10: 31

14.

¹⁴ Psalm 111: 10

15.

¹⁵ Psalm 19: 9

16.

¹⁶ Luke 9: 51, 62

17.

¹⁷ Robert Browning, "Home Thoughts from Abroad"

18.

¹⁸ Luke 9: 59; Jesus says, "Follow me" twice earlier in Luke, at the call of Matthew in Luke 5: 27 and after Peter's confession at Caesarea Philippi in Luke 9: 23.

19.

¹⁹ Edward Rothstein, "A Jewish Canon, Yes, But Not Set in Stone," New York Times, February 24, 2001, A15

20.

²⁰ Exodus 20: 2

21.

²¹ Exodus 20: 5

22.

²² Wesley N. Forbis, Baptist Hymnal [Nashville, Tennessee: Convention Press] 1991, Charles Wesley, "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," No. 20