Loading...
Sermon February 27, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
The Last Sunday After the Epiphany Year C
http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpiLast_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__February_27__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/0qkyN7kSLGA
When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him. Exodus 34:30
If you have read the reports of our Vestry meetings in the newsletters, you know that we are reading the book Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. For February we read Chapter 10, The Great Relationship Revival: How can love overcome what divides us and move us forward together?
A major focus of this chapter involves how Presiding Bishop Curry was transformed by his experience going to the Standing Rock gatherings in 2016. Bishop Curry was asked to come and see what was happening there as the Sioux nation and other tribal nations gathered to protect sacred burial sites and the water of the land from the construction of an oil pipeline.
The experience changed him. He learned more about the treatment of the native nations of our country. He learned more about the Doctrine of Discovery, which allowed the land to be taken, no, really stolen, from these native peoples. He learned about the complicity of The Episcopal Church in concert with the United States government in forcibly assimilating the native peoples.
Most importantly, he learned how care of God’s creation and racial justice are connected. He writes:
“I arrived in North Dakota in September of that year, unprepared for the effect that the land and people would have on me. I was born and raised in the urban density of the East. The endless brown plains and open skies immediately reoriented my understanding of our place in the world. We human beings are so small, so very dependent on the rhythms of the earth, which we do not control and yet have thrown off-kilter. Indigenous people are still bound to the earth in a way we in industrialized areas have forgotten. We city folk are bound to the earth, too, it’s just harder to see – though with the effects of climate change, it’s getting clearer.” P. 213
Presiding Bishop Curry was transformed by this visit. He was not the same person after this experience.
I’m sure all of us have had those moments of transformation, when everything changed for us. Times when we understood others or ourselves or our relationship with God in a new way.
And clearly, those around us react in different ways to our transformation.
We see that in our Gospel today when Peter, James and John have quite a powerful experience up on the mountain. We also see it in our reading from Exodus.
Moses has been up on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, which means a REALLY long time. He’s been receiving the covenant that God is making between the people and God. I think the condensed version is the 10 commandments on the tablets Moses brings down from the mountain.
Being in the presence of God and having this conversation, if you will, changes him so much that his face begins to shine or he has horns or rays coming out – the translators have different ideas about that. In any event, his appearance shakes up the people. They find it hard to look at his different appearance. So Moses puts a veil or mask on his face, so that it is not as overwhelming for people to look at him and be in his presence.
That’s what happens during those times when we are able to rest in God…when we are able to connect with God. Our appearance changes and everyone around us knows it.
What is fascinating is how overwhelming the change can be to others. How others want to look away or need us to partially hide ourselves, maybe?
When we can embody God…when we can be in God’s presence for a time, we look different and sometimes that is scary to others.
I think it may be because we have a serenity and confidence around us that feels otherworldly. Maybe we have received guidance from God and know what we need to do next. Maybe we have a new understanding of ourselves and know what we need to do next. Maybe we have a new understanding of the world, like Presiding Bishop Curry did, and our agenda looks different. How we talk sounds different. How we face our problems is different.
Okay, so our encounter could make us more confused and I still think we are different. We present a truth that probably not everyone wants to see or hear.
And while Moses took care of the people he led by covering his face, there were places and times when he removed the veil. The ultimate situation; however, is that we can be fully who God created us to be. That we do not have to veil ourselves and cover ourselves up. That we can be joyful and unafraid for ourselves and with each other. That we can rejoice in the radiance of God that manifests in each and every one of us.
Amen
