"Through her I came to love the wee thing, as it grew strong; as its little soul unfolded itself in twitter and cry and half-formed word, and as its eyes caught the gleam and flash of life. How beautiful he was, with his olive-tinted flesh and dark gold ringlets, his eyes of mingled blue and brown, his perfect little limbs, and the soft voluptuous roll which the blood of Africa had moulded into his features! I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,--held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and the breathless city of a hundred hills, and felt a vague unrest. Why was his hair tinted with gold? An evil omen was golden hair in my life. Why had not the brown of his eyes crushed out and killed the blue?--for brown were his father's eyes, and his father's father's. And thus in the Land of the Color-line I saw, as it fell across my baby, the shadow of the Veil." Here, Du Bois uses a description of his child to point out a greater problem that he saw throughout the United States. Du Bois writes of the Veil, which can mean the way someone appears or an odd sounding accent. It can mean a literal veil, worn for cultural or religious purposes, or a hat, or turban, or hairstyle. The Veil can be different hygiene habits, eating preferences, conversational volumes, and the list goes on…because the Veil is what separates us. Du Bois understood that when confronted with the foreign…with the Other…that we instantly put up a wall…to keep distance…to live life however we see fit. We lift this same Veil between ourselves and God, claiming that we cannot know or understand God, or what God wants for us. Our passage for today claims the opposite, that in Christ, the Veil is lifted. Specifically, in Christ, we no longer live in our own world by our own rules, but we are freed to become who we ought to be.
The Corinthian church had a history of rewriting how Christians ought to live. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth reveals dissension on theological issues and authority in the church, controversy on how to worship, and various ethical issues from sexual indecency to idolatry. To Paul, the Corinthians acted the same way any commoner might act in Roman society. Thus, Paul wrote a masterful letter addressing these issues, both theological and ethical, which stands as one of the greatest and most influential works of Christian teaching in history. You would think the Corinthians might take a hint, right? Unfortunately, the Corinthians slipped back into the same self-serving habits, and Paul was forced to write several more letters to address these recurring issues. Paul makes it clear that Christ was not kidding when he said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Living by one’s own standards is inadequate when following Christ.
The disciples saw Christ as a Rabbi or teacher, and so discipleship happened under the method of Teacher and student. Under the Rabbinic style of discipleship, students would follow the Rabbi as closely as possible, listening to his words, following his movements, seeing how he reacted in situations. Often, students would even follow the Rabbi into the bathroom, so that they might not miss a single word he said. The goal was to completely mimic the Rabbi, down to picky details of each personal habit. To do so meant becoming extremely intimate with the Rabbi. Paul invokes this style of discipleship when he implores the Corinthians to “imitate me as I imitate Christ.” Paul understood that Christians must let go of their own agendas in order to follow Christ, sacrificing control of their own lives to gain intimacy with Christ. As we lift our veils and come out of our private inner worlds, we are freed to live in communion with Christ.
Here, freedom takes on a new meaning. We spoke a few weeks ago about the irony of people who refuse to be a part of the Church because they want to find themselves. For many people, freedom involves this sense of self-willed discovery. In this sense, freedom involves liberation from any foreign influence. In other words, freedom for many people means living according to your own rules. Ironically, individuals who follow selfish ends are not free, but rather, are conforming to the way of the world. Paul describes a different standard, that wherever the Lord is, that will be where we can find freedom. We cannot hope to follow Christ if we want to live unruled, because Christ is Lord. We must die to ourselves to find freedom, and as the veil of self-centeredness is removed, we have access to real life in God.
Through Christ, God has opened the way for us to be in community with Him. Paul uses Moses as an example of what happens when we are close to God. In Exodus 34, Moses climbs atop Mt. Sinai as God renews His covenant with Israel. As he spends time with God, Moses begins to radiate God’s glory. Israel could not see God, because a cloud hid God’s glory on top of the mountain, but Israel got a taste of God’s glory reflected in Moses’ face. Moses began to wear a veil, because his godlike appearance scared the Israelites. As we spend time in intimacy with God, we take on the qualities of God. Paul refers to this when he describes Christians “being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Think about what happens when you put an iron poker into a fire. As the poker sits in the fire, it begins to glow and radiate heat. The poker doesn’t become the fire, but it takes on qualities of the fire. In the same way, as we press beyond the veil and come into intimate contact with God, we begin to take on the qualities of God. In other words, the image of God begins to shine in us. As we interact with God, we become who we were created to be.
For the next month and a half, we will be discussing the virtues. Yet, before we go into the specifics of the virtues, you need to understand what virtues are and why they are important. If you are like me, and you spend your recreational time drinking tea and reading Thomas Aquinas, you already know that virtues are habits that perfect the soul. For those few, who do not enjoy such pleasures, think of the examples of the iron poker that begins to glow in the fire, or Moses upon the mountaintop. Virtues are habits that direct us to God, and help develop us into Godly people.
Take courage, for example. Public service officials are rigorously trained to be courageous in the face of danger. Because of their discipline, the public officials of New York on September 11, are regarded as heroes for their courage to put themselves in harm’s way in order to help others. They did not love their lives so much as to cower in a time of crisis. Courage is a necessary habit in helping others, because it allows us to get beyond the fear of losing our lives. Christ exhibited courage in climbing upon the cross, experiencing death so that we might have life. As with all virtue, Christ is our shining example, and as we follow Him intimately, we hope to look more and more like Him.
Yet, before we can learn virtue, we must first be willing to let go of the veil that separates us from God. Just as we do not want others infringing upon our own private worlds, we treat God with the same suspicion and apprehension. In order to be free, we must let go of our fear, die to ourselves and stand naked before God. Christ has lifted the veil for those who follow Him, and we are made free to pursue God.
I believe that a generation is rising up that feels an apprehension with the way our world works. The Arcade Fire touches on this apprehension in their song Modern Man: “In my dream I was almost there, And you pulled me aside and said you're going nowhere, They say we are the chosen few, But we're wasted, And that's why we're still waiting, On a number from the modern man, Maybe when you're older you will understand, Why you don't feel right, Why you can't sleep at night now…” Am I wrong in thinking that many people out there feel this uneasiness at their place in the world? Its as though by our own strength, working within our own little boxes and forming our own rules, we continue waiting in line for something…never quite sure what it might be…and we never seem to get there. Years ago we surveyed people on campus with several questions on what they considered to be their greatest concern, and without fail, people regularly voiced their concern over their purpose in this world. If you sympathize with this uneasiness, have no fear. In Christ, we have immediate access to the God who created us, and who knows us better than we know ourselves. Christ has lifted the veil, and given us the freedom to become who we were always meant to be!
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