Communion Meditation

March 1, 1992

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Scripture: Exodus 34:29-35

As a background for this brief meditation---I wish there were more time to expand on it---I would like to read the Old TESTAMENT lectionary reading for this Transfiguration Sunday....Transfiguration Sunday....the day Jesus glowed with a supernatural radiance...

always comes the Sunday before Lent begins.... the solemn season of Lent is bracketed by the glory of Transfiguration and the glory of Easter.

It doesn’t often fall on a Sunday when we serve Communion, but here’s a story I think can help us have a deeper appreciation of the mystery of this special rite which is so central to the worship of the Body of Christ. The reading is from Exodus, and it’s a kind of foreshadowing of the Transfiguration.... It’s Exodus 34, verses 29-35.

It’s a graphic, vivid story, isn’t it?

Being in the presence of God radiated on Moses’ face. The luster was unmistakable. It was so bright, in fact, he had to wear a veil so others wouldn’t be blinded.

Moses wasn’t aware of it, of course... not at first anyway. He was behind it. But those out front could tell. They couldn’t help but tell..... When he came down from that mountaintop, having experienced intimate encounter with the Almighty, having stood before him, or, more likely, knelt before him.... having received his instructions, as it were, having worshiped, having been in the presence of the Lord, HE HAD ABOUT HIM A SPECIAL GLOW, a radiance that anybody who came anywhere close to him could not fail to be aware of.

Now, maybe the story as it has come down to us has been amplified through retelling across the centuries. I’ll grant that possibility. It wouldn’t be surprising. Maybe there is some hyperbole here, some exaggeration. Maybe there’s even some translation mix-up. It wouldn’t be the first time.

You’ve probably seen Michelangelo’s famous statue of Moses. The original is in Rome, in the church St. Peter’s-in-Chains. I’m sure some of you have seen it or seen pictures of it. I have a little replica of it in my office. Moses is seated, holding the tablets of the Law under his right arm.... His left arm is bent, and bare, the muscles rippling with power.... so realistic. Michelangelo’s genius was never better displayed.

But the feature of the sculpture which jumps out at you when you look at it from the front, is that out of the top of his head, just above the brow, there are two little HORNS growing.... plainly visible.

The story is that Michelangelo based his sculpture on Jerome’s translation of the Old

Testament from Hebrew into Latin. That was the text he had to go by, and Jerome, being not that well versed in Hebrew, made a mistranslation. Where the Hebrew says, “And Moses did not know that his face shone”, Jerome thought it said, “And Moses did not know that he had horns.”

So, if Jerome said Moses had horns, Michelangelo gave him horns, and there they are, atop his head, the mighty man of God, the strong, stern-faced personality, the stalwart champion of the Faith, with little horns protruding from his scalp, like a devil’s.

Now, there are probably morals of one kind or another, around all over the place here. I suppose you could take the statue, Michelangelo’s work of art, and use it to say that we, too, are a mixture of the divinely magnificent and the demonic...... even when we are at our best, there is something of the devilish that keeps cropping out. It’s true.

Or I suppose you could use the account itself of Moses and the luminous visage to talk about the importance, and the desirability of letting the radiance of God shine through our lives and actions. That’s important. Some people, like Moses, simply beam a kind of holy brightness.

But this is Communion Sunday, the Sunday before the beginning of the Lenten season... Ash Wednesday is 3 days off.... And as we come to take these elements, symbolizing the passion, the suffering of the Lord, for us, for you and for me, I wonder if we can’t discern in the Sacrament a tie-in with a graphic Old Testament memory of veiled glory.

What are we doing when we take Communion? What does it mean?

You can look at the elements of this ancient rite, these prosaic, ordinary, commonplace tokens of everyday life----wine and bread, or juice and bread---and see nothing special, nothing extraordinary at all. So what? These are just mundane things.... every day we eat bread. What is more unexceptionable than that?

But behind the veil of the ordinary...can your imagination reach into the mystery? there is something burning, something shining with power and glory. THERE IS A FATHER’S THROBBING LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN.

These veiled elements---in appearance as unspectacular as almost anything you can think of---are tangible symbols of a truth more spectacular than the mind can wrap itself around.... The Ultimate Reality, the Ultimate Power willing to suffer, AND ACTUALLY SUFFERING, for the sake of his beloved creation.

Bread veils Body....the body of Jesus of Nazareth... Wine veils Blood....the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.... BEHIND THESE EVERYDAY OBJECTS, BEATS THE UNQUENCHABLE COMPASSION OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD OF THE UNIVERSE. Here is a physical representation of what He has done for us. As we receive these elements, it becomes part of us. That’s what we’re celebrating when we come to this table.

When the Old Testament community back there in the Wilderness, witnessed Moses in his unveiled condition.... when they saw the radiance, they knew they were coming close to something big. There may be exaggeration in the recounting, no doubt there is, but the sense of awe, and mystery, and respect, and grandeur...the sense of greatness clearly grasped them. They knew they were in the presence of a mighty, creative force.

So, too, should we feel, as we come to this Holy Table, to be guests of God’s bounty.

Bread and wine.... Body and blood... The Lord’s care for you is poured out at this Table. See beyond the ordinariness of it. Lift the veil as you take these elements. Lift the veil and behold the glory.

It is for you that He came.... for you that He suffered.... for you that his grace and pardon are offered here.

It is no small thing we do. Come and see. Let the veil be lifted.