LIFTING THE VEIL.  LETTING LOVE PREVAIL.

This is the text of a sermon presented at Saint John the Baptist Anglican Church on Sunday 2 March 2025, the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Our Bible readings present clear messages about lifting the veil of legalism, so that we can have a direct, love-based relationship with God and our neighbors. 

In the reading from Exodus, when Moses was talking with God, his face shone, reflecting the glory of God.  When he read the law of the Old Covenant in front of the people of Israel, Moses had to put a veil over his face. This is because the legacy of Adam and Eve’s sin prevented the people of Israel from having a direct relationship with God.  Under the law of Moses, high priests offered the sacrifice of a lamb to God for the forgiveness of the sins of the people of Israel.  Strict keeping of laws, or legalism, guided the behavior of religious Jews. 

In our New Testament reading, Paul explained in his letter to the Corinthians the lifting of Moses’ veil, heralding the New Covenant that fulfilled the law’s intention to put us in a direct relationship with God, resulting from Jesus’ sacrificial death for the forgiveness of our sins.  

The transfiguration described in Luke’s gospel connects both readings in Exodus and Corinthians.  Significantly, the transfiguration took place on a mountain.  Mountains provide good vantage points for envisioning the world below and receiving inspiration from the heavens above.  In the transfiguration, Jesus was transformed temporarily from human to spiritual form.  Jesus appeared with Moses, the receiver of the law, and with Elijah, the prophet and keeper of the law.  As Moses and Elijah faded and disappeared, Jesus’ presence dominated.  Jesus was exalted above the law and the prophets.  God the Father affirmed Jesus’ divine mission, and He called on the disciples to heed the teachings of Jesus.  The transfiguration revealed that Jesus fulfilled the law and the prophets.  Jesus’ mission was to proclaim all that God intends the law to do.

Let me be clear, laws are necessary.  Religious and secular laws make us aware of what is right and what is wrong. Laws are intended to protect the weak and ensure justice for all citizens. 

Jesus came to establish the New Covenant that invites us to be in a direct relationship with God. That relationship is based on God’s gracious forgiveness and love, which take us beyond the limits of the law of the Old Covenant.  Under the New Covenant, love is the guiding principle in all our actions. 

The Transfiguration message encourages us to let love guide us beyond legal requirements.  This message is highly relevant to Black Heritage Month. 

A large part of the history of Black people in Canada is rooted in the struggle for civil rights, and the creation of laws intended to protect all of us by enforcing a common standard of justice.

Through their struggle against injustice and their insistence upon equality under the law, Black Canadians have bequeathed an impressive structure of constitutional rights from which all Canadians benefit today.

Although anti-discriminatory laws have been enacted, racial discrimination persists.  Visible minorities continue to live with the nagging fear of racial profiling, systemic racism, and incidents involving law enforcement.

We must ask ourselves why, despite having anti-discriminatory laws, our society continues to struggle with racism, the problem that these laws are intended to prevent and solve.    

I believe that there are two reasons for this.  Firstly, love cannot be legislated.  Genuine love cannot be enforced by the law. 

Secondly, people can conform to the specific requirements of the law while wearing the veils of political correctness and indifference to the impact of racism on visible minorities.  

Throughout His life, Jesus based His teachings on the guiding principle of love – love for God and love for people.   The best definition of love is that love always leads us to act in ways that are for the highest good, for ourselves and others. There is no law against love.  Love does much more than any law can do.

The Transfiguration is the literal depiction of how love, personified in Jesus, rises above the limitations of the law and removes the veil that distorts our relationship with God and how we view and treat people. As we celebrate Black Heritage Month, the Transfiguration message calls us to examine the legacy of history and to act intentionally to surpass the limitations of anti-discriminatory laws in Canada. That, dear sisters and brothers in Christ is the connection between Jesus’ Transfiguration and Black Heritage Month. 

Surpassing the limitations of the law is possible through our individual and collective transformation into the image and likeness of God.  In his letter to the multiethnic and multi-cultural church in Corinth, Paul clearly explains the importance of lifting the veil of legalism to embrace a love-based relationship with God and our neighbors.

To quote Paul, “… when (we turn) … to the Lord, the veil is removed. … And all of us, with unveiled faces, …are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”

As children of God, love is the guiding principle that leads us to ensure the well-being of our neighbors, our communities, our country, and our world. 

Love leads us to walk in fellowship and learn about people who are different from us. Love leads us to rid ourselves of stereotypical views and false beliefs about others.

And speaking about boats, I must tell you that one of our young parishioners, Wren, inspired me to put forward this truth – we all came on different ships, but we’re all now in the same boat.

How many of us got a little paper boat that Wren made?  I got my boat late last year and put it on my desk in my study.  Whenever I see the little handcrafted boat that Wren made, I’m reminded that we’re all in the same boat and that as children of God, love is our shared identity and our common heritage.  In Jesus’ words, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”   It’s love that floats our boat!

I encourage all of us in this parish, to be a people known for our love for one another and as advocates of justice for all people. 

To do this, barriers built up by misinformation and the dark legacy of the evils of slavery and racism must be broken down.  Let us all make a concerted effort to learn about the heritage and contribution of Black Canadians, and the steps that God is calling us to take so that together we can create a better world where the rule of love takes us beyond the rule of law. 

Black Heritage Month was established in 1926 as a valiant effort to tell the story of people of Black African slave descent in North America and the Caribbean.  The story of survival and the outstanding contribution of Black people to all sectors of life are conspicuously absent from mainstream history books. Until that changes, we must continue to have Black Heritage Month.

Contrary to popular belief, slavery did exist in Canada and is an integral part of Canadian history.  We must talk about slavery as we are still living with its legacy, evidenced by the exclusion, segregation, and discrimination against Blacks in areas such as employment, housing, healthcare, public accommodations, criminal punishment, and education. 

I must emphasize that we must also talk about how Canada has benefited from the economic contribution of Black slaves and their descendants, including immigrants from the Caribbean.  Black people have contributed to many things we take for granted, such as the scientific discoveries and gadgets that make our daily lives easier, and the post-war freedoms we enjoy.   

I mention all these facts to whet your appetite for a presentation right after our service in which I will present some more detailed information on the history and contribution of Black Canadians.

The Church needs Black Heritage Month. The shameful history of racism against Black people in the Worldwide Anglican Church is well documented. The Anglican Church was part of the oppressive colonial government institutions and did not attempt before the early to mid-19th century to declare abhorrence of slavery and racial discrimination. 

There was a time when the Anglican Church in Canada upheld and perpetuated racist beliefs, relegating Black Anglicans to veiled worship, forcing them to worship in segregated pews behind a curtain, and forcing them to create Black-only congregations where they were prevented from receiving sacraments and denied leadership roles.  That history has left a legacy, to this day, of ethnic divisions and the real and perceived marginalization of persons of Black African descent and other ethnic groups.

The existence of ethnic enclave congregations continues to be the legacy of unjust practices of racial segregation and marginalization that were officially sanctioned by our church during slavery and beyond.

I am encouraged by the work being done in the Diocese of Montreal to address racial issues, including the dismantling of ethnic enclave congregations.  Amid the anti-Black racism demonstrations in the summer of 2020, a multi-ethnic group of concerned clergy and laypersons met to discuss ways in which the legacy of racism in the Church could be addressed. The group submitted to the 161^st Synod, a motion to adopt the Anti-Black Racism Action Plan that resulted from the group’s deliberations. 

The Action Plan calls for the acknowledgment of racism in the Diocese and the engagement of our congregations and the wider community in a continuous process of dialogue, redress, and atonement. The objective of the Action Plan is to equip the clergy and people of the Diocese of Montreal with the skills and awareness necessary to create and foster healthy, vibrant multi-cultural, multi-ethnic parishes that can support the spiritual growth of all God’s people.  Please consider participating in the Diocese’s Anti-Racism training activities.

As we celebrate Black Heritage Month and reflect on the Transfiguration, let us reflect on the paths we will forge during Lent as a people committed to following the way of Jesus, whose death is the greatest act of love ever committed for all humanity.  As we kneel at the altar to partake in Holy Communion today, let us remember that it doesn’t matter one bit that there are differences in our racial or cultural identities.  We are affirming our common identity as God’s people – a people who have fully embraced the way of the transfigured Jesus; a people who, like the resurrected Jesus, are committed to intentionally loving our neighbors as ourselves; a people committed to ensuring justice for all.  We come to the Lord’s Table as equals, loved unconditionally by God and as members of the whole human race.

In closing, I quote Nelson Mandela –

“Deep down in every human heart is mercy and generosity.  No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.  People learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

May love lead us to lift the veil of all the things that separate us so that together, we can rejoice in our shared heritage as Children of God. 

Thank you and may God bless us all. AMEN.

AMEN.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. That’s why glory matters.

@glorymatters

www.camilleisaacsmorell.com