One of my favorite short stories is
“The Minister’s Black Veil” by
Nathaniel Hawthorne. He is probably more remembered for “The House of Seven
Gables” and “The Scarlet Letter”, but this Black Veil short story was my
favorite of his.
If you’ve never read it you can read
it for free online through many public domain sites, or grab a copy of an
anthology of classic American literature and you will probably find it in
there.
(Or, if you're OK reading a classic like this online rather than without the warm musty book in hand, you can here: https://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/mbv.html)
The story is about Rev. Hooper, a
well loved and kind parson who one day shows up in town with a black veil over
his face. The townspeople were confused as to why Rev Hooper would do this, and
they all talked much about it amongst themselves, but no one asked him.
Perhaps, they thought, this is some odd idiosyncrasy that will end at some time
in the near future.
But it did not. Day after day and
week and week and month after month and year after year Rev Hooper wore the
black veil every day. Reports were that he never took it off, and even slept in
the horrid black veil, seeing every minute of his life and every person he
encountered through the shadow of the dark cloth.
And while the speculations grew
about what Rev Hooper could possibly have done to warrant in his own mind to
cover his face in shame with the black veil, no one asked, and he continued to
don this most disgracing display.
(Ca you guess who's under the mask in this French film portrayal of Hawthorne's classic?)
I won’t tell you the short story
ends, you need to read it yourself. But I will say that it is a parable, and
there is a biblical connection to Hawthorne’s story.
Exodus 34 tells us of Moses going up
Mt Sinai to meet with God regularly, and that when he came down from the
mountain to where the people were gathered his face was shining, literally
glowing, with the glory of God. Being in the presence of God changed Moses’
expression. But the people were scared, this was a strange thing happening to
Moses every time he went up the mountain, so in a merciful gesture toward the
Israelite people, Moses wore a veil over his face to cover up the glory until
it faded away.
Later, in 2 Corinthian chapter 3,
the apostle Paul references this event and how Moses covered his face with a
veil to hide the glory of God, but Paul uses this to say that there is a veil
that covers many people today, and that “whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the
veil is taken away”.
Here’s my point with all this for us
right now. I think that many people still wear a veil to cover up what they
don’t want others to see. Maybe it’s from a feeling of shame for what you did
in the past, or perhaps what was done to you. Maybe it’s because of a perceived
short coming that is in your life today. Whatever it is, we often try to hide
this. Even in church.
Maybe we put this veil on right
before we see people, or maybe we have worn it so long that we don’t ever take
it off, like Rev Hooper.
Maybe we can’t take it off. Maybe
that’s the point Paul is making in that Corinthian passage, when he says it is
“only in Christ is it (the veil) taken away”.
Here’s what I want to encourage you
to today: take the veil off. If you are wearing something that is covering up
who you are, or trying to cover up a past experience because that seems easier
than doing the hard work of dealing with it, trust that “in Christ” the veil
can be removed. And when that happens, when the Holy Spirit has this
opportunity to work in and on you, then you will reflect God’s glory, even on
your face for others to see!
Sometimes we spend so much time on
what was that we miss what is and will never experience what will be.
By God’s grace, may you reflect
God’s glory today with unveiled faces through a bold hope in Jesus. And after
you read Hawthorne’s short story, pair that with Paul’s message in 2
Corinthians 3:12-18.
Today be #Unveiled!
No comments:
Post a Comment