When I conduct weddings, I'm always quite surprised when the bride wears a veil.  I thought veils were a fashion, which had disappeared years ago, they are certainly less of a norm than they used to be although there are still a number of brides who wear veils, and it's quite a moving moment when, during the service, the veil is lifted from the bride's face.  Even if Bride and Groom have been living together for years and know every detail of each other's faces, when the Bride’s Veil is lifted and the Groom sees the Bride in all her radiance, it's still a lovely and moving moment.

The fashion stems from a time when marriages were arranged and the man perhaps didn't see or meet his prospective wife until they were actually married.  And that is still the case in some societies today, where arranged marriages still take place.  Whatever the reason, in Christian marriage a veil adds a gentle and delightful touch of mystery to the wedding, although these days the veil is designed to add to the bride's beauty and mystery rather than obscuring her face. 

But that wasn't the reason why Moses wore a veil.  When Moses had been talking with God on the mountain, his face was so bright through his contact with God that he had to wear a veil, so that the Israelites wouldn't be damaged by his reflected radiance.  At least, that was what the Jews had always thought and believed. 

But Paul questions that belief.  Without impugning Moses' sincerity, Paul attributes another effect to the veil.  Since it lay between God's glory and the Israelites, it hid God's glory from them.  They failed to understand fully about God, because they weren't allowed to see even a reflection of his glory. 

Paul goes on to say that the Israelites of Moses' time typify the Jews of Paul's time, who still fail to recognise that Moses' glory was only temporary.  When the Jews read the old Mosaic covenant, says Paul, there's a continuing dullness, which prevents proper understanding, so that when Moses' writings are read in the synagogue, there's still a veil between the Jews and God.  But whenever a person turns to the God through Jesus Christ, that veil is removed.

So Paul is saying that those who stick to the old ways and the old beliefs, refusing to believe in Jesus, will always be behind a distorting veil.  Only those who seek Christ will experience the true reality of God, and enjoy his radiance in all its glory.  Going through life without Jesus is a bit like constantly wearing a veil, always seeing everything through a fog.

With the creation of smokeless fuels and smoke free zones the days of smog are long gone. We no longer have that thick, yellow fog, which people referred to as a "pea-souper".  Thankfully too, the ill health that such a bad atmosphere produced has disappeared with it.

Fog still remains however, and from time to time it makes our very familiar world seem so very different.  Something as simple as negotiating the front step is taken rather gingerly.  Driving the car along familiar roads becomes quite treacherous wondering where the next bend comes.  Things look different in fog.  Fog somehow distorts images of familiar things, it is disorientating, we lose our sense of direction so very quickly.  Spiritual fog similarly distorts our surroundings and disorientates us, so that people who know nothing about Christ get the wrong end of the stick about God.  It's not uncommon to meet people who for one reason or another are terrified of God, because their image of him is distorted.  They see him as an ogre ready to pounce and zap them at the least opportunity, and sadly, they're unable to comprehend a God of love.

Fortunately, there is something, which disperses fog, and when I think about it, it blows veils away as well.  Fog rarely lasts when there's any wind, for the wind blows the fog away.  The breath of God, the wind of the Spirit, which may be as a gentle breeze or a roaring wind has a way of chasing the fog, which blurs our vision.

When God sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the house was filled with a roaring wind.  And those who were touched by the Holy Spirit suddenly discovered they had amazing gifts.  But on the first Easter Day, six weeks before Pentecost, according to John's gospel the risen Jesus breathed on his disciples so that they received the Holy Spirit.  And that seems to have been a much gentler affair, more a breeze than a wind.

Like the wind, the Holy Spirit blows where it will.  It's not confined to the Church, although it is found within the Church.  And like the wind it touches everybody, although not everybody responds to that touch.  Where people do respond, they begin to discover freedom.  Freedom from the old restrictive ways of doing things, freedom from the entanglement of sin always pulling us down into the mire, freedom from any sort of slavery to old habits.

And as we begin to taste and experience that freedom, so we're gradually transformed.  The Holy Spirit works within us, whether we know it or not, and things gradually change.  And other people begin to notice a new brightness, a new radiance.  All of us Christians with unveiled faces are being transformed into the image of God, from glory to glory, because God's glory is reflected from us like a mirror.

As we become more open, so secrets and shame are banished forever, because we don't operate by cunning, as the world does, but by open statements of the truth in God's sight.

So Paul's message today is, don't lose heart.  We're all in Christian ministry because that's what being a Christian means.  We're in this ministry through God's love.  His Holy Spirit working within us gradually lifting the veil, which has been hiding God from us.