Holy Spirit Church St. John s & St. Michael s Exodus 3: 1-15 The Third Sunday of Lent Psalm 63:1-8 Year C 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 February 28, 2016 Luke 13:1-9 The Burning Bush And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight. (Ex.3:3) Perhaps we can imagine him as a not-so-young man like Chagall s picture on the front of the bulletin today a shepherd who walked with more difficulty in a land which was barren and mountainous with little water and few plants. He climbed the side of a mountain slowly, following the flock of his father-in-law looking for wild animals and wandering sheep. He was a stranger in the land of Midian, having grown up in the courts of Egypt. Did he think of Egypt as that civilized place the place of art and music and statecraft? Or did he remember it as a place of oppression and degradation for his people the people of Israel, who labored as slaves building the cities of Egypt. Moses had fled Egypt as a young man after having murdered an Egyptian slave master, but he was settled now and content in his adopted land married to Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, with many sons but the name of his first-born revealed his regret. His son s name meant: I have been a sojourner in a foreign land. But on that day so long ago, as Moses went about his daily business, he was interrupted by God. From his path through the barren land, Moses turned aside to see more closely a bush which appeared to be burning but was not consumed. As he drew closer, he heard a voice calling to him, Moses, Moses! Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. The subsequent encounter between God and Moses was one which revealed the breadth and depth of their relationship for all time. God revealed himself as one who sees the misery of my people, hears their
cries, knows their suffering, and comes to liberate them and lead them to a land of promise. (Ex. 3:7-8) This was not a god removed from his people, distant and aloof but rather one who knew their suffering and had come to save them. This was indeed the God of Pathos as Abraham Heschel described him the God of passion and suffering, of wrath and mercy, of judgment and compassion. 1 Moses was this God s chosen servant the one who would lead the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land but Moses wasn t so sure. The powerful call of Yahweh was not one that Moses wanted to hear and he immediately began to object. From I am not worthy to send someone else Moses asserted his objections vigorously! The first of his these was (ostensibly) based on self reflection Who am I? to go to the Pharaoh of Egypt and demand release for my people? No sooner had he asked this question, than he wondered how he would persuade the Israelites that it was the God of their ancestors of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who had called him? When I go to the Israelites and they ask who has sent me, what should I say? he asked. And God responded I AM WHO I AM, or as we translate it in English, Yahweh! Moses next three objections followed immediately on our reading this morning. In his third objection, Moses stated his fear that the Israelites would not believe that Yahweh had sent him. God responded by giving Moses the power to demonstrate his leadership by three signs the power to turn his staff into a snake and then back again, the power to turn his own hand leprous by inserting it into his cloak and then back again, and, the power to turn water from the Nile to blood. These signs were intended to demonstrate his authority as one sent from God. But not convinced that these signs were adequate, Moses raised another problem, I am slow of tongue and speech not eloquent enough to plead or contend with the Pharaoh. Again God reassured Moses that I will be with you. And finally, Moses got to the bottom line Send someone else! (Ex. 4:13) Moses was not convinced he could persuade the Pharaoh to free the Israelites, nor did he want to go back to Egypt. And in the last exchange, God was angry, but agreed to provide Moses with a helper his brother Aaron who would speak on his behalf. But Aaron would only be Moses mouthpiece Moses would be God s messenger and act on behalf of His people. 1 Andersen, Bernhard, Understanding the Old Testament, p. 59, quoting Heschel, Abraham, The Prophets, chapters 12-14. Page 2 of 6
So Moses left the place of the burning bush and the realm of his everyday life - returned to his fatherin-law, Jethro, gathered his wife and his sons and set off for Egypt. But, in his hand Moses took the rod of God the staff with which to effect the miracles the signs and wonders of Yahweh and the sign of his charge from God to lead his people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. But who was this God who spoke to him? The word which we generally transliterate from the Hebrew letters as Yahweh is from the verb to be. It could be translated as I am who I am or I will be who I will be or even I am the one who causes being. But regardless of the translation, Yahweh becomes the great I AM the Living God and it is by this name that Jesus reveals himself in his own ministry. The writers of the Old Testament imbued Yahweh with human traits, and the texts are full of descriptions of Yahweh s human characteristics: 1. He has a countenance, eyes, ears, mouth, nostrils, hands, feet 2. He speaks, hears, smells, laughs, hisses, whistles, strikes, writes, walks 3. He feels delight, joy, anger, hatred, love, disgust, regret, compassion But he is God and not human (Hos. 11:9) and Spirit and not flesh. The descriptions are but figures of speech as the Israelites tried to describe and understand the transcendent and yet ineffable nature and reality of God. 2 It was because of God s love that he chose Israel to be his people, that he formed a covenant with them, that he redeemed them from Egypt by his saving acts, that he gave them the Law which reflected his will and finally that his relationship with them was personal described as the love of a father for his children, or a husband for his wife. 3 2 Brown, Raymond, SS, Fitzmeyer, Joseph, SJ, Murphy, Roland, O.Carm., editors, The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, copyright 1990, p. 1288. 3 Ibid. Page 3 of 6
What came of this personal relationship was that the people of Israel were required to make a personal response they could not merely offer sacrifices or keep the Law. The total demands of Yahweh could be met only by the total surrender of each person. But from this relationship came the intimacy and passion of the Jews for their God. Yahweh spoke to Israel to the people through prophets and leaders and to individuals through signs and prayers, calls and appearances. And the people of Israel spoke to Yahweh: the prayers of lament - the anger and arguments with God the psalms of desperation and sorrow and those of thanksgiving and rejoicing - the love described throughout the texts and the willingness to sacrifice themselves to remain in the relationship. The God of Israel was not an abstraction, not an absent creator or an impersonal or capricious force of nature. He was the God of the heavenly host who fought for Israel against its enemies and regardless of their inadequate response to his love, always called them back into relationship with Him. 4 So what does this story of the call of Moses, and the nature of God, have to do with us today? Henri Nouwen, renowned Roman Catholic theologian, wrote in his book, Beyond the Mirror: Books and articles have been important in my search for God, but it has been the interruptions to my everyday life that have most revealed to me the divine mystery of which I am a part. A long time of solitude in a Trappist monastery interrupting a busy life of teaching, the sudden death of my mother interrupting my deepest bond with my family, a confrontation with poverty in Latin America interrupting a rather comfortable life in the North, a call to live with mentally handicapped people interrupting an academic career, the breakage of a deep friendship interrupting a growing sense of emotional safety All of these interruptions presented themselves as opportunities to go beyond the normal patterns of daily life and find deeper connections than the previous safeguards of my physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Each interruption invited me to look in a new way at my identity before God. 5 It is perhaps for all of us the interruptions to our daily lives, the unexpected diversions, the complications which take us out of our way that allow us to see God. For most of us the path of discipleship is one of predictability. We think we know what God is calling us to do. As spouses and friends and parents we try to model the Christian life. We worship, we pray, we sing and celebrate we try to be kind to our neighbors, and we try to forgive our enemies But one day something 4 Ibid. 5 Nouwen, Henri, Beyond the Mirror, p. 10. Page 4 of 6
changes. We are called to turn aside from the everyday to step off the path to investigate the holy to give up the pretensions of safety and predictability and stand on holy ground. For me, that turning aside came at a time when my life was settled I had my own accounting practice, my children were in sixth and eighth grades, and I had moved to a new parish which I thoroughly enjoyed. But God appealed to my curiosity about the burning bush. I turned aside from the normal path to understand who this God was, who was beckoning to me from the pages of Scripture. And, as I approached my own burning bush, God called to me and my life from that moment changed totally. The interruptions in our lives are indeed sacred space the holy ground which surrounds the burning bush the place where we must take off our shoes and be vulnerable to the living God. It is a place apart a place of solitude a place of reckoning. The interruptions of our life are not always pleasant, but if we look back we may recognize them now as a holy time. Perhaps you have seen the burning bush you, too, have come face to face with God at a time when you became vulnerable in a place where you were forced to take off your shoes because you were in a sacred space. Perhaps God spoke to you in the voice of a friend or perhaps in the sound of music or silence. Perhaps the words were spoken by a still, small voice and that voice touched a chord in the center of your being which you did not know was there. Perhaps you were like Moses contented in your life and yet alienated from all that was truly meaningful to you. In my own life this turning aside led to a kind of joy which I have never been able to articulate well. It was like being in love for the very first time. The weeks and months after my own experience with the God of the burning bush were filled with a sort of mystical longing to spend all my time in God s company. It was perhaps the intensity of the Holy One entering into my life which changed me so radically. I had a palpable, almost physical need to pray to enter into the presence of God. The separation of my regular life and my church life disappeared and my days were filled with an all-consuming passion. We often talk about the love of God, and we know of the many stories in Scripture which define God s love for His people. But the love of God is not an abstraction. We see in a mirror dimly God s love for us in Page 5 of 6
the faces of those whom we love, and who love us. We understand, but do not really believe, that God loves us without any hesitation. We are His beloved as individuals and as the Church and yet that experience of love is something which is as incomprehensible as a bush which burns and is not consumed. Perhaps today we will find time to reflect on those events that changed our own lives the times when we were pulled away from the everyday to investigate the holy. Perhaps it was a time of great joy or great sorrow perhaps it was on a journey or during a time set apart a time unexpected a place unknown. We have all seen that bush burning if even from a distance sensed the nearness of the holy wondered at the wind, reflected in the rain, stood in awe of the beauty that surrounded us, and heard that still, small voice calling our name Let us pray: God of the Burning Bush: You draw us to search for you: You give us clues to your presence in creation: earth, water, fire and air. We find you in each other s faces, in the challenge and the intimacy of human love. Yet always you elude our grasp; familiar and yet always strange, You both comfort and disturb our lives. We surrender all our images of you, and offer ourselves to you; That you may enable us to become your likeness more than we can imagine or conceive. Amen. 6 6 O Malley, Brendan, Lord of Creation, p. 144 (edited) Page 6 of 6