Burning Bush
Exodus 3:1-15
The Burning Bush
September 25, 2011
Pastor Mary Pechauer
Some pretty exciting news this past week: the American hikers Shaun Bauer and Joshua Fattal were released from prison in Iran after being held for over 2 years. Their story has held our attention for just as long, partly because of Shaun’s connection to Minnesota but also because of how complicated the situation seemed to be. The case became entangled in Iran’s foreign and domestic politics. In these last days there were conflicting messages about their fate. But finally on Wednesday, they were freed. After hearing the news, their families said in a prepared statement that “the joy and relief we feel at Shane and Josh’s long-awaited freedom knows no bounds...and now...[it’s] a new beginning, for them and for all of us.” (NY Times) It’s a modern day rescue story. People once held captive, now free to begin a new life.
Last week in worship we told some ancient rescue stories. We read from the 2nd chapter of Exodus and heard about how Pharaoh’s daughter rescued Moses from death, raising him in a new life. We also heard about Moses who, all grown up, rescued 3 women from shepherds keeping them from watering their father’s flock. Moses, a fugitive with no place to call home, is welcomed into the family to begin a new life.
These rescue stories set the stage for a bigger story, the rescue of all of Israel from Egypt. It’s a story from 3000 years ago and yet it continues to shape our understanding of God and who we are as people of faith today.
We named the sacred threads in these rescue stories and focused on the Divine pattern revealed: that the cry of the people evoke God’s care. I challenged you to look for that ancient pattern that continues to unfold today. The challenge is ongoing. There is no expiration date.
In a recent broadcast on NPR, Krista Tippet, host of On Being, facilitated a conversation on the Exodus story. She began the episode reflecting on it as a powerful myth, quoting an ancient Greek statesman who said that a myth is not about something that never happened but about something that happens over and over again. In the book Jesus Wants to Save Christians Pastor Rob Bell writes that “the first exodus is just a hint of the redemption God has in mind for all humanity.”
Today we continue to read from the book of Exodus—to learn more about this pattern of God’s activity in the world. The reading today begins to put wheels on God’s plan. Last week we heard rescue stories. This week it’s a call story.
Remember Moses has left Egypt. He’s living in Midian. Recently married and now the father of a son. He’s tending sheep for his father-in-law. Quite a contrast from the prestegic work he did for Pharaoh.
It’s an ordinary day and Moses is doing ordinary work when something extraordinary happens. He’s led his flock beyond the wilderness, and has come to Horeb, the mountain of God. Off in the distance he sees a bush blazing with fire but not burning up. His curiosity gets the best of him. He goes closer to get a better look. That’s when God calls to him: “Moses, Moses!”
“Here I am!” he says. God speaks again: “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground”
This is the first call narrative we encounter in scripture, but it’s not the last. Gideon, Jeremiah, Samuel to name a few. Just as in the rescue stories, there is a divine pattern in stories about people being called by God. The pattern is this: because God sees a messenger is sent. In this particular call it’s because God sees the misery of his people who are in Egypt that Moses is sent back to Egypt to work for freedom on their behalf.
Open your worship folders—about half way through the lesson we read the word of the Lord: “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out for that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey”. There are those sacred threads again: see, hear, compassion (which in these verses is to know people’s suffering and come down) and raise to a new life. It’s another rescue story. And when it comes to rescue it’s always God who takes the initiative. The same is true for a call. God initiates and then calls someone through and in whom to work. In this story God calls Moses. In another story God calls you.
Moses reacts as I imagine most of us would. Now that he’s heard the details of what God’s up to, his initial “Here I am” quickly turns into “Who am I?” Moses isn’t stupid. There’s great personal risk in God’s ambitious plan to save the people. Moses knows he doesn’t have the skills to pull it off. Surely, there must be someone who’s better qualified. We know the feeling. Throughout my life I’ve had these kind of Moses moments—when something speaks to my heart but I’m afraid to act because of my shortcomings and feelings of inadequacy.
But God’s response shifts attention from the send-ee to the sender. God doesn’t speak to Moses’ shortcomings or inadequacies. God neither affirms nor denies their existence. Instead God assures Moses that he will be with him. Moses’ authority and ability is interconnected, interwoven, if you will, with the presence of God.
Which leads Moses to ask: “Who are you?” Can’t blame him for that. If the only guarantee for success of an impossible mission is wrapped up in someone else’s presence, you’d want to know who that someone else is. God answers Moses: “I am who I am”. Some theologians suggest that the better translation is “I will be who I will be”. A bit ambiguous. God doesn’t give specifics. God does give Moses a history lesson: God is faithful. Look to the God of your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is who I am says God. Trust that I will be who I will be.
The text never says that Moses finally agrees but Moses does go and the redemptive story unfolds. Moses ultimately responds to God’s invitation with action. Because God sees the pain of his people, Moses is sent. It’s risky business and it requires faith—faith that as he goes with God, God goes with him.
This divine pattern continues today. The story of the burning bush is our story. For God sees our pain. God hears our cries, and shows us compassion. God has come down and is in our midst. Enter Jesus Christ, the great “I AM” who “though he was in the form of God... emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death” (Phil 2:6-8).
In baptism you have been united with Christ. In baptism God calls your name and invites you to respond with action: letting your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.
It’s not always an easy path with clear signs for which direction to go or what decision to make. Many of us struggle to know the shape of our life’s work. We might like to think that Moses had it easy: if only God would show up in a burning bush, call my name, and tell me the plan.
Well, God has shown up in Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, calls you over and over again. God is constantly calling you into being the person you can be. Pay attention to what catches your eye. Notice what speaks to your heart. Listen to promptings—it just may be the voice of God leading you in the way you should go.
I’d like to try something as a group. I’m not going to force you to participate. If you choose not to do what I ask, then please use your imagination instead. But I hope you’ll participate as it may give you new insight to hear God calling you.
Here’s this week’s challenge: take your shoes off. I’m not kidding. Right here. Right now. Again, it’s not required. But why not try slipping off just one. And then why not both? The idea might sound crazy to you. You might not like it very much. It might be awkward. Uncomfortable. Even afraid. Now we’re beginning to have a sense of how Moses must have felt.
Guess what? So what! Taking off our shoes creates in us a sense of humility and humility is what helps us see our need for God. Let’s not forget: we are on holy ground, not just here, but wherever God is at.
So leave your shoes off for a bit. Put them back on when you feel so moved—during the offering or even after the service if you want. But even as you put your shoes back on, commit to the ongoing practice of humility wherever you are. Every time you take your shoes off, take an extra moment and listen for God. God is calling you over and over again. It’s part of God’s plan. YOU are part of God's plan. God chooses to work in and through you to create the divine pattern of hope and life.
Let us pray: Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet not traveled, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SUNDAY TAKEOUT
Weekly Devotional Resource
Based on readings and the message from Sunday September 25, 2011
Richly Woven: Burning Bush
Connect
In the news last week, during a high-school cross-country race, a runner’s leg was gashed. Another boy from a competing team heard the boy’s cries for help, saw the blood, picked him up, and carried him to
the finish line. Heroes don’t think of themselves as such. They always say, “I just did what anyone else would do.” But we use this term of admiration because we recognize the risk, sacrifice, and humility involved in acting – even if it’s just losing a race or abandoning one’s plan for the day.
Consider:
• What common pattern is involved in rescue?
• What moves us to intervene?
• What rescue stories have inspired you?
Grow: In Humility We Respond to God
Read:
• Exodus 3:1-15
God has chosen to work through Moses to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, because Moses has demonstrated that he is alert to suffering – of a Hebrew slave and of some women tending sheep -- and
takes action to stop it. When God calls to Moses from a burning bush, his first instruction to Moses is to remove his sandals, as a sign of honor and humility to being in the presence of the Lord, standing on holy ground. When Moses hears God’s big rescue plan for the Israelites, he is reluctant to accept. It’s risky, and who is he to do this big thing? God says simply, I will be with you, and recounts for Moses the past examples of covenants, of rescuing, that he has carried out with Moses’s ancestors – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even though most of us might not hear the voice of God in such a dramatic fashion, the power of the Holy Spirit calls us again and again, Pastor Mary says. An inner prompting may be the voice of God calling, particularly when it’s a plan of rescue that involves risk, or sacrifice. Seek out moments of humility, or humbling ourselves before God, she says, so that we can recognize our need for God, and hear the God’s call to work in and through us. That God will be with us.
Consider:
• Alert? Humble? When can those moments happen in the crush of each day?
• Is there something calling you? Some grand plan? What is it? How do you feel about it? What is stopping you now from doing it?
Read:
• Sermon
Close
Holy God, we thank you for your promised presence in the wilderness places of our lives. Help us to see you in our midst, hear your word and to respond to your call to be instruments of your redeeming love in the world. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.
