Our Exodus reading tonight is the second chapter in the story of Moses...and might have been entitled "Moses, the wilderness years," if there weren't 40 literal wilderness years still to come.
After the amazing escape of the baby in the basket, after the cosseted upbringing of the young Priceling in Egypt, things have taken a turn for the worse for our hero. He has committed manslaughter in a misguided attempt to defend a fellow countryman, and fled from Israelites and Egyptians alike, to live as an alien in exile in a foreign land.
He has a less than glamorous job, looking after his father in laws sheep...and thats what hes doing on this day when everything changes. Amid the rocks and boulders, the familiar if unfriendly landscape of every day, suddenly an extraordinary sight catches his eye.
There's a fire amid the scrubland, a sudden flash of colour, amid the dust
Is that the miracle? God offering one of the most powerful conversation starters in history? Wouldn't it be great if he would do that for us, offer us unmissable evidence of his interest in us, of his longing to communicate!? Lauren Winner, in her book Girl Meets God, writes of a friend who liked to say,
“I wish God would send a burning bush, but I’d settle for a smoldering houseplant!”
Where are those spectacular signs we read about in scripture. Why don't they come our way? They sound so exciting. ..changing everything in an instant.
Wouldn't you just love that?
Dahoud, the endlessly enthusiastic guide on my Holy Land pilgrimage, came up with all sorts of horticultural explanations for what was actually happening when Moses caught sight of the bush flaming merrily...Perhaps, then, the bush itself wasn't a miracle after all, but some kind of natural phenomenon.
Really it doesn't matter. Whatever the cause, we're in the realm of miracle because, you see, tired, disheartened Moses found a spark of interest lighting up his inner landscape too. A spark bright enough to stop him in his tracks, compelling enough to persuade him to take a closer look..
He might have rationalised the wonder, as I find myself too prone to do.
He might have walked away. The bush was just there, doing nothing beyond being. It wouldn't have pursued him down the track, demanding his attention. That's never how God works.
He might have felt it was time to head home. He might not even have noticed.
“Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries" said Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So perhaps the miracle was Moses' diversion, which took him so close he could see a greater wonder. This burning bush, for all its dancing flames, was not burning up.
We all know the principle of fire which needs fuel to feed it. In my last vicarage we had a wood burning stove, which I really loved, except for the rate at which it consumed logs...two baskets in an afternoon.
And when they're gone, they're gone. You can't take them off the pyre and restore them to the woodpile..But this fire in Exodus burns and is not consumed.
Intrigued, Moses draws near and so hears the voice of God
He discovers that this unpromising spot half way up a mountain is actually utterly amazing.
It is holy ground.
We have God's word for it.
He says it to Moses, and if you listen, you'll find that he says it to you too.
This, THIS is holy ground.
The place where God is ready to meet with us, and to change our world as he once changed the world
for Moses
THAT'S the miracle
God has always been present in that landscape, and every landscape....always waiting for us to turn towards our moment of encounter.
Only those who see take off their shoes...
On Wednesday Lent begins, with its annual invitation to stop in our every day lives, to turn aside and discover God waiting for us, making our landscape holy, calling us to new work, new ways of being. The God of Moses, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God too....present and active in this time of anxiety and confusion as he was present and active for disheartened Moses, and for captive Israel.
We are each invited to stop, take off our shoes and discover afresh the holy ground in our lives where he waits
As Lent begins may he give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and the grace to go wherever he calls us on our journey of hopeful discipleship
After the amazing escape of the baby in the basket, after the cosseted upbringing of the young Priceling in Egypt, things have taken a turn for the worse for our hero. He has committed manslaughter in a misguided attempt to defend a fellow countryman, and fled from Israelites and Egyptians alike, to live as an alien in exile in a foreign land.
He has a less than glamorous job, looking after his father in laws sheep...and thats what hes doing on this day when everything changes. Amid the rocks and boulders, the familiar if unfriendly landscape of every day, suddenly an extraordinary sight catches his eye.
There's a fire amid the scrubland, a sudden flash of colour, amid the dust
Is that the miracle? God offering one of the most powerful conversation starters in history? Wouldn't it be great if he would do that for us, offer us unmissable evidence of his interest in us, of his longing to communicate!? Lauren Winner, in her book Girl Meets God, writes of a friend who liked to say,
“I wish God would send a burning bush, but I’d settle for a smoldering houseplant!”
Where are those spectacular signs we read about in scripture. Why don't they come our way? They sound so exciting. ..changing everything in an instant.
Wouldn't you just love that?
Dahoud, the endlessly enthusiastic guide on my Holy Land pilgrimage, came up with all sorts of horticultural explanations for what was actually happening when Moses caught sight of the bush flaming merrily...Perhaps, then, the bush itself wasn't a miracle after all, but some kind of natural phenomenon.
Really it doesn't matter. Whatever the cause, we're in the realm of miracle because, you see, tired, disheartened Moses found a spark of interest lighting up his inner landscape too. A spark bright enough to stop him in his tracks, compelling enough to persuade him to take a closer look..
He might have rationalised the wonder, as I find myself too prone to do.
He might have walked away. The bush was just there, doing nothing beyond being. It wouldn't have pursued him down the track, demanding his attention. That's never how God works.
He might have felt it was time to head home. He might not even have noticed.
“Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God. But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries" said Elizabeth Barrett Browning
So perhaps the miracle was Moses' diversion, which took him so close he could see a greater wonder. This burning bush, for all its dancing flames, was not burning up.
We all know the principle of fire which needs fuel to feed it. In my last vicarage we had a wood burning stove, which I really loved, except for the rate at which it consumed logs...two baskets in an afternoon.
And when they're gone, they're gone. You can't take them off the pyre and restore them to the woodpile..But this fire in Exodus burns and is not consumed.
Intrigued, Moses draws near and so hears the voice of God
He discovers that this unpromising spot half way up a mountain is actually utterly amazing.
It is holy ground.
We have God's word for it.
He says it to Moses, and if you listen, you'll find that he says it to you too.
This, THIS is holy ground.
The place where God is ready to meet with us, and to change our world as he once changed the world
for Moses
THAT'S the miracle
God has always been present in that landscape, and every landscape....always waiting for us to turn towards our moment of encounter.
Only those who see take off their shoes...
On Wednesday Lent begins, with its annual invitation to stop in our every day lives, to turn aside and discover God waiting for us, making our landscape holy, calling us to new work, new ways of being. The God of Moses, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God too....present and active in this time of anxiety and confusion as he was present and active for disheartened Moses, and for captive Israel.
We are each invited to stop, take off our shoes and discover afresh the holy ground in our lives where he waits
As Lent begins may he give us eyes to see and ears to hear, and the grace to go wherever he calls us on our journey of hopeful discipleship
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