Sermon 8/28/05
From Where I Stand - Exodus 3:1-15
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Last week we heard from our Old Testament lesson about how a new king had come to power in Egypt who didn’t know about Joseph and his brothers and about how the Israelites came to be living in Egypt, where they had come for relief from the famine that struck in Joseph’s day. The new king, the Pharaoh, was suspicious of the power that these Israelites were gaining, and had ordered that new born boys of Israelites be put to death. However, one child, in a twist of fate, was spared and brought up in the Pharaoh’s own household – the child Moses. Today, we read of Moses, the grown man, who God directs to confront this same Pharaoh, and to set the Israelite free from slavery, leading them into their own home, their own land, promised by God. But before Moses can lead the Israelites, he has to meet God and be convinced of God’s plans. That’s where we enter the story today.
Moses is minding his own business, doing the everyday duty of keeping the flock of sheep for his father-in-law. And then, God breaks into the scene, the typical setting, and Moses sees a bush that is burning with fire, but the bush doesn’t seem to be consumed or burned up. Naturally, Moses decides to take a closer look, wanting to investigate the strange sight. And as he draws closer, God’s voice is heard in the bush coming from a messenger. God speaks to Moses, calling him by name. Moses answers, “Here I am.” God says, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” God proceeds to remind Moses of the relationship that has gone on for generations between God and Moses’ forebears. And God says that the cry of the Israelites has been heard, and that God has come to send Moses to Pharaoh to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses questions God’s plan. “Me?” he says. “Who am I that Pharaoh would listen to me?” God responds, “I will be with you. Isn’t that enough? I’ll give you signs, you’ll know for sure.” But still Moses raises objections. “who shall I say sent me? Telling them that it is our ancestors’ God won’t be enough.” God, perhaps, has had enough. “I AM WHO I AM. Tell them I AM has sent you.” Moses continues to complain and doubt and ask questions for another chapter and a half. But our passage today closes here, leaving us to dwell in this mystery of God.
As many of you know, I spent the second week of August at Camp Aldersgate, one of our two United Methodist camp centers in our Annual Conference. I grew up attending Camp Aldersgate. When I was little, I used to ride out with my family when we would take my big brother and my older cousin to camp for the week, and as we waited to register them, I would dream of the day that I could go to camp too. Back then, you had to be going into fourth grade before you could attend camp. Finally I was old enough, and of course, the year I was old enough to go was the year that they lowered the grade requirement! But finally, it was my turn. I attended camp every summer from that year until I was on staff there in high school. I remember the ride, about an hour from Rome, used to seem so long, and that I could tell we were getting close when the trees started to have that distinctly Adirondack look to them. Eventually, I would lobby my mother to squeeze out two weeks at camp if I could, never being able to decide between all the options, and always wanting to prolong an experience that went by so quickly. Eventually, I would join the staff at Camp Aldersgate. And eventually, I would become a pastor who would have the privilege of being expected to give a week of time to Aldersgate every summer!
For me, and for many, Camp Aldersgate has been a place where I go and sense that I am on God’s Holy Ground. I feel there that I am in God’s presence in powerful ways. But as I’ve thought over my experiences there, I can tell you that it isn’t just the worship or the scenery or the music that makes Aldersgate holy to me. Certainly, the beautiful setting, being in the midst of God’s creation does make me more aware of God’s presence. But I can find beautiful surroundings in many places. And certainly, I enjoy the camp songs and the times of worship, but even these are things I experience elsewhere without feeling the same thing, the same sense of being in a holy place. So what is it? What’s holy about camp to me? This summer, I was in a holy place when I was on a night hike, and I watched the two most popular eleven-year old boys in my camp take the hand of the scared young girl who struggled with disabilities that set her apart from her peers. She was afraid of the dark, and they led her along on her hike, and she told them that they were her protectors. They didn’t need anyone to ask them to look out for her. They just did what they knew she needed. And I saw God’s holiness in their actions. I was in a holy place when one of my co-counselors turned out to be one of my youth from CCYM, our conference youth organization, who had just graduated. I saw change from someone who has served in a pastoral role for her to someone who could work side by side with her. I watched her lead bible studies, and though her theology was still young and hesitant as she articulated it, I saw someone who was open about her faith and ready to share with young people what God has been doing in her life. And I’ve had other places, too, where I’ve experience holy ground, like during the summer a spent as a hospital chaplain and rotated through pediatrics and neo-natal intensive care. I was aware of holy ground when I saw small babies fighting and fighting for their lives, and when I played Nintendo with a young girl who seemed to give me more than I could give to her. And I experience holy ground often when I am out for a walk or a run. Actually, it is in that holy place that I’m most likely to be able to see with clarity how I will preach a scripture text. Something about the holy space of being separated from my computer and my books and my phone and my mountains of “to do” papers and files allows me to hear God and hear God’s word in a way that I can’t always do elsewhere. So I’ve experience many places of holy ground.
As I was preparing for my sermon this week, I quickly decided that I would tell you about my holy ground places. I could fill up several sermons with stories about Aldersgate and how much I love it there, or stories about the other places I briefly mentioned. What better way to illustrate this passage of scripture for you, I thought, at first. But then I realized that I was doing something it is often tempting to do as a reader of scripture. I had looked at the passage, Exodus 3:1-15, skimmed over the part of the burning bush, and said to myself, “oh, that story.” Before I got too far along in my mental planning, I realized that the part of the text that talks about holy ground happens in verse 5, leaving 10 verses still unaccounted for. What about the rest of the passage?
Well, I think Moses would have like for his experience to end at verse 5 as well. Sure, it was his fault. He’d been curious and come closer to that burning bush. He’d gotten to see God, which was great, but now he wished very much that he could just get back to his flock and go home. God has other ideas, though, and soon it seems that Moses has somehow been selected for a very big, very important mission, even though he’s ready to make it clear to God why this is a bad idea, even though he has a brother who is better suited to what God is asking, even though what God is asking will put Moses in a most dangerous position. Moses must, for the moment, regret that he’d every happened upon this place of holy ground. And indeed, I wonder, as we read through the rest of Exodus and hear the continued struggles Moses has with the people and with God, if Moses still wished he’d never uttered those words: “Here I am!” But in the end, though his task and journey were tough, I like to think that Moses also found them deeply rewarding, and his relationship with God was certainly intensely personal and intimate.
Moses is one of those Bible figures I think we are all so like. We’ve been drawn in to places that are holy in our lives, holy settings, and holy situations, only to find God there, wanting to ask something of us. And suddenly we have excuses on our lips, and wonder if we can just leave God on the mountain, and head back to our homes in the valleys. But our thinking shows just how much we, like Moses, don’t really understand holy ground at all. I think we consider holy ground a place that we happen upon, and happen to find God there, or a place that we must retreat to, go to in order to find God. Like God was just waiting for me to come to Camp Aldersgate, but couldn’t get to me until I came to Brantingham. Turns out, God is a lot more talented than that. I think God has crashes into our lives and hopes to get our attention. When we recognize God’s presence, we recognize the holy ground we are in fact always treading on. Holy ground is just waiting for us to recognize it’s presence, just as God is waiting for us to answer when God calls. So God will speak to us at church if we’ll listen while we’re here, but God will also show us holy ground in the supermarket or on vacation or when we’re just feeling open and vulnerable, if that’s what it takes. So the truth is, Moses wasn’t able to say no to God – how can you ‘un-see’ holy ground once you’ve found it? Even if you try, God will just break onto the scene in some other way, and suddenly Moses would have found himself to be on holy ground in his house, or in the fields, or wherever else God needed to be to get Moses to understand what God was saying.
Holy ground asks for a response from us. More than a stamp in a passport book, holy ground wants us to have something to show for having been there. For me and camp, I can say that my experiences didn’t directly lead me to ordained ministry perhaps, but I also can’t imagine that I’d have ended up as a pastor had I not spent all that time at Aldersgate. When you think about the holy ground you’ve been on, what do you have to show for your journey? How did you let God change you? If you can’t think of an answer, I’d start watching out for the shrubs around your home, because they just might start trying to get you to hear them. Our God is the creator of all we see and know, of everyone we meet – and that means that we have a lot of potential holy ground that surrounds us. Our goal is to start recognizing God’s holy ground when we see it. And when God calls, we can be ready to respond, “Here I am.” So take off your shoes – this place is holy ground, and I AM has a message for you.
Amen.