God said to Moses, "Don't come any closer.
Take off your sandals because you are standing on Holy Ground."
Exodus 3:5
A man went from the USA on a pilgrimage to Europe to
visit some of the Holy places associated with the Reformed faith. He went to
Aldersgate in England, where John Wesley had an experience of the Spirit that left his
heart 'strangely warmed'. He went to Wittenberg in Germany and to Rome
in Italy, to where Martin Luther's incisive turnings took place. He went to Geneva to walk where John Calvin walked.
All he found were plain buildings and ordinary towns. It
took a lot of money and time to bring him to the conclusion that it wasn't places that were important. What ever had happened
there was long gone and could not be distilled or captured.
If we were to go to the area of Horeb that our Old Testament lesson spoke of, and by some
chance discover the very bush where God spoke to Moses, I'm sure it would look just like any other desert bush. The bush only had significance because God spoke and somebody responded.
Often we look for a special place or dramatic circumstance in which we can be confronted
by God. In reality any place can be our special place. The problem is that because
we so easily dismiss the common place and the ordinary, we often miss out on what God is trying to say to us or do for us. To counteract this:-
·
We need an awareness of God.
·
We need an openness to God.
·
We need obedience to God.
1. Confronting God requires awareness of
God.
We can glibly say, "God is always with me." Our
actions often betray our words. We don't act like God is always with us. We don't
expect to meet God everywhere and anytime.
Back in Horeb, had it been someone other than Moses, they might not have taken much notice
of the burning bush, nor heard God speak. "Oh.. look.. there is a bush on fire. That's strange, it isn't burning up. Oh well.
Whatever. I'll be on my way."
The theologian J.S Whale observes that if most of us saw a bush on fire not burning up,
we wouldn't take off our shoes in reverence, we'd pull out a camera and take a snapshot to show the folks back home.
Sometimes things happen in our lives that other people call coincidences or accidents. The eye of faith interprets them differently and sees the working of God's Holy Spirit.
As one lady said, "I've noticed that when I pray coincidences start to happen!"
Carrying with us an awareness, that God can confront us through the ordinary and the every
day, can transform our every day lives. When faith is active in our hearts, any
place becomes a Christian shrine, a place of meeting with God. A school canteen,
a kitchen sink, a chance encounter with a stranger, behind the desk at work... God can and will meet with us, if only we can
keep alive an awareness of His presence.
2. Confronting God requires openness to
God.
You can come to church and sit down in the pew and be aware that someone is sitting next
to you. They may have sat next to you last week and may even be there next week. You are aware of their presence. That
doesn't mean any communication takes place between you.
In order to establish a relationship you have to talk, communicate, open up. That's why
we often have times for fellowship before or after services. We don't want to
be just a bunch of observers at worship services. God calls us to be a fellowship.
Openness takes communication. It
has at least two benefits.
a) Openness to God allows us to recognize
Him when He does confront us.
I used to have a friend in Wales who would call me up, put on a deep voice and say things like, "I know who you are." Tried to scare me. I always figured out it was him, because
I knew his voice and knew he was the sort of person who would do such things.
By the time Moses encountered the burning bush in the desert he had learned enough of God
to recognize when something significant was taking place. He identified God's
voice. He realized he was on holy ground.
He took off his sandals as a sign of devotion. It was more than an awareness
of God's presence. He opened up to hear what God had to say.
In a service of worship, we need to be aware that God is present. But more than awareness, there needs to be in us a reaching out, an opening up, a heartfelt desire to hear
what God wishes us to hear. A divine initiative has taken place. In Christ God
calls to us. It is for us to respond.
b) Openness to God allows us to truly be ourselves.
Moses was a man with an identity crisis. His
questioning of God at the burning bush was also a questioning of himself. "Who
am I? A child of Israel or a child of Egypt? A fugitive? An outlaw? An adopted son of Pharaoh? A priest’s son-in law? A shepherd of Midian?" Who was he?
In his book "The Cost of Discipleship,"
Diettrich Boenhoeffer writes from his prison
cell in Nazi Germany;
"Who am I?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once?
A hypocrite before others
and before myself a contemptible, woebegone
weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten
army
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I?
They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest O God
I am thine!"
Who are we? We know we are products of our
background, our families, our environment.... so many complex factors. We know
our lives are a strange mixture of darkness and light, of victories and defeats, that like Boenhoeffer there is something
in us "like a beaten army fleeing in disorder from a victory already achieved."
An encounter with God cuts through all of that self questioning and brings freedom. To
God we are someone special. He wants to confront us, wants to talk with us. To God we matter enough for Him to send His son
Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us. To God we are a child of potential with a capacity for grace who can find fulfillment
in the seeking and doing of God’s will.
Be aware of God. Be open to God. And be mindful...
3. Confronting God requires obedience to
God.
Imagine how the whole thing would have turned out if Moses had said, "God, I hear you,
but I'm not doing what you suggest. Me… become the spokesperson to lead
the Israelites out of Egypt… You know me God... I can hardly put a sentence together, let
alone lead a nation!"
Jamie McDougal was a forester in Scotland. He was the size of a house. Legs like tree trunks, shoulders
more like a grizzly bear than a human being. He was once asked if there was anything
he was afraid of.
"Och, I'm not afraid of any man that walks on this earth," Then
he paused, and through his beard there traced a slow grin, "But I am afraid of one wee lassie."
"And who might that be?" he was asked.
"Why, the wife!" he replied.
Jamie McDougal was over 280 pounds, a punch like a sledgehammer, his wife less than a third
his size and didn't look like she could punch a hole through a wet paper bag. An
explanation was required.
"Oh, I'm nae afraid that she can hurt me. I'm afraid of doo-een something she would na
like. I'm afraid of her feelings - that I might do something stoopid - and hurt them".
If you know somebody loves you, you don't trample on their feelings. On the contrary, love is the greatest possible incentive towards obedience.
The love of God can confront us anytime and anywhere.
Let us be aware of God’s presence. Let us be open to God. Above
all, by the grace of God, may we respond with an obedient heart of faith, not because we are fearful , but because we know
of God’s great love for us in Jesus Christ, because that we know that to love God is to keep God’s commandments.
God said to Moses, "Don't come any closer.
Take off your sandals because you are standing
on Holy Ground."
The presence of God that turns the commonplace
into the holy.
May God teach us how to honor Him and worship
Him with our whole lives.
To His name be all honor, power and glory.
AMEN.
