"And God said to the man, 'Remove your sandals for the ground you are standing upon is holy" -- Ex. 2:5
I introduce this post with the colorful, mesmerizing graphic you see above. I do so because, for me, it raises several interesting questions and speculative possibilities for both theology and philosophy with the first being, what do you see? If you had to describe this to someone who had been born blind, what would you say? Would you describe it as a beautifully designed colorful twisting bulb; or a boiling orb? Would you say it was an ingeniously designed modern graphic designed with AI? A fiery fountain, perhaps; or, something alien and sinister; other-worldly? How do you describe the indescribable?
In looking at this graphic what emotions does it invoke? Wonder? Excitement? Curiosity? Fear? Are you mesmerized in its turning, rolling motion? Does it tug at you moving you to step forward to get a closer look? Does it move you spiritually and, if so, how would you begin to describe the experience? If you are so moved and your curiosity has gotten the best of you to get closer then, I suggest, we may be getting a glimpse as to what Moses experienced when he looked to the side of a Midian mountain and and saw the burning bush and said, "I must see this marvelous sight" (Ex. 3.3).
Prior to this moment we know very little of this man, Moses. His entire early life, from birth to his flight from Egypt after killing a slave-driver happens within the first fourteen verses of the second chapter in Exodus. We are told that he was born to a Hebrew slave of the House of Levi and to save his life during a purge of infant Hebrew males his mother had set him adrift in the River Nile. How this was to save his life I can't imagine since the infant could easily have died from exposure, drowning, or been eaten by the dreadful Nile crocodiles. Still, it was probably better than watching him killed by Pharaoh's guards and speaks volumes of the measures a mother might take in a panic to save her child.
Discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh who assumes (correctly) that the child is Hebrew, the baby is lifted from the water and the daughter decides to keep him rather than accede to a royal decree to murder Hebrew infants. By coincidence the baby's mother is hired to suckle the child and Pharaoh's daughter names him Moses and raises him as a royal prince of Egypt. Why this never raised suspicion among the royal family as to where the baby came from is never mentioned as it, most likely wasn't relevant to the original telling of the story.
In Ex. 2:11, we find Moses grown into manhood and, somehow, aware of his Hebrew heritage. One day, while going out to where his "brethren" -- the Hebrew slaves -- were working, Moses observes one of them being beaten by a slave-master and intercedes by killing the Egyptian. When Moses learns that news of the killing had spread and that Pharaoh was looking to capture and kill him, Moses fled Egypt.
After crossing the vast Sinai peninsula Moses arrives in the Midian of western Arabia where he encounters several women at a well being assaulted by shepherds. Once more he intercedes chasing the shepherds away and rescuing the women who believe him to be an Egyptian. The women, tell their father, Reuel (in other passages he is called, Jethro), of how the stranger had rescued them and Reuel, in turn, welcomes the stranger into his tent where he stays and marries one of the daughters, Zipporah, and settles down into the life of a Midian sheep herder.
Now, Moses' father-in-law is described as "a priest" (Ex.3:1). We are not told what sort of priest or of what religious or cultic belief he is associated with. However, we do know that many of the nomadic tribes of western Arabia 3500 years ago worshiped a number of local deities, one of which was centered on the god, "Yahweh," who was worshiped over his perceived power over nature and over war. Was Reuel one of Yahweh's priests? We don't know. What we do know is what happened next.
When I first saw the rolling, twisting graphic above, my very first thought was of the "Burning Bush" (who knows what it really looked like?). To say that it was 'burning,' or that it was a 'bush,' could have simply been a way to describe the indescribable. Once, again, I ask can you describe what you see?
If you were to observe such a wondrous sight on the side of a hill what would you do? Would you be frightened and run away to call 9-1-1? Or would your curiosity get the best of you and, like Moses, make you want to see this "marvelous sight?" And, once more, I ask how would you feel? Would it be a temporal experience of the unreal or would you be moved spiritually in an experience of a sacred moment where a voice said, "Remove your sandals for the ground you stand upon is holy?"
What, exactly, is a sacred moment? To be sure, such moments are open to definition as each of us would experience such moments differently. For Moses it was to stand upon holy ground. For Jesus it was a dove descending from Heaven. For the Apostle Paul it was in a blinding flash. Regardless of how we experience such moments, there is one thing that seems obvious: It is a moment in which we feel somehow possessed, as though something has entered us, surrounds us, moves within us and draws us into an inner contemplation about who we were Yesterday; who we are Today; and who will we be Tomorrow?
Life is full of such sacred moments that, surprisingly, have little or no direct connection to a formal religion or belief. Our wedding day, for example, calls us to consider who we were as a single person versus who we want to be as a husband or wife; the happiness of the man or woman we are marrying and what the future might be like as we go through life together. The day our first child is born pulls us into further contemplation of today and tomorrow and the kind of parent we hope to be and the kind of person we hope this child will grow into. And, nothing seems more sacred than the fear we feel as parents when a child suffers from some life-threatening illness.
Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel described a sacred moment as one in which we are "struck by Wonder." Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, for instance, or watching a sunset from the Swiss Alps would seem an appropriate description of being struck by Wonder. However, Heschel isn't talking about these natural wonders that place us in awe of nature which happens to all of us at one time or another. No, for Heschel, to be "struck by wonder" is to experience the presence of the Holy. It is a moment in which we discover how much we are loved and are affirmed in our very person in much the same way a lost child experiences love and affirmation upon being found.
To be "struck by wonder," seems to me to be an appropriate description of Moses as he gazed upon that Midian mountain side. The story of Moses at the burning bush is not just a story of how God calls us to a task, although he most certainly does. It is more a tale of God's boundless love in reaching out to take hold of a human heart lost to this temporal world and calls it to action on a plane we never imagined possible. And, it seems to me that it isn't so much that, "God so loved the world that he gave," as it is, "God so loves the world that he calls" to each of us to come out of our past and into His future to be His sons and daughters."
This 'boundless' nature of God's Love is particularly evident when it comes to those whom God calls to be His messengers. Moses, Isaiah, David, even Saul of Tarsus. Each seem unlikely recipients of such a call. Their pasts were filled with sinful actions that would get many of us thrown in prison, today. Can any of us look into our past and not feel the tug of regret or shame for who were were then and the activities we engaged in? The really cool thing is, when God calls there is no regard for who you were; no regard for those past mistakes; no regard to your failures; no regard for your social status. In fact, it seems that those whom God chooses are precisely those whose lives were less than perfect, but who were unafraid to answer His call in a moment of deep wonder. This courage to step into the future can be seen in each instance where the Lord steps into someone's life and says, "Follow me."
I attended a lecuture a number of years ago where the speaker looked out upon the gathered faces of young seminarians and asked, "What would you do if God confronted you and said, 'You have twenty years left. Build me a school!'"
Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel described a sacred moment as one in which we are "struck by Wonder." Standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon, for instance, or watching a sunset from the Swiss Alps would seem an appropriate description of being struck by Wonder. However, Heschel isn't talking about these natural wonders that place us in awe of nature which happens to all of us at one time or another. No, for Heschel, to be "struck by wonder" is to experience the presence of the Holy. It is a moment in which we discover how much we are loved and are affirmed in our very person in much the same way a lost child experiences love and affirmation upon being found.
To be "struck by wonder," seems to me to be an appropriate description of Moses as he gazed upon that Midian mountain side. The story of Moses at the burning bush is not just a story of how God calls us to a task, although he most certainly does. It is more a tale of God's boundless love in reaching out to take hold of a human heart lost to this temporal world and calls it to action on a plane we never imagined possible. And, it seems to me that it isn't so much that, "God so loved the world that he gave," as it is, "God so loves the world that he calls" to each of us to come out of our past and into His future to be His sons and daughters."
This 'boundless' nature of God's Love is particularly evident when it comes to those whom God calls to be His messengers. Moses, Isaiah, David, even Saul of Tarsus. Each seem unlikely recipients of such a call. Their pasts were filled with sinful actions that would get many of us thrown in prison, today. Can any of us look into our past and not feel the tug of regret or shame for who were were then and the activities we engaged in? The really cool thing is, when God calls there is no regard for who you were; no regard for those past mistakes; no regard to your failures; no regard for your social status. In fact, it seems that those whom God chooses are precisely those whose lives were less than perfect, but who were unafraid to answer His call in a moment of deep wonder. This courage to step into the future can be seen in each instance where the Lord steps into someone's life and says, "Follow me."
I attended a lecuture a number of years ago where the speaker looked out upon the gathered faces of young seminarians and asked, "What would you do if God confronted you and said, 'You have twenty years left. Build me a school!'"
In moments where you and I are confronted with the Eternal -- be it a burning bush or a beautiful, wondrous sunset, or an ingenious twisting graphic -- we acutely understand that we are being confronted with ourselves (the Divine always turns us inward). When God calls we are forced to think about who we were Yesterday, for it was only yesterday that we were born, and yesterday is where all our mistakes and our shame are buried.
When God calls we are forced to think about Today, for today is the moment that is "Now." Theologian Paul Tillich (1885-1965) made reference to an "Eternal Now," which is this moment that becomes the next moment ad infinitum. Today is the moment where we live and the moment in which we are capable of acting to change our lives and to affect change in the lives of others. It is this, Now, in which we are being called and to which we must respond.
At the same time, when God calls we are forced to look at Tomorrow, for tomorrow we may be gone along with any chance for change. So everything that God wants us to know, to learn and to get done must be done, Today, and even if He tells us we have twenty years left, He wants us to start, today! That is what is meant when we talk about a "calling." God's call is a call to action, right now! It is not a call to sit down and work on a game plan, or get educated, and, even less about a life-time career though those might be steps to consider. No! God's call is a call to act, Today! Yesterday is gone, let it go; today is the moment to act, so act now! And how we act, today, impacts tomorrow, even if we won't be there.
Not to get off topic, but as an aside, as a former service member, I have read after-action reports and sat and listened, through tears, of tales of survival simply because someone acted, now. The Tom Hanks film, "Saving Pvt. Ryan" is just such a tale of men who sacrificed their lives so that the last surviving son of a family back home could be saved. When God calls we may not even know it. A voice suddenly screams, "Save your buddies, now!" And you act, leaving them to forever remember that self-sacrifice. That is the whole meaning of the Vietnam Memorial and all the other memorials to our war dead: Remembrance. Remembrance of entire generations that gave up their young as a sacrifice for our survival. That is the meaning of all our memorials, and that should be our gratitude -- as a living memorial -- to all those who not only lost their lives in our most recent foreign conflicts, but who also lost their limbs and, sometimes, their minds, as well.
God calls to us in acts of remembrance which is why we observe Easter and Passover, Christmas and Hannukah, and a number of other religious holidays in between. It is why we choose to worship on our holy day. It not only serves as remembrance but as a living testament to our faith, today. Right now.
When God calls we, like the Prophets and all our biblical heroes, may think ourselves unworthy because our souls are filled with all that past guilt and shame. We say we are incapable of responding to this "call" and we cry out, "Why me?" Self-doubt is a natural reaction to any confrontation with the Holy.
When God calls we are forced to think about Today, for today is the moment that is "Now." Theologian Paul Tillich (1885-1965) made reference to an "Eternal Now," which is this moment that becomes the next moment ad infinitum. Today is the moment where we live and the moment in which we are capable of acting to change our lives and to affect change in the lives of others. It is this, Now, in which we are being called and to which we must respond.
At the same time, when God calls we are forced to look at Tomorrow, for tomorrow we may be gone along with any chance for change. So everything that God wants us to know, to learn and to get done must be done, Today, and even if He tells us we have twenty years left, He wants us to start, today! That is what is meant when we talk about a "calling." God's call is a call to action, right now! It is not a call to sit down and work on a game plan, or get educated, and, even less about a life-time career though those might be steps to consider. No! God's call is a call to act, Today! Yesterday is gone, let it go; today is the moment to act, so act now! And how we act, today, impacts tomorrow, even if we won't be there.
Not to get off topic, but as an aside, as a former service member, I have read after-action reports and sat and listened, through tears, of tales of survival simply because someone acted, now. The Tom Hanks film, "Saving Pvt. Ryan" is just such a tale of men who sacrificed their lives so that the last surviving son of a family back home could be saved. When God calls we may not even know it. A voice suddenly screams, "Save your buddies, now!" And you act, leaving them to forever remember that self-sacrifice. That is the whole meaning of the Vietnam Memorial and all the other memorials to our war dead: Remembrance. Remembrance of entire generations that gave up their young as a sacrifice for our survival. That is the meaning of all our memorials, and that should be our gratitude -- as a living memorial -- to all those who not only lost their lives in our most recent foreign conflicts, but who also lost their limbs and, sometimes, their minds, as well.
God calls to us in acts of remembrance which is why we observe Easter and Passover, Christmas and Hannukah, and a number of other religious holidays in between. It is why we choose to worship on our holy day. It not only serves as remembrance but as a living testament to our faith, today. Right now.
When God calls we, like the Prophets and all our biblical heroes, may think ourselves unworthy because our souls are filled with all that past guilt and shame. We say we are incapable of responding to this "call" and we cry out, "Why me?" Self-doubt is a natural reaction to any confrontation with the Holy.
Psychology tells us that our feelings of inferiority is a form of pride since we are comparing ourselves over and against something we hold in higher esteem; something we, ourselves, have either failed to attain or believe ourselves incapable of attaining. Little wonder the same holds true when God calls. However, when God calls we are strengthened to overcome this self-doubt; to overcome our insecurities and our guilt over our past failings. All we have to do is act on that strength in the knowledge that we have been "accepted."
When God calls, our shame is cast aside because at that moment we come to realize that if God has called us, then all of our fears and anxieties over all of our yesterdays are for naught because we are accepted. And, to me, that is the true meaning of the biblical account of the burning bush. As I see it, Moses had no particular religious belief; had killed a man and had become a fugitive. He settled in Midian where he was considered "an Egyptian" (Ex. 2:19). Moses had a past, a past that he was running from and had no wish to go back to. In fact, I would argue that Moses wasn't really a Hebrew until God called him to be by saying, "I am the God of your father." Thereupon, it fell to Moses the task of bringing God's people out of the slavery that was Egypt (Ex. 3:10).
When God calls us by name, He is telling us we are released from all those, yesterdays that burden us with guilt and shame. The calling of God means we have been cleansed and now that we are clean, we must put on the cloak of cleanliness to fulfill a task He has given us. And, exactly, what is that task we are being called to do? You might say, it is to "bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, to open the prison of those who are bound, and to declare the Good Day of the Lord" (Is. 61:1). And, of course that would, certainly, be true which is why we have pastors and ministers, rabbi's and priests, immams and elders. Christians, in particular, are called to "feed the hungry, give drink to those who thirst, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, care for the dispossessed, heal the sick and visit the imprisoned" (Matt. 25:35-36), in other words, begin living your life in a manner in which you, "love God with all your heart and all your soul, and you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself" (Matt. 26:36-40). When you stop to think about that, it is a fitting counter to those who promote hate, division, mendacity, war and death and would ensure that the Kingdom of God actually exists. Why else would Jesus say that the Kingdom is here within all of us (Luke 17:15)?
When God calls us by name, He is telling us we are released from all those, yesterdays that burden us with guilt and shame. The calling of God means we have been cleansed and now that we are clean, we must put on the cloak of cleanliness to fulfill a task He has given us. And, exactly, what is that task we are being called to do? You might say, it is to "bring good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, to open the prison of those who are bound, and to declare the Good Day of the Lord" (Is. 61:1). And, of course that would, certainly, be true which is why we have pastors and ministers, rabbi's and priests, immams and elders. Christians, in particular, are called to "feed the hungry, give drink to those who thirst, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, care for the dispossessed, heal the sick and visit the imprisoned" (Matt. 25:35-36), in other words, begin living your life in a manner in which you, "love God with all your heart and all your soul, and you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself" (Matt. 26:36-40). When you stop to think about that, it is a fitting counter to those who promote hate, division, mendacity, war and death and would ensure that the Kingdom of God actually exists. Why else would Jesus say that the Kingdom is here within all of us (Luke 17:15)?
But, whether you are caring for a parish church bringing good news to all, or you are simply loving God and your neighbor, our testament to our faith and our calling is manifest in our ability to return God's forgiveness to us by offering that forgiveness to others. The call of God is a call to show "mercy," and mercy can only come about through "forgiveness." God calls each of us to practice and preach the forgiveness He has shown us, for only one who has received mercy can dispense mercy. That is what God calls us to do: to be merciful. Does it mean we now have to go to church, synagogue or mosque? Does it mean we have to be religious in any particular form? I would like to say, yes, but there are plenty of examples in the world of non-religious people showing forgiveness and mercy towards their fellows and the truth is, without Mercy there is no God; no Forgiveness; no Hope.
The image of the "burning bush" (however you may conceive it to be), is one that speaks our name and calls us to act in remembrance of how God has been merciful to us in freeing us from our Past. God's call calls us into the Present, calls us into holiness, not just to God or Christ but to ourselves and to our neighbor. God forgives us which brings hope for tomorrow and, in turn, we are required to bring hope to others and all of their tomorrows. If we can do that, then we come to truly understand what it means when God calls with the words, "Remove your sandals, for the ground you are standing upon is holy" (Ex. 3:5).
