Meet Moses…
Alec Shuttleworth
February 11, 2017
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Exodus 3:1-6
Moses and the burning bush
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight – why the bush does not burn up.’
4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’
And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’
5 ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ 6 Then he said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
Whether you hear those words as an instruction or an invitation will tell you a lot abut your attitude to God. You can hear them as an instruction, a warning that the ground that God inhabits is so holy that he wanted nothing on Moses' sandals to defile it. That is probably what the author of the story understood the words to mean.
But to me they stand more as an invitation. Take your sandals off, feel the ground beneath your feet. Let your toes curl in the sand. Ground yourself in the holiness of this place. The God Immanuel, the God with us, is not defiled by contact with us. We are sanctified by contact with him.
Of all our complex characters few came to God with a more complex past than Moses. Few were given more to do than Moses. To do it, he had to stand on the holy ground.
Take off your sandals because you are standing on holy ground.
MOSES
The voice called me to the burning bush
And bade me come no closer
This is holy ground the voice told me
Take off your sandals
And I felt the holiness of this place.
The voice called me from my fugitive status
To a higher purpose.
The voice called me from stammering apology
To call to the King, "Let my people go."
How can I be the one who is chosen
"Take off your sandals"
And I felt the holiness of this place.
The voice called me from hothead
Red handed murderer
From law breaker to law giver
What was I to tell them
When they ask who you are
You say to me "I am "
It means nothing
Until
I take off my sandals
And I felt the holiness for myself.
Lord God
Immanuel
Encountered
in desert places
On barren mountain top
Hard rock
Sharp sand
Let me take off my sandals
And stand on holy ground.
Amen
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