Let's start with a waaaay familiar reading, as we will be talking about how familiarity can lead to predictability which can lead to boredom which can lead to mailing it in regarding our relationship with The One:
Exodus 3:1-15
3Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ 4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 5Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ 6He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ 11But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ 12He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’
13 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’ 15God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:
This is my name for ever, and this my title for all generations.
So here is our famous White Board from our Library gatherings. This is what I will transfer from those gatherings to this virtual gathering. Ignore the 2nd Timothy and Matthew readings, as they are from previous sessions. Let's focus on the structure of this week's reading.
When reading any stories in the Pentateuch (any of the 1st five books of the Bible, all of which are traditionally attributed to Moses), it is important to recognize the profound symbolism with which these foundational stories are told. There is a long-standing practice of line-by-line dissection, prayerful rumination and commentary of great depth and breadth. At this point in the Moses narrative, he has escaped Egyptian justice after committing a brutal, pre-meditated murder. He has braved the vast desert wilderness to win the babe (Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian) and score a spot tending the family flock. Pretty darn cushy, all things considered.
At this point, most of what is on Moses' mind is probably adjusting to his new life and starting his family. He probably has plenty of distractions in his every day world, and yet, (v.2) he was looking around at his surroundings --
PRECEPT ONE FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Keep Your Eyes Open If you want to see something special, LOOK around you for something special.
Ol' Mo's got that down. He's looking around the environment with some curiosity (v.3), enough so that he turned aside to check out a burning bush. We're talking about the hot desert, here, where combustion of local flora is probably not such a big deal, but Moses is observant enough to note something different about this bush, and intellectually alive enough to turn aside to check things out.
Sure enough, The One is watching, and rewards Moses' turning aside with presence and interaction.
PRECEPT TWO FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Turn Aside Do something to take yourself out of the ordinary: Turn off noisy distractions, take a few deep cleansing breaths, stop whatever you are doing... whatever it takes to focus attention on this special moment that can become a touch-point with The One. Afterall:
"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 pick blackberries." -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Every day is chock full of opportunities for revelation, fascination, inspiration and Godly relation. Turn aside.
So Moses turns aside, taking a break from Sheep Administration duties to go a bit deeper, and The One rewards this with presence and communication, calling Moses by name. How cool is that? And Moses answers, ostensibly without looking around first to see if anyone else is watching him.
PRECEPT THREE FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: If God calls, ANSWER! If you feel a stirring, sense a presence, hear a voice, be like Moses and open yourself to more. "Here I am" is an open-ended invitation to communication. We have been trained to fear the extraordinary as it occurs. If you sense holiness and want to do deeper, don't run away. Invite it in!
So Moses invites The One in, but gets stopped in his tracks (v.5). "Take off your shoes. This is holy ground!" The One says.
PRECEPT FOUR FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Stop everything for God. This is not an ordinary time to be taken for granted and treated like nothing special. Make this time holy, whether through some ritual, change in carriage or position. Moses isn't going anywhere in the desert without his shoes, and neither is he tracking accumulated desert dirt across God's nice, clean temple floor. Drop your agenda, your resentments, your sense of self-determination, your goals for the moment and the day to just BE in the holy moment.
God then self-identifies, and the reality of the situation crashes down hard on Moses resulting in a fear response (v.6). This often happens as one goes deeper in prayer and communion. The enormity and eternal nature of Godforce can be quite overwhelming. But please, don't be ashamed or disappointed in yourself for this, as it is really a very faithful response, which brings us to:
PRECEPT FIVE FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Welcome a humble, contrite, open mindset. "Fear" doesn't connote what it used to, but we tend to fuse it with a concept of threat and abuse. Instead, when we see "fear" associated with God in scripture, let's translate it as AWE. Awe is a fitting response when moving closer to God.
Note that The One responds to Moses' awe with tenderness, citing his awareness of the suffering Moses' people have endured. In my experience, this is how God deals with contrite hearts and open minds.
But, whoa Nelly, look what happens next: The One sets Moses to a seemingly impossible task (v.10). Can you imagine one l'il ol' stuttering fugitive from justice being told he is to march right through the entire Egyptian special forces to negotiate with the most powerful ruler on all the earth the release of a large percentage of his workforce?
This sort of thing often happens when one goes deeper in faith. Be ready for it:
PRECEPT SIX FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Be ready to undertake the impossible. Why would The One ask you to do only that which you can easily handle on your own? The Holy desire is union with you. How better to get to know each other than through shared work? Be open to a task that is beyond your abilities.
Moses, of course, balks at this impossible, perilous task. There's this great exchange around v.13, in which Moses tries to extract from God a name. In the ancient world, knowing a god's name was thought to give a mortal a certain degree of power, as by repeating the name you could call the god into your presence. As such, you can read Moses' request for some holy ID as a last attempt by Moses to assert control over the situation. Foolish, really. That's sort of like telling Jimmie Johnson to slide over and let you drive, right? But this is often what happens to us when we find ourselves on a mission: In times of stress, we revert to old habits and try to take charge. We lose that openness to Divine direction, surrendering the very key to our success!
You've got to love The One's answer: "I Am. Tell them I Am sent you."
A name is assigned to distinguish one thing from like things. If there is none other like The One, why must we attach a name?!? "I Am" in Hebrew is Yahweh, from which we mistakenly get the name "Jehovah" (through a misunderstanding and mistranslation of vowels later added by devout scribes from another holy title to the all-consenant holy term YWH, but that's a story for another day). Our God has no name, but only our puny little attempts at descriptive titles.
The One provides assurances, offering to Moses in verse 15 that he is being sent out by the same God that was present and plugged into his ancestors, and Moses finally accepts his task.
PRECEPT SEVEN FOR DEEPER TIME WITH GOD: Submit. That's right, just DO it.
It would be painfully easy to point out at this point that a god who watched 400 years of oppression without lifting a finger might not be the most trustworthy of travelling companions. But wait. We see by this story, and by so many more documented in scripture, that The One works through those who watch, listen and submit. How many times during those 400 years did some chosen one fail to:
- keep his/her eyes open,
- turn aside,
- answer when called,
- stop everything,
- welcome a contrite open mind,
- agree to attempt the impossible, and
- submit to The One
How much does injustice persist, hunger broaden, and pain intensify in our world and in our personal lives for the self-same reason?
Check the seven precepts again and go DEEPER.
ASSIGNMENT: Make a conscious point to open your eyes for the next several days. Look for burning bushes of holiness in your life. Turn aside and explore at least one spot of potentially "holy ground" in your ordinary existence, listen for The One, submit as led, and then share the experience below, as you feel called.
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