Exodus 3:1-15, Psalm 103, 1 Corinthians 10:1-12, Luke 13:1-9
We are walking on Holy Ground
In the wilderness God Almighty introduces God’s self to Moses in a most unusual fashion. Imagine a shepherd in the hills with his sheep, lost in his own thoughts. The last thing that Moses would have dreamed of happening to him was meeting the one true God, in person, in the form of a burning bush. Does that sound farfetched?
We can also imagine the looks on the faces of those people Moses shared his experience with when he got back to town. “Poor guy has been out in the sun too long.”, would have been the common response.
But I think that, if we pause to reflect, we realize that the experience which Moses had of God and which he shared with others is not really that different from what we are privileged to partake in week after week at our Sunday Eucharist. As the people bring the community’s gifts to the table and the priest prays over them, we witness a very similar miracle of presence. At the altar we come before the “burning bush that is never consumed”, the very presence of God.
Moses’ experience of being in God’s company is also paralleled in our coming together at Church. “You are on Holy Ground”, God declares. The fiery shrub which Moses encountered was a place to take off one’s shoes and to stand in awe in God’s holy space. Our Church is not so different. Maybe we keep our shoes on but where else in this busy world can you go that offers as good a place for contemplation and prayer? To step off of bustling McCaul Street in downtown Toronto into the cool, dark, silent interior of St. Patrick’s church is like entering a conduit to tranquility.
There is one more thing in common between that fiery hedge plant of our ancestor in faith and our own house of worship and that is they are not just about passive contemplation, they are not inert places that are isolated with respect to the rest of humanity. Both, in fact, are launching pads for the faithful into participation in the unfolding events of our world
For Moses the focus of concern was for the people held in captivity in Egypt. God heard their cry and had come to their aid. Our Church is also a catalyst for bringing help to the poor and to those who cry out to God for assistance. From Haiti, to Chile to Pleasant Hill, Saskatoon, God hears the cry of his people and we are being invited to take up the cause.
Like Moses we may feel a little unqualified and perhaps are trembling in the knee. We might appear at times to follow more the example of the fig tree that refuses to bear fruit. That’s alright because God is a patient gardener, he is tender and kind and lets us know that we do not embark alone, it is “I AM” who sends us.
Where do you experience Holy Ground?
For what, in this life, is your heart burning?
