3 Lent, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
3 Lent, Year C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Exodus 3:1-15 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Psalm 63:1-8
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
Whenever I hear of the person “Moses,”
one of several images immediately comes to mind:
The first is the image of baby Moses floating in a basket amongst the bullrushes,
being gently rocked by the ripples of the river,
until he is discovered and rescued by some women.
The second image is that of Charlton Heston
standing atop a mountain,
with dark, menacing clouds behind him
as his coiffed gray hair and robes whip about him in the mighty wind.
His arms are variably outstretched as he looks across the valley…
or else they hold two large tablets of stone as he gazes into the heavens.
In either of the latter two cases,
the Charlton Heston “Moses” is certainly a man of confidence and power!
Today’s story of Moses presents an image in between these two…
neither the vulnerable baby
nor the imposing Man of the Mountain!
Today we hear:
“Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro…beyond the wilderness,
and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.”
So, in this story Moses is just an ordinary guy…
a shepherd,
tending to bleating, hungry, scruffy sheep.
As he walks along, he notices a bush on fire.
Now, to me seeing a bush on fire would be cause for attention in and of itself!
But, perhaps beyond the wilderness there had been a very dry spell…
and then a touch of lightning set a bush ablaze
so that Moses could have just walked on by the fiery brush as a normal occurrence.
What caught Moses’ attention was that the bush was not being consumed by the fire.
So, he stops to check out this phenomenon:
How can a bush burn and yet not be burned to the ground?!
God sees that Moses stops,
and God calls out to him: “Moses! Moses!”
“Here I am.”
“Come no closer.
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
I find it interesting that God doesn’t speak until Moses stops to look at the bush.
I should probably find it interesting that God speaks at all!
In my experience that’s not usually how God communicates.
So, here’s the sequence of events:
God shows up in a burning bush that is not consumed.
Moses stops and looks.
God speaks.
I wonder:
Have you ever experienced something spectacular…
and then felt like God was saying something to you in that moment?
I remember such a time.
When Ray and I went to load a moving truck with the last contents of our house,
I set my work gloves on a post on the front porch.
When I came back to pick up my gloves,
I noticed a praying mantis standing on one of my gloves.
I just stood there and looked at the little creature
and decided to leave my gloves alone.
The praying mantis stood there the entire day as we worked,
with little “hands” folded…
not in the least bit afraid of me.
When we left at the end of the day,
I gently removed my glove
so that the praying mantis could step off the glove but stay on the post.
All during the day I would walk by and watch that little creature praying…
I knew God was telling me that God was with us.
The next morning as I was taking the last items from the house and loading my car,
I noticed a hawk sitting on the power lines in front of the house…
just watching.
I felt as if God were telling me that God was watching over us and protecting us…
almost like Charlton Heston with outstretched arms on the top of a mountain!
I felt God’s deep and abiding presence.
Now, after God called to Moses,
God told Moses that he had seen the misery of God’s people in Egypt
and that God had chosen Moses to go to Pharoah to free the Israelites.
As is common in every “call” story,
Moses says, “Who am I that I should go?”
We almost always feel inadequate to the task,
yet God always responds, “I will be with you.”
I will be with you.
God is always showing up and offering us life
and opportunities to bring life to others.
The trick is for us to first pay attention and take notice when God speaks to us,
whether audibly or not.
That is no small task.
Our lives are so busy with many tasks demanding our attention:
daily chores, doctors’ visits, work demands, children, taxes!
Sometimes, even, our energy can be sapped by loneliness or depression…
so that our time is not filled with tasks,
but it takes every ounce of energy to do just one thing
much less take notice of some unusual event in our daily life.
The good news is that God continues to show up even when we are distracted.
Some years ago on a Wednesday evening at church,
I was busy setting up for the dinner following our eucharist
when one of our community neighbors walked in and started talking to me.
Now, this was a man who spoke very slowly
and who often told very long-winded stories
before he got to the place of asking me for something he needed.
Being in a rush that evening,
I interrupted him after a few moments to ask him what he needed.
All he wanted was to know if he could offer the prayer before we ate dinner!
I was humbled.
It was a beautiful prayer,
filled with gratitude and the blessing of God… I almost cried.
Here was the voice of God that I had tried to hastily move aside.
God shows up
and speaks
in unexpected times and places…
if we pay attention.
Moses stopped and looked at the burning bush.
God called.
Moses accepted the call (albeit after first objecting),
and he led the Israelites to freedom.
Moses, the shepherd,
became Moses, the prophet, leader, and liberator.
When, where, and how does God show up in each of our lives?
God renews our everyday spaces with God’s presence
so that wherever God meets us is holy ground.
How might God be calling each of us to embody God’s liberating and healing presence?
Let us pay attention this week,
and if something unusual shows up,
perhaps we will stop… and look.
You just never know when God will speak! Amen.
