Proper 17, Yr A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 17, Year A (2023) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Exodus 3:1-15 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Matthew 16:21-28
In the name of the one, holy, and living God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
It was a day like any other day.
As he lay in a field of grass,
he slowly became aware of the pitch blackness shifting to a new day
as his closed curtain of eyelids
registered a faint light seeping through.
He groggily opened his eyes,
noticing that the sheep were already alert and grazing all around him.
For Moses it was simply another day just like hundreds before this…
living day to day,
tending the sheep of his father-in-law….
mostly peaceful work,
sometimes spiked with moments of danger.
Along this trek that led Moses beyond the wilderness and into the mountains,
he came across a bush that was blazing.
It seems a bit odd,
but perhaps it was midday with dry, crisp air and a blazing sun,
having seen no rain for weeks.
An occasional brush fire wouldn’t be out of question.
As he walked on past this blazing bush,
it suddenly dawned on him that there was something very odd about this situation.
The bush was on fire,
but it was not consumed by the flames.
So he turned back
and stood in awe.
God then calls to him, “Moses, Moses!”
I guess hearing God call to him from the burning bush was no more disturbing
than watching a bush encased in flame that was not being burned up!
So, Moses simply responds, “Here I am.”
When Yahweh identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Moses hides his face,
hoping that by turning his own face aside that maybe,
just maybe,
those flames won’t engulf him as well!
I want to pause here,
because while this seems like a simple story –
albeit not a daily occurrence –
it is packed with details that we might just skip right over.
Yahweh does not speak to Moses until Moses actually stops
and takes in the sight of the bush.
We hear: “When the Lord saw that [Moses] had turned aside to see,
God called to him out of the bush.”
I remember reading of a similar modern-day experience, albeit not so dramatic.
Mark Epstein, in his book, Thoughts Without a Thinker, related a story of an experience he had while on retreat:
During a 2-week silent retreat in New England during the dead of Winter,
Mark knew that his tendency would be to stay inside all the time where it was warm and cozy, but he also knew that he needed to get outside and enjoy some exercise.
So, he vowed to go for a walk every day for an hour.
He decided that each day he would walk in a slightly different direction.
Each day he would set out on his walk,
and at the halfway point he would just stop
and take notice of his surroundings before he headed back to shelter.
After a few days of this routine,
he thought it was remarkable that whichever direction he decided to go…
he noticed that when he stopped after walking for half an hour,
the sight that he saw was just incredibly beautiful.
He wondered why,
at exactly a half-hour walk from his starting point,
that his surroundings should take on such exquisite splendor.
And then it dawned on him
that if he had stopped after walking 7 minutes or 10 minutes or 16 minutes,
his surroundings would have been just as remarkable.
He realized that the problem was that he was so intent on walking a set distance before stopping, that he failed to notice anything else on the way there or back.
Have you ever had such an experience?!
I wonder if we often are so busy getting somewhere else
that we fail to notice where we are
or who is with us along the way!
God did not speak to Moses until Moses stopped and noticed the burning bush.
I’m guessing that if Moses had just kept on walking because he knew he had to get those sheep to a certain place, God would not have spoken.
But that does not mean that God was not present until Moses stopped.
It means that Moses would not have given God the opportunity to speak
because he was too busy to notice God’s presence.
Spiritual directors, Madeline Birmingham and William Connolly, say it like this:
“Most of us are not accustomed to standing and looking.
“We are attracted by the majesty of mountain views,
the swirling power of blizzards,
the gradually deepening color of high clouds as sunrise approaches,
and by God.
“But we tend to glance at them and quickly turn our attention to other objects or other concerns.
“We give a moment’s attention,
but we turn away before we can become absorbed enough in what we see
to be more than superficially affected by it.”
(“The Art of Spiritual Direction” by Madeline Birmingham, r.c. and William Connolly, S.J. from Human Development, Volume Eight, Number One, Spring 1987, p. 18)
“Moses said,
‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight,
and see why the bush is not burned up.’
“When 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.’”
Moses took notice.
Stopped.
Listened.
and made himself present
and available to God….
Here I am.
Thus ends Act I.
Begin Act II….
Yahweh tells Moses that he has seen the suffering of God’s people in Egypt and has heard their cries.
His solution?
Words Moses wasn’t quite so excited to hear:
“Come [Moses], I will send you.”
I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.
uh… thanks for the compliment, Yahweh, but, uh…I’m not qualified.
I just tend a herd of sheep.
You must have mistaken me for someone else.
You just keep that bush burning, and someone better will come along.
But, Yahweh tells Moses that he has all the qualifications that he needs:
“I will be with you.”
Yahweh is not sending Moses out by himself…
God will be right there – the whole time!
Now, aside from the fact that I think we often miss God’s presence in the world
because the demands of our work and families clamor so loudly
(and not unimportantly)…
I think we also tend to rush on past the burning bush
because we’re afraid that if we really stop and attend to God’s presence
that God just might ask us to do something that we don’t think we’re capable of doing.
It can be downright challenging and even frightening to tend to the presence of God in our lives.
In today’s Gospel passage Peter is so afraid of God’s demands
that he rebukes Jesus
for saying that Jesus must undergo great suffering and be killed.
That’s just not possible!
But, in God’s economy, Jesus’ suffering and death is not only possible
but is necessary to overcome evil and death.
Jesus, in his strongest rebuke of anyone in the Gospels, says to Peter:
“Get behind me, Satan!
You are a stumbling block to me;
for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Peter is distracted by earthly power and glory…
those are the things that catch the attention of his mind and heart.
But God draws us another direction….
toward humility and service and forgiveness and love.
First, we must pay attention to God’s presence in the world and in our lives…
and not just a mere nod
but full, rapt attention
so that the very presence of God enters into our hearing
our thinking
our speaking
our living.
I invite you each day this week at some point in your day to just stop.
Look around you.
What do you see?
Who do you see?
You will see and hear things you have never noticed before…
give it your full, rapt attention.
If you see joy or pain,
anxiety or peace,
sorrow or beauty…God is there.
And if you hear the still, small voice of God calling to you…listen.
What is God saying to you?
What is God calling you to do?
If it something you are frightened to do or feel ill-equipped,
know that God is with you –
always.
And that is all you need.
Amen.
