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Text: Exodus 3:1-15

The search committee for a new pastor was having difficulty making a decision. One member of the committee offered one last letter of introduction from a pastoral candidate. She read:

"To the pastoral search committee: It is my understanding that you have a vacancy in your pulpit, and I would like to apply for the position. I can't say that I preach too well. In fact, I tend to stutter when I speak. I do have a lot of different experiences I could share with you, since I am over 75 years old. I have only just recently had an encounter with God and, despite my initial resistance to the idea, I heard a Voice which told me personally that I was the one to do the ministry for you. One never knows when God will appear right before your very eyes. As far as people skills go, I do tend to lose my temper every once in a while. I also tend to want things done my way, and can get violent if it's not taken care of right away. Once I even killed somebody. But since I know you are gracious people, I know you will believe me when I say that's all behind me now. I intend on showing up there in a few weeks to lead you into a brighter future. Although I was reluctant at first to work with you, I still feel called to be with you nonetheless."

The committee member glanced up at the rest of the group. "Well, what do you think? Can this person be our leader or not?"

The rest of the committee was aghast. Have an old, arrogant, temperamental, obviously neurotic, ex-murderer as their pastor? Was this committee member crazy? Who signed the letter? Who had such colossal nerve? The committee member eyed them all keenly before she answered, "It's signed, 'Moses.'"

It seems that God didn't require the same qualifications for a job that we would today. Moses sounded like an unlikely candidate to receive a call from God. He didn't seem to have "the right stuff."

But God had chosen this man to do a very important job. This Moses was left by his mother in a makeshift basket in the edge of the Nile River, found by the Pharaoh's daughter, nursed by his Hebrew mother, and raised in the Pharaoh's palace.

This Moses had already tried his hand at being a deliverer and failed. When he witnessed the harsh treatment of the Hebrew slaves by an Egyptian overseer, he was filled with righteous indignation. He struck and killed the overseer. He thought no one had seen, and no one would know.

The next day he tried his hand at mediation, attempting to settle a quarrel between two Hebrews. But one turned and asked if he planned to murder again.

Knowing that his crime was known, and, no doubt, recognizing the seriousness of his crime and the harsh punishment, he decided to flee to Midian. There he married, had children, and now is tending the flocks of his father-in-law.

That's when Moses spots the unusual site that stirred his curiosity. A bush was burning. I assume that Moses first felt the need to put the fire out, lest the fire spread and burn the fields where his sheep were grazing. But then he noticed that this was an unusual fire.

He says to himself, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up."

His curiosity led him to explore further. I am glad that Moses had a strong sense of curiosity, and I find it fascinating that his curiosity led him to God. God had resorted to an attention-getting trick to lure Moses for a closer look.

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." Then God said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (verses 4-5).

Moses was in an unlikely place to meet God. Suddenly amid the sagebrush and the sand, the message came that he was standing on holy ground. It may well be that most of us meet God in unlikely places.

Moses found what most of us are instinctively looking for. We are searching for the holy. When we take the time to stop and think about life, we inevitably find ourselves searching from something, something that is holy.

Oh, sure, we can live as if there is no God. We can ignore him while we bask in the ignorance of our youthful days, diverting our attention through the pursuit of things and thrills and excitement. But sooner or later we will come face to face with the hard questions of life. And we find an emptiness at the center of our lives. That's when we find ourselves yearning for something more.

A Stanford University of psychiatry (Ben Yalom) wrote an article in Inc magazine, in which he described what he called "boundary experiences." He said "boundary experiences come cloaked in many guises, from a near-death encounter to the commonplace markers of time and change. Boundary experiences serve as a wake-up call. We are stopped cold, we are forced to take the measure of a hidden anxiety about life and death."

Moses found himself on the backside of the wilderness running from his past, wondering what life would hold for him. And that's when he was surprised by holy ground and took off his shoes.

Moses had a boundary experience at the burning bush. It served as a wake-up call to him. And his life changed because of it. So will ours!

Elizabeth Barrett Browning once wrote:

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

And only he who sees takes off his shoes

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

I find it interesting that she said, "Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God…"

What made the site of the burning bush holy ground? That place is not holy today. Nobody knows where this burning bush was. Some people have speculated that another person standing by Moses wouldn't have seen a thing that was unusual. It was never holy before and never holy after, but that day it was holy ground because God was there and speaking, and Moses was curious enough to turn aside and listen.

A certain man went to Europe several years ago. He was excited because he had always wanted to visit the Christian shrines in England and on the continent. He went to Aldersgate where John Wesley's "heart was strangely warmed," to Whittenberg and to Rome where Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses and sparked the Protestant Reformation.

But as he saw these places that are shrines for many Christians, he was disappointed. He had expected to be inspired and awed, but these were just plain buildings and towns.

As he thought about his disappointment, he realized that these had been just ordinary places when the action had taken place, which later made them important. In each case, the thing that made these churches and cities shrines was that each was a simple setting in which a man had made a decision concerning God's will for himself - a time when someone turned with his whole life, faced God, and chose Him over "things." The events which followed were so significant that people now travel for miles just to see the site where the decision was made.

Often we look for a special place or a dramatic circumstance in which we can find God's will or do God's will. But when it actually comes to giving our lives to God, any location will do. Anyplace where we make commitment of our lives to Christ can be for us a burning bush of decision.

For Moses it was at the burning bush. That's where he met God. That's where he had a life-changing experience. That's where he accepted God's commission to lead the Hebrew people out of slavery and to the Promised Land.

For you to be confronted with God and to have an experience with God, you do not have to search out that same bush - any bush will do. Whatever it is that causes you to open your heart to God, can be for you an experience similar to Moses' experience at the burning bush. This is how God confronts us.

For many of us, we attend church as a way to search for the holy. Each person here today has come by choice. For us, it is a turning aside from other involvements. We are here in search of the holy. We believe that by turning aside, we shall meet God.

We gather here to worship, to pray, and to think about the things of God. Our coming to this place is our way of taking off our shoes and hoping that this too will be holy ground.

But any ground can be holy ground if God so chooses. When we are found by God, no matter what time or what place it is, we stand on holy ground.

Remember the last part of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem, "… And only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries." We first must be willing to turn aside as Moses did. Only then can God be found in new and unexpected places.

The question is, "Will we take off our shoes or blunder right on through the dessert immune to the presence of God?"

During the children's sermon today, I asked all of you to join the children in taking off your shoes as an act of specific obedience to God. It seems really strange to be sitting in church in our stocking feet. But God said to take off our shoes when standing on holy ground. Most of us agree that this is holy ground, so it was only appropriate for us to take off our shoes.

Shoes are wonderful items. They protect our feet from bumps and bruises, from the cold and the hot. But they also keep us from feeling the warm summer grass or the sand beneath our feet. Shoes are essentially protective gear. They protect us from the environment. If we really want to feel nature, we have to sometimes take off our shoes.

I suspect that wearing shoes can be a metaphor about our relationship with God. When Moses took off his shoes, it was an act of humility and vulnerability.

We can't be too uppity with our shoes off. We can't be so high and mighty in our bare feet. And that's also what it takes to come into the presence of God. We have to have the same mind that was in Christ, who humbled himself and took on the form of a slave.

But I especially think that we have to become vulnerable when we come into the presence of God. Without our shoes, we are vulnerable to pain. It's a big risk to walk through the house without shoes. How many times have you kicked the leg of a chair in your bare feet? There's nothing more painful, it seems. With our shoes off, we are vulnerable to pain. There is also a corresponding risk in responding to God's claim on our lives.

What if Moses had not turned aside to see the burning bush? He might have missed the presence of God. What if he had not taken off his shoes? He might have missed the blessing and the calling of God.

This place can be the holiest place in the world, but if we do not lower our self-protection and make ourselves vulnerable to God, we may miss the holy thing.

Hear again the word of God, "Come no closer. Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

Benediction

Please pick up your shoes and hold them in your hand. We are about to put them on again. What an incredibly ordinary act. You do it every day. But this time I invite you to do it as an act of obedience to God. You are about to leave Holy Ground. God is sending you to Egypt, only to return again bringing the captives with you.

Shoes are designed for rough ground, for rocky soil, for the hard places of this life, for the Egypt's of this life. Go into Egypt! Find God's wayfaring people, God's people who are captive in Egypt, set them free and bring them back here - to worship in this Holy Place.

My brothers and sisters, put your shoes on!