- Sermon - Mickey Anders

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 of introduction? 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 piqued 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.

A few years ago, I was passing out cookies and church brochures at Pikeville College to recruit students for our church there, when I made the happy acquaintance of a lady from Main Street Church of Christ at the next table. She was a most delightful lady, and she had a wonderful tool to interest the students. She presented them with a cookie and a "million dollar bill." Of course, the bill was a fake and on the back was an evangelistic message. But it worked. I saw several students joining in the fun as they asked their friends if they wanted a "million dollar bill." And once again, curiosity was leading people to God.

In Moses case, it was God who 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.

He 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 that is holy.

Oh, sure, we can live as if there is no God. We can ignore God 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.

Ben Yalom, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, 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.

The Dr. Yalom tells of his own boundary experience during a relaxing Caribbean-resort vacation. He says, "I was reading one night, sipping a drink and occasionally glancing up at the bar boy, who wasn't doing anything other than staring languidly out to sea - much like a lizard sunning on a rock, I thought. The comparison I made between the two of us made me feel very smug - he was simply wasting time while I was being productive, learning, getting ahead. And then some internal imp spoke up: Getting ahead of what? And why? They were terrible, unanswerable questions."

Human beings almost instinctively search for the holy. Sometimes we cover it up with busy-ness and activity, but at unexpected moments that yearning rises up from some hidden psychological depth, and we come face to face with a holy God.

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.

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.

What made this spot holy ground? It's not holy today. Nobody knows where this burning bush was. 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.

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.

Perhaps you already have such places where God has been real to you, where life-changing decisions have been made, where you have felt that overwhelming awareness of wonder and reverence. For you, it may be an outdoor setting of particular inspiration, or a special room at home. Holy ground comes with infinite variety and description.

The California naturalist John Muir once said, "I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found was really going in."

Holy ground has that effect on us. But we first must be willing to turn aside as Moses did. Only then can God be found in new and unexpected places.

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 God 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.

What makes a place holy? Is this a holy place? We have trouble deciding what to call this room. Is it a gym or a worship space? Is it a place for fellowship meals or for the youth to play? Is this a sanctuary or an auditorium? It is a multi-purpose building that we call the Christian Ministry Center, the CMC. Can this be a holy place?

Yes, of course, it is. Any place can be a holy place if we meet God there. When our hearts are tuned to God, when we take off our shoes, that place becomes our holy place.

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 us to be confronted with God and to have an experience with God, we do not have to search out that same bush - any bush will do. Whatever it is that causes us to open our hearts to God, can be for us an experience similar to Moses' experience at the burning bush.

Benediction

Please pick up your shoes and hold them in your hand. We are about to put them on again. What an incredibily 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 Egypts 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!

Children's Sermon:

Come no closer! Remove the shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

Invite the adults to take your shoes off too. We will put them on together at the end of the service.

Why do you wear shoes?

protect your feet

from rocks

from stumping your toe

from someone stepping on your toe

to run faster

Why did God say to take off shoes?

Maybe because when we are in the presence of God

we won't step on rocks

we won't stump our toe

we won't have someone stepping on our toe

we won't need to run anywhere

reverence - Interesting that Biblical literalists don't insist on this.

What do you call this room? Church, auditorium, sanctuary?

What makes this a Holy Place?