Holy Ground
Category: Sundays after Pentecost
Speaker: The Rev. Shearon Sykes Wiliams
Deep in the Sinai Desert, there is a place that is built on the site believed to be where God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Saint Catherine’s Monastery is the longest continuously operating Christian monastery in the world. It is 1700 years old. For all of those years, Eastern Orthodox monks have safeguarded the bush. And every day prayers are prayed throughout the day. The monastery represents a very ancient tradition, beginning in the 4th century, before Eastern and Western Christianity went their separate ways. The library houses the oldest and largest collection of biblical manuscripts in the world, second only to the Vatican. And the icons are incredible, very old and exceedingly beautiful. Thankfully, Saint Catherine’s has never experienced any damage or destruction, and it has been in operation continuously. All of these factors, the location, its uninterrupted service to God and the beauty it houses, make it unique and particularly precious. I hope that I will have the blessing of going there one day, to feel this place where monks and pilgrims and the surrounding Bedouins have lived in deep mutuality and harmony for 17 centuries.
The Emperor Justinian ordered the monastery to be built at the foot of Mount Sinai, at the site of the burning bush, because of the importance of holy ground. (The site looks very ordinary, even barren and destitute. And yet something quite extraordinary happened there.) In our reading from Exodus today, we heard the sacred story of Moses seeing a bush that was not consumed and hearing God call his name from the bush. Moses was going about the very ordinary, mundane business of shepherding his father-in-law’s flock of sheep through the desert, deep in the wilderness, when he saw this mysterious sight. And suddenly things became quite extraordinary. Moses could have kept moving, but the passage says, “he turned aside,” to see this incredible sight. He went toward the bush, rather than turning away in fear or disinterest. It was only after he made the decision to go toward the bush that God called his name, “Moses, Moses!” When God calls our name and we respond, our paths are forever changed.
Very early on in Christian tradition an association was made between God’s revelation in the Old Testament story of the burning bush and God’s revelation in the New Testament to Mary. In fact, at Saint Catherine’s monastery, there is an icon of Mary as the burning bush.
So, Moses and Mary share a very special kinship. Each of them experienced God in a truly extraordinary way, two ordinary human beings used by God to deliver God’s people. God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, not just to give him a divine experience. God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush because God had a very important mission to accomplish through Moses. God called Moses to deliver his people the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt into the Promised Land. And Mary was called to literally bring God to us, to deliver not just the Israelites, but to deliver the whole world. Mary first carried Jesus within her womb, and then delivered him into the world, nurturing him, loving him, so that he become our Savior. She carried God’s very self within her and yet was not consumed, just as the burning bush was not consumed by God’s presence.
When God called to Moses, Moses replied with all of the reasons he was not a good candidate for God’s “mission impossible” of commanding the Egyptian Pharaoh to let his people go. Mary’s first reply when the angel told her that she was to bear Jesus into the world was that she was not worthy.
But there is important distinction between Moses and Mary. Moses stood on holy ground and Mary actually became holy ground. The Orthodox refer to Mary as Theotokos, Mother of God, or “God-bearer.” And because of her willingness to be Theotokos, “capital T,” we are capable of becoming “little t” theotokos.’ All of us are given the opportunity to be “God bearers” in this world. The journey from standing on holy ground to becoming holy ground is grace-filled and wondrous, but it requires a lot of faith and a bedrock resolve that God is with us, just as God promised Moses that he would be with him always, leading and guiding him, as Moses led and guided God’s people. The first step in the journey is to recognize the voice of God in the burning bushes that show up regularly, and to “turn aside” and pay attention. Right now, today, this very minute we are having a burning bush experience. God is speaking to us. God has a mission for us. God has a call on each of our lives. The lectern where we read the Scriptures is on fire. The Gospel book, revealing God to us most fully, has flames shooting out of it. The altar is bursting with the flames of God’s passion for us and for the world he came to deliver into the Promised Land. And each of us has the potential to have our hearts, our minds, and our bodies on fire with God’s love and passion. But we have to wake up to the flames that burn but do not consume! Realize that God is right here and right now, calling to us- “Moses, Moses, Shearon Shearon, (fill in your name), I have a job for you to do. It will be hard, but I will be with you. It will bring you blessing and fulfillment beyond measure, it will give you purpose and meaning, but it will also involve sacrifice and faithfulness. And it will be for your good and for the good of the people around you.
The question is not whether or not God is calling our name. God is always calling our name. The question is whether or not we are going to listen and respond so that we can be on fire with God. Are we willing to do what it takes to move from standing on holy ground to becoming holy ground?
http://www.sinaimonastery.com/
Davis, Ellen F. Getting Involved With God, 2001. Boston: Cowley Publications pp. 45-49