The Burning Bushes are Calling

 

Hello again. I was away last week at a massage therapy workshop for my Continuing Education hours. It was such a nice break from everything happening in the world. 

It was also an interesting experience to share that I am a priest in additon to being an LMT. One of the women I partnered with asked me which vocation I preferred. I answered that I love both and have always seen massage therapy as a type of ministry. She paused a moment and then definitively told me: "You should do this!" meaning massage. We both laughed and I very much appreciated her confidence in my massage touch. 

But readings such as the call story of Moses with the burning bush remind me--again--how it is that I ended up wearing a stiff white collar around my neck. Because when I least expected it...I was overwhelmed with the message of God's love...and how limitless it is...defying all boundaries and borders that we might want to erect. And that Love was the one constant that could fuel my passion for a more just and equitable society and had a healing balm that could help people free their minds and hearts from burdens that keep them down. 

And I wanted others to discover this truth that is out there and around us. When we tap into that Source of Love...we can survive the storms of this world, and hold fast against those who want to destroy creaton and all the creatures of God in it.

So...do you think I was right to become a priest? Read this and see what you think. 

Texts: Exodus 3:1-15

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When I was a freshman in college…I was asked to take part in an experiment.

One of the guys in my German class was a psychology major and he had to do a project for one of his courses measuring how aware people were of their surroundings.

We were sitting in a classroom…I think there were about ten of us in the room.

My classmate was going over some of the information and forms we needed to sign…the usual protocols for any experimentation like that.

The door opened and this man walked in.

He stopped and looked around at everyone.

We looked at him.

My classmate asked this intruder if he needed something.

The guy looked embarrassed and said something about this clearly not being the class he was supposed to be in…and he left.

My classmate finished his remarks… which probably lasted another five to ten minutes.

We filled out our forms…passed them in…and waited for what was next.

And what came next was my classmate asking us:

“What do you recall about the appearance of the intruder who came in the room?”

Well…by that time…it had probably been about 20 minutes or more.

Most of us hadn’t really paid much attention to this guy.

We’d all done that at some point in our lives…gone to the wrong classroom…and understood how weird he must have felt.

But…could we remember how tall he was?

What was the color of the shirt he was wearing?

Did he have any facial hair or other distinguishing features?

Some were able to give a vague description.

But it was clear that most of us really hadn’t been that observant at all.

We hadn’t taken time to pay enough attention to this person.

And we had not understood that the intruder WAS the experiment…the test of our ability to recall specific information about this unexpected interruption.  

This had me thinking about our First Reading this morning…with Moses and the burning bush.

One of the commentaries I read mentioned that rabbis have wrestled with the question,

“How many others wandered past that burning bush and didn’t turn aside to see why this bush was burning…and” how is it that a bush can be on fire and not be burned to tiny bits?”

How many others simply didn’t pay attention to or even notice this strange and peculiar sight?

How many just walked on by.

The one who did notice was Moses.

Up until that moment…Moses had been minding his own business tending to his father-in-law’s sheep.

But on this particular day…something made him decide to take the flock beyond the wilderness …to the other side of that place of testing and challenge.

When Moses saw the burning bush…he was curious enough to want to stop and pay attention and learn why this bush was burning and not consumed.

That decision to stop… turn and look changed his whole life.

Because while Moses was doing fine being a shepherd…God had a different plan for him.

God had been watching and listening to the cries of the people.

God knew the pain and suffering they’d been enduring under Pharoah.

Now God needs a messenger…a prophet…someone to lead the people.

God knows Moses.

God remembers that fire for justice that burned within him so many years ago when he saw an Egyptian beating a fellow Hebrew slave.

Moses killed that Egyptian.

God saw how Moses defended the daughters of Jethro when shepherds tried to keep them from drawing water for their father’s flock.

God needs Moses.

And now God is calling Moses to turn his abilities to shepherd sheep and put them to use to bring his fellow Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.

And Moses responds like anyone who has ever felt God pulling them out of their comfort zone:

Um…you sure you want me?

You want me to lead?

The answer of course is “Yes, You.”

That’s what happens when we finally stop long enough and take in God’s call to us.

God has that way of interrupting our lives…and refusing to listen to petty excuses.

God does not take No as a legitimate answer to a call.

And yet it seems we keep finding ways to walk on by…either because we aren’t paying close attention…or we don’t have time…or in some cases...we just don’t care.

We started our Playing with the Parables class a couple of weeks ago…and the first parable we worked through was the Good Samaritan.

You remember the story…Jesus talks about the Priest and the Levite who pass by the traveler who had been attacked and was left in the ditch to die.

Biblical scholars and theologians have written about the reasons why these two might have ignored this person.

They were good enough…maybe even legitimate concerns… regarding defiling themselves by touching a bloody body.

But that person needed help.

That soul in the ditch was like a burning bush.

There was a call coming from the ditch…maybe not with words…maybe not from God…but with a situation that was getting ignored…until the antihero Samaritan comes along.  

One of the people who played the victim described what it was like having people walk by without stopping to see if they could help.

It was lonely.

It left them feeling…helpless.

If only someone would’ve paid attention to their desperate need for help.

There are many burning bushes that exist in our world today.

At times…it may feel as if the whole world is on fire.

Affordable housing…availability of treatment for substance abuse…mental healthcare….financial security.

Yesterday…the Celebration of Hope event was about the ways we interact with our environment and the whole care of creation.

And certainly, we know from the hurricanes and floods and wildfires that climate change is a fact and not a fiction.

We can’t ignore this reality that it is getting warmer every year…and the sea levels are rising.

We are not going to be able to just hope the climate crisis goes away.

In the middle of these many burning bushes…there is still that voice…calling.

Perhaps in one of those blazing fiery shrubs…we might recognize God calling to us…by name…in the same way God has called so many over time to pay attention…heed the call…and interrupt our everyday existence to take on the concern of another.

God is still calling to us to take off our socks and shoes…step out of our comfort zone and onto the sacred ground of holy work….and move closer to whatever is the fire that needs addressing.

We can’t do it all.

But we are living in a moment when we can’t afford to walk by the burning bush because of whatever good reason we might have.

Lent is the time to draw us out of our complacency and pay attention to what is happening.

So then…..What is the burning bush that’s calling to you?

Stay awake.

Be aware.

Respond to the call.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.