Holy Ground

The Book of Exodus

During this Lenten season, we are exploring selections from the biblical book of Exodus as one way to journey toward a life of reflection and action. Exodus is a book about an ancient people on a dramatic journey from enslavement in Egypt toward liberation. It concerns a liberating God who sees the oppression of God’s people and acts to free them from bondage. Exodus tells the story of newly released Israelites. In addition, it serves as a book for people who find themselves on a journey toward freedom in God’s world. Yet, Exodus also tells of a people who wander in the wilderness with little idea of a next step.

The book demonstrates the honest truth that the end of bondage does not always equate to immediate freedom. Thus, Exodus provides a paradigm for a contemporary, liberating spirituality.

“And God Knew”

            In a world that does not always understand, continually fails to get it right, and often claims to “not know” the suffering of marginalized peoples, we can trust this: God knows. At the end of Exodus 2, in verses 23-25, we read:

“After a great many days, the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel groaned from the slavery and cried for help. Their cry went up to God from the slavery. And God heard their groaning and God remembered the covenant with Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. And God saw the children of Israel, and God knew.”

The new Egyptian ruler, who is introduced without a name in Exodus 1, dies. Yet, the Israelites remain enslaved. Their despairing cries reach God who is listening. God hears their cries and remembers the covenant made with their ancestors. This is the first time God is mentioned in this story; to this point, Moses has been the witness to the injustice of the Hebrews.  God did not point out the injustices to him or show up with a big sign to highlight the wrongs. It is Moses’s job to see them, and it is our job, too.

Holy Ground (3:1-5)

“The messenger of the Living God appeared in a fiery flame from the midst of the bramble bush. Moses looked and the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.” Exodus 3:2

Perhaps what Moses discovers in Exodus 3 is the divine possibility of the present moment. He is making his way through what would have been an ordinary landscape for him when, all of a sudden, he sees this incredible burning bush. He is not on a spiritual retreat or pilgrimage, hoping to hear a word from God. Moses has not made preparations for such an encounter. He is tending the sheep of his father-in-law, just doing his job, when he encounters the Holy.  Moses has already learned something on his own about paying attention to what is not right around him. And now, God comes on the scene.

The story begins in an ordinary way, but the ordinary becomes extraordinary when God’s messenger appears in a fiery flame from the midst of the bramble bush in verse 2. The astonished  Moses says to himself, “I must turn aside and see what in the world is going on here.” The Hebrew word behind the verbal phrase “turn aside” means to change direction or to deviate. Moses sees a strange sight – a bush is on fire, but the fire is not destroying it – and makes the decision not to continue on his way. He could not go on as if nothing had happened.

What would have happened if Moses had not turned aside that day? What if he had been distracted by all of his sheep or so troubled by everything that had happened to him recently, that he did not notice the bush burning in the distance?  What if he noticed but just kept walking? What if he thought to himself, “I’ve got way too much going on right now. Pharaoh wants to kill me, I’m a fugitive, and in the meantime, I’ve got to take care of all these sheep. There are way more important things going on right now. I don’t have time to go on some wild goose chase.” Moses has legitimate and numerous reasons to be preoccupied with his responsibilities and obligations.

Moses did not do any of those “what ifs.'' He stops, turns aside, and takes a closer look. Only when Moses turns aside in Exodus 3:4 does God call out to him. He doesn’t hear from God until he makes the choice to stop. He must take time to come into the present moment in order to hear from the Holy.  In verse 5, God says, “Moses, do not come any closer. Take off your sandals. Because the ground on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Holy ground is sometimes in the least expected places. It certainly is not limited to religious buildings or spiritual spaces. If we are open, holy ground can be found in non-traditional ways and places.

We learned this lesson anew in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many church buildings were closed for months, and the religious spaces we counted on as sacred were no longer safe or accessible to us. As time passed, we began to discover holy ground all around us. Some people found holy ground on their daily walks through the neighborhood or through spending more time outside at local parks. Others baked bread for others as a spiritual discipline, sat down with their immediate families more often for meals, and met some of their neighbors for the first time. We saw the holy ground of our hospitals as healthcare and other frontline workers continued to show up and care for our communities in the midst of an anxious time. When the world began to shut down and our daily activities came to a sudden halt, COVID forced some of us to turn aside and be more present to God in the world and the people around us. The question is, will we continue this practice in a post-COVID world?

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

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