Finding the Sacred in the Ordinary – Holy Ground Series Week 2 (Exodus 3: 1-6)
Last weekend I spent some time at the open house at Camp Crystal. This is the campground owned by the Disciples of Christ in Michigan. You may recall that it was lifted up during our prayer time last week, and we gave thanks for the camp and the many people that showed up to the open house to find out more about that special place. As you know, I am new to Michigan, but it didn’t take very long for me to discover that Camp Crystal is a very important place to the people of this region. Which is understandable. It is in a beautiful, idyllic location, close to many of the wonders of God’s creation. It is an easy place to connect to God in nature. Beyond nature and geography, it clearly has sentimental value – to say the least. For the better part of a century that location has been used as a church camp, and as those of you who have been to church camps either as a camper or counselor know, camp can be a transformative experience. Many people go to church camp and experience profound connection with God for the first time. They form deep connections and relationships with other people, experiencing the community of faith in a new way. It is no wonder Crystal Conference Center holds such meaning for so many, and I’m sure many people would say it is holy ground for them.
Of course, that is part of what makes it holy ground. The fact that it has such deep meaning for so many people, and that the camp has been set apart for the purpose of spiritual formation, community, and connecting with God. There are lots of beautiful areas in that part of Michigan but it is that particular piece of land that is sacred to people. What makes Camp Crystal so special is the type of meaningful connection so many people -including some of you- have with it. As we talked about last week, we can connect with God in nature because all of God’s creation is filled with the divine presence and essence of God. All God’s creatures are divine, but what makes something holy and sacred is the meaning we give to it, whether that comes from belief or tradition or personal experience or relationship.
In Exodus chapter 3 we find a famous example of holy ground. Moses has followed his flock onto Mount Horeb (more often known as Mount Sinai). The name means “Mountain of God,” so already we see that this place has been set apart -the word holy means set apart. It is a special place for the people, a place they believe holds the presence of God. A place where the people of Midian must have had an experience of God, where they have touched the divine. So, it makes sense, then, that it is here that Moses has his famous first encounter with God in the burning bush. It is here where Moses is instructed to take off his sandals, because here he is standing on holy ground.
In the worship resources for this sermon series there is included a portion of a Washington Post article by nutritionist and author Carrie Dennett about the science behind an idea called “grounding.” The basis of this theory is that humans evolved as a species being in direct contact with the earth, the ground, and its subtle electric charge. However, over the years that connection has been disrupted in the modern world by things like buildings and furniture and shoes. There is science behind this idea, apparently, having to do with the positive and negative charges of the electrons putting us together at the atomic level of creation. The idea being that the earth’s natural electric charge can help to keep us balanced in the event that some of our electrons -which are meant to come in pairs- lose half that equation. The earth helps make up the difference. So, physical connection to the earth is encouraged by walking barefoot, or swimming in a lake, or hugging a tree. The more grounded the better.
Now, I do not think this is what the writers of Exodus had in mind when they tell us that Moses was instructed to take of his sandals when standing on holy ground. I do think the idea of grounding is interesting, though. Especially when we consider connection to the earth as being an important way of connecting with God. Which is what Moses is doing here. He is connecting with God, and coming into relationship with God, for the first time. So, one way to look at this instruction by God for Moses to remove his foot wear, is to look at it through a lens of reverence or respect for God and this holy place. It’s like entering your mother’s clean house, take your shoes off to respect the space and the care that was put into it. However, I think it is not simply about that. Moses removes his sandals as an act of trust in God and reverence for the sacred, but also in order to make a connection with God and to begin building that relationship that becomes so important in the history of the Bible. Later in this passage, when Moses avoids looking at God this is also an act of being in right relationship with God. Just because he avoids looking at God he is not relationally separated from God. He is still open to that relationship, but is merely showing the proper deference to God, showing that he understands the nature of the relationship with the Lord.
The burning bush hides the physical form of God, which is good because to see the divine presence is believed to be unsafe for humans. Why? Because the form and image of God is not ordinary, it is extraordinary! So, God seeks to communicate in a way that is more appropriate for the relationship between human and deity. So, when God communicates with us through ordinary things it strengthens the relationship and makes it sacred. So, as Moses is standing there on “The Mountain of God,” he is given the opportunity to confront the sacredness of that place, to engage God in relationship. And he does. When he removes his shoes, he does it so he can come into closer relationship with God. When he averts his gaze from the form of God, he is bringing himself into right relationship with the Creator.
Also, lets notice one of the ways in which God first enters into this relationship. When God identifies themselves to Moses, the names of all the earliest patriarchs of Israel are mentioned – Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” To say and be identified as the “God of” each of these patriarchs implies that they had a personal relationship with God. A personal relationship, such as each man had with God, was a choice they made and it was that choice that made this their God. This was not their God because of some heavenly coercion or divine mandate. This was not their God because of tradition or authority. This was their God because they made the choice. A simple, ordinary choice to be in a relationship with God. It is the experience of this relationship that makes even the most ordinary, natural, or everyday things sacred.
Moses is living as a simple, ordinary shepherd when he meets God and is given this same choice that was given to the other patriarchs. Yet, even before meeting God, Moses the shepherd is carrying out a sacred calling. There is sacredness in this ordinary, simple calling. Throughout the Bible we read examples and analogies of the divine also being a shepherd. The most famous example probably being Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall no want…” This well-known psalm, popular at funerals, depicts life in relationship with God as something as ordinary as the day-to-day life of a shepherd and his sheep. A simple matter of wandering the fields, resting, feeding and drinking. It shows us that a life well lived does not have to be full of grand gestures or proclamations of faith or righteous belief for all the world to see. A good life can simply be one in which we live in the world God has given us -eating and drinking and resting- and let ourselves be cared for by the shepherd tending his flock. This, beyond being so well known, is why I think Psalm 23 is such a popular reading at funerals, especially for those who do not consider themselves to be very religious, or who for most of their lives didn’t give much attention to a relationship with God. This psalm takes away some of the pressure of having to justify one’s life in a religious sense, and it puts the focus on the idea that even in an “ordinary” life there is a relational aspect to it because God is always present and God always cares.
Such is the life Moses has been living up to this point. Separated from his mother as an infant, raised in the Egyptian Pharoah’s court, until one day he learns his true identity and is forced to escape into the wilderness where he is adopted into another family, the Midianites. He has lived life as someone who is always reacting to and dealing with circumstances beyond his control, dictated by the choices of others. Even today, people who live lives like that find it difficult to connect with God or even believe God is real and cares for them. But there on Mount Horeb, Moses is, maybe for the first time, given a choice. He is confronted by and angel and a voice from a burning bush. It would be understandable if he were to run and hide, but instead, when God calls to him, he responds by saying, “Here am I.” In that moment he is acknowledging that that there is a spiritual element to his life. There is more to his life than his circumstances and the choices that have been made for him. There is a calling on his life. So, he does not simply react, he makes a choice -a simple, ordinary choice- to answer God rather than run away. He chooses to connect and have a relationship with God.
As you think about your life, how often are you presented with the choice to engage in a relationship with God or to run away? What are the things that make this a difficult choice to make? What are the things that you feel get in between you and your relationship with God? Because there are always things in the way, preventing us from being grounded in our relationship with God. Maybe it’s all the different commitments of our time, maybe its conflicts with people, maybe its feelings of low self-esteem or loneliness. It could be any of these stresses that we can’t get away from, that make it difficult for us to find God in our everyday lives. So, what can we do?
Well, our Holy Ground worship materials include short, easy homework assignments for each week. Obviously, I did not assign you last week’s, but this week the assignment is to put your bare feet on the ground for 10 minutes. It just says “on the ground” and I’m going to assume that this means on the earth. So, not walking around barefoot in your house, but barefoot in your lawn or in a park nearby or maybe just go outside after church and wander around barefoot in our yard. However, you might choose to do this the point is to be grounded, to be open to the gifts creation has for you, the way it supports you, all the way down to the atomic level. Put your bare feet on the ground as a reminder in nature we can remember our connection to the divine. We remember that wherever we connect with God, and nurture that relationship, we are on holy ground and we are in a place where we can find sacredness in even the most ordinary places and things. Such as a tree, the grass underfoot, a bird in the sky, a conversation with a friend, or simply your relationship with the one who made you and loves you.
Amen.