and God said go
and i said who me?
and God said yes you
and i said
but i'm not ready yet
and an important meeting is coming up
and i can't leave my work right now
and you know there's no one to take my place
and God said you're stalling
again God said go
and i said i don't want to
and God said i didn't ask if you wanted to
and i said
listen, i'm not the kind of person to get involved in
controversy
and besides my family wouldn't like it
and what would the neighbors think
and God said baloney
and yet again God said go
and i said do i have to?
and God said do you love me?
and i said i'm scared
people are going to hate me
and cut me into little pieces
and i can't take it all by myself
and God said where do you think i'll be?
and i said here i am! send me! (from
Virginia
Poor Moses. He must have thought he'd left all that behind
him. Once, he'd been a prince of Egypt
Until that day, Moses might well have never even thought of
himself as a Hebrew. But he'd seen an injustice done, and something inside him
had compelled him to act. Without counting possible cost, he had, as the Book
of Exodus puts it, "risen up and slain the oppressor".
Now Moses was paying for that rash moment by his exile.
But, be honest, it probably wasn't all that bad. Moses seemed to ended up
cozily ensconced in a whole new way of life. He had a loving wife, prosperous
and welcoming in-laws, flocks to tend in a peaceful, solitary wilderness.
Granted, it was a long way from Pharaoh's palace. But all in all, it couldn't
have been too bad of a life.
What was it about Moses? Even in the desert, even in exile,
there must have been something special about him. The average person passing by
that day would probably have thought to herself, "Gee whiz, look at that
tree on fire." And then gone about their business.
Whatever made Moses stop and look at that burning bush?
Curiosity? Boredom? An impulse? Whatever it was, the story of Exodus tells us
that Moses turned aside and looked. And to his astonishment, Moses realized
that the bush was not being reduced to ashes by the fire. It was burning-- but
not being burned. That's mysterious-- deeply and profoundly mysterious. Not
Agatha Christie mysterious-- mysterious
in the same way that our God is mysterious.
Out of the deepest moments of mystery and wonder comes all
philosophy, all art, all science, all religion. "Why?" we ask. And in
that eternal Why, the mind and soul of humanity is born. Something inside Moses
made him turn aside. Something made him want to know, to understand, to
experience something new, special, different.
"Take off your
shoes Moses. You're standing on Holy Ground." And Moses took his shoes off his feet. When
we approach that Ultimate Reality which we call "God", we too must shuck off our shoes of ego, of
pretension, of worldly pride, of rigid perception that have shielded us so long
from honest awareness of God's judgment and call.
We must hush our talking, put away our excuses and begin to
listen-- simply listen to the voice of the One who knows us, and judges us, and
accepts us and miracle of miracles, still loves us. We must take off the shoes
of self and listen to the call of the One who is Eternal Love.
Take off your shoes, you're standing on Holy Ground. What
makes a particular piece of dirt holy? Sometimes you can sense it. Times,
places, things and people can all be holy. And when they are, they usually
aren't too hard to recognize. Holiness occurs when we sense that somehow or
other, sometime or other, God has used a place, or a time, or a thing, or a
person to bring forth Manifest Divine love into this sad and broken world.
Nostalgia can give us a sense of tenderness. Expensive
ornamentation can give us a sense of precious-ness. Aesthetic lines and
graceful form can give us a sense of beauty. Music and architecture and
lighting can move us. Emotion can give us a sense of special-ness. But only the hand of God can give us a true
sense of the holy.
Take off your shoes. Even today, Moslems-- who also call
Moses a prophet, still remove their shoes before prayer. An odd gesture. But in
the deserts of the Middle
East the direct rays of the
sun can cause healthy men and women to collapse in a matter of minutes. In such
a land, it would seem a safer gesture of reverence to remove your shoes than
your head covering.
Rites that seem simple and beautiful and suitable in one
land and culture can become strained and artificial in another. So you and I
pray with our heads bare and bowed and with our hands folded. I still can
recall how odd it seemed at to pray facing the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
Take off your shoes, you're standing on Holy Ground. The sense of the holy, the mingling of awe
and wonder and reverence is ultimately what distinguishes religion from mere
morality. The hunger for it is what brings us to this place on Sunday morning--
this Altar. The idea, the sense of the holy—what theologians call the mysterium tremendium-- that which is totally other. The presence of God.
Depending on who we are, in such a moment we might fall on
our faces, or kick off our sandals, or kneel, or cover our heads, or uncover
our heads, or sing, or pray, or dance, or laugh, or perhaps even speak in
tongues. It is an almost instinctive response of our bodies to moments of lofty
mystery which we feel deeply in our spirits-- even though we only partly
comprehend them in our minds.
There are simply some elements in religion that can't be
totally explained -- only named. There is a point where rationalism stops. At
that moment, faith and experience must begin. At that point, spirituality is
born. These moments, these elements simply cannot be contained in any purely
human intellectual system. Nor can they be wholly exhausted in practice and
conduct.
We can only faintly suggest these moments we call holy
through symbol and sacrament. We can only celebrate them. At that moment,
worship comes into being. At that
moment our interior, ultimate journey begins. At that moment we know the touch
of the hand of God. When does God touch
us?
A better question for us to ask might be, why should
the Creator of the Universes bother to touch us in the midst of our
humdrum, everyday lives on this third planet from a rather minor sun, located out
on the edge of the galactic boondocks? Why should such a God touch us? There's
only one possible answer-- out of love. Why love us so? Not because of who or
what we are. But rather, because of who God is—God’s very nature is love
The corollary question is: how does the Mind of the
Universe touch us? With nurture. With power. With forgiveness. With acceptance.
With growth, With a call.Joseph Campbell
Read the Hebrew Bible. Read the Kabbalah, Study the
commentaries of the Rabbis. Read the New Testament. Study Christian Theology-- Orthodox,
Catholic, and Protestant . Read about
the lives of the saints. Read the mystics. Learn about the Reformers.
Study the other great
religions of the world—Islam, Buddhism, Ba’hai. Read about the lives of
Mohammed, Ghandi, the Buddha. Read the Tao-Tse-Ching. Learn about Native
American and African religions. Read the prayer-poetry of Rumi.
Whenever
you read about the truest experiences of interaction between God and humanity,
when you and I experience our deepest spiritual experiences, our own holiest
moments, you'll find that they are all moments of call.
"Moses, I'm
sending you. Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go." And Moses said,
"Who, me? Who
am I to free the people? How? When?
Where? Me?" And God said,
"I will be with
you."
Take off your shoes, you're standing on holy ground. Some
of the ancients believed that certain
places in the world were holy because they were literally closer to heaven than
others. Others thought certain places were the center of the world-- or the
universe. Be you and I know. The holiest ground are the places where men and
women have faithfully responded, despite their doubts and frailties, in hope
and commitment.
"Take off your
shoes, you're standing on holy ground. Go, free my people."
Go start an adult Sunday School class. Go take a foster
child into your home. Go tutor after-school. Go organize a hunger walk. Go
volunteer at our pantry. Go volunteer at our new children’s library at Trinity.
Go volunteer at your local neighborhood school. Go take a church office. Go
join the choir. Go volunteer at Daybreak . Go volunteer at a nursing home. Go start a homeless shelter. Go on a mission
trip. Go build a handicapped ramp for your neighbor. Go tithe Go become a
missionary half-way across the world.
Go back to school. Go
mend your broken relationships. Go teach the children about the love of God. Go
learn from the children how to love.
"Who am I to do this?'
"I will be with
you-- that is who you are. That is all you need. That is your call. This is
your moment of holiness. I will be with you."
Our God still calls men and women in our world. The truest
test of a moment of holiness is whether or not it leads us to grow-- whether or
not it leads us to acts of charity and outreach-- whether or not it leads us to
respect for the ground and the experiences others have found sacred. There are many places in this world that are
holy. Some are places we all know about-- others are unknown except to those
who have been touched and called in them.
Our world is full of need. Many people and places and
issues remain in desperate need of the work and witness that committed
believers can bring. Many need to hear the good news of liberation and hope.
Many are in dire need-- the hungry, the homeless, the grieving, the enslaved,
the institutionalized and the oppressed.
There are so many areas where you and I can be in
ministry-- through our prayers, our gifts, our service. There are many issues
the world must resolve-- the Ecological crisis, the International Debt crisis,
AIDS and other killing diseases, the economic crises, the winds of freedom
blowing around the world, the struggle for economic and political justice,
(which is the only true answer to the threat of terror and war), the struggle
against racism, the needs of the exploited in our own land, the personal
battles of men and women against addiction, confusion, racism, homophobia,
hatred, and sin.
Few people are ever called to such a great and holy task as
Moses.
But all of us are called
to love our God, to serve our neighbors, to witness, to share, to pray, to
work, to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God-- within our
own tiny corner of the world. Who are we
to do such things?
"I will go with
you. That is who you are, that is al you need to know” says the One who made us.
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