Any Bush Will Do

St. John’s United Church of Christ

August 31, 2008

A Sermon by the Rev. John Krueger

Any Bush Will Do Exodus 3:1-15

The first thing we have to do

Is to notice that we’ve loaded down this camel

With so much baggage

We’ll never get through the desert alive.

Something has to go.

Then we can begin to dump

The thousand things

We’ve brought along

Until even the camel has to go

And we’re walking barefoot

On the desert sand.

There’s no telling what will happen then.

But I’ve heard that someone,

Walking this way,

Has seen a burning bush.

This poem by Francis Dorff, “Lightening the Load,” perfectly sets the stage for us today as we consider the story of Moses in Midian and the strange Burning Bush.

Disclaimer: The sermon has nothing to do with a certain political family that has been somewhat prominent lately. Rather, my premise is that whereas the life of Moses was radically reshaped by a burning bush in this story, the story of your life from this day on may hinge on something quite different from a burning bush.

Moses is minding his own business, actually the business of his father-in-law, Jethro, seemingly content to spend the rest of his working life tending sheep and building up the family fortunes when there is this revelatory event. The story of wonderfully told, how Moses’ attention is directed to a bush that seems to be on fire and yet it does not burn up. He could have walked away from this peculiar event, deciding this was unusual but not all that significant, just moved on, get those sheep moving again to a new pasture, put in another day’s work and head on home for supper.

But he doesn’t move on for he is intrigued and captivated by what is happening. “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” And in the story, when the Lord sees that Moses is engaged, that Moses’ attention is directed to the burning bush, God begins a critical conversation with him. The Lord calls him by name, “Moses, Moses,” for the Lord knows each of us by name and we each are uniquely valued by the Lord.

With the formalities taken care of, the lessons begin. “Take off your shoes, for in fact you are on holy ground!” What Moses saw as just good sheep pasture the Lord says is in fact Holy Ground. Lesson One – everything around you is Holy Ground, full of God’s wonder and rich in God’s possibilities. Never again see anything except in the light of God’s genius.

Then the Lord tells Moses he is not just hallucinating, that this is a real encounter with the holy. The Lord has a job for Moses, a tough one, worthy of his best gifts, nothing less than being God’s agent in releasing the Hebrews from their Egyptian captivity. Lesson Two – if you stop to listen to God be prepared for something big, something important, something worthy of your giftedness as a child of God.

Moses at first responds much as we would respond, I suspect, begging off from the task the Lord gives him, making excuses that he is just not the right person, the job doesn’t fit his personality type, his skill set, or resume. In the narrative that follows there is more of that wiggling around for Moses really doesn’t want to be the central character in God’s new plan of deliverance for the Hebrews. But the Lord reassures Moses, “I will be with you.” Moses will not be alone in this venture for God will stay with him, support him, and strengthen him. Lesson Three – God provides technical support for whatever God will ask you to do. The God Help Line is available to you, you are not alone. No matter how bleak the situation may appear, especially when things are not going well at all, when you feel most helpless and alone, God is there for you, no matter what.

My premise is that our lives, yours and mine, are dotted with all kinds of Burning Bushes. A Burning Bush is something that diverts our attention from the normal to the abnormal, from the mundane to the mysterious, from business as usual to seeing something fresh and new, from “Same old, same old,” to “What is God doing now?”

My guess is that when Moses got up that morning he thought that day would be like any other day, with 12 hours of daylight in which to finish his usual work, new lambs to take care of, new pasture to find and the usual challenges to keep the flock safe, just another day of doing what he had always been doing.

And that is exactly what that day may have been had it not been for that strange bush that caught his attention. Ignore it? That was a possibility, to write it all as just another phenomenon hard to explain but be too busy to pay much attention. For some reason Moses did stop, and therefore we have this story, this story of a call to discipleship, this acceptance of a new set of challenges for Moses that he did not apply for but were right there in front of him.

I am convinced this experience is not unique to Moses, back then, but this is a prototype for us as well. What will it take for our daily journey through life to be interrupted by some special nudge by God to be an active participant in one of God’s initiatives? How will we be troubled enough to break out of our usual routines and receive a new insight into God’s presence in our world? What should we be looking for, what kind of Burning Bush, to catch our attention and prepare us for a Teachable Moment?

A Teachable Moment is when the setting for learning and the willingness to learn coincide and some new understanding emerges. Our educational institutions are in full swing, orchestrating Teachable Moments for willing students. Students will show up, day by day, week by week, some expecting to learn something, something important, and presto - something good will happen; count on it, for it will happen. Other students will also show up, day by day, week by week, just putting in their time, almost daring something to happen, and not surprisingly, not much will happen.

In the same vein, in the coming week God will offer each of us a host of Teachable Moments such as events, people, occasions, planned gatherings, chance meetings, interruptions, inconveniences, grace-filled encounters. Each can be relegated to the category of “Nothing out of the ordinary going on here” and quickly pass us by. Are not our days filled with these seemingly random events, easily dismissed as devoid of any special significance? After all, not many of us are looking for Burning Bushes for ourselves, thinking they must be intended for someone else.

But the Burning Bushes are there. They are anything that captures our attention, stirs some curiosity within us to explore a bit of God’s good world, anything that puts us in touch with wonder and mystery, anything that ignites within us some willingness to be engaged on one of God’s enterprises to reshape this world more faithfully into a place of love and forgiveness and hope for others.

Burning Bushes are anything that makes us more aware of the neighbor, that reminds us of the teachings of Jesus, anything that prompts us to think about God and God’s loving struggle with God’s head-strong children, and that would be us!