a sermon exploring Moses journey in the wilderness and the encounter with the burning bush

 

Pentecost 14 3^rd September - 

a sermon preached at

 Goolwa and Port Elliot

Pic - a reformation era scripture on the cloisters of Chichester Cathedral

The baby welcomed in his basket by the young Egyptian daughter of Pharoah is named Moses. ‘Mosheh’ in Hebrew sounds like ‘masha’ draw from. Moses comes from the water, is adopted, and raised as an Egyptian while all around him his people are enslaved. The life-giving waters of the Nile has sustained the one who will cross the waters and bring out his people. Yet as an adult he flees as a fugitive from his own people and from his adopted Egyptian family.

Once again grace is at work as Jethro welcomes Moses as the one who has protected his daughters from harassment. He is invited as an Egyptian to break bread and is adopted into the family to become Jethro’s son in law.

In a few verses we have learnt that Moses is a man of fire.  He is compassionate and passionate just like the Peter who gets in the way of Jesus and is called to a change of heart. In the wilderness, pasturing the flock Moses too is called to a change of heart.  He is drawn aside to the burning bush and told to remover his sandals as if he were entering a home or one of the ornate and impressive Egyptian temples.

‘Metanoia’ means repentance and change of mind and each time we come to worship we are called to penitence. The late Bishop Kallistos Ware (Orthodox Way p 15) writes;

‘In approaching God, we are to change our mind, stripping ourselves of all our habitual ways of thinking’

Notice on our altar candles of fire and the cross which symbolises the mystery of God calling forth our awe, reverence, and submission. In ancient times there were many Gods who inhabit mountains, temples, and communities, all with names although its also true to say that in Egypt as elsewhere there were people conscious of God’s oneness and unity. Moses is given no name, no magic talisman but only the reminder that he is no Egyptian but rather a Hebrew with ancestors, elders and a story of faith and an enduring Covenant made with Abraham and his successors.

Yes, like Peter we may think the way of the cross, our very own burning bush, a place of destruction and recreation is foolish, negative and childish but in repentance and humility we emerge as it were through the eye of a needle into the place of resurrection, a renewed heaven and earth and into the place and peace of resurrection.

Many years ago, as an assistant curate in England I took my young confirmation candidates and their parents to various places of worship as part of their training including the Reformed synagogue at Brighton for Sabbath worship. For many parishioners this experience brought a new dimension to their faith.  In this large modern building we saw Torah scrolls containing the very story we have been reading rescued from a German synagogue destroyed in the Holocaust. The Rabbi asked about the large bright stained glass and a young person said it was Jesus at Easter. The Rabbi explained the story of the burning bush very graciously and his love for Moses as the liberator.

Yet for us the burning bush is also a sign of the liberation brought by Christ since the universe and time itself has been transformed through the cross, the place of liberation.

Let us friends remind ourselves of the river of life into which we have been immersed in Baptism, take off our metaphorical sandals in repentance, touch the earth that sustains us and feel the breath of the Spirit. Let us hear the invitation of the priest Jethro who welcomes the stranger, the fugitive, the lost to share the breaking of bread in hospitality and grace.