Word to the Wise
Sunday, March 11, 2007 - Third Sunday in Lent
[Exodus 3:1-8A; 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12; Luke 13:1-9]Moses said to God, "But when I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your faither has sent me to you, " if they ask me, "What is his name?" what am I to tell them? God replied, "I am who am."
For nearly 20 years, I've made my annual retreat out in Arizona in or near Tucson. I came to love the desert when I was director of the Newman Center at the University of Arizona (1977-80). If there is a passage in scripture that is my favorite, the story of Moses and the Burning Bush is IT! My love for this event is not singular. Exodus 3 has attracted a great deal of attention from all kinds of important spiritual writers (all of them out of my league). Friends of mine who knew about this actually commissioned a wooden wall hanging from an artist that depicts Moses and the Burning Bush. (You'll have to come to Kentucky to see it!) The desert is a wonderful place to appreciate the power of God's self-revelation to Moses. One reason for this is that the desert strips life down to its essentials. Moses even has to remove his sandals! He meets God directly and realizes that God is not going to take "no" for an answer, no matter what arguments Moses offers. God has him cornered! And, indeed, I think that is what happened to me when I first started thinking about religious life. God had me "cornered" (although the corner was Tulane University when I was an undergraduate student.). In the desert, there's no place to run to. The sun and rocks and cacti and rattlesnakes can be merciless to the unprepared. Some of my most direct experiences of God have occurred in such surroundings. Elizabeth Barrett Browning has a famous sonnet in which she writes: "Earth's crammed with God, and every common bush is aflame. But only he who sees removes his shoes." Exodus 3 offers us an opportunity to think about our relationship with God. How direct is it? Can we dialogue like Moses? Can we "see" God and "remove our shoes?" AMEN
config
view
logs
3840.0 KB
64 ms
4
