Burning Bush | nkchurch

Beginnings

Loving God
Holy God
may we find ourselves on holy ground
the kind of ground
where miracles happen
because of love
out of compassion
through justice
your everyday miracles
in our everyday lives
shaping an everyday holiness
that is real

So may we have eyes to see
not that which glitters with gold
but that which is rich with human kindness
and filled with hope
that dares believe
such things can change the future
and our relationship with it

Loving God
Holy God
may we don our shoes once more
and follow you
and find you
in all our wilderness wanderings
and there have ears to hear
the word of promise you give
and the hope you ignite
and the vision you unfold
in this world
in this ‘here and now’

May we be filled with the longing you are
and the yearning you have
that our living changes
in a world that presses down on things
and lives through insecurity
May we instead live expectantly
engagingly
and with not a little enthusiasm
for what we yet might be together
holy and human together
God and creation together

and make another miracle possible
another place called holy ground
as we live differently
in your name “Justice”
your name “Freedom”
your name “I am yet to be”

So be it
Amen

Burning Bush

Exodus 3:1-15

Take off shoes: a reflection

O God
in the detritus of all journeys
that leave us unaffected
untouched by the world

in the shambles of shoes
discarded
as unfashionable
no longer protective
against the whims of this world

in such a waste
let me not take off my shoes
for I cannot dare believe
this ground
any ground
can be holy

any ground
where human kind suffers
where bankers profit from others loss
where ethnic cleansing strips us of humanity
where war demeans us and ruins creation
that any of these might
could
dare
become
holy ground

Yet, between changing shoes
one fashion to the next
might we touch the ground once
just once
and feel the stoor
stone
soil
and be glanced by the ancient promise of holiness
becoming
our final and only benedictus
for this place to become what you are becoming
drawing us into becoming too

a holy encounter
where humanity meets blessing
fear meets promise
two journeys joined
and flames from that unconsumed bush
snarl
and engulf
the darkness

A Prayer & A Reading

Moses keeping flock beyond the wilderness, came to Horeb.

O God of all wildernesses, may we meet you in ours.

The angel of the Lord appeared in flame out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was not consumed. God called out of the bush, “Moses!” Moses said, “Here I am.”

And so we come, O God, as we are, no other than ourselves, flaws, questions, imperfections and we dare say: Here I am.

“Come no closer! Remove the sandals. You are standing on holy ground.”

And so we dare touch the ground and in the expectation we bring, and with the trust we have and the vision we share, make this place holy.

“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, afraid.

God of all our pasts, may we leave our pasts with you and face what is next, renewed and redeemed by the hope of what is yet to be.

The cry of the Israelites has come to me. I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.”

May the future clear our throats, O God, and give us voice and place words of love and compassion, truth and grace among the words of power, and darkness, fear and longing.

“If I say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

What silence shall we bring to those who listen only to power and seek authority?

“I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

I am, you are, and together we shall be, Amen