It’s a God Thing
In virtually every culture, feet are considered to be the lowest of the low when it comes to body parts and respect. In China, for more than one thousand years, the mothers of more than one billion young girls bound their feet into unnaturally small shapes in an attempt to beautify a part of the body that was considered ugly in its natural state. In Thailand, where I grew up, feet are abhorrent and are tucked out of sight whenever possible. Pointing a foot at someone or something (with or without shoes on) is a gesture that is considered very rude and showing the bottom of your foot to anyone is an abomination. For that reason, I have difficulty envisioning a day when recliners will be in wide use in Thailand. In many Asian countries, to preserve the purity and cleanliness of the inside space, visitors leave their shoes at the door. It is not unusual to see rows of shoes outside a home. Shoes are also removed before entering a shrine or temple.
In the Ancient Middle East, feet were also considered to be the lowest part of the human body. Feet, with or without sandals, often trod on dusty roads and city streets, picking up all kinds of debris. Feet, and especially shoes, were considered unclean because they came in contact with things that were unclean. When John the Baptist said that he was not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals of the man who came after him, it was literally the lowest form of service he could think of to attempt to describe the difference in rank and esteem between himself and Jesus Christ. It is no wonder that God demanded that Moses take off his sandals before approaching the burning bush.
This passage in Exodus is the first time that we encounter the concept of sacred space in the Bible. Genesis introduces us to the concept of sacred time… the Sabbath… but it is Exodus that introduces us to the concept of sacred space… and the idea that any space can be sacred space, if God is present. I actually toyed with the idea of having all of you remove your shoes at the door of the sanctuary today to illustrate the point that we gather in a place that is holy… that is sacred space… but I knew that the idea of walking barefoot in church would be so unusual that many of you would spend your time thinking about that… and not about the message today.
Moses… the adopted Hebrew son of the Pharaoh’s daughter… the one who fled Egypt because he murdered a man in anger… the one who now tends his father-in-law’s sheep in the wilderness… encounters God on a mountain road when he turns aside to see this phenomenon of a bush that is burning without being consumed. At the point when he turns aside, he hears a voice call his name twice: “Moses, Moses” which is our first clue that this is the story of a call of God. For God to call the chosen one’s name twice is one of the patterns of a call story. It was true for Samuel and for Saul. It’s just a God thing. The call is always initiated by God. For a human being to be chosen for leadership begins in the mind of God… as a gracious inclusion of humanity into the plan and purposes of God. Thus, the roots of biblical leadership are essentially theological rather than anthropological and God's choice tells us more about the qualities of God than the qualities of the people who are called to lead. How amazing it is that God chooses to include us! But then, again, it’s a God thing.
Our second clue that this is a call story is the response of the chosen one: “Hineini”… “Here I am” … is the classic response of the one who is called. The third clue that this is a call story is the protest of the chosen one: “I am not worthy… for some reason.” Everyone who is called protests their call. There are others who are more qualified. There are others with greater gifts. There are others who are better suited to the task. Amos was just a poor herdsman. Samuel was just a boy. And Moses whips out an impressive list of five reasons why he should not be the one chosen. God, of course, brushes all these reasons aside… assuring the chosen one that he… God… will make up any deficit.
The people who are called to leadership among God’s people are almost always the wrong people. When you think about it, it is almost as if God goes out of God's way to pick those who, at least on the surface, seem to have no qualities that suggest they would be good leaders. I'm thinking of Jacob… Sarah… Mary… Peter… and even Paul here… as well as of Moses. Will Willimon suggests that, perhaps, “God likes a challenge. Maybe a Creator who makes something out of nothing considers vocation [to be] a continuing aspect of creation. Any God who could make a man like Moses into a wonderful leader must be some God.” And that is exactly the point: God is the one who is glorified in this act… not the person who is chosen… for the person who is chosen could not do what they have been chosen to do without God’s help. Once again, it’s a God thing.
I have said many times that God does not choose the equipped… God equips those who are chosen. For this reason, the qualities of "good leadership" are gracious gifts of God to be gratefully received rather than skills… techniques… or knowledge to be developed. When the chips are down, all that most biblical leaders have for credentials is faith in God’s promise, "I will be with you”… or, as God stated to Moses, “I will bring you out." Notice that God does not say, “All will be perfect because I am with you” or “There will be no challenges because I am with you”… all that God promises is “I will be with you” and “I will bring you out”… out of the wilderness into a land flowing with milk and honey. Now sometimes, it may feel like we have walked in the wilderness for forty years before that happens… but God does promise that it will happen.
God also promises a sign… in Moses’ case, there were several signs… signs of God’s promise. The one that stands out for me in this story is the sign promised in our text today: [God] said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain." Doesn’t that strike you as a little strange? What God is saying is, “When you have completed the task that I have given you, then you will receive confirmation that it was, indeed, I who gave you that task.” God will be there, but we are to proceed in faith… trusting in that promise long before we receive confirmation of God’s authority. The children of God did, indeed, worship at Mt. Horeb… which is another name for Mt. Sinai… the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments during their trek through the wilderness… but that was, literally, years after Moses was called to go to Egypt to free God’s people.
For a child who was born with so much promise… saved from certain death by the daughter of Pharaoh herself… it was eighty years before Moses received God’s call and, perhaps, twenty years after that before God gave the Ten Commandments to him at Mt. Sinai. Was Moses the ideal person for this assignment? Perhaps not. But from the raw material that was Moses… despite his many shortcomings… God created a leader for God’s people… and, with God’s help, Moses finished the task that God gave to him to do… even though it took more than a generation for him to complete it… and he did not live to see the Promised Land. Today, this stuttering murderer is remembered and honored as one of the greatest leaders that the children of God have ever known… but only because he was willing to step out in faith to do what God called him to do.
What is it that God has called you to do? What is it that we, as a people of God in Stephenville, Texas, are called to do? Have we… have you… stepped out in faith to do that thing… or are you… are we… still making excuses as Moses did… not trusting in God’s plan for our future? Are we acting in faith… or in fear?
At the foot of Mt. Sinai, there is a monastery that was built between 527 and 565 C.E., enclosing a chapel that was built by the mother of the Emperor Justinian to protect the Burning Bush. Two hundred years before the monastery was built, a pilgrim to the spot wrote about the bush and his amazement that the bush continued to thrive in such a desolate place. Those who live in St. Catherine’s monastery and tend the plant claim that the plant that can be seen today is still the original plant that Moses saw. Certainly, its existence can be verified for almost 2,000 years. The monastery itself has survived as one of the oldest monasteries in the world. Think of the challenges that both the monastery and the plant have faced in their long history. Yet the plant and the monastery survive and thrive in one of the most desolate places on earth. I am convinced that it’s a God thing.
God has called us… as God called Moses. Let us trust that God will equip us to be the leaders that we need to be to lead the people of God into the future that God has planned. Let us step out in faith to do God’s work. It is not who we are that determines whether we will succeed… it is who God is that guarantees the outcome. It truly is a God thing. Amen.
Exodus 3:1-15