Exodus
2:23-25; 3:1-12
“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Besides the many and amazing benefits of taking off our shoes and standing on God’s earth, we find here the idea of “holy ground.”
Barefoot
enthusiasts call the act of walking unshod on the earth “grounding,” and if
there is anything we crave today, it’s grounding. Everything seems so unstable,
constantly changing. Theologian Paul Tillich gave us the understanding of God
as the “ground of being,” that underneath all that exists is God. If we’re
looking for grounding, what better place to ground ourselves than in God?
In
today’s reading, Moses finds his grounding in God. As Moses stands on “holy
ground,” God calls Moses to a life-changing work, God reveals himself to Moses,
and God poured his own strength into Moses’ life. Everything changed for Moses.
What is holy ground?
Wouldn’t
we love to find holy ground? Can we find that holy ground? Since many of the
examples in Scripture find this kind of holy encounter in the wilderness, the
desert, or somewhere far away from our human-made constructs, do we have go far
away in order to encounter God on holy ground? Well, first we need to
understand that holy ground is any place we remember who God is, who we are,
and where we ground ourselves in the faith.
So, thankfully,
we can stand on holy ground today—right where we are. Unlike other events and
places in the Old Testament, holy ground is not limited by geography or time.
Jesus gives us a hint at this in the “Sermon on the Mount” wherein he tells us
to find a place of escape, silence, a place apart to pray (Matt. 6:6).
Jesus—the barrier breaker—removes forever the suggestion that holy ground is
only for special people in special places.
Whenever
we have a chance to shut out the noise of culture, the ding-ping-ring of our
cell phones, the shouts of people around us, and we can focus on God and God’s
word enough to remember who God is, who we are, and re-ground ourselves in the
faith—that is when and where we get to stand on holy ground.
For
some, holy ground is a bedroom, a living room, a front porch, a rear deck, a
gym, a drive to work, or a morning walk. Wherever and whenever we can shut out
the world, we can be on holy ground. When we take time to ground ourselves in
God, God has the opportunity then to call us to life-giving tasks as he did
Moses. God can reveal himself to us as he did Moses. God can replace our fear
with his strength as face the challenges of our days as he did Moses. Holy
ground—the gift of divine encounter God offers to all. May we find holy ground
today and every day. Amen.
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