STANDING ON HOLY GROUND by Rev. David M. Montgomery (with an assist by Patti Lusher)

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Standing on Holy Ground
Exodus 3:1-12

How often have you stood on Holy Ground?  The joke around my home is that whenever we returned to Texas we were to take off our shoes for we were on Holy Ground.  Pretty silly I know, but it was fun walking off the plane in Dallas/Ft. Worth airport carrying my shoes.  I did get some pretty interesting looks.

But seriously, I suspect that you have stood on holy ground and not even known it.  I think we’ve all been on holy ground and just didn’t notice it.

I took a mission trip in 1982 to Oljato, UT.  We worked with the Navajo Reservation.  It was hot work.  We had built a relationship with the leaders so that they trusted us to go on the back roads with them to their sacred spot.  In the middle of the desert, we came to a beautiful cool spring, lush grass, trees all around.  The Indians said we trust you, we normally don’t offer this trip to our Holy Ground to white folks.

I want to applaud you for studying and practicing Sabbath traditions.  Now, do you know where Sabbath traditions come from?  From Moses and the 10 commandments:  1) One God, 2) No Idol, 3) Lord’s Name in vain, 4) SABBATH, 5) Honor parents, 6) Don’t Kill, 7) Don’t commit Adultery, 8) Don’t Steal, 9) Don’t Lie, 10) Don’t Covet

Before you started this study, how many of us really even gave it a second thought?  I do not keep the Sabbath very well at all.  I grew up in a Protestant work ethic – not wasting time, always producing, always improving.  If you took a break, you were lazy. The message of Sabbath is one I needed to hear.  Why keep a Sabbath?  What about the Protestant work ethic?  What about being productive and being everything we can be?

In the film Pretty Woman starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts (1990), Gere is a multimillionaire and Roberts plays a prostitute.  He works all the time; in his job, he buys companies, breaks them down, and makes lots of money.  He very rarely sleeps.  The prostitute encourages him to take a day off.  She gets him to walk barefooted in the grass.  It’s a great scene.  One of the key scenes is when they’ve had a separation.  He walks through the grass with his shoes and socks off.  She has saved his life.  She offers him life!

I work with College students who are super, super busy.  The joke is that there is time for rest when you get out of college.  You have to make the most of your time in college.  And I watch young, strong, capable students walking around exhausted.  But it is not just the students.  By Cheri asking me to preach, she has challenged me to look at my schedule and honor the 4^th commandment.  The Sabbath came as a gift from God.  Sabbath keeping is a time of rest, renewal, feasting, and fellowship.  I do hope you and I will seriously examine our schedules and seek a time of Sabbath.  It just might save your life.

Remember, Sabbath came from Moses.  Now we may ask, who is Moses?  Let’s talk about that.

Ex 2- Birth, salvation, outsider on the inside -killed an Egyptian and ran away (fugitive)
Ex 3:13ff- Get’s God’s name
Ex 4- Signs of Power and goes back to Egypt
Ex 5-11- Pharaoh and plagues – let my people go.  He did not let them go.
Ex 12- Passover – oldest child killed, but if you put the blood of a sheep on the mantel, you will be passed over.
Ex 14- Red Sea and Exodus
Ex 16- Manna
Ex 17- Water from the Rock
Ex 20- Ten Commandments (Mt Sinai)
Ex 32- Golden Calf – after he comes down from Mt. Sinai, the people are worshipping a Golden Calf.
Ex 35- Instructions for the Sabbath
Moses is attributed to writing Torah

         Ex 3- our text (at this point he is a murderer, a fugitive, just minding his own business)  
     

Moses is in the desert, doing his daily work, when he sees the burning bush that is not consumed by the fire.  He was doing his ordinary work, but all of a sudden, he notices.  I think the miracle of the story is not necessarily that there was a burning bush that was not consumed.  The miracle is that Moses noticed.  He wasn’t looking for it.  He wasn’t expecting it. “Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up.”  God said, “Moses, Moses.”  And Moses said, “I’m here.”

Moses becomes this hero.  He’s known as the lawgiver, writing the first books of the Bible.  He’s a huge character in our faith story. 

CEB says: The Lord’s messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush.  Moses saw that the bush was in flames, but it didn’t burn up.  Then Moses said to himself, Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up. (Ex. 3:2-3)

NRSV says: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”

If it could happen to Moses, could it not happen to us?  How attentive to God’s messages are we? 

Sabbath keeping will help us slow down, help us notice, examine “What’s going on here!” and place us on holy ground.

I was slowed down another time as a young pastor of a 300-member church in Louisville.  I was new and had not done a lot of pastoral care.  John Rapp, 94 years old, pillar of this church, was dying in a hospital.  I made the hospital visit, and I did not really like hospitals.  I was ready to do my normal pastor visit.  Here was John and I asked him, “Is there anything I can do for you?”  John replied that it sure would be nice if you would put lotion on my feet.  I thought, I’m a pastor, I’m just supposed to pray and get out of here.  But I took the lotion and started to rub his foot, and he said that feels so good.  I stood on Holy Ground.  John died that night.  I cannot tell you the impact he had on my life, because I did take the time.  How many other times have I missed out on what God asked me to do, because I had my own agenda?

Take off your shoes.  Notice the feel of the floor. Rub your feet. Take time to examine your feet.  Stand on Holy Ground. I want you to notice the feel of the carpet, the air between your toes.  Take a second and rub a foot.  Notice the feeling of being in public with your hands on your feet.  Be attentive to your acceptance or resistance to rubbing your feet in public.  When you are on holy ground, attentive to the spirit and willing to risk being vulnerable, I want you to take off your shoes and walk outside.  Be grounded and have your presence there on holy ground.  God is calling out. Do we notice?  Will we turn aside to see what God is doing?

Preached by Rev. David M. Montgomery
The Village Church in Maumee, OH

June 30, 2013