Thursday, March 6, 2025
Acts 7:30-35, NIV
“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’” This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?'
Reflection
Pastor Taylor Walker, Zion Lutheran Church, Spring City
We know this story. We know the quiet, dark cave, with the tall, round bush, ablaze in fire, shadows dancing on the wall – and then Moses takes off his sandals because he is standing on holy ground. We remember the part where God sweeps into the cave, filling it with awesome presence like rushing wind and cracks of thunder. And then God’s voice – all-consuming and lovely – saying to Moses, I am the god of your ancestors. Can you feel the cool wind sweeping through, see the sparks flying up to meet the stars? Can you imagine how Moses must have felt – afraid, sure, but something else, too – exhilarated? Relieved? Overcome by the presence of God?
And then…
The moment doesn’t hang there, in eternity, as we’d like. It ends like a record scratch when God calls Moses to go out into the painful world. Go back! Go back to Egypt, where there is violence and oppression and pain and conflict. Go back to Egypt, where you are lonely and hungry and scared. Go back there because I have work for you to do. Your neighbor needs help.
I wonder… I wonder how long it took Moses to go. We know he did go, of course, because we know what comes next – the plagues, the red sea, the journey – but I wonder. I wonder how long he spent there in that cave – an hour? two? – so afraid, perhaps, so unwilling, only wanting to crawl into a ball and stay inside and ride out the storm. Yet despite all this and knowing his whole story, all the painful past, all the trying present, here was God, saying “I know, and I’m sending you in anyway.”
I wonder… if you have ever felt like Moses did. On the precipice as he was, between comfort and calling, between staying quiet and doing God’s will. I especially wonder if you feel like Moses right now… wanting to confront oppressive evil and political power but afraid about what might happen. Wanting to be faithful in a confusing, distressing, complicated world. If you are… let us pray.
God of my ancestors, you made me and you know me. You see the innermost workings of my heart. You knit together my soul. Please find me, in the cave, with the bush. I am waiting there and I need you to give me the strength to go back out into the world. Amen.
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