Proper 17A 2008 Exodus 3:1-15; Matthew 16:21-28

Holy Name and Holy Ground. Last week we considered something about the significance of names. Names are somehow connected with power over and between human beings. And some names have much more significance than others. And in particular for Christians, the name of Jesus, God in Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God, has both significance and power. In that context let’s consider the Old Testament lesson from today. And then we’ll consider holy ground.

The event is a major theophany. A theophany is the manifestation of God in some physical way, usually to a human. In this case the theophany was in a burning bush. God and Moses engaged in a debate, God asking Moses to be God’s agent in freeing the Hebrew people from the oppression visited on them by the Egyptians. Moses, having already fled for his life after killing an Egyptian overseer tries to talk God out of it. But God always answers Moses objections with a solution.

It is at the end of this debate – argument, really, that what is technically called the Tetragrammaton – YHWH – the great I AM -- is revealed. In a last desperate effort to wiggle off the hook, Moses demands to know God’s name. This is really significant. In Israel’s salvation history to this point, God was spoken of and to generically, as God but sort of the chef god among many other gods. The general address was lord, as in master. God’s name was not God capital G as in English. God’s real name was unknown and unknowable as far as the Israelites were concerned – how could they really know a being so unknowable, unimaginable, infinite in power and knowledge, the creator of all that was and is and will be.

The universe stood still as it waited for God’s answer. The world was silent, dumbstruck with fear at what might be revealed. The power of the Holy Name of God struck fear and awe in the hearts of humanity.

And then God answered. Even now we aren’t really agreed on what God actually said. And in any variation of the answer God remains unknowable, beyond mysterious, vast beyond comparison in God’s transcendent self being.

God said, “I AM who I AM.” The convention is that I AM is all capitalized. The Hebrew words themselves evoke this infinite transcendent mystery. Translators and commentators have suggested that other translations could mean not only I AM who I AM but also I AM who I will be and I AM who I always have been. The great I AM encompasses all those denotations and uncountable connotations.

So powerful was the mere thought of the Name of God that until the late 20th Century God and humanity was in a very formal I-Thou expression of relationship, and not the God as Jesus my pal and buddy who we just know will do what we ask, we just know will give us what I want.

Holy Ground: At Saint Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai is a ancient remote fortress cloister believed to be the traditional site of Moses’ encounter with the great "I am." A stained glass window of the burning bush is in the small chapel. The stained glass burning bush comes to fire each day when the sun rises. When God first spoke to Moses out of the burning bush he ordered Moses to take off his sandals for he was standing on holy ground. Wherever God is present is holy ground. (1)

When the altar guild gathered for training several weeks ago, I reminded everyone that this small church is a holy place standing on holy ground, a consecrated building on consecrated. And that the altar was the most holy space in this holy place. For it is in elements of Holy Communion, however we think of them, that we are closest to what that great I AM theophany of over 3,000 years ago might have been like.

Sometimes we long for burning bushes and clear signs of God’s presence and calls to action, especially in times like our own when things can seem so confused and uncertain. That is when we need to draw closer to God, deny our selves, and take up our Cross and carry it with us to holy ground.

Wherever and whenever we are in communion and communication with God we stand on holy ground. Take off our shoes and risk getting burned or looking foolish. Investigate every bush, every face, every experience for God’s presence and call. Then, if we’re willing, risk letting ourselves be used by God as a sign of God’s presence to the world we see each day. Let the fire be part of us, and not be afraid — like the bush, we will not be consumed, and we will not be alone. (2)

AMEN


1. From Lectionary Homiletics for Proper 17A, goodpreacher.com
2. taken from Barbara Brown Taylor, "Uncommon Light," in Mixed Blessings (Boston: Cowley Publications, 1986), 10-16, as summarized in Lectionary Homiletics for Proper 17A, goodpreacher.com