Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – evening
Sunday 19th August 2018
Proper 15 – 12th Sunday after Trinity – evening
Exodus 2. 23- 3.10
Hebrews 13. 1-15
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
The phenomenon of wild-fire has been all too real this summer as the drought made various moorlands tinder-dry and then human carelessness or malice and stupidity have caused terrible wild fires in various places in this country and overseas. Here in Staffordshire the Roaches are still out of bounds I believe as fire crews continue to watch and to manage the smouldering peat. And there is a terrible cost in wildlife – and sometimes in human life too.
Fire has always been credited with divine properties. It both fascinates us and terrifies us – it is something Holy in that way. Ancient peoples held that Fire was a gift of the Gods that humanity somehow stole and has been paying for ever since. Fire can be very destructive. But it also brings comfort and security to desert peoples needing to prepare food and to protect themselves from the dangers of wild animals in the wilderness. Fire can create a sense of awe and wonder about the world of nature and about God – and we can find this demonstrated in the story of Moses and the burning bush.
There’s no point seeking a natural explanation for the phenomenon Moses sees – a bush simultaneously alight, yet not consumed. This is a story about a vision, to remind us that God is close to us at all times, but he does not always communicate with us in the ways we expect.
It also provides a way to unite the God talk of the tribes who came in with Abraham from the Eastern Desert who had a name for the one they worshipped that we translate as just ‘God’; and the southern tribes who called God, The Lord, which in Hebrew sounds like the verb “to be” – hence the name, ‘I am who I am’ – or (as tenses in Hebrew are not like English) “I will be who I will be!” The God of Abraham is the same as the God they called ‘I am’.
But why should we care about all this linguistic stuff today? Well actually it underlies a lot of modern thinking, even for us today…
We must remember that God is always a mystery. We cannot understand God – the concept is bigger than us and our puny minds – God is so much greater than we are. God is everywhere, so wherever we stand, we are on holy ground. Sometimes something unexpected happens, and we may realize that God is trying to tell us something. But unless we are open to the God of surprises, unless we expect the unexpected, we may miss the message. God doesn’t only talk to us in church; he can speak through an experience in the desert, or on a mountaintop, in a field or even half-way round the supermarket if he so chooses! So we must always be alert to listen; be ready to hear and to do what he tells us to do.
At the centre of our solar system is our Sun – which – much like the burning bush, appears to keep on burning indefinitely without being used up. But in fact the scientists tell us that the sun is really a huge nuclear reactor, turning nuclear energy into heat and light. Energy on which we depend for life. There is an awful lot of matter in the heart of a star like the Sun, and though it is in fact being used up at a colossal rate (despite appearances) it will keep burning like that for billions of years yet.
But God is not part of the material world or universe. We cannot launch a space-ship to fly close to him! God made time – but is unaffected by it, unchanging. Yet, like the burning bush God is very active; God’s a consuming fire, but it’s a fire of love.
And since we are made in God’s image, at our death, when we pass from the world of time to the world of eternity, we shall be ablaze with love too, but not consumed by death. And that love will be mutual, inclusive. Whatever name we choose to call God by, we are all one family and we should be welcoming and unifying. That is at the heart of the message that Jesus came to bring us, and for which he died. Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. Amen.