The passage from the book of Acts is part of the sermon of Stephen. He was reminding the people of their story from the time of Abraham. But let me just share with you the portion of the sermon that talked about Moses.
He recounted of the time when Moses was in Mt. Sinai watching his flock of sheep. As he was there, he saw a flaming bush. But what caught his attention was that the fire did not consume the bush. When he approached the bush, he heard a voice saying, “Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” At that time, Moses felt the presence of God and heard the voice of God calling him to lead the people out of Egypt.
For many of us, there is a secret wish that God would talk to us as he talked with Moses.
There are three fascinating things to notice in this great and dramatic Bible story.
First, we see that it was a surprise. It happened at a time when Moses least expected it, and it happened in a most unusual place — out in the wilderness. God’s presence made that desolate place holy and sacred.
This simply suggests to us that we really do not know when God would call us or when God will talk to us. It may be at our homes or work places. Or it could be here in this place today.
What we need to do is just be ready and be sensitive to what is going on around. God can speak to us at any moment, maybe even at times when we least expect it.
Second, we see that in order for Moses and us to get it, to understand the full meaning of that experience, we need to set ourselves in tune to God.
This is something of a problem for many of us because we are so busy with a lot of things that we forget the things that are of God.
Think about your life. Think of your schedules. How often do you really seriously think about God or how much time do you set aside to connect with God? And we wonder why we don’t hear the voice of God more clearly, or feel God’s presence more nearly.
Third, we see that Moses had a seeing eye and a hearing heart. If we have the eyes and the heart of Moses, Burning Bushes are all around us. What we need are just the eyes of faith to see them, the ears of faith to hear them, and the heart of faith to feel them.
The plain truth is that the Sacred Ground is all around us because God is ever-present with us. If we have the seeing eye and the hearing heart, we can be well aware that God is reaching out to us, and speaking to us loud and clear through burning bushes and sacred moments right in our own backyard, right under our noses.
You probably have heard the story about a woman who went to see a lawyer. Frantically she told him, “I must have an annulment of my marriage!” The lawyer asked, “Do you have any grounds?” “Yes, about five hectares.” “I mean, do you have a grudge?” the lawyer questioned. “No, just a carport.” Then the lawyer asked, “Does he beat you up?” “No,” the woman replied, “I get up before he does.” Exasperated, the attorney demanded, “Madam, why do you want an annulment of your marriage?” “Because it is impossible to communicate with that man!”
Let me ask you: Do you ever set a time for God? Have you set your eyes, heart, and mind to listen and to look for sacred places where God can talk to you?
Let me share with you some experiences which others say they were “standing on Sacred Grounds” hearing God talk to them. Some of them were seemingly ordinary events:
Several years ago a pastor friend of mine was invited to the campus of a small United Methodist college to be on a panel discussing Christian vocations. As they got started, those on the panel were asked to introduce themselves by giving their name and vocation. The introductions were rather routine like…“My name is Mary Smith and I’m a lawyer.” “My name is Joseph Parker and I’m an architect.” “My name is Martha Brown and I’m a math professor.” My pastor friend also introduced himself and said his name and that he is a minister. But then there was one final panelist — a doctor, and he said that he will never, ever forget what the doctor said: “My name is Leland Johnson and we are here today to talk about Christian Vocations.” “Now,” he said, “as I understand it, the word ‘vocation’ means ‘calling.’” He paused for a moment and then: “My calling is to be a Christian, and one of the ways I do it is through the practice of medicine.” When the doctor said those words, my pastor friend said he wanted to take off his shoes because he felt he was standing on holy ground.
In one of the churches where I served, there was a member who was told by the doctor that she had only a few months to live. In one of my visits, she was by herself, sitting in a rocking chair. We talked about her life. Then we shifted our conversation and she talked about her plans for her funeral. She had a notebook where she wrote all the details. She told me she was ready and that she just wanted to just go to the Lord at peace with herself. While I was talking with her, I could feel her strong faith of a God who offers us life abundant even after death. And she felt very strongly that even death could not separate her from God’s love.
It reminded me of the promises in the Bible about Jesus telling his listeners, “I am the Resurrection and the life,” “In my father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have not told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
And then she told me that the church has been a blessing in her life and her family. It is the church that has given her the strength to face death without fear.
As I was listening to her story, I felt that I wanted to take off my shoes because I knew I was on “sacred ground”. Like Moses standing before that Burning Bush years ago, I also realized how overwhelming is our responsibility as a church, how important it is, how crucial it is, how awesome it is.
Have you experienced a moment like that?– a moment so powerful, so touching, so wonderful, so sacred that you wanted to take off your shoes because you knew you were standing on “sacred ground”.
And as I thought of that, I understood what Moses understood that day long ago that wherever we go, whatever we do, God will be with us, we can count on that. That is God’s great promise on page after page of the Bible.
Thus, whenever I felt discouraged with my work, whenever I felt overwhelmed with my responsibility, I would look back to that experience where I was on “sacred ground”.
Whenever I minister to dying patients or those who have been discouraged and have lost hope, I remember that sacred moment. Whenever the church is in conflict or discouraged, I remind myself and the church that this is Christ’s church, and we are placed here to minister to people in need.
It is my prayer that a word that we hear, or the music that we sing, or some symbols that we see may trigger something in us that we, too, can say that we are on sacred grounds.
Open your eyes wide enough, open your ears to the nuances that we hear, open your hearts to the beating of God’s heart, and feel God’s presence for you, and I know that we can be standing on sacred grounds.
