It's On Fire! Watch Out!
We’re going to mix up the usual order of these Let’s Do Lunch devotions today by reading the scripture lesson first, then we will get into a few reflective thoughts. I think many of you will find this passage very familiar. It centers around a well-known exchange between God and Moses as recorded in Exodus 3:2-4:
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.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Moses is going along, doing his thing, and then sees a bush that is ablaze, but not being consumed by the fire. OF COURSE this is going to get his attention - I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure something aflame like this is going to make me ask a few questions and might, possibly, have me talking to myself. It is quite natural that Moses would be drawn to such a scene. As I was reading these verses to write today’s message, something hit me, questions that I think would do us all good to explore more than we might think:
Why the need for a burning bush to get Moses’ attention?
Wouldn’t it be nice if God would do something that attention-getting to help us see where he is and what is going on with God?
Well, maybe. Maybe we would do good to ask another question, instead:
Why would it take something extraordinary like a burning bush to get our attention?
I mean, I get it. I really do. The idea of miraculous sings and wonders pointing us to the undeniable reality that God is present with us in a particular place in a particular way is quite appealing.
What if, though, there ARE burning bushes present in our lives that we miss because they do not capture our imagination or attention in the same way that a bush that is ablaze but not burning would? That is, do we allow for the possibility there are in our lives burning bushes out of which God is seeking to speak to us?
One of the great things about our calling as Christians to life in the community of faith is we are sometimes - nay, let me say oftentimes - blind to the ways in which our God is speaking to us and if not for our brothers and sisters of the faith there is no way we would hear God speaking to us.
I remarked to someone earlier this week that one of the things I struggle with most during this time of public health restrictions is the day-to-day interactions within the church office and throughout our campus with folks who are part of the story that is the daily on-campus ministries of our church. What I miss most, though, is how God uses all of our Christian community to help us see and hear God in ways we simply miss when we’re left without these encounters.
Let’s get out of here on this: I challenge us all to be more intentional about looking for the burning bushes in our lives - those truly extraordinary things that God uses to get our attention so we will hear the voice of the one who created us, redeemed us, and sustains us.
Grace & Peace,
Lamar