Exodus 3:1-6

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness and came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. 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.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
— Exodus 3:1-6 (NRSV)
 

Imagine that you are traveling on a path on your way to somewhere you go most everyday: your drive to work, school, the gym, soccer fields, a walking or running route, the grocery store, or maybe the neighborhood where you grew up. Wherever it is, it’s somewhere you are so familiar with that you don’t have to pay much attention to the landscape. Now while you’re here, imagine that a bush or a tree or a patch of grass that you’ve never paid much attention to was on fire, but some sort of mysterious fire that wasn’t destroying anything around it. And then, imagine that patch of fire started calling your name, loudly. Odds are if this was happening to you, it’d probably be a sign that you needed to go home and start your day all over again Or, maybe you would call a friend and start by saying “So, uh, this is crazy but…”

Moses was born to a Hebrew woman, rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter, and raised in an Egyptian court. Later, Moses fled his home to avoid being killed. We now find Moses living in Midian and tending to his father-in-law’s sheep. He had been tending to this flock of sheep for some time. Moses had probably been living a relatively regular life since his escape from Egypt. Well, until this day, when he stumbles upon some shrubbery on fire that is yelling out his name and asking him to take his shoes off.

The Israelites felt that God was hidden from them since exile. While living in exile in Egypt, they cried out to God to rescue them from slavery, pain, and struggle. We learned from the story of Moses and the burning bush that God being hidden from us does not mean that God is not present with us. God heard God’s people cry out, and God “took notice” (Ex. 2:25) and remembered them.

When we talked about what it means that God is hidden, we wondered if this really could mean that God is everywhere, including the places we do not expect God to be. In this story, Moses surely was not expecting God to call his name out of some burning shrubbery. Yet, God knew where Moses was going to be this day. We see that God knows where we are, how we got there, and where we will go from there. What we learn from God’s visibility in the burning bush is that even when God is hidden, God is not absent from us. God is still listening to our cries, God still knows our names, and God makes our everyday paths holy ground.

 This Advent, we invite you to notice how your everyday paths can be holy ground. Our hope is that you are reminded of God’s (occasionally hidden) faithfulness by spending time around people, places, or maybe even some sheep that can bring you to see the bright, visible light of God.

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Genesis 18:1-15

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John 20:19-23