Turning Aside 

Exodus 3:1-12
Moses’ day had probably started out as a pretty ordinary one.  He was tending the sheep for his father-in-law, as he had done for a few decades, standing out in the wilderness land—a place that had become his refuge since fleeing Pharaoh’s house. 

 As I am sure you’ve surmised, a lot has happened in Moses’ life since we saw him last week.  He is no longer a helpless baby, being drawn up out of the waters.  He is no longer a child, named and adopted by Pharaoh’s own daughter, an Israelite immigrant boy raised with Egyptian power.  Rather, by the time we meet him today, he is a man.  A man who is also a fugitive – hiding from the ones he had be told to call family—Pharaoh and his house.  For even though Moses had been raised with Egyptian power, he never forgot he was not Egyptian.  Scripture tells his story, “One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and saw their forced labor.” 

 His people- the Hebrews, not the Egyptians.  And when he saw an Egyptian slave driver beating one of his people, Moses’ rage flared and he killed the slave driver.  Shortly after that, he knew he had to get out of town before Pharaoh got him.  So Moses ran to the wilderness, leaving behind what he knew, and setting out into unfamiliar territory once again. 

 But by the time we meet him with his sheep in the wilderness, Moses seems to have settled down, more or less.  He has gotten married.  They have started a family and he is working in the family business—shepherding.  His days no longer hold the excitement of palace life or the stress of living in-between the worlds of the powerful and the powerless.  Rather, his days have a familiar rhythm to them.  Get up.  Eat.  Take the sheep out for food and water.  Bring them home safely.  Spend time with the family.  Go to bed.  Repeat.  He has moved into routine, into a safe rhythm, perhaps even into what Kierkegaard called, “the tranquilization by the trivial.” 

 By the time we meet him today, Moses has finally learned how to blend in, to become invisible, to fall off Egypt’s radar screen.  “Moses?  Moses who?” the palace guards might have muttered by this time.  “Moses?  Moses who?” the new Pharaoh’s family might have muttered by this time.  “Moses? Moses who?” Moses imagined God muttering by this time.  I bet that Moses thought that no one, not even the Holy One, remembered who he was anymore. 

 And while anonymity probably gave him some comfort, it might have also been a bit disquieting.  I wonder if he ever missed a few things about living in the center of power, in the lap of luxury.  Or perhaps he did not think about it anymore.  Perhaps he enjoyed the way his life had turned out.  He enjoyed the ordinary and routine.  He enjoyed being just regular old Moses the shepherd.  He had had enough excitement in his early years to last a lifetime.  Maybe he liked just working with sheep.

 But that is precisely when it happened.  Moses was just minding his own business, or rather, his father-in-law’s business, which WHOOSH.  A bright flame catches his eye.  “What in the world?” And that is when he did it.  That is when he makes the move that I believe opened the door of possibility.  As Scripture puts it, Moses turned aside to get a closer look.  He turned aside.  Now, you might wonder why I think that is such a big deal.  So what.  He turned aside.  A bush was on fire, for goodness’ sake. 

 True.  A bush was burning and it was not consumed.  That is certainly attention-getting.  But, the whole episode could have stopped there.  Moses could have seen the fire from a distance and decided to lead the sheep in a different direction out of concern for their safety. 

Or, he could have seen the fire from a distance, noticed the position of the sun in the sky and muttered, “Great.  I don’t have time to deal with a fire.  I am supposed to meet some other shepherds at the restaurant downtown at 5pm.  We have reservations.  I do not have the time for my plans to be interrupted.”  And then Moses could have decided to pretend the whole bush thing never happened and called it a day.  Moses could have pretended to not see anything at all.  He could have put his blinders up and ignored that odd sight burning off his path of routine. 

 Because from the way I read this passage, it looks like God did not place that burning bush smack dab in front of Moses so he would be forced to respond.  As Professor Ben Campbell Johnson once said to me, God has a profound respect for human freedom.  God never forces our participation in God’s work.  So instead of choosing a bush that Moses would run into, God chose a bush growing a bit off of Moses’ beaten path.  If Moses wanted to see it, he had to turn aside.  He had to make the decision to stop, to turn, and then, to follow his curiosity and wander over to where it was.  He had to decide to be open to the mystery. 

 But again, so what.  So what if he did not have to look at it and wander over to it.  What is the big deal about Moses’ decision to interrupt his plans and to follow his curiosity?  I think it is a big deal because of what happened next.  Did you hear it?  Did you hear what happened when Moses noticed the bush, chose to interrupt his daily ordinary routine, and turned aside to pay attention to this curious sight?  God noticed Moses’ noticing and God called him.  I find that order of things fascinating. 

 Apparently, God did not go WHOOSH in the bush and then say “Hey Moses, Moses!  Come over here and look!!!  I’m calling you!”  Rather, God chose an off-the-beaten path lowly bush, tucked the Holy Presence in the flame, and then waited to see if Moses would stop what he was doing long enough to notice and to turn aside.  Again, Scripture: “When the Lord saw that Moses had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush.”  It was only when Moses chose to stop, look and listen, did God choose to call. 

 A friend of mine claims that is one of God’s great and beautiful inefficiencies, this waiting for human beings to turn aside, so that God can invite them to join in God’s work in the world.  Granted, she concedes, God does not always wait.  God spoke creation into being without waiting for response.  God might even finish renewing creation without waiting for response.  But, in this story, just like in so many others, God does wait.  "Immortal, invisible"...inefficient God.  Story after story in scripture points to God's inefficiency, God’s choosing to wait for us to turn aside and notice.  But it is an amazing inefficiency for it is an inefficiency born of relationship.  Apparently, bound up in the very nature of God is a Holy One who longs not only to be, but to be with[i].  And that is what Moses began to discover that day—a relationship with the Holy I Am that would challenge and comfort and call him for a lifetime, always seeking his response. 

 But what about us?  We are not Moses.  We have had no burning bushes along our way, right?  Perhaps.  But given the reality that God waits for people to turn aside again and again in Scripture, don’t you think that God might still be being God in that way?  Don’t you think that God still prefers to be with us in God’s work in the world and waits and hopes that we, too, might follow Moses’ lead? 

 Could it be that if we turned aside more often we would hear God speak more often too?  If we could ever make ourselves stop barreling forward through life, might we notice a flicker of Holy Presence trying to get our attention?  Calling us into being a part of God’s transformative, beautifully inefficient work?  I think so. 

 I saw it again just a month ago when our senior high youth returned from Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia.  Each day, and almost at every moment, they were being invited to turn aside and notice.  They were being invited to pay attention to the way some of God’s people are suffering.  They were being invited to notice lives that they might never have noticed before.  God did not tuck God’s presence in a flame for them, but God tucked flickers of Holy Presence into worship services with homeless people and yuppies, all in the same space. 

God tucked flickers of Holy Presence into soup kitchens, in the faces of those they served and as well as in those with whom they worked.  God tucked flickers of Holy Presence into the voice of a tough teenager who laid out his life for them to see and learn from.  God tucked flickers of Holy Presence into their small group debriefing time when they had to be honest about the ways they felt about what they were seeing and doing.  The presence of the Holy One was flickering all around them, waiting for them to notice. 

 And most, if not all, of our youth, did.  They noticed.  They stopped.  They turned aside.  They listened.  And from what they have said, many of them, if not all of them, heard God calling their names.  They realized God was inviting them to get involved in God’s work of social justice not just up there in Philadelphia, but right here where they live.  They realized that God was inviting them to participate in God’s transformation of the world.  And their recognition of that invitation is huge.  It is life-changing huge.  It is mind-blowing when you first realize that you have a role in God’s story.  An important role.  A role that God wants you to play.  But had our youth not noticed the flicker of God’s Holy Presence and turned aside, they might have missed it for a while longer. 

 I think there is something to it, friends.  There is something to moving through our lives with our eyes open enough to notice the flicker of God’s presence, even when, and maybe particularly when, it is off of our regularly beaten path. 

 There is something to noticing, to stopping, to turning aside, and to listening, expecting for God to call your name and to help you see your role in God’s story.  Your role in God’s transformation of the world.  The important ways that God hopes you will participate in God’s beautiful, inefficient way of being God.

 Yes, we are not Moses.  We might not encounter burning bushes along our way.  But I promise you that God has tucked flickers of the Holy Presence all around you, all around all of us.  And God is hoping that we, too, might notice, turn aside, and listen for our call.  For everybody is called.  Everybody is invited.  Everybody has a role to play in God’s transformation of the world.

May we have the vision to notice, to turn aside, and to say Here I Am.  And may we have the courage that Moses eventually mustered, respond with yes and follow.