Where is your holy ground?

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“When the LORD saw that [Moses] turned aside to see,
God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’
And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then [God] said,
‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet,
for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.'” 
Exodus 3:4 English Standard Version

Okay, so I like the Paint Mines. Many times I’ve opened the door to my car, sat in the driver’s seat determined to head toward the Garden of the Gods only to find myself at the Paint Mines.

This is sacred ground. I’m blessed by the stillness, quietness and emptiness of the Paint Mines. I wonder if that is what Moses felt in the wilderness, tending his father-in-law’s flock when God decided to make himself known in the burning bush.

Where do you hear God’s call to take off your sandals?

There might be many places where you hear God’s call.  It might be the mountains, the ocean or the plains. It could also be in the presence of people such as friends or family.

God calls us into the presence of the Holy in the gathering of the community of those who have been baptized into Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Yes, we ought to abandon our shoes at the entrance to the sanctuary of our churches.

Yet we find it difficult to see the sacred in worship. Maybe we struggle because worship is so ordinary and not extraordinary like the burning bush. There really isn’t anything special about a person speaking, water poured over someone’s head or bread and wine being digested.

Yet it is through these means that God does the extraordinary. Through these means he establishes a relationship with us, forgives us and promises life and salvation. These gifts are not ordinary. They are God’s call to take off our sandals.

God is present in the community that gathers around word, water, bread and wine.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner