Sunday, August 23, 2020

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:

First Reading: Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Second Reading: Romans 12:9-21
Gospel Reading: Matthew 16:21-28

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

Good thinking produces good behavior. 

Moses is told to remove his sandals because the ground on which he treads is holy ground.  Moses was told this so that he would recognize and comprehend that this was no ordinary space.  He was not just on top of a mountain.  This place was sacred space.  And Moses was treading on holy ground.

We do not tend to see the ground we tread and steps we take as holy or holy ground.  We tend to go around more like we are treading on thin ice—you know, just waiting for the next thing to break on us.  We tend to expect that something is going to fall apart, and everything will get messed up.  We tend to experience the world on thin ice.  And in a week of pandemic and converging storms we are just waiting for the next hammer to hit the ice.

What would it mean for us to see ourselves—in this world—in the mess of earth’s struggles and tragedies—what would it mean for us to see ourselves as treading on holy ground?  What would it mean if we saw the places we go in this physical realm and in the digital realm as the very space which God occupies?  Think about that—God inhabited space.  Where we work, where we live, where we play, where we navigate on our computer, where we post our worship or comment on our status—wherever that is…it is God’s own space.  God space.

This is all holy ground.  See it all as holy ground.  But do not stop with seeing it as holy ground, also dig your heels in.  Yes, that’s right, dig your heels in.  Usually that phrase is meant to say that we are refusing to give—that we are refusing to budge on our position.  Yes.  That is precisely what it means here too.  Refuse to give on seeing where you are in life or this day as apart from God.

Refuse to allow anything but the claim and reign of God over the very place that you are.  Dig your heels into this holy ground!

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk