SERMON FOR SEPTEMBER 30, 1999
WHAT DID MOSES SEE?
(Beginning the 21st Season of Thursday Night Church)
      There’s a story in Exodus describing an interface between a human and the divine. It is the story of Moses. The core of the story has this line:
“And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning and
not consumed.” (Exodus 3:2)
      This is not the most current concern on my list right now. But I am deeply involved in a paper I have to do on mysticism, and want to share some of my thinking.
      Few biblical scholars think the Moses story historical. Its purpose was to establish Moses as a spirit man in touch with God. If the story had history it must have been in the fall. I have seen “burning bushes” glowing bright in the sunlight. And I have turned aside in wonder. In fact, we often spend a fall day going into the mountains to seek inspiration from the vine maples as they turn.
      At any rate, here is Moses and friends cruising down the road, looking forward to arrival and showers and drinks, when he sights this bright light, a burning bush. He says, “Whoa. Let’s stop and take a look.” Everyone wants to keep going, but Moses insists on stopping. The report is that it was a special moment for Moses. Awe-inspiring. Life-changing. God-speaking. 
      I always wondered what Moses saw. Was it a God-induced firework, designed specifically to get Moses’ attention? In other words did this mystic moment come from outside Moses, from God? Or did something stir up from inside his own spirit, touching off the spark that made him an inspired leader. What was it he saw?
      Another question is whether such moments only happen to people like Moses or Jesus or Isaiah. Do you have to believe in God? Or be religious? By the time the story gets told the message is that this event was an interface between Moses and the transcendent God. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote of this text:
 “Earth’s crammed with heaven
  And every common bush alive with God.
  Only he who sees takes off his shoes.
  The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”
      I want to take exception to the put-down of plucking blackberries. My momma was a blackberry plucker. She would turn aside to a blackberry bush rather than a burning bush any day. And be more inspired! Mom’s blackberry pies were inspired. Even heavenly. Yes, “Earth’s crammed with heaven and every common bush alive with God.” Even blackberry bushes!
      The fact is that most mystic experiences don’t come from anything anywhere near as dramatic as burning bushes. They happen to all kinds of people, religious or not. I think everyone is a mystic, or at least has mystic capabilities. Matthew Fox says, “Everyone is a mystic (born full of wonder)” We have all experience transcendent moments, and my guess is that most did not occur in a church. The only mystic moment I can think of in the Bible that happened in a church was Isaiah’s vision in the temple.
      I have several pictures that remind me of recent special moments. The first is of a Russian Orthodox Church. This immediately contradicts what I have just said about mystic moments not happening in a church. This is a photo of a historic building that remains a church.
   We visited it in Juneau during our recent Alaska cruise.  Many tourists went to see it because it is the oldest such church in Alaska. It may be the oldest in America. At any rate the small place was packed with camera-toting sightseers.  An offering tray greeted you at the entrance (a sure sign that 
it was a church!).  There were numerous icons on the walls and screens.  There was an ornate altar and candles and a lectern at which a robed priest stood silently reading. 
I had some kind of feeling, and took off my hat.  A semi-holy moment.  Strangely, it happened in a church.
    This picture is one of a glacier at Glacier Bay.  Our ship pulled close to the glacier and stopped.  People came away from the casino and bar and bingo game to the windows and railing of the ship.  What I noticed was the awe-filled silence.  There was something awe-inspiring about that moment.  Not a burning bush, but a frozen ice-flow.  A mystic moment.
   This third picture is of our grandson, Max, reading to his grandma Jean.  To appreciate this scene you have to know that 6 weeks earlier his teacher wanted him to repeat Kindergarten because he “wasn’t ready” for First Grade.  He didn’t know his letters and sounds and other things.  He came to our cabin where Jean worked with him every morning for six weeks. This picture of Max reading is the result.  I should add that he is now in the top reading group in his First Grade class. For me that picture stirs depths of wonder.
      I don’t have the 4th picture. It’s in my mind. It comes from a Saturday wedding. The best man, burly, bearded and tears brimming, came to me just after the ceremony, “I don’t know how such a short ceremony and simple ceremony got me.” He had experienced a mystical moment. It came as a surprise, as do all such moments.
      Such moments cannot be explained. Some call them “holy moments,” not because they are religious, but because there is awe and wonder and mystery in them. Some would call them purely part of our human nature. Others would call them the intervention of God.
      In our mystic moments it is not really important to be able to explain what it is that stirred us, just as it is not important to know what Moses saw. What is important is that something stirred in Moses. It was a holy moment. He took off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.  We understand. We’ve stood there too.
Art Morgan – Thursday Night Church
September 30, 1999