MF07 Ash Wednesday Meditation

READING : Exodus 3. 1-12

The wilderness can be a scary place, but it is a place shot through with significance for followers of the living God. Here in today’s reading Moses, tending Jethro’s sheep, comes to Horeb (Sinai), the mountain of the living God. He turns aside to see the great sight of a bush which is ablaze with fire, yet is not burned up. He finds himself standing on holy ground, encountering the God who lives, who calls him to deliver his people from the bondage of Pharaoh.

Years later those people in pilgrimage through the wilderness come to Sinai again. Moses goes up the mountain and again encounters the living God, who this time calls the people into a covenant relationship based on the ten commandments of the Law.

Jesus’  pattern also was to withdraw himself regularly from the crowds in order to meet with God in a lonely place, to find holy ground where he might listen to his Father’s voice.

Some years ago an American Franciscan sister, Joan Puls, wrote a book with the insightful title Every Bush is Burning. Taking the concept of the burning bush she challenged us to see every person, every relationship, every event, and every space as a place where the living God is present. Holy ground is found not only in desert wilderness. God encounters us in all of life, and every place is made holy by the presence of God.

As we embark upon our Lenten pilgrimage in 2005, may we look for God in the bustle of life as well as in the quiet spaces. Let us allow God to burn in us, and may we burn as witnesses for the One who lives.

A question for reflection :  Where in my life do I encounter the living God? And how may I encounter God in my relationships with others?

A prayer (adapted from A New Zealand Prayer Book) :  O God, you are the God of sunrise and sunset; of mountains and valleys, grass and scree; of kauri and pine, dolphins and kahawai; of kiwi and sparrow and tui and hawk; of Maori and Pakeha, women and men. May we encounter you afresh in every person and place, and know that the whole world belongs to you, and that we are both the sheep of your hand and your disciples in the journey to which you call us. Amen.