Nashville, Jesus and
Holy Ground
Moses and the burning bush [Exodus 3:1-15]. Moses killed an
Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses is now a fugitive on the run. He is
tending his father-in-law’s flock. A bush is burning but is not consumed. A
voice speaks to him from the burning bush. Moses approaches the bush but the
voice says, “Stop and come no closer. Remove your sandals from your feet for
the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Moses, the fugitive from
the law, is then called to lead an exodus – to lead God’s people out of slavery
in Egypt into new life in a new land. Moses wants to know to whom he is
speaking. In perhaps the single most iconic moment in the Bible the bush
replies, “I am who I am….tell them ‘I am’ has sent me to you.” This is key to
understanding who Jesus is and the entire New Testament.
Jesus repeatedly says to people, “I am….” “I am the true vine,”
“I am the true bread that comes down from heaven,” “I am the way….” Remembering
all this gives the episode with Jesus and Peter make sense[Matthew 16:21-28].
Jesus tells everyone willing to listen that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be
killed and on the third day rise again from the dead. Peter says, in effect,
“No way! God forbid! I just identified you as christos, the Christ, God’s
anointed one, God’s messiah, and now you are saying this? This must never
happen!”
Do we see what happens in that moment? Peter forgets to take
off his shoes. Peter forgets he is standing on Holy Ground? Peter seems to have
no idea that he is talking to “I am.”
This is the great scandal of Christianity – Jesus and the
voice in the bush are one and the same. This has been a scandal from the very
beginning. Peter is not alone. Well meaning Christians, bishops even, are
writing books right now saying, “God forbid! This cannot be! Jesus was just a
man like you and me. Nothing more, nothing less.”
If those who deny our Lord is Lord of all are right we might
as well sleep in on Sunday morning. The only sin greater than idolatry would be
the sin of hubris – excessive pride or arrogance. Peter has it. Peter thinks he
knows better; only he knows what ‘christos’ means; only he knows all about God
and what Jesus describes cannot be God. Those abandoning our experience of
Jesus as God AND Man have this hubris. The Church often has it. Our nation
often has it. And the moment that I identify someone else as having it, I am in
danger of having it. That’s just how pervasive and tricky this hubris business is.
Look at the Church’s history. A long history of
Anti-Semitism, the Inquisition, the Crusades, complicity with slavery, racism -
the list goes on and on, all founded on hubris. And just this week Christians
are faced with something calling itself The Nashville Statement – signed by
over 150 “Evangelical Leaders,” the statement declares, in part, "WE
AFFIRM that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism
and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian
faithfulness and witness. WE DENY that the approval of homosexual immorality or
transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful
Christians should agree to disagree." Talk about hubris. Judging and condemning
whole classes of human beings, despite claiming to follow Jesus who says, in
Luke chapter 6, among other things, "Judge not, and you will not be
judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned."
I agree with Father
James Martin who has responded in part: “I affirm: That LGBT people are
some of the holiest people I know. I deny: That Jesus wants us to judge others,
when he clearly forbade it. I affirm that the Father loves LGBT people, the Son
calls them and the Holy Spirit guides them. I deny nothing about God’s love for
them.”
I believe we are meant to see that the antidote to hubris is
taking off our shoes. We are to honor others, not vilify them. We are to
remember we are standing on Holy Ground. Shoes are a sign of affluence, bare
feet are a sign of humility and solidarity with those Jesus loves, the poor,
the disadvantaged, those who are lonely and isolated due to bigotry and
discrimination of all kinds – most especially discrimination declared In His
Name.
Taking off our shoes begins with believing that this is
God’s world, God’s creation, the earth and everything and everyone therein
(Psalm 124). It means accepting that all people are God’s people. Taking off
our shoes means recognizing that we stand on Holy Ground on this earth, before
God and before one another. Each and every person is holy and also stands on
holy ground. Each speck of dust, each cell, each atom, “every little inch – it’s
holy ground.”
Woody Guthrie wrote this song – a modern-day psalm, really.
Singing it may help to bring us back to an understanding of where we are, which
may help us remember who we are and whose we are. Peter, like Moses before him,
eventually took off his shoes and listened to the Lord. With any luck we may,
like Peter, get back to our rightful places behind Jesus and let him lead us in
the way to life in its fullest. Or, like Moses, against all odds, strive for
justice and peace for all people, leading people out of bondage into freedom –
helping the world to be a place where all people are finally recognized and
accepted as God’s people.
Take off, take off your shoes
This place you’re standing, it’s holy ground
Take off, take off your shoes
The spot you’re standing, its holy ground
These words I heard in my burning bush
This place you’re standing, it’s holy ground
I heard my fiery voice speak to me
This spot you’re standing, it’s holy ground
That spot is holy holy ground
That place you stand it’s holy ground
This place you tread, it’s holy ground
God made this place his holy ground
Take off your shoes and pray
The ground you walk it’s holy ground
Every spot on earth I trapse around
Every spot I walk it’s holy ground
Every spot it’s holy ground
Every little inch it’s holy ground
Every grain of dirt it’s holy ground
Every spot I walk it’s holy ground
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