Pentecost
XV 2005
Christ Church
Morningside
Called to be Burning Bushes
In the name of God our creator, our lover and our life AMEN
Today is a day of beginnings and endings: it’s a beginning for Amelia as she joins the Christ Church family through her baptism; it’s an ending for me as I say goodbye to the Christ Church family – for the time being at least.
What can I say today? How can I do these events justice?
Well, I find that I do have something I want to share with you for my last Sunday and for Amelia’s baptism. It’s something that struck me as I was preparing for today and it comes from the Old Testament lesson which Alan very kindly read to us this morning.
The OT reading, if you remember was the story of Moses walking in the wilderness with his flock of sheep and suddenly coming upon a bush which appears to be burning, but is neither consumed nor destroyed. We know the story well. A perfectly ordinary desert bush suddenly becomes ablaze with a fierce and holy fire. From its core comes a voice which Moses recognises as the voice of God saying: ‘Take off your shoes, the ground on which you stand is HOLY GROUND’ This is the beginning of Moses’ call from God.
The image that has stayed with me is that of the burning bush. I think this is partly because I associate the phrase ’Holy Ground’ with our own community here at Holy Corner. This may seem a little strange, indeed a little inflated, but there is a reason. A few years ago, the clergy and staff from the Holy Corner churches all went off for an away day to Carberry Towers, to reflect together on the mission of our churches here in our community. We did some brainstorming and in the course of it I came up with the phrase – holy corner/holy ground. I rather liked the phrase in fact I was rather proud of it, but Andrew Rollinson, then pastor of Morningside Baptist church was horrified! He thought I was saying that because there are churches in Holy Corner it is somehow especially holy. And he knew that was very dubious theology. Actually I was saying the opposite: I was saying that the ground at Holy Corner is very ordinary just as the bush that was burning in the OT story was a very ordinary bush, and indeed as Moses, in the beginning at least, was a very ordinary person. They were not special, but God entered the bush and it was transformed and through the transformed bush Moses heard the voice of God and he was transformed.
The ground at Holy Corner is ordinary ground, the people of Holy Corner Community are ordinary people, the congregation of Christ Church is an ordinary congregation, but if God enters the community and the church and the people they will be transformed and through them people will hear the voice of God. And that is the message I would like to give today: I believe that Christ Church and the people of Holy Corner Christian Community are called to become burning bushes – epiphanies, manifestations of God’s love in a community that is crying out for meaning and the sacred – crying out for God.
Let me put this another way. I wonder if anybody here has read the book– An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan? I read it a few years back and was particularly struck by the story of the oranges. If you remember Keenan was one of the hostages who was taken prisoner about ten years ago by a radical Islamic group along with Terry Waite and John McCarthy. The story of the oranges comes when Keenan has been in isolation for about a year and a half and is desperate. His days are utterly desolating in their monotony – the cell is grey, the weather is grey, his clothes are grey – even his food is grey –pitta bread, humus and water, day in, day out. He is weak and utterly defeated and he feels he cannot go on – he will die. He looks up one day to see the food tray being pushed through the hatch and there on the tray is a bowl - of oranges! Oranges! Oranges! He is transfixed. He has never seen anything so beautiful. The colour is beyond description. Suddenly, orange has burst into his world of grey and it changes his life. He cannot eat the fruit – it is too precious - he just keeps the bowl in his room and contemplates its beauty. From the colour alone, he begins to believe that there is hope and purpose and meaning in life after all and slowly he comes out of his depression and regains his strength.Now it seems to me that the bowl of oranges was like a burning bush, an epiphany, if you will, pointing to the presence of God in all things.
I wonder how many of you remember Elizabeth Templeton speaking here about six years ago about her experience once on a bus in Glasgow. She was sitting quietly minding her own business when suddenly three very ordinary and rather scruffy people across the aisle were totally transformed before her into radiant and utterly precious children of God. She felt she was seeing them with God’s eyes and they were beautiful – like angels. Elizabeth is not a fanciful woman and the experience only lasted a few seconds, but it changed her forever.
That was a burning bush moment. The most ordinary things become extraordinary through the power of the Holy Spirit. The most simple people and events become miraculous and full of grace, if we have the eyes to see.
As the poet says:
The angels keep their ancient places;–
Turn but a stone and start a wing!
‘Tis ye, ‘tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.
God transforms the everyday in a way that is breathtaking. Take Amelia, for instance, on the one hand an ordinary little girl ready to be baptised, but on the other an utterly miraculous child of God, as is Charles, her brother, as are we all - made infinitely beautiful by God’s passionate love for us. Our baptism is a moment when God breaks through. It is a burning bush moment when God breaks into the ordinary and makes it transcendent, sacred, holy.
I have had many burning bush moments here in Christ Church. I have been moved to tears by the privilege of sharing deep times with people, I have been humbled by stories of courage and perseverance, I have been inspired by the sheer creativity and giftedness of this congregation – the festival exhibition alone shows something of that. Here during the festival we have had a colourful and vibrant presence, showing that being a Christian and being creative are not totally incompatible, despite what some people think! I have had so many burning bush moments here at that I can’t possible share them all.
How is it that we become burning bushes? The gospel reading today challenged us to take up our crosses and follow Christ, to live for God and not for ourselves. I am sure that is how we become burning bushes – we give ourselves up to God, we let ourselves become aflame with God and let God speak through us, through our gifts. We each have a calling to be used by God in different ways. I seem to be called away from Christ Church just now and you are beginning to discern your calling afresh with Simon as your rector. I will be fascinated to see how you are led, but I am sure it will be something to do with being radiant followers of Christ.
Let me share one last image – the spectacular garden that we now have at the front of Christ Church. Where once there was grey soil, now there is a riot of colour; where once there was desert now there are blossoms; where once there was a community of shopkeepers, now there are people who share with each other their delight in the growth of the plants which they themselves have given to Christ Church garden. There is no doubt that it has been incredibly hard work and I hope that in time more people will share the actual digging, but I think the garden is a real symbol of what I believe Christ Church is called to be. In a world that is too often harassed and dreary and drab and afraid, I believe that Christ Church is called to be a burning bush, a bowl of oranges, a window into God’s creativity and colour and beauty and love. Amen
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28th August 2005