Moses and the Burning Bush, part of a fresco in the
Dura-Europas synagogue, in present-day Syria, discovered in 1932, the
last phase of construction dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 C.E. Photo
courtesy of Art in the Christian Tradition, Vanderbilt Divinity Library.
Matthew 16:21-28
Special Agents
Sometimes it almost seems as if
Another person pushes him
To go where he has not yet gone,
Such as the Canaanite, who showed
That she was not some dog, when with
Her grace and wit she took him on;
And now, with Peter's push against
His telling them about his fate,
He pushes even harder back to say
Not only he, but even those
Who follow him should be prepared
Their cross to take - it's now their way.
The heroes of this holy book
Are never fixed, are never still;
They bend, they move, and even Jesus
Bends to do his Father's will.
Scott L. Barton
From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he
must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and
chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.And
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord!
This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind
me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not
on divine things but on human things.”
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my
followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For
those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life
for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole
world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
“For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and
then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are
some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man
coming in his kingdom.”
+ + +
Exodus 3:1-15
When God Notices
So Moses, just a shepherd in the wilderness,
Whose job, to watch for sheep that might be in distress,
Observes an unconsumed, yet burning bush one day,
And does not think it better that he stay away!
Instead, he turns aside to see this bush in flames,
And from the bush, the LORD twice calls out Moses' name
Upon the LORD's observing that this Moses looked!
How strange that Moses does not think his goose is cooked,
But like his forebears, Abraham and Isaac, too,
And Jacob (even Esau!) says words like, "I do."
This Here I am's a sign of danger up ahead,
As if, through thick and thin, the speaker then is wed
To One whose promise not a bed of roses gives,
But rather, presence, if the speaker dares to live
As if this LORD rests not, until oppression ends;
Perhaps, this means, you'll be the one this see-er sends;
He calls himself, to Moses, I AM WHO I AM,
And adds the name, the LORD, the God of Abraham,
The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, too.
And holiness is more than taking off your shoes.
Scott L. Barton
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the
priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb,
the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of
fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not
consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and
see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside
to see, God called to him out of 'the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here
I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for
the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the
God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of
Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people
who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters.
Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the
Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a
land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry
of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians
oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the
Israelites, out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to
Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you;
and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have
brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” But
Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your
ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall
I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you
shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ God also said to
Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your
ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent
me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
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