By Lilly Lewin
This past Sunday, the Old Testament reading was about the Burning Bush and Moses. Moses was minding his own business, just being a shepherd for his father-in-law when he notices a bush that is on fire but not burning up from the flames. Moses turns to investigate this oddity and God takes notice of Moses turning to look. God calls out to Moses to take off his shoes because he is now on Holy Ground. Then Moses finds out that this Burning Bush is a signal flare of a new assignment from God. Moses doesn’t just get to escape his past or enjoy “retirement” in the desert, but instead, he has a new calling. Moses gets invited by God into a new adventure that wasn’t what Moses had planned, it wasn’t even on his radar. Moses is told by God that he is being sent back to Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of their slavery and suffering! And he won’t get confirmation that this is really God doing all this until after it’s done! I think I might want to put back on my shoes and run for the hills. Moses knows Egypt and all the risks of this BIG ASK OF GOD! Moses knows this isn’t going to be easy. But rather than running back to the sheep, Moses just asks God, “Why Me?” and “How do I introduce you when they ask your name?”
How do you introduce God to other people? What do you want them to know about God so that they believe?
Have you ever been in the middle of something just to have everything change? Have you ever said, ” Wait a minute God! Why Me?” What did God say in response?
Burning Bush Quote
READ THE PASSAGE HERE: EXODUS 3
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER and Journal from this week: Feel free to use these passages and respond in writing, art, collage, or poetry some time this week.
What is God speaking to you about TODAY as you read this passage? Take time to read it again, use different translations to hear it in fresh ways.
What do you notice that you haven’t noticed before?
What questions do you have? What questions come up as your read the passage? Talk to Jesus about them.
- What sign does Jesus/God use to get your attention? What things does Jesus use to remind you he is near?
- What Burning Bush has been burning for a long time but you haven’t taken the time to stop and notice?
- We too often don’t see the Burning Bush, or hear from God, because we aren’t paying attention or taking the time to notice… What will help you stop, notice and take off your shoes on Holy Ground?
- What excuses are you making that you are “not right” for the vision/job/mission/task God has for you?
- How does it feel to know that God is listening to the oppressed and hears their cries? Who are the oppressed you are praying for these days? How can you help end their suffering and oppression? Take time to ask God about this. Take time to pray for the oppressed and suffering, and those still in slavery.
1F231FD5 726A 4DDD A005 EC9595B9D7A0
ACTION:
DRAW or create a burning bush to remind you of your calling from God!
PRACTICE GRATITUDE: Take time to thank God for your call, your mission, your gifts and talents. Even in the midst of everything, take time to be thankful and practice gratitude for the gifts you’ve been given.
READ and mediate on Romans 12:9-21 this week. How is Jesus inviting you to respond?
WATCH for Burning Bushes… ways that God wants to get your attention this week. What does Jesus use to speak to you? Birds? Sunsets? Clouds? Flowers? Rainbows? What else? Pay attention! Take the time to notice!
REMEMBER: The God of Abraham and Isaac, Sarah and Rebekah, The I AM that I AM is with you today and everyday and will be with you wherever you go! AMEN
MAIN PHOTO: Burning Bush Installation by Beyond Church Brighton at the Greenbelt Festival in England.
by Laurie Klein, guest writer
I repurpose bird cages as garden sculpture, tuck them among perennials like miniature cottages in a country village: a personal peaceable kingdom. Last month, I discovered a small finch flailing behind the bars.
Bindweed had snaked through the cage, obstructing the door. My efforts to tear it away propelled the bird upward. Its delicate head jammed in the roof. The removable base wouldn’t budge. A few sharp blows with a rock shattered the plastic foundation, but the bird clung to the topmost wires limp as a sock. Praying, I slowly righted the cage. By God’s grace and the silent, reliable force of gravity, the captive eventually fluttered free.
Left with the wreckage, I exhaled, feeling grateful for God’s timing. Then guilty. Some years ago, another bird had forced its way into the same cage. After releasing it, I had carried out a cosmetic fix, straightening bent wires and afterward assuming the issue resolved. Rather than disturb the small house in its naturalized location, I’d left the cage in place.
Metaphorically, these two incidents and my cavalier attitude, which allowed them to occur, painfully echo assumptions recently brought to my attention, assumptions I’ve made about race, which are currently being exposed as I listen to impassioned voices raised in support of Black Lives Matter.
My unquestioned foundation of lifelong privilege requires a shattering blow. Ingrained bias has seeped in, over time, unknowingly absorbed.
As a Christian I espouse equality for all, but like the cage, I am part of a structure that imperils others.
Grieved by my complicity, I also feel helpless to change anything. I relate to the bird scrabbling for footing. I am looking to God for direction. Meanwhile, I want my blind spots exposed so that I can lament and confess them, receive forgiveness, then act as the Holy Spirit directs.
Like the network of cages in my garden, I can no longer leave unattended the ingrown, existing system.
To further educate myself I’m reading poetry by African Americans and taking diversity courses online (see links below). The roots of bias go deep in me; I will need ongoing help.
Hopefully if I witness an officer of the law in questionable conflict with a person of color, I will emulate the woman I recently read about who left her vehicle with her cell phone set to “record,” and then respectfully yet firmly appealed to the officer.
For now, I’m leaving the bottomless birdcage in the flower bed. It nestles on its side amid the perennials alongside a stone on which I’ve penned two words, in Latin: Nota bene, or “note well.” You’d likely recognize its accompanying visual symbol, called a manicule: a pointing hand (☞), index finger extended, indicating something crucial.
I’m also noting well the Old Testament story where Jacob encounters God in the great outdoors. Having terribly wronged his brother, Jacob knows he must make things right. That night he dreams God promises to watch over him and bless all the people of the earth through his life. Next morning Jacob sets up a stone for an altar, commemorating the place of God’s revelation and promise of aid.
In a similar way, my broken bird cage and Nota bene stone form a temporary altar. A small, if battered, symbol pointing me toward God’s peaceable kingdom.
Read Jacobs’s story here: Genesis 27:1-28:22.
Resources that are helping me recognize where and how I need to change:
- Semicolon, the Chicago-based black woman-owned bookstore and gallery. To support Semicolon, please purchase your books through https://bookshop.org/shop/
Semicolonchi. - White Fragility, by Robin Diangelo
- “21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge”
- Poem-a-Day: featuring black poets through August 31: Sample poem
- Honeyfish, poetry by Lauren K. Alleyne
- Monument, poetry by Natasha Tretheway
- Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, poetry by Ross Gay
Laurie Klein, photo credit: Dean Davis Photography
Laurie Klein is the author of the classic praise chorus, “I Love You, Lord,” a poetry collection, Where the Sky Opens, and an award-winning chapbook, Bodies of Water, Bodies of Flesh. A grateful recipient of the Thomas Merton Prize for Poetry of the Sacred, she lives in Washington State, USA, and blogs monthly at lauriekleinscribe.com.
by Emily Huff
For the 9th year in a row, we hosted our Blessing of the Backpacks, but this year, we hosted it social distanced style. Families were able to come over sometime in a two-hour window and pick up the blessing in a basket along with an ice cream sandwich to enjoy.
We hope this helps students have a fun start to this school year, and as they go to school (be it online or in person), we want them to know that their neighborhood loves them and will be praying for them.
Blessing of the Backpacks from 2012-2019
Blessing of the Backpacks 2020
Adapted from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Knoxville, TN and saltproject.org backpack blessings
~~~~
All photos by Emily Huff, used with permission.
~~~~
For other Back to School resources, see our Back to School section in the Seasons & Blessings page
by Tom Sine
In 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, Dwight J. Friesen and I provide Christian leaders with essential resources for life-planning and change-making in the turbulent 2020s.
We show Christian leaders three new vital practices for times like these and how to adapt the first two vital practices that are essential to the work of environmental, urban planners and business innovators in this time of accelerating change. First, we show Christian leaders, and those they work with, how to anticipate some of the incoming waves of change (before they start planning), so they have lead-time to respond. Secondly, we show Christian leaders how to broadly research innovative ways to respond to the incoming waves to expand their range of options. Finally, we encourage Christian leaders to select those innovative options that most authentically reflect the ways of Jesus.
As you will see, 2020s Foresight will enable you, and those you work with, to not only go on a quick tour of some of the waves of change you and others are likely to encounter in the turbulent 2020s, Tom and Dwight will also take you on a tour of those remarkable innovators who are already finding ways to create their best lives, communities, neighborhoods and churches for times like these.
Best of all, this book is designed as a study book for use in churches, campus ministry groups, colleges and seminaries. Tom and Dwight are often available to do Zoom visits if you and your study group contact us ahead of time. Email Tom or Dwight.
Finally, check out my weekly blog posts at NewChangemakers. I would like to share some of your new innovative expressions with others who are going for their best in these tough times.
Celebrating hope and imagination in turbulent times like these!
~Order now!~
2020s Foresight released today!
by Rowan Wyatt
As a Celtic Christian and a member of the Community of St. Aidan and St. Hilda I revere Aidan and his works. I revere his way of being and hold him in admiration for all he achieved in his lifetime.
Here I want to focus on his way of being with the people, on his way of spreading the Gospel whilst amongst them and how this way of being should be core in our lives and faith journeys today. In fact, I would go as far as to say in this uncertain, unpredictable time that it should be an essential practice.
St. Aidan was known as a man of the people, he was respected as being one who would talk to everyone as equals, status was not something that concerned him or got in his way for he would speak and spent time with the lowliest peasant or the highest of Lords. He spoke to and with the people not at them, he taught the people, rather than ‘educating’ them, and he did it all with a heart of love and compassion and a soul full of wisdom and understanding.
In these rather strange times we are living in isn’t Aidan’s example be something we should be following? Loneliness, despair, solitude, and indifference are modern-day problems of large proportions. Suicide numbers, especially amongst men, are rising. Working hours are rising along with decreased job security, hand in hand with financial instability. We need each other more than ever now.
As Aidan went amongst the people so should we. I am not suggesting that we go on a public soapbox for in these modern days I am quite sure that is counterproductive, no I suggest we should be going amongst others and get to know them. Talk to them, come alongside them, befriend them.
People are desperate for community, they are longing to be heard, to be accompanied, to be supported, but we also have a need to be there for others. We will never grow in the Gospel we are preaching if we do not listen to one another, and be there for them in their times of need. Nor will that Good News seem of any relevance if we are not living it out ourselves.
Likewise, people need to trust us and respect us, as they did Aidan and his friend Hilda, if we are going to earn the right to speak about our faith with them. An egalitarian, honouring approach, where we see ourselves as “the least of these,” is very much needed in these times, perhaps especially amongst younger people, who view authority figures and religion as things to distrust. We need to humble ourselves and earn the right to speak by first and always acting out of Christ’s love. That way, instead of preaching at people, we shall always be simply speaking amongst friends.
by Christine Sine
This last week my discernment process has been sorely tested and I decided to share not just my testing but the vulnerability it raised and the healing it has brought within me. I hope that it will help you to face the hurts within you that restrict you from becoming the person god intends you to be.
I posted a link to Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention on Facebook, and was overwhelmed by the derogatory comments that ensued. I don’t expect people to agree with me, but I do expect them to be respectful. The conversation soon degenerated into one about abortion and birth control. What really sent me over the edge was when someone commented “if women would just get their sex drive under control everything would be OK”.
On the surface, what really upset me was the lack of recognition of how male domination restricts women’s choices even today, and of how men love to blame women for their own failings.
I soon realized, however, that my response was far more than a reaction to the comments. It really revolved around some deeper issues that I needed to deal with myself. So I found myself returning to the process I outlined last week for help.
What Was I Having Trouble Naming?
What I was having trouble naming was the scars of male domination, beginning with my father’s domination of my mother and myself. As I grew into adulthood, and entered a male dominated world, there was the added shame of times in the past that I was left feeling dirty and violated. In my vulnerability, there were times that I almost succumbed to sexual advances because my job was at stake. Thank God for the strength of divine presence that made it possible for me to avoid these situations. You were there, God, protecting me in the midst of these violations, and though I still bear the scars, you have covered them with your healing balm.
I also have trouble naming the times I struggled to be the person God called me to be in the face of a male dominated world. Like the times I was told I was more like a man than a woman and wanted to run away and hide. There were other times I was told I could not lead because of my gender, or was rejected as a mate because of my leadership skills and intelligence. Sometimes I was silent when I should have spoken out. At others I spoke out of anger rather than love.
How Does This Lack of Self Awareness Make Me Vulnerable?
These scars from the past sometimes mean that I am tempted to walk down paths that are not of God’s choosing. Sometimes I want to walk the path of least resistance without really understanding why. Thank God for the strength and resilience that have built up within me as God has slowly peeled away the layers of hurt and anointed the scars with that healing balm.
Follow the Stirrings – Maintain Your Freedom.
In the midst of my struggles, I hear God say “I am proud of you. I chose you and I formed you in your mother’s womb with the strength and resilience for the job I prepared you for. You have not just survived, you have thrived and become a model for others to follow.”
Then I hear the echo of a young medic in the refugee camps in Thailand, “My prayer is that my daughters will have the same freedom that you have.” God has granted me incredible freedom and I need to embrace it and to do all I can to model it for others.
As I reflect on all of this, I see Jesus who responded in the exact opposite spirit, not dominating but releasing women. I hear him say “I am not like that. See how I treated my mother and the women that followed me. Don’t let your joy be stolen by those who are imprisoned in their bigotry and narrow mindedness. I have set you free. Live into that freedom.”
I wonder if the way Jesus treated women was in part a reflection of how his earthly father, Joseph, treated his mother. Such respect for Mary and the child she carried that was not his own, when he could have discarded them like Abraham discarded Hagar and Ishmael. So much love to protect you both when the world would have thrown you away.
We often talk about how God chose Mary but rarely think about how and why God chose Joseph. He must have been a man of great love and integrity and I claim that love and integrity as a model I can cherish in my heart. It heals me, and strengthens me.
Out of my reflections came this poem which is written as though Jesus is speaking the words:
In the midst of your whirling thoughts,
Do you feel my pain?
Is your distracted focus
The agony of my heart
For women oppressed
By men with no respect?
Do you hear the cries
Of those who are abused
Forced and then abandoned
To bear the guilt
And hatred of society?
My heart aches,
As my father Joseph
Ached for my mother Mary,
Accused and blamed
Without reason or understanding.
In his love,
He reached out with embrace
And not accusation.
Loving caring, protecting
Until the wonder of God
Was birthed through her.
Christine Sine August 2020
I chose the photo above because I wanted to express my awareness of the fact that we do not stand alone in our struggles and our vulnerabilities. A loving spouse, close friends and community members have all been instruments of God’s healing for me. I hope that you can say the same.
So my question for you today is: What do you have trouble naming and how is it restricting you from becoming the person God intends you to be?
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taizé for the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost from St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle. Enjoy.
Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below.
“‘Tis a Gift to Be Simple” – Traditional Shaker folk song – words and music from the American Shaker tradition, public domain.
“Magnificat” – “My soul magnifies the Lord…” — The song of Mary, from the Gospel of Luke. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“The Law of God is Love” – Text and music by Kester Limner, composed June 2020, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY)
“Kyrie for July 5” – Music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers, text by Kester Limner. Shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“In the Lord” – Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé. www.saintandrewsseattle.org
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!