Exodus 3:1-22 God of the Margins
Have you ever noticed where the control room in Space Ship movies are? They are always right at the centre of the spaceship. Have you noticed how any name with the word “centre” in it sounds catchy? Like “Central Bank” or “City Centre Church”? Think back to when you were at the proverbial “centre of attention”? Admit it…it felt great! We love being in the centre. The centre in our minds, is a place of power and influence. If you can get to the centre, you can even reach people at the margins, the thinking goes. So many stories tell us of people at the centre and how what they do there reaches the fringes and the edges.
The Bible tells quite a different story if you think about it. Yes, in the creation narrative God is described as being in the center of all the Universe. But when it comes to Him revealing Himself and dealing with humankind, He seems to do so not from the center to the margins but from the margins to the center.
The biblical examples of this are to numerous to mention, but let me name a few. God choses a marginal people group, Israel, to spread his hope to the whole world. He calls Abraham in Ur. Ur was a marginal place. He calls Jacob at a place that is so marginal that it didn’t even have a name at the time and at a stage where he himself is a cast out, marginal kind of figure. He sends Jonah to what was a marginal place in his mind. He works through Ruth, an immigrant, a woman on the margins of society. Jesus’s story does not start in Jerusalem, the centre, but in Bethlehem in a region considered the armpit of the region and it only ends in Jerusalem where Jesus by the way got condemned and rejected by the centre to be crucified outside. God in his actions on earth doesn’t seem to be as much into the centre as we are or at least his trajectory seems to be preferably from the margins to the centre rather than the other way around. Maybe if we follow Him, it implies that our lives takes on a similar trajectory.
Now with this in mind, let us look at Moses’s story. From last week’s passage about baby Moses you will recall that although Moses was a Levite targeted and marginal in power, he became the centre of attention at an incredibly young age. Not only of his mother but also of Pharaoh’ s daughter and by that notion of Egypt as a prince. The very fact that he is privileged and in the public eye lands him in trouble, because when he kills an Egyptian in a fit of rage, it doesn’t go unnoticed and he soon has to flee for his life. He now once more ends up at the margins. He herds a flock in a dessert. Forgotten. Marginal.
Chapter 3 tells of a special event in his life. The moment when God first reveals Himself and his plan to Moses. And where exactly does this happen? When the already marginalised Moses finds himself at the “far edge of the dessert” according to verse 1. God meets and reveals himself to a marginalized man at the very edge of a dessert!
To most of us being edged out and marginalized is not a pleasant experience. Most of us don’t see it as an opportunity to meet God. Most of us do not wander into the margins voluntarily and when our journey takes us there, we try and escape it as quickly as we can. Maybe we shouldn’t do that. Maybe we should learn from Moses what God does when we find ourselves at the margins and adjust accordingly…
God is found in the ordinary at the margins
When I read about the burning bush, I cannot help but think that Moses had it easy. Many times, when I faced tough decisions about the direction my life should take, I longed for a burning bush or two to show me the way. When I came to City Centre Church for the first time to preach, I actually prayed that God will set alight a bush or two if he wants me here. All I saw was a Fire Hall across the street ensuring that no bush will burn for long! 😊On a more serious note, when we read this we get so hung up on the supernatural and the extraordinary that we miss how much about this was ordinary. Let me explain…
In an arid climate burning bushes wasn’t such an extraordinary thing. Bushes were sometimes very dry, easily set alight by lightning and some speculate even by volcanoes as Horeb had an active volcano. Shepherds like Moses made fires with dry bushes to cook and for protection and often left them abandoned as there was no danger of a forest fire in a dessert. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say that Moses probably saw burning bushes on a daily basis. It simply wasn’t an extra ordinary occurrence. So, what happened here is that Moses paid attention and saw something extraordinary in an ordinary occurrence. A burning bush not being consumed by the flames. It is only when Moses noticed this and approached that God spoke to him.
What does this tell us about God? That He reveals himself when we notice Him doing extraordinary things through ordinary everyday events. There are burning bushes all around you every day. Things through which God does amazing things and long-lasting things; ordinary as they are. We walk past them often without noticing. But when we find ourselves at the edges or marginalized it has this way to focus our attention on these things which leads to a deepened sense of awe and insight into God.
Many people found themselves forced to the margins with Covid. They were unable to go where they usually go. Suddenly people reconnected with their children and realized anew what wonderful gifts from God they were. Suddenly people experienced God talking with them about the direction of their lives through something as simple as a hike through nature. Suddenly people experienced not only that God got them through this but gave them a deeper understanding of what life is all about.
So, if you are hungry for God, visit the margins. It could be to visit a park you haven’t been to for a long time and watch a mother loving her child. It could be to serve a meal at a shelter. It might be to read something you have never read before and gain a different perspective or to chat with someone you would ordinarily just walk past. God reveals himself at the margins to people at the margins through marginal people and events because often our perception of the margins is the very centre of God’s attention and object of his love.
God calls for the response of pause and taking off shoes at the margins.
Our immediate connotation with Moses taking off his shoes is that of reverence. Like when you are visiting a mosque or even some churches. Or maybe it is in your mind communicating respect for the people who need to clean the floor. Did you know that in the ancient near east the connotation wasn’t these things primarily? Taking off your shoes was a thing you did only at your own house or at the house of a host that invited you and invited you to do so. It communicated that you trusted the host because taking off your shoes put you in a vulnerable and exposed position. You could not run away easily if you got attacked with your shoes off. Also, your feet were dirty and smelly, so you kind of exposed yourself by taking off your shoes. It put you into intimate contact with the host and his dwelling.
So, if God instruct Moses to respond by taking off his shoes, God invites him into his inner circle, his household. God communicates that he takes Moses under his protection and that Moses have the acceptance and love to expose himself to God. That even though He that is God is too much to be taken in and Moses should keep his distance, he can enjoy an intimate relationship with him. Indeed, it is later said that Moses spoke with God like a man would with his friend.
So what would be a good way to respond if you spot God’s presence in something ordinary? With the correct posture. That of a guest thankful for the generosity of the host. One trusting the host for protection. One feeling cared for enough to not hide anything from your host. One willing to go towards deeper intimacy with the host and what is precious to him.
What even made this place holy? One couldn’t say it was Holy because was there because God is omnipresent so then every place is holy (and maybe it is how we should see every place). But God pronounced it Holy because Moses became aware of his presence and responded with the right posture to it. In Afrikaans there is a saying, mostly used by grandmothers which, if translated, means: “Be aware of that place, its an unholy (onheilige) place. If we understand the gospel correctly, we should warn our children not to go to holy places…we should commission them to go to unholy places with an eye out for God there and a posture of being hosted by him. That will quickly turn that unholy place into a holy one.
I remember being a student and working a vacation job in the UK. One day me and another bloke had to unload a huge truck stacked with boxes. There is nothing paler and more uninteresting than the back of a big truck stacked with boxes but suddenly me and this guy struck up a very deep conversation about God and the meaning of life. Gradually that truck turned into a temple. Because we became aware, acknowledged and responded to the fact that God was right there with us in that truck! Whalley isn’t an unholy or a lost place. It is a place where there are people aware of God being at work, noticing it and responding to it with gratitude. Be one of those people if you are not already!
God signals late(r) when meeting us in the margins
Don’t you detest it when you are waiting to turn at an intersection and a car approaches and then only at the last moment or sometimes even after its turn it signals? There are so many things in this story that is usually preached about, but I have heard no sermon on God signalling too late. And He does that in verse 12. Moses asked who he is to speak to and be listened to by the Pharaoh. And then God doesn’t say: “Here is a sign”. He says, this will be the sign…somewhere in the future you will pray with others here because I will be with you. God seems to signal too late for our liking.
Moses’s sign, God’s answer to him is that the leader of Egypt should listen to him, is a simple ”I will be with you” and a promise for the future. You see Moses just received a sign. If you get many signs you essentially get a map or a blueprint of sorts. But God does not give us maps. He does not want us to become dependant on maps but focused on our relationship with him. God gives us a compass rather than a map. He points the direction into which we should go and then wait for us to follow Him in that direction in faith before he gives us another pointer. It must have been beyond what Moses thought possible… that he could free the people from Egypt and then lead them into worshipping God at Horeb. There were one thousand unknowns between where he was now and the destination God pointed him to.
When last did you get into a car without knowing or worrying how you will get there? I tell you. When you were a child trusting the father, who was with you and controlling the car. Or maybe more recently when you trusted the uber driver who drives and knows the city streets better than you do. We can only follow God in faith if we trust Him. If we even allow Him to choose the end destination.
Everywhere I have been I have met people of faith that are hung up about signs. They claim to receive special verses from the Word, they see signs in nature and politics. They get special prophecies from acclaimed speakers. Who am I to question that those were really from God? But what I sometimes miss in the very people who get all these signs is movement towards the direction in which they point. It’s like its all about signs for them. As if the signs are the purpose. Signs only serve a function if you move towards the direction to which they point.
You don’t need to know all the details, all the detours and stops along they way. You only need to know the one travelling with you, that He is trustworthy and heading with you to somewhere great and worthwhile. That is the journey of faith.
If you told me a year ago that we will prepare and ship over 20000 meals to the less fortunate from here, I either would have laughed or run! A map makes things predictable. A compass makes things exciting and turns it into an adventure!
Close
Today’s message, I think, is first and foremost for people feeling marginalized and sidelined. We all feel like that sometimes. To them it says, God is with you! God hasn’t given up on you. God starts doing great things at the margin through people that have been marginalized. Because you are included in God’s grace you are never quite as excluded as life or other people makes you feel at times.
But maybe today’s message is also for the non marginalized. People who feel they have finally reached the place they wanted to be. People in powerful positions or in a season of profit. We all also feel like we are on top or in the centre of what we liked. To them this says, don’t forget the margins. Don’t get hung up on the centre because it is not the only place God is to be found. It can easily become the place where you forget to take notice of God and what truly matters. Make sure that what you do and say is also good to those at the margins.
When Jesus was edged out of the centre of power and honor, he was crucified, ironically in the centre, in between two criminals. But while being edged out to the margins of society, He was still dead centre in God’s will including people edged out because of their sins, because of the sins of others.
On the screen is a picture of a van Gogh painting called the patato eaters. He drew it from memory of the time when he was an evangelist in a very poor coal mining community in Belguim.
Van Gogh, saw the coal miners on the edge even though everybody else overlooked them. God sees you.
Life’s edge could be God’s centre of gravity and grace.
Amen