Our theme this Sunday is Holy Ground. The scripture you just heard is a familiar one: Moses sees a burning bush, God calls to Moses, and tells him to take off his shoes because he's on Holy Ground. It's probably one of the best-known stories in the Bible, besides Christmas and Easter. But have you really thought about it? Where exactly is Holy Ground? Is it only within several steps of a talking, flaming bush that knows your name? No, that would be silly. Holy Ground is wherever the presence of God is. And where is that? Listen to Psalm 139, verses 7-12: “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like day, for darkness is as light to you.” God is everywhere! The heavens, the earth, the oceans, even on a star so far away that there is no number invented yet to describe it. But even that is not the extent of God's presence. 1 Corinthians 4:16 says, “Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's spirit lives within you?” Everything on this earth: every plant, every animal, every person—everything that was, is, and will be—it's all in God's presence! It's all Holy Ground!
I'm not the kind of person who enjoys plugs—getting them or giving them—but the plug made by the National Youth Cabinet for environmentalism makes a lot of sense paired up with this Bible verse. Everything that is in God's presence, which is everything in existence, needs to be honored and revered. That means many of the everyday happenings of this world need to change. No more cutting down the Amazon forests, which not only leads to the endangerment and extinction of hundreds of species, but also greatly reduces the amount of oxygen created by the greenery of the world. No more drilling for oil in places like Alaska, where it endangers the wildlife in the area. No more pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, like we do every time we drive our cars or purchase unnecessary amounts of plastic. So many of the things we do without a second thought are destroying this wonderful earth God gave us. But like I stated earlier, God's presence is not only all around us, but also within us. Admittedly, I find a kind of sick humor in hearing all of the new activities and substances that allegedly cause cancer in humans. Here's a list of some of the most absurd things that apparently cause cancer: Bread, Red meat, Milk, Salt, Vegetables – Seriously, how are you meant to win here? The list continues: Obesity, Growth spurts, Infections, Being tall, for men, and women – This one angered me. How are you meant to do anything about being tall? How does this study actually help prevention? Excuse me while I go and chop off the bottom of my legs. But wait, there's more: Pollution, Hormone replacement therapy, Stress, Bacteria, X-rays, and finally: The Immune system – OK. Now we really are screwed. No, we cannot go without all of the things that harm our body any more than we can go without every single thing that harms the environment. That's a hole we've been digging ourself into for centuries upon centuries. So maybe this plug wasn't exactly the best idea. I mean, sure, we can try to be more environmentally-aware, and try to keep good care of ourselves, but the overall problem can realistically only be reduced, not removed.
There is something entirely different that I got from this Bible verse, something that is actually realistic and even, dare I say it, reasonable. Rewind to the part right before Moses removes his sandals. Verse four, actually. Let me read it again: “When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”” God called to Moses, and Moses said, “Here I am.” We have record in the Bible of God calling to many people. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Isaiah, John the Baptist, the twelve Disciples, Paul, and countless more. All of these people were called by God to do some specific task. But there is no accountable, official record of God speaking aloud to someone in over 2000 years. And in those two millennia, we have slowly forgotten that we too have been called by God. I take you back to Psalm 139, verses 1-4 and 13-16: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise; you discern my thoughts from afar. You You have searched out my path and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord...For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before even one of them came to be.” Did you catch that last part? God knows what will happen every day of our lives, and has known that since before we were born. Our calling has already been written. I find it reassuring, especially as I prepare for college next fall, that whatever I end up doing with my life, be it music or teaching or something completely different, God already knows what it is. I have no choice but to fulfill my calling, because God has already written what will happen each and every day of my life. No matter what I end up doing with my life, no matter how many friends come and go, no matter how many career changes I make, God is there with me, God has always known that I would make that particular decision.
Throughout my life, I have wrestled with the conflicting ideas of predestination and free will. As a young adult, I would like to think that I have complete control over everything that I do, and over everything that happens to me. But that just isn't so. Many of the things that affect us in our lifetime are completely out of our control, say: a friend losing their job, or a relative getting in a car accident. No one could ever blame those things on you, nor could you be blamed for many of the things that happen to you, such as a wildfire that destroys your property, or a sudden illness that sprouted up from nowhere. So the idea of pure free will just doesn't cut it. However, neither does the idea of predestination. I mean, think about it. I'm not sure that I want to worship a God that doesn't just allow, but decides that all of the terrible things in our world today should happen. Poverty, famine, war, plague, genocide; I can't bring myself to believe that God created these atrocities, or that He wills them to continue. So where does that leave us? The drawing board, I think. I used to believe that God had a metaphorical map, looking at every decision laid out, with every option possible, that we would ever encounter, from our birth to our death. That way, He knew every possible outcome of our lives, every combination of decisions, without making the decisions for us. But as I read Psalm 139 again and again, I have convinced myself otherwise. “Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord...All the days ordained for me were written in your book before even one of them came to be.” God knows exactly what we will do, what we will say, before we even do, every second of our lives.
Can you imagine knowing that much? I sure can't. That's being a know-it-all to the nth degree. But that's the thing about God, isn't it? He is completely and absolutely 100% beyond any sliver of our comprehension. He knows all, He sees all. His presence is everywhere on the earth, and above it, and below it. He is in each and every one of us. We cannot even imagine the extent of God. Our world is full of barriers and boundaries. We're surrounded by walls and ceilings every time we're indoors. There are limits to what we can do, to how much we can work, how much we need sleep. There are rules and regulations enforced on every single facet of our lives, from school to work to plain common courtesy. Our own skin is a barrier, keeping our fragile insides from exposure to the rest of existence. Human life is defined by its limits, but God is limitless. He is, in fact, the exact opposite of our existence. We are guaranteed to be imperfect—“all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God”—but God is the definition of perfection. We are small and insignificant, five-foot-ten/140, compared to the vastness of the universe, larger than any number created could ever express. We are single, carbon-based organisms with a relatively short lifespan, in essence, we are nothing; God is everything.
There is a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that spells out how I have come to terms with God, my personal, and very loose, definition of Him, and how I believe He functions. I would like to leave you this morning with an excerpt from that song. “And the sky begins to thunder. I’m filled with awe and wonder, ‘til the only burning question that remains is: who am I? Can I form a single mountain? Take the stars in hand and count them? Can I even take a breath, without God giving it to me? He is first and last, before all that has been, beyond all that will pass. God is God, and I am not. I can only see a part of the picture He’s painting. God is God, and I am man, so I’ll never understand it all. For only God is God.” Amen.
Well, there it is, I hope you enjoyed it. Later y'all!
