In Sinai, Egypt, at
the Monastery of St. Catherine, sits a modest little room behind the basilica
of the monastery: The Chapel of the Burning Bush. According to tradition, underneath
the chapel are the roots of the bush that was blazing yet was not consumed. A short
distance from the Chapel itself is the bush. The monks at St. Catherine
transplanted the bush some time in 300 C.E. The variety is called Rubus Sanctus.
(For those of you unfamiliar with botanical Latin, this translates as “sacred
or holy rose.”) In it’s transplanted state it is still growing. It’s a member
of the same species as blackberries and raspberries although today this bush
bears neither flowers nor fruit. This particular species is extremely hardy,
lives a long time, and is native to the region. All of which may be evidence to
the reality of the bush’s location, and perhaps even its origin.
Whether or not this
bush is the real burning bush Moses saw is not so much the question. Instead,
some of the questions might be these. What bushes are burning around us? Are we
so involved in our own worries about consumption we don’t recognize what is
blazing and yet is not consumed? Have we failed to pay attention to what is
burning yet is not consumed?
Rabbi Harold Kushner says the burning bush is about paying
attention. He wrote, “The
"burning bush" was not a miracle. It was a test. God wanted to find
out whether or not Moses could pay attention to something for more than a few
minutes. When Moses did, God spoke. The trick is to pay attention to what is
going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep.”[1]
Most of us know a
lot about things being consumed. We’re known as “consumers” in this country. We
hear about “consumer goods” and “consumables.” We “consume” our food. We
“consume” land and other natural resources. Yes, we know a lot about consuming
and using up and running out.
We also know a lot
about not paying attention. Failing to pay attention is a way of ignoring what
is going on around us. It’s way to say I’ll just ignore this and it will go
away. Or, if I pretend I don’t see this, it doesn’t exist.
The burning bush
was Moses’ wake up call. “Moses, pay attention. Something important and holy is
going on here.”
What is our wake up
call? Are we really listening and looking at those things around us that are
burning and are not consumed?
In the church we often
suffer from profound disbelief in our own stories. We live from day to day in a
scarcity mode when all around us bushes are burning and are never consumed. God
is continually calling us to be partners in renewing and making new and we are
seldom awake enough to say, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight,
and see why the bush is not burned up.”[2]
Instead we live in
a world that ignores our own faith stories, that turns away from the “Rubus Sanctus,”
the sacred rose that blazes and that is not consumed.
In the church, we
say things like this when we ignore the burning bush and God’s presence. “No. I
do not see a flame. No, we cannot spend money because we might not have enough
later. No, we cannot try something new because we might fail. No, this is not
the time.” No. No. No. No. We are very good at saying no.
Yet all around us
God is saying yes! God lights up our world with Rubus Sanctus, with sacred
roses, roses that burn and are not consumed, and we fail to pay attention.
Evidently the monks
at St. Catherine in the Sinai have paid attention. One of the more unusual
features of the monastery is a
mosque. The mosque was originally built in the 6th century as a hospice for
pilgrims. In 1106 C.E. it was converted to a mosque for the use of local Bedouin
people, some of whom work at the
monastery.
God will not be
confined. God will be who God will be, “I am who I am,” is the answer Moses
heard. And that is the God we hear if we will, like Moses, pause long enough to
pay attention.
This is the God who
causes a bush to blaze and yet not be consumed. This is the God who calls us
when we pay attention and step aside to look at the Rubus Sanctus, the sacred
rose that is never consumed. And, this is the God who asks us to step out in
faith as God remakes and refashions us into the people and place God intends us
to be. This is the God who is who God is. This is the God who says, “Pay
attention!” Take off your shoes; this is holy ground! AMEN.
The
Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017
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