Sunday Reflection with Canon Robin Gibbons: 23 March 2025

Moses and the Burning Bush, Icon Mount Sinai 12c

Third Sunday of Lent
Year C
Lectionary: 30

1. We stand on Holy Ground

The burning bush found in the Moses story of an encounter with the Most High in the Book of Exodus, is an image much beloved by mystics and iconographers. In later development of the Byzantine theology of Mary the Mother of God, her role as the bearer of the God-Man-Christ as Theotokos, is likened to this fantastic presence of a bush on fire, burning yet unconsumed. So holy is it, that the natural earth and plant itself can hardly contain it, but yet safe in the loving non-destructive presence of the Eternal God. The byzantine tradition's Akathist hymn sung in Great Lent has amongst its many images of Mary, a phrase that catches the imagination. It is of Mary, the unconsumed bearer of the Light from Light, for in one of its stanzas it praises her as the burning bush; "O cause for joy, endow our thoughts with grace that we may cry: Rejoice, O unconsumed bush and shining cloud that overshadows without ceasing the faithful". Maybe some might find this too effusive, too poetic, and yet when placed beside the Exodus tale of Moses seeing God as that unconsuming fire of the bush, it makes sense. It shakes us into a realisation that the God of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac has always travelled with us, and that this Earth is a holy place.

2. Love as the searing fire of God

This image of Moses taking his shoes off before the blazing heat of God, is also a deeply symbolic utterance of love as that divine encounter we shall all be drawn into, a searing fire, that will burn each one of us, yet never destroy us. It is that unbearable pain of love the great mystics knew, but also did not seek, it came from God to them. Like Moses we instinctively know that to look on the living God face to face, is to die consumed by a Beings care that can only really be faced after death in that glory of the resurrection, because unlike anything else in our world, our relationship with the Holy One, cannot withstand the enormity of that encounter. It is the shaking up of the Cosmos, or the complete turning upside down of our all natural laws. We realise that here on this earth, we shall face and begin to know that in God we have our beginning, and we have end to all we know here. Now we can only hold the divine carefully, that is we hold the Christ, who has descended to our level to become as one with us. That is at the heart of Great Lent the renewal and discovery that we too share in the unconsumed fire of the burning bush, that we too are vessels of Christ love.

But there is more, despite the enormity of destruction the human being is wreaking on this world, the selfish ungodly acts politicians and leaders are using to amass power and wealth, yet even they can not withstand what is surely to come, the Moses moment we too will face. Our exodus journey is far from finished. Let us listen to the words of Exodus picking up Moses thoughts about this mysterious bush:

"Why does the bush not burn up?"4When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses! He answered, "Here I am."5God said: Do not come near! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

3. We are to care and be concerned

All this is interesting, but what does it mean for us you might ask? To be honest I have never felt or seen this phenomenon, and though I am sure scientists can give explanations of the phenomenon but not the encounter, the voice, the emotion of the moment, we instinctively realise that this account of the burning bush is about a loving, fearful relationship, difficult to calibrate except by faith. Despite my hesitancy I am also sure, and also I believe, that we all have moments when the sacredness of our earth erupts and disturbs our own space. This is part of being a holy people, consecrated, sealed, redeemed and loved, but it also means we will discover that we too must take off our shoes and hide our face for the holiness of God is just too great for us to stand. Paul reminds us of this truth in his letter to the Corinthians which we hear as our second reading this Sunday, it's pretty blunt, but like signs which warn, it tells us that we are on holy ground, servants of an Earth that is not ours alone, and belongs to the Creator and we need to treat it and life with care : Speaking of the Exodus experience and other events, Paul writes: 'These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall'. ( I Cor 10:11,12) If there is anything Lent should do for us us shake us up out of complacency and false certainty.

4. To stand on holy ground is to know how to repent

In our journey through Great Lent several experiences have been shared with us , to draw us into that purifying love we will share in the joy of the risen Christ of Holy Pascha. We have already had an echo of the atomic heat of the burning bush in the radiation of the Transfiguration, which in turn is a prefigurment of our total transformation in death to become ,like unto God through Christ, Our Good Lord. And this is where we suddenly have to hold on to a deep truth, God is good, and all that will be is for good. Though the gospel today is a warning from Jesus about the wickedness and cruelty inflicted by us on others, it is also a stark examination of conscience. Suffering is here amongst us, cruelty is part of the badlands of human existence, but there is a bigger truth, it is not of God, but it can be used by the Holy One. Christ after all was not excused a cruel death, and felt at his end a desolation that most of us touch at times, but even there he too became the unconsumed burning bush on the dead tree. He calls us to repent, he callsus to know mercy, and realise that the only way we have before us is his.

Yet he tells us of another bush, a fig tree that has produced no fruit : 'cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?'(Lk 13:7) and if we are sensible we can see that as a parable of our own lives, but the Good Lord then goes on to offer us hope:

'He said to him in reply, 'Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.'(Lk 13:8,9) Then , and perhaps this is a greater hope, we might realise that Our Good Lord is helping us see something else. Our personal fig tree is planted on holy ground, cultivated by the tears of the Spirit and the merciful forgiveness of the Lord, in order that we shall become as the burning bush, consumed by the love of Love itself. Amen

Lectio

Isaiah 40:27-31

Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

"My way is hidden from the LORD,

and my right is disregarded by my God"?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

but lthey who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

From the Akathist Hymn

Ode Eight. The Eirmos

The pious youth within the furnace were rescued by the offspring of the Theotokos. He who was Prefigured then has been born on earth, and is gathering the entire universe to sing: Bless the Lord, all his works, and magnify him to the ages.

Most-holy Theotokos, save us.

You received into your womb the Logos: you held in your arms the One who holds all things. With your milk You nourished him who with a nod nourishes the entire universe, O purest maiden, to whom we sing: Bless the Lord all his works, and magnify him to the ages.

Most-holy Theotokos, save us.

The great mystery of your childbirth did Moses perceive within the burning bush. The youth vividly prefigured this, standing in the midst of fire and remaining unconsumed, O undefiled and holy Virgin. We praise you therefore in hymns to the ages.

Most-holy Theotokos, save us.

"Unburnt Bush" Icon of the Mother of God - Troparion & Kontakion

Troparion - Tone 1

The miracle which Moses witnessed on Sinai in the burning bush / foretold your virginal childbearing, O pure Mother. /We the faithful cry to you: / Hail, O truly living bush! / Hail, O holy mountain! / Hail, O sanctified expanse, Most Holy Theotokos!

Troparion - Tone 4

He Who was seen of old by Moses in the fire of the Unburnt Bush, / foreshadowed the Mystery of His Incarnation from the Virgin Mary, who knew not wedlock, / and now, as the Author of miracles and Fashioner of all creation, / He has glorified her Holy Icon with many miracles, / granting it to the faithful for the healing of illnesses and as a protection from fires. / Therefore, we cry out the Most Blessed one: / "O Hope of Christians, / deliver those who hope in you from cruel misfortunes, fire, and thunder, / and save our souls as one who is greatly merciful."