Holy Ground

This past Sunday the lectionary included the birth of Moses, and the often overlooked courageous midwives who saved countless Hebrew baby boys from Pharaoh's genocide. There is a focus on water in the story - on the Nile being able to take away life but also it keeping Moses safe in that reed basket once he was 3 months old. His name, chosen by Pharaoh's daughter means pulled out of water. Last Sunday I celebrated the midwives in our lives who have protected and guided us into the next place we need to be, helping us to have a birth or rebirth at pivotal times in our journey.

This Sunday we shoot ahead a number of years after Moses has grown up and fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian. He has found a wife and is a shepherd in the wilderness and is very settled in this new life. But then he comes across a burning bush that is not consumed. God's voice tells him to take off his sandals because he is on holy ground. Moses does not need to be asked twice. God then lets him know about the escape plan for the Israelites from their fierce taskmasters back in Egypt and how Moses is to lead them to the Promised Land.

The two stories are striking looked at back to back. We have birth, death, water, protection and moving from danger to safety in the first, and adulthood, fire that does not consume, wilderness, isolation and moving from a ho hum life to possible danger in answering God's call in the second. Moses is all alone on that mountain, hearing God's voice and removing his sandals in obedience, sensing the sacredness of what is happening and feeling the fire's relentless heat. And his life will never be the same.

Much of what we do in Christian education is tilling the soil and sowing seeds. We are midwives to faith, trying to help children and youth to move to the next step of trust and belief, maturity and confidence. We answer God's call to us and try to create opportunities where our learners can sense the warmth of God and perhaps even hear God speaking directly to them. We do this in worship as well, taking care with our words, decoration of the space, sounds and movement to open up possibilities for an experience of the divine. 

As we count down to a new season, I challenge you to take the time to enter your learning spaces and to look carefully at what you find. Take off your shoes and walk from your worship space to your learning space. What around you says that your church is holy ground? What do you see and experience in the space you are inviting people into? Is it cluttered with out-dated notices and last year's unidentified artwork? Is it celebratory of times God was made known here? Is there broken or outdated furniture? Is there a message of welcome and emphasis on encountering God through scripture and symbol? Do you sense anticipation to do something exciting, or tiredness and boredom in the space? 

While anywhere we are belongs to God and could be considered holy ground, those places where we have specifically built space dedicated to God are holy places. How they look says a lot about how important God is to us and our ministry, how we feel about our learners and their needs, and what vision we have for what God can and will do in and through us. Some spaces are welcoming and breathe shalom, while others show neglect and lack of priority and purpose. 

As you begin this fall, be sure that you not only prepare yourself, from your head to your heart to your spirit, for the learners who will be coming, but also prepare your space so that a glimpse of God's love speaks from every corner. This isn't so much about money as having an eye for simply clearing space to be open to God moments, making it a comfortable and tidy place that speaks to possibility. 

Claim your space, pray over it and remember that it is holy ground where God will communicate vital things to your learners. Are you ready for God to show up this fall?