Have you ever found yourself
wandering
the wilderness
across rocky terrain
through scrub and bushes
across golden meadows
rain bouncing off your back
puddles radiating life
before finally reaching the forested foothills
you’ve wandered a thousand times?
Or perhaps you find yourself
wandering
the wilds of Vancouver
past doorways and windows
alleyways and potholes
crossing bike paths and winos
you’ve crossed a thousand times
so many times
you feel you know them
like the back of your hand
feet on autopilot
music in your ears and
eyes on your phone
Wandering thoughtlessly
with little on your mind
but the bleat of sheep
or the squabble of
angry birds
when just ahead the bush bursts into flame
The burning bush speaks
but will its message be consumed?
This voice that echoes and resonates and
demands attention
This golden glowing brier aflame
with colour, beauty, and awe
We don’t have these moments
all the time
But this week at the corner of
Pender and Howe,
a garbage can screamed wildly
ablaze
and we stopped on holy ground to
call the fire truck, to
commandeer buckets of water
from the restaurant across the street
while the city tromped by
smoke and flame licking the sky
calling uncharacteristic attention to
the ordinary, uncelebrated and mundane
And I wonder,
what would have happened
if God had caught Moses on a different day
if on the day of the burning bush,
Moses had been late for an important meeting
Or distracted by the most recent disagreement
with his in-laws
What if he had been caught wondering
how things would have been different
had he not killed that man
had he not left the Pharoah’s house
And I wonder
how many times Moses wandered by
that same bush
how many times we wander by
flaming rubbish bins
and other ordinary signs
God is using to catch our attention
to slow us down
to enter the present moment
to be
to listen.
and to see
In this moment
of being, listening and seeing
Moses is transformed
in his encounter with God
the one who is called “I Am who I am,”
or perhaps more literarily, “I will be who I will be,”
an evasive way of proclaiming
I will not be named or limited, handled or nailed down.
I am wild and beyond control
I am not a tame lion.
And while you might wish to tell me who I am,
While it might be easier
to codify my existence
to lock me up in your buildings
to domesticate or tame me
I am alive and beyond manipulation
I am the very principle of becoming
I am grace and possibility and fullness of life unleashed
And I wonder
how many times we wander by
flaming rubbish bins
and other ordinary signs
God is using to catch our attention
to slow us down
to enter the present moment
to be
to listen.
to see
and be sent
Gasping for air
inhaling these
poetic pronouncements of possibility
from the one who was and is and is to come
sand sifting between toes treading
holy ground
Grasping the reality that we are sent
to be hands and feet, eyes and ears
bringing voice and bearing witness to
God’s liberating love
even though sometimes
it hurts to be present
to ourselves
to others
to our pain
Grasping the reality that we don’t go alone
but together
with God
with one another
wrestling with what it means
to live
reconciling, shalom-seeking, and justice-oriented lives
serving God, all God’s people, and the world God loves.
