Exodus 3:1-15

Pentecost + 11 - Year A

Exodus 3:1-15

We forget that Moses was a lay person. It was his father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest. Moses knew enough to follow his curiosity rather than box it in to follow a ritual or doctrine that would discount such mystery as a bush that burned without being consumed or one hand clapping.

Even here, mystery is both something to honor, don’t come any further, and experience, take off your sandals and wiggle your toes in it.

What is mysterious is how miserable people are for no good reason. Suffering because others have power is not acceptable. Deliverance is findable in the midst of folks who will no longer be silent or fear only for themselves.

Deliverance is always quite personal and risky. It is a mystery why such as Moses or you or I finally respond to the need to stand up to power, no matter what the cost. There is no explaining it, only a thankfulness when done.

It is no mystery that we would try to wriggle out from the need to decide to follow where mystery leads. One of our wriggles is get things defined sufficiently to reduce the risk. However, mystery won’t settle for our wriggling thus. A mystery based on inclusion and communal action rather than representative, personal power, never settles for denotations, but revels in connotations - who am I? I am who I was when I’m not who I am or will be. Go ahead, give in now before your head spins off.

Who will be a next Moses? No telling. All we know is that it won’t be a priest.