Holy Ground

I’ve been wondering why God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground there at the burning bush. Why would you need to take off your shoes?

I’ve studied the commentaries and read what others have written and haven’t found anything that rings true.

But I have an idea.

All of creation- the earth, sky, seas, etc.- were made by God and belong to God. The psalmist says this in Psalm 24. (By the way, it includes ALL the people.) I was raised by teachers who told me that the earth basically belonged to Satan, which was why he could offer it and all the kingdoms of the earth to Jesus. They did not remember, it seems, that Satan was also called “The Prince of Liars.” They also taught me, along with many preachers, that one day God would destroy all of creation and create a new, revised one. Creation 2.0.

But I also heard something in a song that we sang in church, and it was what I really believed. Still do. I would sing with all my heart and voice, “This is my Father’s world…” And I swear that at times “in the rustling grass I hear him pass, he speaks to me everywhere.”

But we ten to separate humankind from the rest of creation. We are somehow above it, which is why we can use it, abuse it, even destroy it with little or no remorse.

We have lost touch with the rest of creation. We think of Francis of Assisi as being cute when he referred to nature as his brother and sister, mother and father. But he wasn’t being cute. He knew we are all one family. We are made of the same thing that the earth is made of. We are made of what makes the ground below us and the stars above. Joni Mitchell, a modern troubadour of truth, sang it well- “We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion-year-old carbon. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” There’s a reason why, even in our biggest cities, especially in our biggest cities, we put in lots of parks.

Taking your shoes off puts you directly in touch the the rest of creation. I heard a Native American speaker (Cherokee, I think) say that before Europeans came to this continent, when the people would pray they would stand in a circle and not hold hands, because they knew they were already connected through the earth they stood on.

I’m not thinking we have to take off our shoes when we want to pray or when we want to be in God’s presence. But whenever we want to pray, want to be in God’s presence, want to hear God’s word to us today, maybe we should dive deeply into this world. Get back in touch with our brothers and sisters in creation. Walk through the forest, wade in the ocean, live in the city with the poor, stand in the muck of the battlefield and pray for peace.

Because when we do, we are standing on holy ground.