Rabbi Herman Schaalman is the dean of rabbis in the city of Chicago, rabbi emeritus of Emanuel Congregation up on Sheridan Road. Rabbi was a Lenten speaker several times here in St. Chrysostom’s, and on a memorable occasion he spoke in the church about how he was speaking as a rabbi – not as a convert – but as a guest who we respected for who he was.
I am glad and proud that could be said of St. Chrysostom’s Chicago, although it can also be said of other of our neighbors at this time in history. Rabbi Schaalman led a Jewish service for Cardinal Bernardin in Holy Name Cathedral.
It is important to me that we respect and honor Jewish people. I think it is being true to the best of who we are – to try to understand and listen to and respect people of different Christian communities and also people of other faiths, Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist. The best of who we are is tolerant and understanding.
Rabbi’s talk left our community deeply moved, sitting in the church in silence. Complete silence. I have heard about that happening at musical concerts although I am not sure I have ever experienced it. At concerts enthuasiasts normally are ready to applaud and shout the instant the final note sounds. But this was an authentic moment of being deeply moved, and there was simply silence. I thought to myself, well, let it just be for a while, and then I suggested we read the 23rd Psalm together.
The students took off their shoes
Before his talk, when I introduced Rabbi Schaalman, I remembered the story that when James Muilenburg the great teacher of the Hebrew Bible, of the Okld Testament, gave his last lecture at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, the students from Hebnrew Union across Broadway who came took off their shoes at the door, for where the Word of God was being read and studied and commented on and listened to was – and always is – holy ground.
That comes of course from today’s story of God telling Moses to take off his shoes before the Burning Bush, for where he was standing, on the mountain, on Mount Sinai, was holy ground: the place of encounter with God, the place of hearing the voice of God, the word of God.
Where we read the Bible, where we tell the stories of Jesus – it can be here in church, it can be at a service in the lobby of a senior residence, it can be by a hospital bed, it can be in our living room, we are on holy ground. And we listen for God speaking to us. The United Church of Christ has a motto, God is still speaking. God is. Not normally, I believe, in an audible voice. But normally by means of the ancient words of Scripture. Not all of them, not always, but by means of the words and images of Scripture.
When we hear how valued we are, how loved by God, it is holy ground.
When we hear how each person, each human being, each human life is valued by God, it is holy ground.
When we break human dividing lines – when we say let my people go, let this person go, let me go, it is holy ground.
When we see a human need and try to help it is holy ground. I believe God the Holy Spirit dwelling in us lights up our understanding to enable to see a need, and then to look for ways to help.
When we go to the quiet place of prayer, which can be anywhere, it is holy ground.
When we love someone, it is holy ground. When we love God and trust God loves us, it is holy ground.
The encounter with God can be anywhere. Moses was out in the middle of nowhere when God encountered him in the Burning Bush. This long unfolding story of the Old Testament and into our New is about God’s presence with human beings and love given to us – to everyone, no one left out.
The message God had for Moses was that God was sending him back to Egypt to stand before Pharaoh and him to let the people go.
It is to Moses’ credit, that when Moses heard this, he stayed put in his bare feet before the Burning Bush . When Jonah got a similar message – to go to Ninevah – Jonah promptly bought a ticket on a boat headed in the opposite direction.
Moses asked a question
Moses asked a question. The Bible is full of questions – it is never wrong to ask questions, to seek and inquire. Indeed the place of inquiry and learning and discovery can well be holy ground, where something beautiful or something that will help people is found.
OK, if I go back to Egypt to the Hebrew people and say God has sent me to lead you into freedom -- what , God, is your Name? Who shall I say is, er, calling?
God answered with the majestic mysterious words “I AM who I AM”, “I AM.” There is a vast literature of study about these words over the centuries.
It is important to be who we are, not to try to be somebody else. It is important to remember where we came from, ands also important to be true to the rich gifts God has given each one of us. For oh yes, God has indeed given you those gift. .
If we are true to the gifts we are given, of course we may end up somewhere quite different from where we started. That is the American way!
When I was a teenager I picked up an Anglican devotional book, a book of prayers. It had advice about preparing for saying one’s confession, and one of the sins listed was moving above or thinking about moving above one’s station in life. Very Victorian English. Not American at all (not modern British either for that matter).
Bishop Wylie – my rector who some of you knew later as Bishop of Northern Michigan – asked to see it. He said most of these things including that one were not sins and more or less told me to get rid of the book, which I did, and stick to St. Francis de Sales. .
It is important to be true to who we are. And what each person is, is greatly loved by God – for that is who God is by God’s eternal nature.
Jesus had to be true to who he was
Jesus told his disciples that he must go south to the city of Jerusalem. He could not run away from his mission. He had to be true to who he was, his very nature – for both nas Son of God and as a human being, he could not run away, he had to face what came in self-giving love, trusting in the love of the Father holding him, sending him, receiving him back.
Just so we who are so loved, are to face what comes in self-giving love. That is who we are.
The decision Jesus had to make was a real decision – a deeply human decision. Today’s Gospel crackles with the tension of the decision and when Simon Peter tried to talk Jesus out of it, he got a famous and very humanly angry response from Jesus not to tempt him. Not to tempt him to run away.
(This sermon was preached by the Rev. Raymond Webster, Rector, in St. Chrysostom’s Church, Chicago, Illinois on Sunday, August 28, 2011, the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.)
