3rd Sunday of Lent
Take off your sandals. This is Holy Ground you walk on.
Do you find this verse from scripture as fascinating as I do? Do you want to get a closer
look? Like Moses who was fascinated by the burning bush and wanted to get a closer
look, I’m fascinated by this verse.
So let me ask you: When do you hear those words? Take off your shoes? Not too often,
except when you’re going through security for an airline or a prison. In a doctor’s office
when you’re getting measured for height and weight.
The command you are more likely to hear is: Put on your shoes. Don’t walk around in
bare feet! Sound familiar? We are often told to put something on our feet to protect us.
The ground is dirty, muddy, dusty. There may be broken glass, shards of something that
will puncture your feet. There may even be a bee waiting to sting you, hidden in the
grass.
We are not (generally speaking) a barefoot people. We wear shoes, sandals, moccasins,
slippers. We don’t usually expose our feet to the elements. Shoe-less, we are more
vulnerable.
Come no nearer. Take off your sandals. This is Holy Ground you walk on.
Why? Perhaps the answer is: there should be nothing between you and this holy ground
in this encounter with I AM. Could the words “take off your shoes” be symbolic for “take
off everything”? Be naked in the presence of the Holy One. There is nothing to hide.
There is nothing to be ashamed of. When Moses responds to the call of his name “here I
am,” he must be completely who he is before I AM, before the mystery of God. Nothing
must come between him and the holy ground that is the symbol of God’s good creation.
But in this story God is much more than creator, much more than the Eternal One, I AM
WHO AM. God reveals himself as Liberator. I have heard the cry of my people against
their slave drivers. I will deliver them. When God commands Moses to “take off his
shoes” he is saying, “you are who you are.” Come into my presence as you are, stripped
of all. Feel this Holy Ground beneath your feet.
This gesture of taking off his sandals is meant to show Moses humility before God.
Humility comes from the word for Earth: Humus. Genuine humility is acknowledging
who you are created to be, your authentic self. And in the gesture of taking off his sandals
Moses is acknowledging his human vulnerability. His feet may be punctured, wounded
by a rock, a thorn, a viper?
Like Moses, did Jesus “take off his sandals” when he walked for 40 days in the desert?
Who knows? What we do see in the temptations is his human vulnerability. In the
temptations, Jesus is tested by the Devil who tries to distract him from his true self,
offering him false images of power and possessions. But Jesus keeps before him the
image of his true self, the one that was confirmed in the Baptism and the one we heard
last week in the story of the Transfiguration: “You are my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.”
And did the Samaritan Woman come to the well without sandals? Did she come to the
well in the middle of the day in bare feet? I doubt it. She comes to the well wellprotected. Protected by her religious beliefs, different from the Jews, protecting her own
human vulnerability. But like Moses, who is fascinated by the burning bush, she is
fascinated by this stranger who will surprise her with the gift of living water. She will
come to know her true self in coming to know Jesus, who reveals himself as the source of
Eternal life. Eternal Fire, Eternal Water, Holy Ground. All Good!
Lee, Andrew, Kristin, Jed, Kelsi, we’re not going to ask you to take off your shoes for
this scrutiny rite. But we will ask you to “take a closer look” at yourself. That’s what the
scrutiny is about. Taking a closer look so you can see your own human vulnerability and
open yourself to the living water that will come to you in Baptism. Like Moses, who
encountered the mystery of I AM in the burning bush, and like the Samaritan Woman
who encountered living water in the person of Jesus, you will come to know who you are
and who God desires to be for you.
One last thought about taking off one’s shoes. Just two days ago we saw one of the most
noted personages of our time “take off his shoes.” I refer of course to the shoes of the
fisherman, the red shoes identified with the office of Pope. Benedict XVI, now Pope
emeritus has taken off his shoes as a sign and symbol of genuine humility and service to
the Church.
I hope you are still fascinated by those lines from scripture “take off your sandals. This is
holy ground.” I hope you might ask yourselves: and what does this mean for me? How
do I in my day to day life “take off my shoes and recognize the Holy ground of my life?
How do I come before God, as I am, vulnerable but knowing I am who I am by the grace
of God?”