| "RECOGNIZING HOLY GROUND” Exodus 3:1-10; Mark 8:27-30; 9:2-13 Olivet Covenant Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA © Rev. Linda Jaymes, 2/12/2012 |
I was reading a story about a little girl and her father who were out to see the sights in New York. They visited the
Empire State Building and went up, up, up in the elevator. Somewhere around the sixtieth floor, the little girl’s ears began to
pop and the change in altitude started to have an effect on her stomach. Not able to recognize or understand what was
happening to her, she reached out to grab her father's hand and asked in some desperation, "Daddy, does God know we are
coming?"
Perhaps some of us feel like that little girl at the thought of entering into the presence of God, of discovering that we are
on holy ground. We might experience a sense of awe, and we might wonder not only if God knows that we are coming, but
we might also be fearful of would happen when we come into his presence. In fact, in some Christian traditions, such as the
Eastern Orthodox, this is often the emphasis placed on the worship of God. With tongue in cheek, one theologian described the
Eastern rite as
“… a sort of spiritual air raid drill. The divine presence is the point of explosive danger, and the moment of
sacramental consecration is the moment of detonation.” Try imagining the architecture in most Eastern churches, where
there are screens or gates separating the clergy from the congregation, and you will understand the rest of this satire. …the
ordinary citizens are protected by a solid stone screen, or rather wall, fencing them off from the altar, and they keep their
heads well down to be on the safe side. Then there are the special anti-bomb personnel, the ministers equipped with special
protective uniforms, and specially trained, who enter the terrible enclosure with fear and wariness and go to the very point of
danger. When the incident has been successfully neutralized, the deacon comes out and gives the all-clear to the
congregation who get up and move about.” 1
I’m not sure that those of us in the Reformed tradition have such great expectations of fear and dread when we think
about what it means to come into God’s presence. We are more likely to think about approaching God—whether it is in
worship or prayer or Bible study—as a rather commonplace activity that produces not fear and dread but a whole range of
more positive emotions, like comfort and peace and joy and for some, even ecstasy. Clearly, both cultural and religious
traditions shape our modern ideas of what it means to come into the presence of God and what appropriate responses to such
experiences would be. Today’s Scripture lessons are two such examples.
This morning’s Old Testament lesson reminds us that a sense of fear and awe is indeed one appropriate response when we
discover that we are in the presence of God, standing on holy ground. As we heard, while out tending his father-in-law’s
flock, Moses observed a very strange phenomenon. A short distance from where he stood, he could clearly see that there was
a bush on fire, but it wasn’t consumed, and so he walked over to see this curious phenomenon. And as he got closer, a voice
called to him out of the bush, telling him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.
Taking off one’s shoes was a sign of respect in that culture, much as taking off one’s hat is—or at least used to be—in
ours. But what did God mean when he called that place “holy ground?” What exactly is holy ground? If you travel in Israel
you would be hard pressed to understand why one pile of rocks and sand should be any holier than the next. What was it that
made this particular plot of land holy?
Quite simply, that place was holy ground because God was there, revealing Himself to Moses. Holy ground is anywhere
that God is present and reveals Himself to us. As God spoke to Moses, He identified Himself as the God of Moses’ father and
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. None of this was lost on Moses. Moses knew all about this God. And perhaps when
Moses heard these words, it even brought to mind the story of Jacob and his dream about the ladder reaching up into heaven to
God. When Jacob awoke from that dream, his response was awe and amazement. God was in that place and he didn’t even
know it. That spot became holy ground because God had spoken and revealed Himself to Jacob in that place.
Hundreds of years later, Moses was now having his own holy ground experience. God was manifesting Himself—his real
presence—in that burning bush and communicating to Moses his unique identity, that God is indeed the Living God. And just
as it had been for Jacob, the effect on Moses was quite dramatic. As soon as Moses recognized that he was on holy ground;
as soon as he realized that he had seen and heard from God Almighty, his reaction to the whole event changed from curiosity to
fear. Moses turned his face away, rather than look upon the raw power of God.
In our New Testament lesson we heard of a somewhat different holy ground experience that Peter, James and John had
with God. Jesus had taken these three disciples up on a high mountain, apparently to be alone. Perhaps it was meant to be a
time of silent retreat, something Jesus did personally on a regular basis. And while they were up there, Jesus’ countenance
completely changed, right before their eyes. He was transfigured and his clothes became a dazzling white, unlike anything
those men had ever seen. At the same time, Elijah and Moses suddenly appeared and were in conversation with Jesus.
Peter’s response to all this was clumsy, almost comical, although the scripture clearly says it was because he was so
frightened. Peter’s fear, however, did not manifest itself the way Moses’ had at the burning bush. Peter had no desire to turn
his face away from this amazing experience the way Moses did. He wanted to respond to it and prolong it forever. He wanted
as much of it as he could get. He was ready to build shelters for these heroes of the faith and perhaps even settle down on this
mountain for good.
But God had other ideas. Suddenly a cloud enveloped all of them, and God spoke, saying, “This is my beloved Son,
whom I love. Listen to him.” And with that, Elijah and Moses disappeared, Jesus’ appearance returned to normal, and the
experience of being on holy ground was over. As they came back down the mountain, Jesus instructed them not to tell anyone
what had happened until He had risen from the dead. But these poor, confused disciples couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t
even figure out what it meant to rise from the dead! This was one holy ground experience that could only be understood later,
in retrospect. It wasn’t until Jesus died, rose again, and sent the Holy Spirit that they were able to put all the pieces together
and make sense of what had happened to them up on that mountain.
I don’t know how many of you have suddenly found yourselves on holy ground in ways similar to what Jacob and Moses
and the three disciples experienced. Most of us, I suspect, at least in the western world, don’t seem to meet up with such
dramatic experiences. We may sense God’s presence in a special way at the birth of a baby or the death of a loved one.
Sometimes we can feel God’s presence right here in the sanctuary as we worship and pray together. That happens to me
frequently during our First Wednesday Prayer Service. But why don’t these experiences happen more often? Or could it be
that they do, but we just don’t recognize them? Is it possible that we are standing on holy ground all the time but we don’t
even realize it? And if that’s true, what could today’s scripture lessons teach us about becoming more aware of or sensitive to
God’s presence and his voice and his desire to reveal Himself to us?
One of the first things that we should notice about these biblical holy ground experiences is that they seem to happen while
people are just going about their daily business. From all indications, it was just another day in the life of Moses, the 80-year-
old shepherd. Moses didn’t get up that morning and resolve to go out and have an encounter with God. He wasn’t looking for
holy ground while tending the sheep and in fact he didn’t even recognize that it was holy ground until God spoke to him and
told him he was standing on it. But as he went about the day’s work, Moses was at least noticing things that were right there
in his environment. He wasn’t oblivious to what was happening nearby and he wasn’t afraid to inquire into this new thing that
was happening right there in his neighborhood.
We could say a similar thing about the three disciples. On any given day, they probably had no idea what the day might
bring. Of course, we get the sense that any day spent traveling in the company of Jesus was probably going to be pretty
exciting (or terrifying!) But the disciples’ job was simply to follow the Master, not go looking for excitement. And we can see
that as they followed, as they obediently went with Him, wherever He led them, they often discovered that they were standing
on holy ground. Perhaps not every experience was as amazing as the transfiguration, but they had seen physical and emotional
healings and people forgiven and changed, as well as the new life and hope that followed. In all these things, God’s presence
was felt and his loving purposes were revealed.
A second thing we should notice from these biblical holy ground experiences is that it helps to already know God and be in
a relationship with Him. That was true of Moses and also of the disciples. In fact, in the case of the disciples, they had just
confessed their belief that Jesus was indeed the Christ. They had been following Him, learning from Him and trying to decide
who He really was for some time. Only six days prior to the transfiguration, when the Lord confronted them and asked, “Who
do you say I am?” they had acknowledged that Jesus was indeed the Christ. It is probably no coincidence that this experience
of being on holy ground with the Lord took place just after they had come into a deeper faith relationship with Him. That
sometimes happens when we get closer to God by spending more time with Him and trusting Him and surrendering to Him
more and more.
Another important thing to remember about these holy ground experiences is that they aren’t just intended to amaze us,
terrify us or make us feel good. God usually has a purpose that He wants to communicate through these encounters on holy
ground. God came to Jacob in that dream to reveal his identity and his plans to use Jacob to bless all the nations of earth. God
appeared to Moses in the burning bush to reveal his identity and to commission Moses to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites
out of Egypt. And God revealed his glory to the disciples on that Mount of Transfiguration to confirm their newborn belief that
Jesus was indeed the beloved Son of God and to remind them to listen to Him, to obey Him. Jesus would eventually
commission those disciples to go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel, and it would be no easy task. If they were to
listen and obey, God knew that they would need a vision of God’s glory to encourage them in their work.
Thousands of years after the burning bush and the transfiguration, God is still making appearances on holy ground, in
order to reveal Himself to us and encourage us in the work of following and obeying his Son. When we find ourselves face to
face with God on holy ground, our first reaction may be awe or fear and trembling. After all, this is the presence of Almighty
God, and God deserves our respect and awe, even our reverent fear. But we need not be so afraid that we miss what He wants
to tell us. We need to remember that God wants to use these encounters for his grand purposes. He wants to reveal to us a
deeper understanding of Him and confirm in us a more vibrant faith in his beloved Son, a faith that is so alive and real that in the
sharing of it, others will come to recognize holy ground, too.
As Reformed Christians, we aren’t very likely to start thinking about standing on holy ground as some sort of spiritual air
raid drill. After all, we believe that God is present all around us, all the time. Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we
can flee from his presence. And because of the atoning work of Christ on the Cross, He is also in us, by his indwelling Holy
Spirit. But perhaps as we attend to our daily business, we can be more intentional about keeping our spiritual eyes and ears
open, for we never know when we may just find ourselves standing on holy ground.
Granted, God probably won’t appear to us in a burning bush, or in a cloud on top of some mountain. But there’s no telling
when the clouds may part—at school or in the grocery store or at work or in a traffic jam—and God may reveal Himself to us
in some new and special way, and we will suddenly realize that we are standing on holy ground. And when it happens, let’s
remember to listen to what God has to say, and then share it with each other and the world, so that all of us can be encouraged
in our faith in the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who is also the God of you and me.
Let us pray.
1. Farrer, Austin. The Essential Sermons: The Consuming Presence. Cowley Publications, Cambridge, MA, 1991, 97.
Empire State Building and went up, up, up in the elevator. Somewhere around the sixtieth floor, the little girl’s ears began to
pop and the change in altitude started to have an effect on her stomach. Not able to recognize or understand what was
happening to her, she reached out to grab her father's hand and asked in some desperation, "Daddy, does God know we are
coming?"
Perhaps some of us feel like that little girl at the thought of entering into the presence of God, of discovering that we are
on holy ground. We might experience a sense of awe, and we might wonder not only if God knows that we are coming, but
we might also be fearful of would happen when we come into his presence. In fact, in some Christian traditions, such as the
Eastern Orthodox, this is often the emphasis placed on the worship of God. With tongue in cheek, one theologian described the
Eastern rite as
“… a sort of spiritual air raid drill. The divine presence is the point of explosive danger, and the moment of
sacramental consecration is the moment of detonation.” Try imagining the architecture in most Eastern churches, where
there are screens or gates separating the clergy from the congregation, and you will understand the rest of this satire. …the
ordinary citizens are protected by a solid stone screen, or rather wall, fencing them off from the altar, and they keep their
heads well down to be on the safe side. Then there are the special anti-bomb personnel, the ministers equipped with special
protective uniforms, and specially trained, who enter the terrible enclosure with fear and wariness and go to the very point of
danger. When the incident has been successfully neutralized, the deacon comes out and gives the all-clear to the
congregation who get up and move about.” 1
I’m not sure that those of us in the Reformed tradition have such great expectations of fear and dread when we think
about what it means to come into God’s presence. We are more likely to think about approaching God—whether it is in
worship or prayer or Bible study—as a rather commonplace activity that produces not fear and dread but a whole range of
more positive emotions, like comfort and peace and joy and for some, even ecstasy. Clearly, both cultural and religious
traditions shape our modern ideas of what it means to come into the presence of God and what appropriate responses to such
experiences would be. Today’s Scripture lessons are two such examples.
This morning’s Old Testament lesson reminds us that a sense of fear and awe is indeed one appropriate response when we
discover that we are in the presence of God, standing on holy ground. As we heard, while out tending his father-in-law’s
flock, Moses observed a very strange phenomenon. A short distance from where he stood, he could clearly see that there was
a bush on fire, but it wasn’t consumed, and so he walked over to see this curious phenomenon. And as he got closer, a voice
called to him out of the bush, telling him to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.
Taking off one’s shoes was a sign of respect in that culture, much as taking off one’s hat is—or at least used to be—in
ours. But what did God mean when he called that place “holy ground?” What exactly is holy ground? If you travel in Israel
you would be hard pressed to understand why one pile of rocks and sand should be any holier than the next. What was it that
made this particular plot of land holy?
Quite simply, that place was holy ground because God was there, revealing Himself to Moses. Holy ground is anywhere
that God is present and reveals Himself to us. As God spoke to Moses, He identified Himself as the God of Moses’ father and
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. None of this was lost on Moses. Moses knew all about this God. And perhaps when
Moses heard these words, it even brought to mind the story of Jacob and his dream about the ladder reaching up into heaven to
God. When Jacob awoke from that dream, his response was awe and amazement. God was in that place and he didn’t even
know it. That spot became holy ground because God had spoken and revealed Himself to Jacob in that place.
Hundreds of years later, Moses was now having his own holy ground experience. God was manifesting Himself—his real
presence—in that burning bush and communicating to Moses his unique identity, that God is indeed the Living God. And just
as it had been for Jacob, the effect on Moses was quite dramatic. As soon as Moses recognized that he was on holy ground;
as soon as he realized that he had seen and heard from God Almighty, his reaction to the whole event changed from curiosity to
fear. Moses turned his face away, rather than look upon the raw power of God.
In our New Testament lesson we heard of a somewhat different holy ground experience that Peter, James and John had
with God. Jesus had taken these three disciples up on a high mountain, apparently to be alone. Perhaps it was meant to be a
time of silent retreat, something Jesus did personally on a regular basis. And while they were up there, Jesus’ countenance
completely changed, right before their eyes. He was transfigured and his clothes became a dazzling white, unlike anything
those men had ever seen. At the same time, Elijah and Moses suddenly appeared and were in conversation with Jesus.
Peter’s response to all this was clumsy, almost comical, although the scripture clearly says it was because he was so
frightened. Peter’s fear, however, did not manifest itself the way Moses’ had at the burning bush. Peter had no desire to turn
his face away from this amazing experience the way Moses did. He wanted to respond to it and prolong it forever. He wanted
as much of it as he could get. He was ready to build shelters for these heroes of the faith and perhaps even settle down on this
mountain for good.
But God had other ideas. Suddenly a cloud enveloped all of them, and God spoke, saying, “This is my beloved Son,
whom I love. Listen to him.” And with that, Elijah and Moses disappeared, Jesus’ appearance returned to normal, and the
experience of being on holy ground was over. As they came back down the mountain, Jesus instructed them not to tell anyone
what had happened until He had risen from the dead. But these poor, confused disciples couldn’t understand it. They couldn’t
even figure out what it meant to rise from the dead! This was one holy ground experience that could only be understood later,
in retrospect. It wasn’t until Jesus died, rose again, and sent the Holy Spirit that they were able to put all the pieces together
and make sense of what had happened to them up on that mountain.
I don’t know how many of you have suddenly found yourselves on holy ground in ways similar to what Jacob and Moses
and the three disciples experienced. Most of us, I suspect, at least in the western world, don’t seem to meet up with such
dramatic experiences. We may sense God’s presence in a special way at the birth of a baby or the death of a loved one.
Sometimes we can feel God’s presence right here in the sanctuary as we worship and pray together. That happens to me
frequently during our First Wednesday Prayer Service. But why don’t these experiences happen more often? Or could it be
that they do, but we just don’t recognize them? Is it possible that we are standing on holy ground all the time but we don’t
even realize it? And if that’s true, what could today’s scripture lessons teach us about becoming more aware of or sensitive to
God’s presence and his voice and his desire to reveal Himself to us?
One of the first things that we should notice about these biblical holy ground experiences is that they seem to happen while
people are just going about their daily business. From all indications, it was just another day in the life of Moses, the 80-year-
old shepherd. Moses didn’t get up that morning and resolve to go out and have an encounter with God. He wasn’t looking for
holy ground while tending the sheep and in fact he didn’t even recognize that it was holy ground until God spoke to him and
told him he was standing on it. But as he went about the day’s work, Moses was at least noticing things that were right there
in his environment. He wasn’t oblivious to what was happening nearby and he wasn’t afraid to inquire into this new thing that
was happening right there in his neighborhood.
We could say a similar thing about the three disciples. On any given day, they probably had no idea what the day might
bring. Of course, we get the sense that any day spent traveling in the company of Jesus was probably going to be pretty
exciting (or terrifying!) But the disciples’ job was simply to follow the Master, not go looking for excitement. And we can see
that as they followed, as they obediently went with Him, wherever He led them, they often discovered that they were standing
on holy ground. Perhaps not every experience was as amazing as the transfiguration, but they had seen physical and emotional
healings and people forgiven and changed, as well as the new life and hope that followed. In all these things, God’s presence
was felt and his loving purposes were revealed.
A second thing we should notice from these biblical holy ground experiences is that it helps to already know God and be in
a relationship with Him. That was true of Moses and also of the disciples. In fact, in the case of the disciples, they had just
confessed their belief that Jesus was indeed the Christ. They had been following Him, learning from Him and trying to decide
who He really was for some time. Only six days prior to the transfiguration, when the Lord confronted them and asked, “Who
do you say I am?” they had acknowledged that Jesus was indeed the Christ. It is probably no coincidence that this experience
of being on holy ground with the Lord took place just after they had come into a deeper faith relationship with Him. That
sometimes happens when we get closer to God by spending more time with Him and trusting Him and surrendering to Him
more and more.
Another important thing to remember about these holy ground experiences is that they aren’t just intended to amaze us,
terrify us or make us feel good. God usually has a purpose that He wants to communicate through these encounters on holy
ground. God came to Jacob in that dream to reveal his identity and his plans to use Jacob to bless all the nations of earth. God
appeared to Moses in the burning bush to reveal his identity and to commission Moses to go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites
out of Egypt. And God revealed his glory to the disciples on that Mount of Transfiguration to confirm their newborn belief that
Jesus was indeed the beloved Son of God and to remind them to listen to Him, to obey Him. Jesus would eventually
commission those disciples to go to the ends of the earth and preach the gospel, and it would be no easy task. If they were to
listen and obey, God knew that they would need a vision of God’s glory to encourage them in their work.
Thousands of years after the burning bush and the transfiguration, God is still making appearances on holy ground, in
order to reveal Himself to us and encourage us in the work of following and obeying his Son. When we find ourselves face to
face with God on holy ground, our first reaction may be awe or fear and trembling. After all, this is the presence of Almighty
God, and God deserves our respect and awe, even our reverent fear. But we need not be so afraid that we miss what He wants
to tell us. We need to remember that God wants to use these encounters for his grand purposes. He wants to reveal to us a
deeper understanding of Him and confirm in us a more vibrant faith in his beloved Son, a faith that is so alive and real that in the
sharing of it, others will come to recognize holy ground, too.
As Reformed Christians, we aren’t very likely to start thinking about standing on holy ground as some sort of spiritual air
raid drill. After all, we believe that God is present all around us, all the time. Psalm 139 reminds us that there is nowhere we
can flee from his presence. And because of the atoning work of Christ on the Cross, He is also in us, by his indwelling Holy
Spirit. But perhaps as we attend to our daily business, we can be more intentional about keeping our spiritual eyes and ears
open, for we never know when we may just find ourselves standing on holy ground.
Granted, God probably won’t appear to us in a burning bush, or in a cloud on top of some mountain. But there’s no telling
when the clouds may part—at school or in the grocery store or at work or in a traffic jam—and God may reveal Himself to us
in some new and special way, and we will suddenly realize that we are standing on holy ground. And when it happens, let’s
remember to listen to what God has to say, and then share it with each other and the world, so that all of us can be encouraged
in our faith in the Living God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, who is also the God of you and me.
Let us pray.
1. Farrer, Austin. The Essential Sermons: The Consuming Presence. Cowley Publications, Cambridge, MA, 1991, 97.
