Creekside Church Sermon of January 25, 2004 "He Looked" Exodus 3:1-12	Rev. David Bibbee
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Before Moses wandered forty years in the wilderness with thousands of testy Israelites, before he received the Ten Commandments, before he parted the Red Sea like a comb parting hair, before he led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, before he wore Pharaoh down with plagues such as turning Egypt's drinking water into blood, and before he met God on the mountain, mighty Moses was a shepherd, managing the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro.

Moses was in good company. Before King David was Kind David, he was a rutty lad tending sheep on the back forty. Centuries later, God chose the commonest of common shepherds to be first in line to see God's self-disclosure at Bethlehem. Shepherding was Moses' occupation, but not his aspiration.

Our text says Moses led the flock into the wilderness. But sheep weren't the only ones being led. Moses was also led by a shepherd-- the Psalm 23 Shepherd. Moses led Jethro's flock into the "west end" of the wilderness. There is a big point to this little detail. Something wilder than wilderness was beyond the west end. It was Horeb, the mountain of God where Moses saw what he had never seen before.

Professor John Stilgoe teaches "seeing" at Harvard. His course introduces students to a method of discovering a hidden world that is in plain view. Millions of things around us go unnoticed, so Stilgoe's course begins with students looking at a series of slides containing things they "think" they have seen. Stilgoe's first example is the Fed Ex logo. Did you know there is an arrow in the design? Focus on the white space between lower half of the letter E and X. You've seen the arrow thousands of times without seeing it.

Stilgoe shows the Fed Ex logo to toddlers and asks them to find the arrow. Most see it. The difference in not age. Its education. Stilgoe says our educational system is based almost entirely on words and numbers. All other ways of seeing and knowing have been "educated out" of us. "The finest students in the world are at Harvard," he says, "but most are visual illiterates." One of the reason we do not see is the break-neck speed of our lives. When the means of transportation were slow, we could soak in our surroundings. Today, it is a blur.

There are other ways of "knowing," The chief tool is your eyes! The writer Annie Dillard has incredible skills of observation. She sees the extraordinary in ordinary places, and her writings make "the unseen" up close and personal. She says, "Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will see them. The least we can do is try to be there.... so that creation need not play to an empty house."

What did Moses see? If he had been like us, he would have seen a tree on fire. But Moses didn't just "notice" it. He saw a deeper dimension. Since when does God speak through nature?

Job had all the suffering he could take. He ranted and railed at God. "What did I do to deserve all this? I want an answer... NOW!" Then God broke his silence. "You want an answer from me? I want straight answers from you. Where were you when I created the earth? Do you know the month mountain goats give birth? Have you watched a doe bear her fawn? Who do you think set the wild donkeys free? Will the wild buffalo volunteer to spend the night in your barn?"

Poor Job asked the deepest questions of human existence. God answerd a nature lesson. But sometimes God answers in ways which require more refined observation. Nature is a medium of God's messages. As one hymn declares:

"Lord, how thy wonders are displayed, wher-e'er I turn my eye,
if I survey the ground I tred or gaze upon the sky!"
(I Sing the Mighty Power of God)

Jesus said there is much to learn about God and his designs by being observant of everything around us. Common things can teach uncommon truths. "Look at the birds of the air," Jesus said. "Consider the lilies of the fields (Mt. 6)."

The Hasidic Jews emphasize seeing at a deeper level. They say that observers hallow creation by recognizing the 'holy sparks' within it."

When Moses the shepherd became Moses the observer, holy sparks flew. "God appeared to Moses in flames blazing out of the middle of a bush (Exodus 3: 4). Then notice the next verse. "HE LOOKED," it says, or "He turned aside." God caught Moses' eyes. The bush burned. Moses wanted a closer look. Then THE voice, the awe of being on holy ground.... then, the mission-- "Moses, deliver my people!" His life changed because, "he looked."

Professor Stilgoe didn't have to show the arrow in the Fed Ex logo to little children. They have a wonderful capacity for seeing things and knowing things that the rest of us don't. Because they don't make distinctions about what is possible and impossible.

Madeleine l'Engle tells the story of friends who had a baby girl. Their three year old son was thrilled when his new sister came home. He wanted to hold her.... The parents were leery. "You can hold her if we're if with you," they said. With urgency he said that he and sister had to be alone, so Mom and Dad gave way. They laid the baby in his lap, left the room, and listened from around the corner. This is what they heard, "I have something really important to ask you. Can you tell me what God is like? I forgot."

We can lose sight of God as time goes by, but not lose the desire for God. Middle age can be interesting. We know that if we haven't met the major goals we set for ourselves by now, chances are we won't. We are still on the prowl for something. The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung observed, "Among all my patients in the second half of life-- that is to say, over thirty-five, there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not of finding a religious outlook on life."

Think about that-- not one. All are looking for a religious outlook, whether they know it or not. If there is a burning bush somewhere, we want to see it. We want to take a good, long LOOK at it. We want to be touched by this fire that burns but doesn't destroy.

Lord, will you please give us eyes to penetrate appearances? The longer we live, the more urgent life becomes the deeper we look for meaning in all that surrounds us. "Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will see them. The least we can do is be there so that creation need not perform to an empty house."

When my friend Dan was pastoring a church in Akron, Ohio, he was courted by the search committee of the Middlebury Church of the Brethren. It's nice to know you are wanted, but deciding to move is tough. Dan weighed the options, but the choice wasn't clear. The only way he would know was if God would show him. Driving down a street he had traveled hundreds of times, he stropped at an intersection. In seven years he never paid attention to the name of the cross street. That day, something told him to look at the street sign. It said, "Middlebury Street."

Street names, burning bushes, being a shepherd, being an accountant, babies, a hymn verse, autumn leaves, dreams, beautiful sunsets, a Bible verse, snow clinging to evergreen boughs, visions, an act of generosity, the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, a simple quote, an urgent prayer, the junior high leading worship, an invitation to serve your church. On and on it goes. Earth crammed with heaven. God waiting for us to turn aside, listening to God's voice, accepting our mission.

I'll leave you with a scene I've described before. An old man and a boy sit side by side, fishing from the end of a pier. The sun is setting and their conversation grows deep. "Grandpa, why does rain fall? Why is the sunset red? Why do seasons change? Why are some so happy, while others are so sad?" After a thoughtful pause, the boy pops the ultimate question. "Grandpa, does anybody ever see God?"

Innocent and aged eyes meet. A weathered arm rests upon little shoulders. There is a sigh. Then, looking across the dancing water to the horizon, the man says, "Son, it's getting so Ii hardly see anything else."

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