Bishop Janice Riggle Huie tells about an experience she had a few years ago that touched her heart… She was interviewing a group of ministerial students about their call to the ministry and she said to each of them in turn: “Tell me about your calling. What do you think God is calling you to do?”

Most of the students gave very practical answers like:

“God is calling me to be a hospital chaplain.” Or,
“God is calling me to be a teacher on the college level.” Or,
“God is calling me to be a counselor.” Or,
“God is calling me to be a pastor.”

But, then, she came to one young woman who seemed a bit shy at first (not quite as bold as the others) and Bishop Huie said to her: “Tell me about your calling. What do you think God is calling you to do?”

And the young woman said: “I don’t know exactly yet where God will lead me. I just know one thing. God is calling me to introduce people to Jesus Christ!”

When Bishop Huie tells this story, she says: “At that moment when I heard that young woman say that… I wanted to take off my shoes because I knew I stood on Holy Ground.”

Let me ask you something: Have you ever had a moment like that?... a moment that was so powerful, so touching, so wonderful, so sacred… that you wanted to take off your shoes because you knew you were standing on holy ground.

That’s precisely how Moses felt that day as he stood before the burning bush. The bush burned but was not consumed and in that experience Moses felt the presence of God and heard the voice of God and received the call of God.

There are three fascinating things to notice in this great and dramatic Bible story…

First, we see that it was a surprise. It happened at a time when Moses least expected it… and it happened in a most unusual place… out in the wilderness. God’s presence made that desolate place holy and sacred. This simply suggests to us to be ready. God can speak to us at any moment, maybe even when we least expect it.

Second, we see that in order for Moses and us to get it,… to grasp the full meaning of an experience like that,… reverence is required. This is something of a problem for us in our world today because the very opposite... irreverence is the characteristic of our modern world. Very little is held sacred anymore in our contemporary society… and we wonder why we don’t hear the voice of God more clearly or feel His presence more nearly. Is it because we have forgotten how to be reverent?

Third, we see that Moses had a seeing eye and a hearing heart. Burning Bushes are all around us, but we have to have – the eyes of faith to see them – the ears of faith to hear them – and the hearts of faith to feel them.

In her work Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it like this:
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God
But only He who sees takes off his shoes
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”

The plain truth is that Holy Ground is all around us because God is ever-present with us.

If, in reverence, we have the seeing eye and the hearing heart; we can be well aware that God is reaching out to us and speaking to us loud and clear through burning bushes and sacred moments and holy ground right in our own backyard,… right under our noses.

Let me show you what I mean…

I. FIRST OF ALL THERE IS THE HOLY GROUND OF SERVICE.

As Christians, we are first and last called to be Servants of God. We are not called to be “prima donnas” or “celebrities” or “super-stars.” We are called to be humble, willing, self-giving servants of Christ.

Some years ago Dr. E. Stanley Jones founded a Christian community in India. He called it the Ashram. Converts would come there to learn the Christian faith. One convert who came to the Ashram was a Brahmin.

You remember that the Brahmins were the upper class, the upper crust of society.

In this Christian Ashram, everyone present was expected to help with the community chores… to mop the floors, to wash the dishes, to serve the meals… even to clean the bathhouses.

The former Brahmin came to E. Stanley Jones one day and announced that he could not possibly perform such menial chores.

They were beneath him! he said.

E. Stanley Jones told him that “in Christ there are no menial tasks and that all good works are sacred,… and that he should have no trouble as a Christian mopping floors and washing dishes and even cleaning bathhouses.

When the Brahmin heard that, he said, “Brother Stanley, I’m converted, but not that far!”

Put that over against Mother Teresa who simply pretended that every person she met was Christ in disguise… and she served every person and performed every task as if she were doing it for Christ… and that’s what it really means to be a servant Christian.

Some years I was invited to the campus of a small United Methodist college to be on a panel discussing Christian vocations.

As we got started, those of us on the panel were asked to introduce ourselves by giving our name and our vocation. The introductions were rather routine like…

“My name is Mary Smith and I’m a lawyer.”
“My name is Joseph Parker and I’m an architect.”
“My name is Martha Brown and I’m a mathematics professor.”

I was next and I told my name and that I am a minister.

But then there was one final panelist… a doctor… and I will never, ever forget what he said:

“He said: “My name is Leland Johnson and we are here today to talk about Christian Vocations.” “Now,” he said, “as I understand it, the word ‘vocation’ means ‘calling.’ He paused for a moment and then he said: ‘My calling is to be a Christian and one of the ways I do that is through the practice of medicine.’”

When he said those words, I wanted to take off my shoes because I knew I was standing on holy ground.

Wasn’t that great the way he put that?

“My calling is to be a Christian… and one of the ways I do that is through the practice of medicine.”

That was the holy ground of service. Whenever or wherever, we serve God…there is Holy Ground. That’s number one.

II. SECOND, THERE IS THE HOLY GROUND OF LOVE.

Just last week I was surfing through the TV channels with my remote control when I hit ESPN, the Sports Channel. A football player for the Kansas City Chiefs (whose name I didn’t catch) was talking about his coach, Dick Vermeil.

Dick Vermeil is one of the best and most respected coaches in the NFL… and he is retiring. I was fascinated and touched by what this professional football player was saying about his coach. With great affection he said:

“I love Dick Vermeil, not only for what he taught me about football, but also for what he taught me about life.” This tough football player had to blink back his tears and regain his voice and then he said: “Coach Vermeil is like a father to me. He taught me a lot about football, but he also taught me how to treat the custodian with kindness and how to speak to the young man who picks up the dirty towels.”

When I heard that, I wanted to take off my shoes because I knew that I was standing on Holy Ground… the holy ground of love and respect for others.

Have you heard about the man who fell into a deep man hole? He tried and tried but he could not get out on his own,… so he began to cry out for help.

A physician came by. He heard the man crying for help, so he wrote a prescription, tossed it down to the men,… but the man was still on the hole.

A minister came by, heard his cry, so he wrote a prayer and tossed it down to the man… but the man was still in the hole.

Then the man’s best friend came by. He, too, heard his cries and (would you believe it?)… the friend jumped into the hole with him.

The man said: “Why did you do that? Why on earth did you jump in the hole with me? Now, we are both stuck.”

“No, we’re not,” said the friend, “because I know the way out!”

This parable-story reminds us of how Jesus Christ jumps into the deep hole of our lostness and captivity… so that He in His love and compassion and amazing grace can lead us out to freedom and new life.

That’s the way Jesus Christ loves us – generously, sacrificially, graciously, unconditionally, and that’s the way he wants us to love each other and whenever and wherever we do that we had better take off our shoes because we are standing on holy ground.

III. THIRD AND FINALLY, THERE IS THE HOLY GROUND OF SACRED RESPONSIBILITY.

God didn’t just appear to Moses in the burning bush; He gave Him a job… “Go and set my people free! Go and bring my people out of Egyptian slavery. Go and I will go with you!”

God gave Moses a job, a sacred responsibility.

Last Sunday, June and I were out in the Courtyard after the 11:00 a.m. service. I had just announced that we would be retiring in a few months… and people were coming by to hug us and wish us well in this new chapter in our lives.

The people in our St. Luke’s family are always so amazingly thoughtful, so generous, so gracious, so loving… and we were touched by the kind words and tender hugs.

Toward the end of the line, a woman came and hugged us… and then she told me that her children had grown up in St. Luke’s and how much the church had meant to them over the years… and how now they are all living in different places in the United States. Then, she said:

“After 9/11, the children, independently of each other, all called and they all asked: “What did St. Luke’s do… and what did Jim say?”

Wow! I was so touched by those words. A few minutes later, I went alone back into the Sanctuary to retrieve my Bible which I had left on the pulpit. I stood there and looked at our amazing Sanctuary and our magnificent Pulpit and I thought of what that Mom had said: “After 9/11, my children all called and asked, ‘What did St. Luke’s do and what did Jim say?’”

And as I let those words soak into my soul, I realized the sacredness of our responsibility as God’s church. I realized how people in their joys and in their sorrows look to us, count on us, and depend on us… for comfort and direction… how they look to us and count on us for strength, consolation and encouragement… how they turn to us for insight and inspiration always… but especially in the tough times, the trying times of life.

And, I wanted to take off my shoes because I knew I was standing on Holy Ground… Like Moses standing before that Burning Bush years ago, I also realized how overwhelming that call is, how important it is, how crucial it is… how awesome it is.

And as I thought of that, I understood what Moses understood that day long ago…
- That our only hope…, our only hope in performing our sacred responsibility is that God is with us.
- Wherever we go, whatever we do, God will be with us, we can count on that.
- That is God’s great promise on page after page of the Bible…
- That God is with us…
- As we stand on the Holy Ground of service, the Holy Ground of love and the Holy Ground of sacred responsibility.
- So, we can in faith and trust say: “Here am I, Lord, Send Me!”