Proper 17

[Doug Kitchen]

Proper 17 (22) (August 28, 2011)
First reading and Psalm
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b
Alternate First reading and Psalm
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Second reading
Romans 12:9-21
Gospel
Matthew 16:21-28


I'm filling in at a nearby church Sunday. Sounds like I was the 6th person to be asked - should be insulted?


The Exodus reading is Moses and the burning bush. So far, my thoughts are more about what the passage says about God and I am heading in that direction: God approaches Moses, God hears the cries of Israel, God delivers, God IS.

I also really like the Romans passage - great reading - a lot of good sermons in there.

Anyone else speaking from the lectionary this week?

Doug

[Ryan Plott]

I'm not speaking this week but I'm a nerd and like to make sermons for fun. This would be a message I'd prepare for my home church in VA Beach, after the hurricane/earthquake. I think I'd go in a similar direction as you, God's ordering of history and our desire to order the narrative. I think the passages in Jeremiah and Matthew work well as illustrations. Paul pretty much spells it out in Romans. If Ben gets in on this thread I'd be up for swapping some ideas about pacifism.

Anyways, that's kind of my first blush thoughts. Tomorrow is research day.

[Cynthia Prentice]

The burning bush has always puzzled me....why a bush??? I have spent the last seven years on a quest to understand the images of the text within their historical and cultural context. Images are not random word pictures in the Old Testament...they are very specific real life word pictures rich with meaning. One example is when God cut the covenant with Abraham he appeared as a flaming torch and a smoking bread oven (fire pot), still used today in many parts of the world one example being - the tanoor of Syria. It is not much of a stretch to see how they fit in with God's promise to Abraham. And, when it came time for Abraham's descendants to make their wilderness journey, those very two things are prominent in the story. God provided the bread...the food...the manna and God showed the way...the pillar of fire.

I recently realized that within the story, Moses as a wilderness shepherd would have been very familiar with the thorny bush that was burning but not consumed. The bush was/and is used by wilderness shepherds to make a thorny hedge, a sort of sheepfold or personal shelter used to protect livestock or shepherd from attack. This type of protection was recently illustrated on Dual Survival when the guys constructed a thorny, hedged boma out of acacia branches. When God gave the promise to Abraham...one of the promises was that he would "keep" them. The word "keep" has within it the implied meaning of being protected as if by a thorny hedge. I wonder now...if there are images of provision and guidance in the theophany at the cutting of the covenant, could there be the image of protection in the image of the burning bush.

We have a tree that grows in the woods near our house that is a relative of one of the little thorn trees that grows in the wilderness of Sinai. The thorns on the tree are a good two inches long and sharp as can be on the end. I cut one of the thorns off the branch and using a hammer was able to drive it into wood just like a nail. I wouldn't want to tangle with someone who was protected with a thorny hedge made from those branches.

[Doug Kitchen]

The burning bush has always puzzled me....why a bush??? I have spent the last seven years on a quest to understand the images of the text within their historical and cultural context. Images are not random word pictures in the Old Testament...they are very specific real life word pictures rich with meaning. One example is when God cut the covenant with Abraham he appeared as a flaming torch and a smoking bread oven (fire pot), still used today in many parts of the world one example being - the tanoor of Syria. It is not much of a stretch to see how they fit in with God's promise to Abraham. And, when it came time for Abraham's descendants to make their wilderness journey, those very two things are prominent in the story. God provided the bread...the food...the manna and God showed the way...the pillar of fire.

I recently realized that within the story, Moses as a wilderness shepherd would have been very familiar with the thorny bush that was burning but not consumed. The bush was/and is used by wilderness shepherds to make a thorny hedge, a sort of sheepfold or personal shelter used to protect livestock or shepherd from attack. This type of protection was recently illustrated on Dual Survival when the guys constructed a thorny, hedged boma out of acacia branches. When God gave the promise to Abraham...one of the promises was that he would "keep" them. The word "keep" has within it the implied meaning of being protected as if by a thorny hedge. I wonder now...if there are images of provision and guidance in the theophany at the cutting of the covenant, could there be the image of protection in the image of the burning bush.

We have a tree that grows in the woods near our house that is a relative of one of the little thorn trees that grows in the wilderness of Sinai. The thorns on the tree are a good two inches long and sharp as can be on the end. I cut one of the thorns off the branch and using a hammer was able to drive it into wood just like a nail. I wouldn't want to tangle with someone who was protected with a thorny hedge made from those branches.

If you enjoy a little humor, check out Tim Hawkins view of "hedge of protection":

I think the burning bush could symbolize the end of the Israelites reliance on Egypt (if the bush were useful). Do you know if there is evidence that this bush would have been used by a shepherd? I think I have always heard something like being destroyed but not consumed.

Thanks for your response. the service I was going to speak at was canceled due to the hurricane.
Doug

[John Kennedy]

If you enjoy a little humor, check out Tim Hawkins view of "hedge of protection":

I think the burning bush could symbolize the end of the Israelites reliance on Egypt (if the bush were useful). Do you know if there is evidence that this bush would have been used by a shepherd? I think I have always heard something like being destroyed but not consumed.

Thanks for your response. the service I was going to speak at was canceled due to the hurricane.
Doug

Evidently enough water to extinguish the burning bush.

[Cynthia Prentice]

Hi Doug,

Hopefully I will have some time to flesh out my research later on this evening. Things have been crazy busy.

Cynthia

[Cynthia Prentice]

Hi Doug,

Well...I still haven't had time to sit down and share my research (work in progress). Last night we had a beautiful, (think 28 year old Meryl Streep) young woman who was in the middle of a schizophrenia episode come to our church and it took us four hours to get her to a safe place and then we had an unexpected death last night.

I was in the process of researching the historical/cultural imagery of he burning bush when I saw this thread. My study is of the acacia tree that thrives in barren wilderness environments. I encountered the burning bush as an offshoot of my acacia study. The acacia tree is just one of the images I will be speaking about at our upcoming West Texas WOW Conference, something along the line of "Woman vs Wild ~ Surviving life's most difficult, desert times." Let me give you a quick snapshot of what I have so far regarding the burning bush. I'll put my research documentation together for you as soon as my schedule lightens up. The deeper I dig the greater wealth of imagery I find in the "bush."

Short version

I believe the "bush" is most certainly an acacia tree. Although the word for bush, ceneh - thorn bush, is nonspecific and used exclusively in reference to the burning bush, ceneh is also used in proper names that point exclusively to the acacia tree...a tree with wicked, nail-like, long, spiky thorns. The acacia tree thrives in the barren Sinai (Sinai is pronounced in Arabic Sen-uh same as the Hebrew word for bush in the burning bush passages) and it thrives in absolutely brutal conditions.

As a wilderness shepherd, Moses would have been very familiar with the acacia tree. The acacia tree was/is invaluable for the nomadic shepherds (modern day Bedouin). It thrives in the barren wilderness of Sinai. The acacia provides shade, fodder (pods), tannin for tanning skins, medicine, gum arabic, wood for fire( burns well green or dry), protective hedges (because of long thorns). It is used to help prevent hemorrhaging in childbirth...the list goes on and on. In many ways the acacia tree is a Bedouin's best friend in the wilderness.

As someone raised in Pharaoh's house, Moses would also have been very familiar with the acacia tree. The acacia tree is the ancient Egyptian "tree of life" and is associated with various Egyptian gods and goddesses as well as a part of the Egyptian creation story. It kind of puts a new spin on why Moses would have asked for the name of the god speaking from the flames.

The symbolism for the bush is a wonderful blend of positive/negative, wilderness/Egypt. Logic would indicate that the entire group led out of Egypt would perish in the wilderness but instead, because of God's care, they would thrive...just like the acacia. Most likely the acacia tree is the tree in Jeremiah 17:8 and Psalm 1 that is planted by the "river" of water...the dry wadi canyon that only has water several times a year. As someone raised in Pharaoh's house it had to have been impressive to see the God of Abraham dominate the Egyptian tree of life...and render the Egyptian gods to false mythology.

The children of Israel had suffered under the Egyptians, an image of suffering is echoed in thorns and God was going to deliver them and become a thorny hedge of protection for the children of Israel. The thorny hedge is one of the most ancient forms of protection...and is part of the imagery of the word keep, and watchman. In Arabic a thorny acacia hedge is called a zaribah (zareeba) from the word zarb, sheepfold. Ironically the best way to penetrate a thorny hedge is with fire...but just as God spoke from burning flames did not consume the thorny acacia tree...the thorny hedge that God was going to place between the children of Israel and Egypt would not be penetrated and breached.

God told Moses that the sign for him was that he would bring the people (like leading sheep through the desert) back to the very place where he was encountering God in the burning bush. Ultimately God would speak on the mountain and manifest himself in fire and smoke...with the people having to stand back from the mountain...which is a great big version of what happened at the bush...God manifested himself in the bush with fire...Moses had to stop and take off his sandals because it was holy ground. What happened at the burning acacia tree was a little model of what was going to happen when God's presence descended upon the mountain. The flaming acacia tree was a sign that the people would come to a flaming mountain and receive God's Law (instruction)...and on Pentecost the people were in the midst of celebrating the giving of the Law at Sinai when the Ezekiel 1 scripture they were reading came to life and God's flame rested on the believers as he wrote his Law on their hearts.

Back to the pagan Egyptians: The Egyptians believed in their mythology that the soul of the person could dwell on the surface of the top acacia blossoms.

As a sidebar, Moses staff was most likely a branch of acacia wood. Also, in ancient Egypt the acacia tree is associated with the Goddess Hathor (as well as a couple other superstar gods)...so it is not a big reach for the children of Israel to turn from a manifestation of a burning bush/acacia tree (as told by Moses) to worshiping the Egyptian goddess associated with the acacia tree...Hathor...the golden calf.

Anyway...it is a work in progress and subject to much change. It is a fascinating study. Right now I am waiting on two books from Amazon...Married to a Bedouin by Marguerite van Gandermalsen and Bedouin Life in the Egyptian Wilderness by Joseph J. Hobbs...can't wait to read them.

http://www.amazon.com/Married-Bedoui...ref=pd_sim_b_2
http://www.amazon.com/Bedouin-Egypti...4932588&sr=1-4