“Turn aside”

A sermon preached by Rev. Magdalena I. García at the Opening Worship for the 2011 Women of Color Consultation, held October 20-23, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Exodus 3:1-15 (NRSV)
1Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” 13But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’“ 15God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

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Vignette #1
“There is no hiding place”

Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine Band,
have given the world much energizing music.
And as I was pondering Exodus 3,
one of their songs kept popping into my head.
It’s the one called, “The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You.”
Do you know it? Sing it with me...

O eh, o eh, o eh, o eh
O eh, oo aah, o eh, oo aah
O eh, o eh, o eh, o eh
O eh, oo aah, o eh, oo aah

At night when you turn off all the lights
There’s no place that you can hide
Oh no, the rhythm is gonna get you

In bed, throw the covers on your head
You pretend like you are dead
But I know it, the rhythm is gonna get you

Rhythm is gonna get you,
Rhythm is gonna get you,
Rhythm is gonna get you
The rhythm is gonna get you tonight...

The more I heard that song in my head,
the more I thought about Moses!
He thinks he can get away.
He thinks he can leave Egypt behind.
He thinks he’ll never again have to deal
with those tattle-tale Israelites.
But he can’t get away because...
“the rhythm is gonna get you!”

And that’s the first point I’d like to make tonight:
there is no getting away,
because “God’s rhythm is gonna get you!”

You might manage to get away from God’s people for a while,
you might get away from the hood, the barrio or the trenches for a while,
but there is no hiding from God.
So the question, my sisters, is not if God is calling you;
the question is: to what is God calling you (as a woman of color)?

Alright, that was Vignette # 1, and in good Presbyterian fashion,
I have three vignettes (snapshots) for you tonight.
Please, allow me to do at least one thing
that the system taught me!

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Vignette #2
“Pay attention”

I love children’s stories, and especially picture books,
so I have quite a collection,
including many multicultural folktales, authors, and themes.
And I love children’s stories because they are beautifully illustrated,
and because they can be very profound,
and they remind me of the teachings of Jesus,
who loved to speak in parables, metaphors, and riddles.

One of those stories is El Gran Capoquero: Un Cuento de la Selva Amazónica.
I own copies of the book both in Spanish and English,
but could only find my Spanish copy as I was packing for this trip.

Here is what Wikipedia says about it:
“The Great Kapok Tree is an American children’s picture book
about rainforest conservation.
It was written and illustrated by Lynne Cherry,
and was originally published by Harcourt Brac Jovanovich in 1990.
The book is dedicated to Chico Mendes,
a Brazilian environmental activist who was murdered in 1988.

“The Great Kapok Tree is set in the Amazon rainforest.
A young man begins to chop down a kapok tree,
following the orders of a “larger man.”
After he has hit the tree a few times with his axe,
he sits down to rest and falls asleep.
While he sleeps, several rainforest animals and a Ya̧nomamö child
whisper into his ear and beg him to spare the tree,
explaining its importance in the fragile ecosystem.
When the man awakes,
he leaves his axe at the foot of the tree and walks away…”

As I was pondering Exodus 3,
the story of The Great Kapok Tree also kept popping into my head.
Now, I know what you’re all thinking,
“Magdalena, you probably failed biology,
and you most certainly fell asleep during the botany lesson.
Exodus 3 is not about a kapok tree; it’s about a burning bush.”

Well, let me assure you, I really do know the difference
between a kapok tree and a burning bush.
The kapok tree is a formidable tropical tree
native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean,
and northern South America,
that grows to 200 feet tall and beyond.
In Spanish it’s called a ceiba.
While the burning bush is, well, a bush,
native to Central China and Korea,
that grows to about 12 to 15 feet tall.
We have lots of burning bushes in Chicago,
and the leaves turn so red in the fall,
that they indeed look like they are on fire.

Now, just to complicate matters a little more, here is a little trivia.
The Hebrew word translated as “bush” is seneh,
entry H5572 in Strong’s Lexicon,
and it simply means “a thorny bush.”
So, it’s neither a kapok tree nor the leafy burning bush we know.
Seneh appears only in two places in the Hebrew Scriptures:
Exodus 3 and Deuteronomy 33:16,
and some scholars believe that, instead of a bush,
it might be a mistaken interpretation of Sinai,
a mountain described by the Bible as being on fire.

Regardless, God speaks to Moses through an unexpected means.
And just like in the story of The Great Kapok Tree,
where unexpected sources—animals and an indigenous child—
whisper to the man and beg him to spare the tree,
explaining its importance in the fragile ecosystem,
in Exodus 3 an unexpected source—a burning bush—
is where the angel of the Lord appears
and tells Moses to go and spare the lives of enslaved people,
explaining their importance in God’s loving eyes.

We read in verses 7 and 8a:
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians...”

So, my dear sisters, we better start turning aside,
and we better start paying attention to God’s burning bushes.
And that’s the second point I want to make tonight.

Turn aside and listen to your sisters from a different racial group,
because they are God’s burning bushes.
Turn aside and listen to your sisters from a different cultural perspective,
because they are God’s burning bushes.
Turn aside and listen to your sisters from a different generation,
because they are God’s burning bushes.
Turn aside and listen to you sisters with a different sexual orientation,
because they are God’s burning bushes.
Turn aside and listen to you sisters with a different immigration status,
because they are God’s burning bushes.
Turn aside and listen to you sisters from a different faith tradition,
because they are God’s burning bushes.

God is calling us—all of us—to turn aside,
and pay attention to the bushes all around us:
burning with the longing to be welcomed,
burning with the longing to be heard,
burning with the longing to offer insights,
burning with the longing to be accepted,
burning with the longing to be protected,
burning with the longing to be understood.
Turn aside and pay attention to the small, prickly bushes,
that are quietly burning away—and sometimes even being consumed—
because that’s where God’s presence and voice will be found.

And if you do,
your life will become like a great kapok tree,
where fragile, invisible, endangered creatures
can find shelter and life,
and they will flock to you and thank you,
and they will praise your name and God’s name,
using words like the ones from Isaiah 25:4-5:
4For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
5the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
the song of the ruthless was stilled.

Turn aside and pay attention to the burning bushes!

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Vignette # 3
“You are the bush”

A couple of weeks ago, we hosted a guest choir at my church,
Ravenswood Presbyterian, in Chicago.
We had a glorious service of praise
with The SymphoNY Chorus, from New York City.
After the morning service, my son Miguel and I rode home together,
and we started talking about the performance.
That lead to a conversation about how in my youth
I was part of a local church production
of the musical Jesus Christ Super Star.

So I said to Miguel, “You’ll never guess what part I was.”
Now you need to understand that my son is 13,
and he still thinks that mom is the best and God is cool.
So right away he said, “You were Mary, the mother of Jesus.”
To which I replied, “No, I can’t sing that good, Miguel,
and there were auditions for the show. Try again.”
“You were Mary Magdalene,” he said.
“No, I wasn’t that either. Actually, I had a very small part.”
So Miguel was quiet for a moment, while he thought,
and then he blurted out, “You were a bush!”
And we both started laughing hysterically!

As I read Exodus 3 in preparation for tonight,
I realized that Miguel is right: I am a bush!
I am the bush, and because of my life experience
I often have a difficult and painful truth,
a thorny and prickly truth
burning on my heart and lips
that must be shared with the Moseses of this world:
those who are busy wandering and getting away
or simply enjoying their access to a large flock!

And that is the third and final point I want to make tonight:
I am a bush!
But more importantly: you are a bush!

And so, my dear sisters, the question is,
are we willing to burn alive for God’s truth and purpose,
so that others might see God at work!
Are we willing to risk our security—and even our lives—
so that others might be free!

Just a couple of weeks ago three of God’s burning bushes
were honored by the world.
Let me read to you from an NPR news story dated October 7, 2011:
“The three women who won the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize
were lauded for their courage in standing up
to the violence and brutality of oppressive regimes
in Liberia and Yemen.
The five-member Nobel Committee in Norway announced Friday
that it would split the coveted award three ways,
honoring Africa’s first democratically elected female president,
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf;
Liberian campaigner Leymah Gbowee;
and Yemeni democracy activist Tawakkul Karman.
The committee said Sirleaf, Gbowee and Karman
are being recognized for
‘their nonviolent struggle for the safety of women
and for women’s rights to full participation
in peace-building work.’ ”

Are you willing to burn alive for God’s truth and purpose,
so that others might see God at work!
Are you willing to risk your security—and even your life—
so that others might be free!

Allow me to close with a poem written by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand,
who grew up in Puerto Rico.
It is taken from the book César Chávez: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We Can!,
and the poem is titled, “Who Could Tell?”

“¡Híjole! [Mexican for “wow”]
Who could tell?

Who could tell
that Cesario Estrada Chávez,
the shy American
wearing a checkered shirt,
walking with a cane to ease his back
from the burden of the fields,
could organize so many people
to march for La Causa, The Cause?

Who could tell
that he with a soft pan dulce voice, [Mexican sweet bread voice]
hair the color of mesquite,
and downcast, Aztec eyes,
would have the courage to speak up
for the campesinos [farm workers]
to get better pay,
better housing,
better health?

¡Híjole!
Who could tell?”

May you and I live in such a way,
that someday others might say about us:
¡Híjole! Who could tell?

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A blessing from Colossians 1:11-14 (NRSV):
“May you be made strong with all the strength
that comes from [God’s] glorious power,
and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience,
while joyfully giving thanks to [God],
who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

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