MEDITATION DELIVERED BY BISHOP

Delivered by H. George Anderson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, during the service of worship in celebration of shared ministry between the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and McCormick Theological Seminary

January 23, 2001

Text: Exodus 3:1-6

Moses 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. There 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. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When 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." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." He 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.

Thank you for the opportunity to share in this wonderful day! I bring the greetings of all the members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who celebrate this groundbreaking with you. It is the concrete expression of what full communion can mean.

And I congratulate the planners on picking the story of the burning bush as one of the lessons for this occasion. Certainly there is nothing like a fire to draw a crowd.

And the next best thing to a fire is a construction site. It is not just the fact that heavy equipment is doing heroic things with digging and lifting and moving earth. People are curious. They wonder what is "going on," what the building will look like. Then come steel workers and masons and carpenters to give it shape and character.
Subtle changes every day. People just have to look. Like Moses in the story of the burning bush, they will "turn aside and look at this great sight."

But the deeper fascination of the burning bush is not that it is on fire, but that it is not consumed. Moses says, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight and see why the bush is not burned up."

But in fact his question will never be answered.

Instead of finding out why the bush is fireproof, Moses is drawn into a conversation with God that leads to God revealing the name "Yahweh" and ultimately calling Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.

The bush, in fact, is not the source of the fire, but rather the place of the fire—the receptacle, so to speak, for God's revelation. It provides the framework for God's presence to be seen, for God's voice to be heard, for God's nature to be revealed and God's call to be issued.

And is that not really the role of a theological seminary as well? To be a place of revelation and call? To provide the setting where conversations with God take place? Where we, like Moses, bring our curiosity and our self-doubts, our misgivings about God's people and their readiness to hear. And, most significantly, where we have to listen…listen to a God whose plans for us far exceed our abilities, and whose power far exceeds our expectations.

May this building be a place where curiosity leads to doxology. Where we are led to exclaim:
Now to [God] whom by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. [Ephesians 3:20-21].