The Burning Bush

Preached on 02-11-01

THE BURNING BUSH

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

" . . . and he saw, and behold the bramble burned with fire, and the bramble was in no wise consumed. And Moses said, I will therefore go aside, and see this great vision, why the bramble is not burnt." (Exod. 3:2,3)

WE ARE GATHERED IN THIS CHURCH to worship the Lord. Implied in this, is, of course, a knowledge of the Lord. If we didn't know Him, or at least know about Him, we could not really worship Him.

But how well do we really know Him? Since there are countless truths concerning the Lord in the Scriptures and the Writings, we might say that we know many things about Him. But how many of these truths do we really know? How many of them have we bothered to pay attention to? And amongst those things we do know, how many have we really reflected upon and thought about, so that we might come to see and know the Lord better?

All too often the real reason we have trouble in understanding the Lord is that we have not bothered to take sufficient time to read, to think and to reflect. As a result, when we really try to think about who it is we are worshipping, we find that our thoughts about Him are unclear and muddled. We have some kind of picture, but it is confused. There may be all kinds of things we know about the Lord, and all kinds of things we may have heard from others. But, all kinds of undigested knowledges don't make a picture. All they make is a confused mass of information.

We must of course realize that we will never know all there is to know about the Lord. The angels of heaven discover more and more about Him to all eternity, and find their greatest joy in this. Yet for us, the problem we have in knowing the Lord does not lie simply in the fact that He is infinite and we are merely finite. All too often the problem we have in understanding the Lord is that though He loves us, we don't love Him in return. We don't really understand the Lord because we don't really love Him. Indeed, it is only as we come to truly love the Lord that we for the first time come to really see and understand Him.

Our first lesson this morning talks about such a vision. It is the story of how the Lord first appears to Moses, and how Moses learns about Him. It is important to realize that before this vision, Moses and the other Israelites didn't even know the Lord's name. They had, we are told, actually forgotten the name "Jehovah" (AC 6877). Therefore, it is when he sees the Lord within a burning bush that Moses for the first time learns the Lord's name of Jehovah or I am. The Lord tells Moses to tell the Israelites that "I AM has sent me to you." (Ex. 3:14). Jehovah or Yehowah is related to the Hebrew verb meaning to be, and therefore I am and Jehovah are basically the same name.

Now obviously we know the Lord's name, at least in a natural sense. But by a name, in the internal sense, is meant quality. Do we really know the Lord's quality -- that is, do we really know what He is like? Have we come to really know and see Him in the truths of the Word? Or are the things we have learnt just a tangled mass of information? We all know that the Lord can be seen in the Word. But when we read and listen, it can so easily happen that what we read and learn seems to have little real meaning. We don't see what we are supposed to see in the Word; we have difficulty in seeing what is so precious and special about the Old and New Testaments and the Writings. What we read might even seem at times dull and boring; but this is because we don't really see the Lord in His Word.

Our vision of the Lord might thus be described as a bush -- a tangled bush. Indeed, knowledges in our memories are represented in the Word by many kinds of small shrubs. Now in the story we are considering, the bush is, we learn in the Writings, a blackberry bush -- or a bramble. When we think of how tangled a bramble can be, we can see that it is a representation, a picture, of those truths from the Word we may have learnt but have not really understood.

Now these truths are good, just as a blackberry bush bears good fruit even though it is tangled. Still, we do not at first notice the Lord's presence in these truths. Why not? We are told that Moses saw a bramble, burning with fire, and it was not consumed. He decided to turn aside to go and see this startling phenomenon. We are told in the Arcana that by "seeing," in the spiritual sense, is meant noticing, and that by "turning aside" is meant reflection. This is what is necessary if we are to have a vision of the Lord in the Word. We must see or notice Him; and we must reflect on what we see of Him. What is more, without this noticing and reflection, the Lord's Word has a tendency to seem tangled and confused in our minds, just like a bramble.

We cannot see the Lord unless we notice Him and stop and reflect. In this it is the same as with everything else in life. We know from everyday experience that we cannot see or be fully aware of anything unless we stop and reflect. We don't usually hear the ticking of a familiar clock, or even its chimes, unless we take notice of it. We are not aware of our breathing unless we stop and think about it. If we are writing, we don't notice the pressure of our fingers upon the pen, unless we reflect upon it. As for our eyes, there are many things in our field of vision which we don't usually notice unless we pay attention. There are, then, very many things which we are only vaguely aware of, things which are not part of our conscious thought unless we notice them and give them our attention.

Now what is it that makes somebody notice some things and not others? To some degree it is determined by whether or not he is used to something. To take a simple example, if we put on a pair of sunglasses, we are immediately aware of the difference they make. But if a few minutes pass, we become completely unaware of them. All of us can think of many other examples of things we don't notice because we are so used to seeing or hearing them.

There is, however, another factor that determines whether or not we notice something, and this is our love. If we love something, we give it our attention. If we don't love something, we may be completely oblivious to it. Two men walking down the same street might see completely different things. One might love cars, and notices almost every car that goes by. The other might be a keen gardener, and notices the different flowers in front of people's houses. But neither of the two men sees what the other is seeing. It is not simply a matter of not looking at something. There is a complete unawareness, because there is no interest. It is like the little boy who is engrossed in something he loves. It isn't that he ignores his mother calling him in to lunch. Very often he doesn't even hear. He can't hear. He isn't paying attention. His love for what he is doing has removed almost all reflection of anything else. Love is the key to what a person notices and reflects upon. Love is what directs a person's attention and enables him to see things he wouldn't otherwise see.

This is the reason that people can read the Word, the most precious and wonderful gift the Lord has given us, and not see anything remarkable in it. And it is also the reason why other people do see the most wonderful things in the Word, and indeed see in the Word the Lord Himself.

If we don't love the Lord, and if we don't love the blessings He offers us, preferring instead to love ourselves and the world, then we cannot really see Him in the truths of the Word, any more than the little boy could hear his mother calling him in from play. We may indeed read and hear the Word, but it has no real impact upon us -- it is crowded out by worldly concerns -- represented by those thorns spoken of by the Lord in the New Testament: "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the Word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the Word, and he becomes unfruitful" (Matt. 13:22).

We need to love the Lord in order to see Him in the Word. And because this love comes only gradually, so too, our vision of the Lord can grow only gradually. Now obviously even an unregenerate man can see something in the Word. This the Lord makes possible, for otherwise no unregenerate man could be saved by the Word. But still, the Word can only be seen to be full of life -- full of the Lord's presence -- when we truly love Him.

It is common for people to think of the Word, and particularly the Writings, as abstract. If by the Word being abstract is meant that it talks about eternal things, rather than the relatively trivial things of everyday life, then the Word is indeed abstract. But often what people mean when they say that the Word is abstract is that it talks about things that they are not interested in. Indeed, a brilliant mathematician, for example, who deals in abstract concepts every day, and loves to do so, might still find the Word itself too abstract, if he does not love it.

This is one of the reasons that a person must undergo temptations. Suppose, for example, a man has an opinion which he has not really thought about that much. Then somebody picks an argument with him. All of a sudden he is filled with a desire to defend his opinion. With this desire comes the ability to notice, all of a sudden, many reasons for holding to his belief. He finds all kinds of ways of confirming it. This is possible because of his desire to defend his viewpoint. So too with temptation. Many truths a person knows may seem abstract because they don't mean much to him -- they don't touch his love. But in temptation, when evil spirits cause him to doubt many things, his love for these things is aroused, and the truths of the Word become important to him, important as a means for removing these doubts. For the first time he notices all kinds of things in the Word that he hadn't really noticed or thought about before. At the same time, during temptation, his love for what is good is attacked. He is tempted by evil spirits, who stir up all kinds of evil desires. The man, if he truly cares for what is good, will resist these desires. In the process, he receives a greater love for what is good, and a greater love for the Lord.

Temptations are not pleasant. They are like a mental wilderness. Life for a time seems barren and devoid of meaning. But by this process person's love is strengthened, not only his love for truths and goods, but also his love for the Lord. Coming out of this spiritual wilderness, he is given a love by the Lord which enables him to see wonderful things in the Word. It is from love that he notices love. Because he loves the Lord, he can now see that what is written in the Word is a message of love from Him. Within his mind the Word is no longer a series of tangled, disorganized facts about religion, but a loving message from a human being -- a Divinely Human being. He sees the Lord's presence in the Word.

So too, it was in the wilderness that Moses first saw the Lord. He saw a bramble. But in the midst of the bramble was a fire -- the fire of the Lord's love. The miracle was that the bramble was not consumed. This is the miracle of the Word. The Lord's love, in itself, is so intense that it would destroy and burn up the human mind if it was sensed directly. But in the Word this love is accommodated to our perception. The truths we receive there are full of the Lord's love, but filled with His love in such a way that our minds, when containing these truths, are not burned up like a bush on fire, but are, rather, filled with the warmth and the gentleness of love.

This vision of the Lord is what awaits us in the Word. At first, and often for a long time, this vision may appear obscured. We may at times even feel that we hardly know the Lord. He seems too far away, and perhaps sometimes He even seems unreal. But He is really very close; indeed He is reality itself. Everything has reality from Him. What is missing is our attention. He is close, but we simply don't notice Him. We don't notice Him because our loves are focussed on worldly and selfish things. The Word is choked by the thorns of worldly loves. But as we persevere in our reading of the Word, and as we persevere in the life of religion, we gradually come to see wonderful things in what we learn. We see the Lord by seeing His love in the truths we receive.

Then our attention is no longer completely focussed on worldly loves. Our mind is lifted upwards, to enjoy the presence of an infinitely more wonderful and precious love. The lower things of this world which we at first value so highly are moved to the side. These things, because they are in the lowest part of person's mind, are like shoes. "Pull off your shoes from upon your feet," the Lord told Moses, "for the place whereon you stand a ground of holiness is this" (Ex. 3:5). Once these lower distractions are removed, once our love has come to focus on the Lord, we then approach Him, listen to Him, learn from Him, and learn about Him. We come to know the Lord, we come to love Him, and in our hearts we at last draw close to Him, and welcome Him into our hearts as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Lessons: Exodus 3:1-15, Mt. 13:18-23, AC 6832:1; 6833