“Do not come any closer,” God said, “Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground.”

One of the most famous speeches in American history is Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The occasion was the dedication of a cemetery where those who had been killed in the Civil War battle were buried. It was Lincoln who said, “It is altogether fitting and proper” that they would do this. But Lincoln went on, in larger sense, those who had come to set apart that ground could not “dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.” The brave men who had struggled there had already hallowed it “far beyond our poor power to add or detract.” It was those who had fought and died for their country at Gettysburg that made holy the ground on which they were now standing.

It was, also, a death that enables us to stand on holy ground: Jesus’ death enables us to stand on the holiest ground, in the very presence of God.

I ask you what makes the ground holy?

To fill in some background on today’s lesson you need to know that Moses was once a prince of Egypt. He had tried to help “his people” once before and it hadn’t worked out. In his efforts to help he had murdered an Egyptian overseer. The murder of a government official hadn’t helped the people and the Pharaoh wanted Moses dead for his crime. Moses had to flee Egypt.

This fugitive from justice ends up in backwater Midian, herding sheep and it looks like his life will close out there and he will fade from history, but of course our story doesn’t end there. One day herding sheep God uses a burning bush, but a bush that does not burn up, to draw Moses to a special place.

From within the bush he hears his name being called. We live in an age of special effects, hidden microphones, and candid cameras, but Moses did not. I can assure you hearing the voice of God unnerves you.

He calls Moses by name. Names are a powerful thing, especially if the person who is saying it knows who you are and what you have done. In my own life I know the kids always hated it when Ruth Ann would call them using their full name- first, middle, and last. From her tone it was obvious she knew what they had done or left undone.

Understand this: God knows your full name. He knows all that you have done and left undone. Imagine for a moment being called into his presence; imagine Him all of a sudden standing there and summoning you by name. It could be rather ….unnerving.

God says to Moses, our fugitive from justice, Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground. This place is holy because God has made Himself more manifest; He has turned up the volume of His presence. We, too, are called onto holy ground. It is holy ground where His Word is preached, where His Sacraments are rightly administered, and where we gather to study His Word and to pray. It is holy ground where we are ministered to, by, and through His Word. The places are made holy- the ground is made holy- not by what we do, but by and through God and what He does there.

Lord, bring us to realize it is Holy Ground where you make Yourself known to us. Bring us to that realization and to not neglect it nor treat it with sinful disdain. Bring us to remove “the shoes of our hearts” and bow down before you.

Moses is now trembling and hiding his face and God speaks. Being brought into the presence of God is a humbling and frightful experience- He is holy and we are not. Our unholiness cannot be covered up by our good works, our good intentions, our excuses, or our ignorance of Him. Oh, for a time in our sinfulness we can swagger and boast with the best of sinners, but in the end we will all be brought before God, and if something isn’t done to save us we will be worse off than Moses, trembling and hiding our faces from God. Salvation is what this is all about.

God said to Moses, I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out…. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land…. Most of us know the rest of the story: Moses hesitatingly goes back to Egypt where on behalf of God he confronts Pharaoh, really does battle with him. It would take ten major disasters, ten plagues, ten clear displays of the power of God to secure the release of the enslaved children of Israel.

Did you know that we too are enslaved? We are enslaved by sin and death and they are cruel task masters. Adding to the oppression of our bondage is hurt, unfairness, disease, war, hate, discrimination, and so much more. We have been enslaved so long that we have come to oppress each other with unforgiveness, selfishness, and indifference. Add to all this that we are arrogant against the only One who can save us. Yet, in His mercy God has heard our pitiful cries for rescue.

Where he sent Moses to rescue the children of Israel our rescue would take another type of Moses, One who was much greater than Moses. It would take God Himself not appearing from within a bush but God Himself taking upon Himself our flesh. For in Christ (Jesus) all the fullness of (God) lives in bodily form. (Col 2.9) He came to us and for us to free us from sin, death, and the devil.

Christ displayed the power of God by and through the miracles He did. He was certified by and through the works He did, works that only God could do: the lame walked, the blind were given sight, lepers were cleansed, and the dead were raised. He fed thousands with a few loaves of bread, cast out demons, and calmed storms. He spoke with the authority of One who is from God and is God. This He did that we would know He is the eternal I AM.

He came to rescue us, to set us free. This He did by taking our place. He took upon Himself the bondage of our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us. Under the lash of sinful men He took up our cross and carried to the ground of Golgotha. There sinful men like us crucified the One who came to save us.

There His blood poured out, washing down the cross and flooding across the ground. His blood, His sacrifice, and, ultimately, His death made that place Holy Ground. You see the price to set us free was: One who was without sin had to willingly lay down His life for us; His blood had to be poured out in full measure to cover the incredible iniquity of our sins- without the shedding of blood there can be no real and lasting forgiveness.

The One sent to save us died…giving up His life to save us even as we continued to sin against Him. They took Him down and laid Him in a grave that should have been ours. He died the death that should have been ours. The story could and should have ended there but remember this was no mere man come to save us, this was God in flesh appearing and just as He promised He rose from the dead and was again distinctively and decidedly declared to us with power to be the Son of God. (Rms 1.4) That cross, that tomb, and all the places where it is studied about, marveled over and proclaimed are holy ground, not because of the real estate but because of Who was there and what He did for us there: He set us free from sin and death.

Because of Him we are “Free, free at last.” That freedom He gives to us by and through baptism and the hearing of His Word. That freedom we take hold of by God given faith. It is that faith that helps us to live free even though for a short time, we still live in a land enslaved by sin.

On November 19, 1863 President Lincoln, was called to stand and speak about land that had been hallowed not by what was said about it by what had been done there. He said, “We cannot consecrate this ground- we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

So it is for us. We cannot make the ground upon which our Savior lived and died holy. He has done it by what He did for us by and through His life, death, and resurrection. We have been called not just to sit and give our nodding approval to what was He done for us, but we have been called and given a task: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. That is our task. Like Moses we have been sent. Let us go knowing that the God who went with Moses goes with us.

Lord, help us to go and tell. Create in us grateful hearts that overflow because of all You have done for us and continue daily to do for us that we will be made bold for the Gospel. Forgive us when, like Moses, we shrink back offering all manner of excuses and embolden us to go down to the various Egypts around us and tell them of our Jesus- tell them of His holy ground.