There are many cultures that observe the removal of one’s shoes or footwear when entering a house. Can you name some?

Filipinos, Japanese…

 

Why the practice? – a very specific shoe etiquette that is unfamiliar to most Westerners

 

Why do the Japanese take their shoes off, especially when they enter their homes or temples? Taking off one’s shoes is a fairly ancient custom in Japan, going back at least to the 7th or 8th century, that it’s widespread — 98 percent of all Japanese do it — and that people have specific reasons for doing so.

Two equally important reasons for taking their shoes off when they enter their homes:

1) to keep their houses and floors clean; and

2) to be able to relax and be themselves.

Among Filipinos, they would say to visitors “Please feel at home.”

What does ‘feeling at home’ mean?  It means you can do what pleases you as if you are in your own home.

So why did God tell Moses to take his shoes off? There had to be more to this story than attitude and etiquette. If we look for connections between the Japanese and Moses, the cleanliness response doesn’t go very far. Moses is in the desert after all, and tracking dirt from one area to another probably wouldn’t make much of a difference.

But let’s imagine the second possibility for a moment… Is it possible that God tells Moses to take his shoes off because he wants Moses to be himself? To remove all pretence? To be vulnerable and open to what God has to say?

Another question is what makes a place holy? God tells Moses he is standing on holy ground.

 

Do you remember the saying “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”?

 

Holiness has something to do with being clean, not necessarily being like in a hospital – sterile. It is not a physical manifestation but more on purity, being unadulterated, having a clean heart.

 

Holiness is brought about by God’s presence and the message God brings. In all God’s appearance before human beings (characters in the Bible) – from Abraham to Moses, from Mary and Saul (Apostle Paul) – God would always bring a message of good news, of justice, hope, healing and great promises for the future.

 

Here in this text, God lays out the single largest rescue operation in the entire Bible. God could have done it alone or God could have chosen anyone on earth for the job. But God specifically selected Moses. In doing so, there must have been something about Moses, with all of his flaws, gifts, and unique qualities, that God was interested in putting to good use.

 

Is it possible that in calling out to Moses, God wanted Moses to be Moses, to be himself, rather than pretending to be someone else?

 

Holiness is being oneself before God, no pretences, no masks, being bare before God (like Adam and Eve before the fall, being barefoot.)

 

God taught Moses to be holy. We are also taught to be holy because we worship and follow a holy God.

 

In the time Jesus, he taught his disciples to be holy. Holiness for Jesus is to set one’s mind on divine things and not on human things.

 

Matthew 16:21-28

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” 23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

 

Setting your mind on divine things, not on human things.

 

God’s plan to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt revealed and realised through Moses

 

God’s plan to return the exiles from Babylon to Israel through Prophet Isaiah, Nehemiah, Jeremiah and many more

 

Jesus message of God’s reign. Humankind’s salvation through Jesus’ death on the cross…

 

Which received Peter’s rebuke, and he himself rebuked by Jesus for setting his mind on human things.

 

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

 

Jesus mentions the cross here. To take up one’s cross is required of every willing follower.

 

At this point, the cross has not yet become a symbol of salvation but a burden. It was an instrument of punishment and death sentence by the Roman Empire against common criminals, bandits and rebels.

It was the instrument of condemnation. It was a sign for what happens when power is crossed and when you choose to embody in the world a different expression of power.

 

It was only after the resurrection that the cross became a symbol of salvation and God’s triumph over death and evil.

 

Do you carry a cross?

 

Do you wear one. Why? To show you are a Christian believer…

 

This is a time and place when you wear a cross not just to show the world who you are, but to remind yourself of who God wants you to be in the world.

 

It means the willingness to stand against power that silences and oppresses: the insistence on speaking up for those who are disempowered and disenfranchised; and the courage to call out injustice for what it is. It means the resolve to renounce those systems and institutions and leaders who choose themselves lord it over others.

 

The cross is meant to remind us of the Divine things: God’s desire, God’s plans, God’s instruction/commands – All about the establishment of God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven.

 

Amen.