“Take your sandals off, the ground where you’re standing is holy.” Exodus 3

“Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I knew a family, they were from Iraq as I recall, who would occasionally visit the church I was serving.  This was long ago. Before entering the sanctuary, they would remove their shoes. Always. 

I also had a teacher, more of an instructor in the art of Spiritual Direction, who spent most of his time barefoot. Much more than merely a preference for personal comfort, and certainly not a way for him to garner attention, his was, I’m convinced, an awareness that most of the people whom he encountered and places he navigated were sacred.

In my past faith tradition, there was a constant distinction made between the sacred and the secular.  The sacred was limited to the confines of the church, or a specially designated holy place, and the secular was everywhere else.  By association the people who frequented the church were therefore also sacred, and those who didn’t come to the church—especially “our” church—were secular, profane, perhaps even apostate.

It was and is an unfortunate distinction.  But not a new one, as is evidenced by Moses, who encounters God in a bush in the wilderness, or Jonah, who hears God speak to him in the belly of a big fish in the sea, or by Mary who enthrones The Sacred in her own flesh.  All of them, and so many more, removed their shoes in the Presence of the Sacred, whom they encountered in places and people they’d never have dreamed of.  Jesus was the epitome of such.  It seems the only ones who consistently recognized His divinity were the demons.

Yes, earth is crammed with heaven, and with bushes aflame all around us.  But do we see them?  The call to faith is not to become a more pious person striving for perfection and in the process assuming an air of spiritual superiority over others, but rather to be humble enough to recognize when we are in the Presence of the sacred, especially when the Holy is hidden; and then to remove our shoes.

Here I pause, to reflect on this past week, and whether I had any such encounters.  To be sure, there were many of them, of  most I was completely clueless.  The better question might be, which sacred encounters with a bush aflame with the presence of God was I aware of?

One comes to mind. It was in the bakery section of King Soopers.  I was doing some shopping for a simple lunch I was planning on sharing with friends.  One of the workers was taking baked goods that had reached their expiration date and placing them on a cart.  I asked if they had rolls for sandwiches.  They did and handed me a package.  Then I asked if they had any desserts.

“Yes, we do.  But I haven’t gotten to them yet,” said Evelyn, the person marking down the items.  “If you come back in about ten minutes they’ll all be ready.”

I thanked her and wandered around the store aimlessly for a time, managing to find some items I didn’t need.  When I returned the cart was loaded and ready to be wheeled out to the clearance section.  I followed Evelyn, like those pesky seagulls that harass you on the beach hoping for bread or some other tidbit of food.  And then I helped her unload the abundance of baked delights, investigating any extra goodies that appealed to me.  As we were restocking the clearance section Evelyn and I carried on a conversation that covered everything from the cost of groceries, to her family, to how much pleasure she derives in helping people like me get bargains on baked goods.  It was a brief exchange, certainly not more than a few minutes, but deeply satisfying. . . and yes, sacred.   She was a kind soul.  I think you could say divine.

Sacred ground. Sacred People.  We’re standing with them and on it all the time.  It’s simply a matter of whether we see.  If only we could . . .  we’d be barefoot all the time.

What about you?  How do you view the sacred?

When was the last time you removed your shoes, literally or figuratively, as the result of recognizing you were standing on holy ground?