Third Sunday of Lent

First Reading

Exodus 3:1-8a, 13-15

IMoses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire
flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,
God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.
I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued,
“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
But the LORD said,
“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt
and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers,
so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down to rescue them
from the hands of the Egyptians
and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,
a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites
and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who am.”
Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.

“This is my name forever;
thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”

Second reading

1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 10-12

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
that our ancestors were all under the cloud
and all passed through the sea,
and all of them were baptized into Moses
in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink,
for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them,
and the rock was the Christ.
Yet God was not pleased with most of them,
for they were struck down in the desert.

These things happened as examples for us,
so that we might not desire evil things, as they did.
Do not grumble as some of them did,
and suffered death by the destroyer.
These things happened to them as an example,
and they have been written down as a warning to us,
upon whom the end of the ages has come.
Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure
should take care not to fall.

Gospel

Luke 13:1-9

Some people told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mingled with the blood of their sacrifices.
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way
they were greater sinners than all other Galileans?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!
Or those eighteen people who were killed
when the tower at Siloam fell on them—
do you think they were more guilty
than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?
By no means!
But I tell you, if you do not repent,
you will all perish as they did!”

And he told them this parable:
“There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard,
and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none,
he said to the gardener,
‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree
but have found none.
So cut it down.
Why should it exhaust the soil?’
He said to him in reply,
‘Sir, leave it for this year also,
and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it;
it may bear fruit in the future.
If not you can cut it down.’”

Sermon

Sisters and brothers!

We take it for granted as the most important thing in the world - so much so that we hardly ever pay attention to it. It is vital for every human being, yet we tread it carelessly with our feet. We generally consider it dirty - and yet it could be the “holiest” place on earth. - What am I talking about? The ground beneath our feet.

And why am I talking about it? Well, on a superficial listen, it may seem like an unimportant side verse, a testimony of cultic piety that has been preserved in the biblical tradition - for us, at any rate, it sounds rather trivial that Moses is asked to take off his shoes in the scripture reading we heard earlier, because of the holiness of the ground on which he stands. However, I would like to bring this detail to the center of our consideration.

Overall, this reading from the book of Exodus is perhaps the most important passage in the entire First Testament. It is of central importance because God's very own name is revealed to us here. If the whole Bible is God's self-communication, then the presentation of His name is undoubtedly its center. According to biblical tradition, a name denotes the essence of the person named. And to this day, the reverence of all believing Jews for the name of God is so great that they only dare to write it, but never to pronounce it: their own lips can never be pure enough for it.

“YHWH” - we Christians dare to pronounce the name, just as we call God “our Father” in the wake of Jesus. “YHWH” - these 4 Hebrew letters cannot be clearly translated into our language, most likely with “I am” or “I am here”. What is meant is a word that describes the absolute presence: God is called and is the “I-am-there”, i.e. the one who is always and eternally present and never absent.

His essence is eternal presence and presence. - “I am YHWH - the I-am-there.” This is how God introduces himself to Moses, who later introduces him to the people of Israel, who are suffering under Egyptian slavery. “I am the I-am-there.” For oppressed, suffering and lonely people, there is no holier, no more healing name word - as elusive, incomprehensible and mysterious as the word and what it wants to say may be! Because this name really is inconceivable: who in this world could ever describe their own being in this way and claim to be eternally present? Every child experiences the absence of their parents at some point and has to come to terms with it. Even the most faithful love cannot guarantee the uninterrupted presence of the beloved.

In my opinion, there is only one form of life and world experience that can be a somewhat adequate parable for the eternal presence of God: the experience of the ground beneath one's own feet.

It doesn't matter whether you are a great hiking enthusiast or not - but when hiking we all experience that we have to pay particular attention to the ground beneath our feet. Whether in the forest or in the mountains, roots and uneven ground, scree and rocky ridges can become a trap. So we have to pay particular attention to the ground beneath the soles of our shoes. And it is precisely this ground that we can see as a metaphor, as a parable for the eternal presence of God. The simple ground beneath our feet as a parable for God's presence! The ground is also always there - sometimes offering safe, comfortable footing, but sometimes also bumpy, slippery, requiring a lot of attention - but nevertheless always there! 

If a person stumbles or slips while walking: it is never the fault of the ground, but always the fault of the walker, who was not attentive enough and wanted to force a step on the ground that it did not allow.

In all of this, the ground beneath our feet becomes a parable for God and his presence: God is always there, yet not simply and conveniently available and always accessible, but God also demands attention and trust - often also open eyes and reverence in the sense of a willingness to be attentive and accept his greatness and unconditionality. And just as a person can never fall to the bottomless pit, because even if he falls from the ground he will still be caught - so the name of God also promises us His presence even in our final fall.

This comparison of the ground beneath our feet with God's presence as the “I am the one who is always there” does not necessarily require high mountains or lonely paths. You can pray anywhere - even in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our everyday urban lives - with your whole body, so to speak, and meditate on the eternal presence of God in your own life. It is simply a matter of paying attention to a reality that is normally “ignored” in the truest sense of the word, among the many stimuli that constantly flood our senses. It is important to focus our attention on nothing other than the ground beneath our feet and to feel how this ground supports and holds me; how it constantly challenges my attention and my trust; how - in order to move forward - I have to detach myself from the ground again and again with every step, only to find my footing and stability in it once more. And in all of this, it is important to feel that the ground is always there!

"Take off your shoes. For where you stand is holy ground" - this does not refer to great moments and spectacular events, but to every moment of our lives.

The inconspicuous, the dirt-covered, the carelessly ignored and trodden ground beneath our feet is holy - is the holiest place in this world: because the name and essence of the omnipresent God himself is inscribed in it.