22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week, we continue our journey through the story of the Exodus, the journey of the Israelite people from slavery in Egypt to freedom and re-settlement in the Promised Land—one of the richest and most dramatic stories we find in our Bibles. Full of murderous plots, burning bushes, plagues of all kinds, fights with the powerful, an exhilarating escape to freedom, the looking back over one's shoulder, wandering in the wilderness, and more, it is also one of the most central stories through which Jews and Christians alike understand who God is and who they are as people of faith.

In this week’s scene, Moses—the one who becomes the leader of the people and the voice through which God speaks to friend and foe alike—encounters the presence of God and the call of God upon his life in the mysterious and curiosity-provoking sign of the “burning bush”, the bush that was ablaze but not being consumed by the fire. How is it that we discover who we are called to be in the heat of the crucible moments of our lives? How is it that God reveals who God truly is for us in the fires of such moments, too?