Spontaneous Combustion

For some it is assumed that the search for God begins with knowledge. The cleverer we are, the more we read, reason and use our imagination, the more likely we are to find him. To me this does not seem very fair, since it would imply an exclusive arrangement and that clever imaginative people who have plenty of time to read books are at a very definite advantage when it comes to finding God.

There is also the problem of pride. At times there is a temptation to celebrate our learning, share it with other people thinking we are providing a very useful service to humanity as a whole being one step ahead of the rest. We may consider ourselves very fortunate to have worked it all out, cracked the code, tell everyone about our highly intellectual hieroglyphics, and build a pyramid all of our own in Meeting. Then there will be the doubts, times when our perception of God looks far too much like ourselves, a case of mistaken identity, so there is a need for bravery and honesty as we head back out into the wilderness again as Seekers after Truth.

That time of solitude may not necessarily be in a Meeting for Worship although I think it may be helpful to remember that we are called Quakers for a reason. Like Moses our worship is focused on a time of solitude. We see ourselves for what we really are, and listen out for God. When we discover a sense of wonder at the majesty of God, no wonder we have a reputation for quaking in our shoes like Moses!

Moses first encountered God in the wilderness when a bush quite unexpectedly bust into flames. These days, if such an event happened we would call it spontaneous combustion, look for a scientific cause, perhaps set fire to a few bushes of our own as an experiment to prove the point, not really considering where all this ingenuity, collective knowledge and incendary ability might originally have come from!

Generally the first thing people do when they encounter a fire that no one's planned, is act quickly, make safety the first consideration and then do everything possible to put it out. Instead Moses waited, looked on at the beauty of the flames, and allowed himself that opportunity to experience wonder.
How did Moses know that this was God? Well, I think he realised this was the case because it changed him. The bush was perfectly OK, despite having been burning for some time. Since bushes don't usually talk, it had no way how telling other bushes quite what it had been through which must have been a bit frustrating.

This was nothing however to the predicament of poor Moses. He may have been a little scared before this had all happened but must have been absolutely terrified now. Instead of allowing himself an opportunity to hide in the wilderness for the rest of his life, he knew now that it was necessary to be honest about his true identity, face up to his past and go back to the court of Pharoah.
How do we know that it is God speaking to us in our Meeting? Perhaps in the same way as Moses, that we are transformed. We emerge honest about our true identity, facing up to our past, ready to say we are sorry. For the challenges we face in a very secular, materialistic and so often uncaring world, we go back to the court of Pharaoh.