The Burning Bush

In one paragraph

Brian opened 2024 with a sense that the year will bring a level of complexity comparable to moments like 9/11 or COVID, a kind of Rubicon that once crossed cannot be undone. The sermon worked through Exodus 3 with the congregation at Tribe, asking what it looks like to find clarity inside that complexity rather than running from it. The burning bush turned out to carry more weight than most of us...

Read together

1. Exodus 3:1-6 read aloud by a congregation member as the main text for the sermon
2. Deuteronomy 33:13-16 read from the screen to show the only other Old Testament use of the same Hebrew word for bush, connecting Joseph's blessing to the burning bush
3. Song of Solomon 5:2 quoted by the speaker to connect the image of dew-drenched hair to Jesus praying in Gethsemane
4. Matthew 27:27-31 read to show the crown of thorns placed on Jesus, connecting it to the thorny bush of Exodus 3
5. Job (reference spoken without chapter and verse) quoted as though you slay me yet will I praise you to illustrate not running from pain

Talk about it

1. Brian described 2024 as a year where we may cross a Rubicon, a line of no going back, and said that within great complexity we can find clarion clarity. Where in your own life have you seen that pattern play out, where a hard or confusing season eventually produced something clear that you could not have seen any other way?
2. Moses turned aside to look at the burning bush even though, as someone in the group pointed out, he had killed an Egyptian forty years earlier and may have feared that judgment had finally caught up with him. What do you think keeps people from turning toward an unexpected encounter with God when they are carrying shame or a painful past?
3. One person in the congregation noticed that as Moses led the flock further into the wilderness and drew nearer to the mountain of God, he began to receive a sign and then hear the voice of God. How does that picture connect with your own experience of drawing near to God, and what has that actually looked like in your daily life?
4. Brian made a point that Moses was faithfully doing ordinary work, tending his father-in-law's flock, when the burning bush appeared. Someone tied that to Jesus saying that faithfulness with little leads to being trusted with much. Where are you right now, and do you think faithfulness in that place matters to what God might do next in your life?
5. The central idea Brian landed on was that God often places clarity right in the midst of great pain, and he connected the thorny bush in Exodus to the crown of thorns placed on Jesus. Do you find that idea comforting, or does it raise questions for you? What would it look like practically to look for clarity inside a painful season rather than waiting until it is over?