Click HERE to view Rev. Macris Ros’ guided meditation during the service.
It’s “Metaphysical Bible Storytime!” You ready for your evening story? It’s Week #3!
So we take a story from the Bible. We interpret it metaphysically — meaning beyond the literal. We look at the historical references, the original languaging — Greek, Hebrew — and then we bring it to life in a way that it can be relevant to and we can apply it to our lives.
I also then use — I brought “show and tell” with me this evening; so proud of myself. I use “The Revealing Word” by Charles Fillmore, our Unity co-founder. I also use “The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary” — this was a commitment to bring to work today! — also compiled by Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore. So those have the metaphysical definitions of the nouns — most of it’s the nouns that are in there: people, places, things, as well.
And so, then I rewrite the story by putting in what the metaphysical meaning is and I reread it and I sit with it and I think, “How does this apply to my life? — or, in this case, all of our lives — right now”? That’s where we get the great meaning out of each of these Bible stories.
So, tonight I’m covering the story in Exodus called “The Story of Moses at the Burning Bush,” also referred to as “Moses is Called by God.” This story, everyone, contains my most favorite quote in the Bible. Do you know this? It’s very exciting, because it’s where God is telling us that we are God in human form. When Moses asks who should he tell the Israelites has sent him, God responds, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.” I AM. God is saying, “I AM has sent me to you.”
So, it’s like on the TV shows where they give you the last scene of the hour, and now you’ve got to watch the hour. So that’s the preview. That’s where we’re going to go tonight with this, okay?
So, let’s back up. Let’s start with Exodus. Actually, I’m going to go back a whole chapter: Exodus Chapter 2: Verse 11. So, Moses is in Egypt. He was raised in Egypt, but he’s visiting — he’s there visiting his fellow Hebrews, who are slaves. And he’s observing this one day where an Egyptian is beating a Hebrew. And he too being a Hebrew, he’s very upset by this. And he looks around, but he doesn’t see anyone. So, he kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand.
The next day he’s out and about, and he sees now that there’s two Hebrews fighting with one another. So here they are. I got a picture. I did it again. “Show and tell” tonight, everyone. Here’s Moses. He’s like, “Hey, fellow Hebrews, what are you guys doing? Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?”
And so they respond — I’m paraphrasing – “You’re judging us? You killed an Egyptian!” Well, now Moses knows, “Uh-oh; they found out I killed the Egyptian. I better get out of here.” And it’s true, because the Pharaoh, who’s the political religious leader of the time — he has titles of high priest of every temple and lord of two lands — and he knows what happened. And so, he is sent for the killing of Moses. So, Moses flees.
Moses flees and he settles in the land of Midian. Now he gets there and he’s sitting by a well. And seven daughters — seven is significant — seven daughters of the priests of Midian come to the well for their father’s flock of sheep — to get water for their father’s flock of sheep.
And then all of a sudden some shepherds come by. The young kids today might call them “bros.” Some “bros” come by. And they start giving the young daughters a hard time. And so, Moses jumps in and he defends the women. And not only that, but he goes and he gets enough of the water all of their jars filled up. And he takes it back to their home and helps water all of the flock of sheep.
Now, the father, Jethro, he’s so impressed by how quickly his daughters have gotten all the water and brought it back and brought it to the sheep. But they tell him, “Oh no; an Egyptian helped us.”
So, he says, “Well, invite this Egyptian, Moses, back to the home so we can break bread with him.” So, he does, and then Jethro invites Moses to stay with them. Moses agrees, and not only does he stay on the property, but also he ends up marrying Jethro’s daughter, Zipporah, which Jethro, it says in the Bible, Jethro “gives” to Moses. That’s a whole other Sunday or Wednesday talk.
But here’s on the screen — got another picture for you. So there we have Moses and Zipporah with a flock of sheep. They’re happy with life together. She eventually has their son, Gershom. Now, “Gershom” means “exile.” And Moses says, “I’m naming my son Gershom because I have been an alien residing in a foreign land.”
Now, time goes and the king of Egypt dies, and yet the Israelites are still slaves. And they’re now groaning, the Bible says; groaning so loudly under the weight of their slavery that God hears them, and God takes notice of them. And God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the three patriarchs of the Hebrews, which was to bless them and bless their descendants.
So, one day, Now Moses is out watching his father-in-law’s flock of sheep, and he leads the sheep beyond the wilderness and comes to the mountain of Horeb, which means “the mountain of God.” Now suddenly — on the mountain of God with the sheep — suddenly an angel of God appears in a flame of a bush. Here is a picture of that. And we’re told that the bush is blazing, but not consumed.
So, Moses, probably like most of us, is curious … because how is this bush on fire but not being consumed? So. he gets closer. And when he gets closer, God calls out to Moses, “Moses! Moses! I AM here. Come closer. Remove your shoes for you are on holy ground.”
So, God is talking to Moses, reminding him that he’s the God of the Hebrew patriarchs. As God is talking to Moses, Moses is looking away. He’s afraid to look at God. He’s too afraid to look at God is what we’re told. But God continues to talk to Moses and says that he wants him – Moses — to take the people out of Egypt and deliver them to a good and broad land flowing with milk and honey. He wants Moses to go to the Pharaoh, talk to him, and then bring the Israelites out of Egypt, and not to worry because God will be there with him while he does this. So, God says to bring them back to this mountain, Horeb, and worship God there.
And then we get to my favorite quote: Exodus Chapter 3, Verses 13 to 14, here on your screen:
“But Moses said to God, ‘if I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?’
“God said to Moses, ‘I AM who I AM.’”
I AM who I AM.
“He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
What is God’s name? I AM. God is I AM. That’s powerful, everyone! That’s our divine identity right there!
So, how does this story translate metaphysically in our lives? Moses represents that part of us that’s being called into new growth. Moses is all about from one consciousness to another. To go from one uncomfortable situation maybe, and you grow through it, right? Those difficult, challenging — maybe we call it negative — circumstances. It’s that part of us — those times in our lives — when we’re growing from one situation into another, and it’s not comfortable.
And along the way, we might want to hide or bury parts of ourselves that we think are not spiritual enough, or that we think are bad. So even as we’re learning and expanding our spiritual education, we still — because we’re human — we want to hide certain parts of ourselves; bury it away. So, we do something or react in a way that we know isn’t right or we know it’s not the best way to handle it that way, and so we try to hide it. We try to bury it in the sand. Maybe we haven’t killed someone, like in the story, but it could be that we’ve hurt someone with our words or with our thoughts.
As a former registered dietitian, there was a lot of patients that would come to me who would tell me that they were eating cookies with no one looking. They’d be looking around the kitchen. “No one’s looking? Okay, that’s when I’m eating the cookies.” Harming our own selves. We wrestle with that human nature, our sense consciousness.
So. while our ego strives for perfection, we’re struggling with that spiritual/human part of ourselves. And we’re not meant to stay in that struggle. So that’s another part of this story is: you’re not supposed to stay there forever.
But when we do have a slip up or we make a mistake, what do we tend to do? We tend to shame ourselves. We tend to beat ourselves up. So just like the two Hebrews — the two Hebrews are one and the same, right? They’re the same. So, it’s like us when we beat ourselves up over something. “I made that mistake. I did it wrong. I didn’t show up how I wanted to show up.” And we beat ourselves up.
We also have times in our lives when we can be like the pharaoh — and have a pharaoh complex where we feel very righteous about everything. “I can eat a cookie in broad daylight, no problem. Or, “I go to church every week.” “Well, I save all my money.” And then when we do do something that might hurt somebody or ourselves, or we just mess up because we’re humans having a human experience, we tend to have shame drive away our divine identity. We reject our spiritual essence. We think, “I’m not worthy of that. Look, I messed up once.”
But the spiritual journey we’re being shown here can be long; can be wandering; could be way out into the wilderness. It’s not perfect. But not perfect is what learning and growing is all about! Learning and growing is how we learn from mistakes. And then we learn and then we apply what we now know.
So, as we go along this spiritual path, as we have the ups and downs, as we’re human and we make mistakes, we can offer ourselves milk and honey along the journey. Grace. Kindness.
And it’s interesting too, in the story the Israelites — it gets to the point where they’re so heavy with their burdens that that’s when they call out. We tend to — don’t we? — we tend to pray, reach out to God in our most desperate of times; when we’re at our lowest points; when our burdens are the heaviest. That’s when we finally call out for help. But what if, what if we kept ourselves “watered” all the time?
So, water metaphysically represents negation and great possibilities. Sheep represent our thoughts. So, what if we keep negating the thoughts that don’t nourish us and don’t bring about great possibilities and, instead, take care of or water those thoughts of great possibilities? What if we were to lead our thoughts to a more spiritual viewpoint?
And that’s really our third Unity principle, which is that our thoughts have creative power to influence events and determine our experiences. And we can do that with affirmations and negations; affirmations and denials. Affirmations and negations. Because that’s how we set our thoughts on course for the mountaintop — to a higher consciousness.
So, we have tools to tend to our sheep; to tend to our thoughts. Instead of wandering into the wilderness, we can bring our thoughts into a higher focus on the Divine: the mountain of God. We can lead ourselves out of limiting thoughts and begin to realize and remember our divine identity.
So, when we learn to quiet the chatter in our minds through prayer and meditation, that’s when we’re reconnecting with our spiritual nourishment. That’s when we remember that we’re more than human; that there is a soul having this human experience.
We go to the mountaintop. It means rise above the noise of doubt, of negativity, of chaos, of division, of ego. Lift and expand our consciousness. Remember the truth of our divine identity, which is our I AM.
That’s what’s so powerful about this story: is that we’re told that God’s name in human form is I AM. Don’t deny your divine identity! Embrace your I AM — your spiritual nature; your divine birthright. You’re not a victim. You’re not powerless. No need to shy away — turn away — from the Divine. You are, in fact, a co-creator with the Divine Creator of all that is. You’re a co-creator.
And so, let’s talk a minute about this burning bush, because wow, right? Because the bush is burning, but yet not being consumed. So, burning bush metaphysically is translated as the wisdom that comes from the heart. The wisdom that comes from the heart. And it can’t be destroyed. Right? It can’t be consumed. It can’t be destroyed. Wisdom that comes from the heart that can’t be destroyed.
And it’s the Lord speaking out of the burning bush. So, Lord or Yahweh — here connected to the Hebrew verb “to be” — or also meaning the one who is always there. So, we’re being invited to release our limited perceptions of what we think is real – you know, only what our eyes can believe — and instead remember who we truly are and trust that wisdom. Trust that intuition that comes from the heart — that divine, pure, heart-centered soul part of us — to know that Spirit is always here.
Our internal wisdom, our internal intuition, our soul’s knowing can never be destroyed. The soul part of us can never be destroyed. We’re spiritual beings having a human experience. So, be kind to those human parts of yourself. while nurturing and leaning into the spiritual being that you are. It’s not a “one or the other.” It’s a both.
And another point of view on this burning bush, for just a moment. Because sometimes we wonder, “Is God hearing my prayers? Is anyone hearing my prayers? Is this the right answer?” Maybe we’re going through something in our life, and “I don’t know if I should do this or not do this.”
And it made me think of Unity minister/prosperity expert Edwene Gaines. And she tells this great story. As she was starting … It’s in one of her books, and I couldn’t find exactly which book, but I remember it was about her starting her own prosperity journey and her own ministry. And she was trying to make a really important decision. Again, I don’t remember the specifics of it, but she really wanted to know, like, “Should I proceed in this decision or not?”
And she said, “God, I just need a huge sign.” She’s a southern woman, too. [Feigns Southern accent] “I need a huge sign, and I need a burning bush. I need a burning bush moment. A huge sign, God, to tell me to go forward on this or not.”
So, she leaves her house and she’s driving to the meeting. And on her way on this little highway, wouldn’t you believe it? On the side of the highway, there’s a big billboard. And what does it have on it? A picture of a burning bush, everyone! And she said, “Okay, God, I got it. Thanks for the real big sign of the burning bush.” She realized that that’s all she needed to move forward with.
And I know for even my own self, you know, in even trying to decide: Should I take the associate minister job here and move myself and family to Phoenix? And I did my due diligence, but I was also doing a lot of meditative journaling; a lot of time in meditation — jotting it down, journaling it down, sitting with and listening to that still small voice within me. Even at stoplights, I was hearing, “Move to Phoenix.” For three months almost, “Move to Phoenix.”
But I was turning away from God, right? I was too afraid to hear what I was hearing. And I really, really, really wanted my “burning bush moment.” I wanted it to be obvious.
Of course, I turned to my husband, Juan, with my notebook of journaling that said, “move to Phoenix.” And he was like, “I feel like you’ve got your answer. What else do you need?”
“I need my burning bush!”
So, we go to visit my parents in the Palm Springs area. It’s the weekend before I need to give my decision. And I wake up in the morning, and my dad is very sweet. He always makes us breakfast. He’s making us breakfast. And my mother suddenly says, “You know, I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that you got a new job, Stacy, and you took us all there. And it was like this high school campus almost.”
My mother, who had never been to Unity of Phoenix, had never seen Richard Maraj before, described Unity of Phoenix campus and Reverend Maraj to a T. That was my burning bush moment! God’s talking through my mom now; okay!
But here’s the truth: You don’t need a burning bush moment. The guidance is already within you! It was already within me. Three months of journaling within me. So often we want certainty before acting. We want God or the Divine to move all doubt out of our way. We want proof instead of trusting that inner guidance. And then we end up missing guidance because we’re looking for something spectacular. We’re looking for the fireworks, the sky writing – “Say yes!” Right? Instead of trusting that quiet inner voice.
Don’t look away from God within you and around you. Don’t be afraid of the voice. Trust that you’re connected to the allness and the energy of the Divine.
Ultimately, the story of Moses and the burning bush calls us to up-level spiritually. It’s about claiming your divinity and expanding your spiritual knowledge; expanding your spiritual understanding, your consciousness; and doing/being it.
It’s a story about claiming: claiming our divine identity. Claiming, “I AM who I AM.” It’s about knowing: knowing that we can be guided and supported along our path. Even in the most difficult times. Even when we feel outcast, downtrodden, a foreigner in a different land. It’s about trusting: trusting your internal wisdom. the intuition of your heart. And it’s there in that trusting of your intuitive heart; in your remembering your divinity. It’s in that awareness that we discover this spacious, sweet experience of life — the land of milk and honey, an inner promised land of spiritual abundance. Claiming. Knowing. Trusting.
Another translation for “I AM Who I AM” is this is my name forever; my title for all generations. This is your name forever. God is I AM. God is I AM.
Say that with me: [with congregants] “God is I AM.” You’re an extension of the living allness of God; of life itself!
So free your limited thinking and unkind thinking towards yourself and others and, instead, lift yourself beyond the fears, beyond the limited thinking. Remember who you are and walk in the fullness of your divine essence. Claim. Know. Trust.
That’s what we learn from the story of “Moses and the Burning Bush,” friends. And that concludes our third metaphysical Bible Storytime.
Blessings on your path!