Ambushed
When I looked up the definition of the word ‘ambushed’ this is what I discovered.
“To confront an individual, group, or vehicle unexpectedly from a concealed or hidden position.”
Today we have the classic and well-known story of Moses and the burning bush. Moses is just quietly minding his father-in-law's sheep and his own business when he is lured in to see the bush that is in flames and yet is not consumed.
Who wouldn’t be curious?
But alas for Moses, it’s just a cunning ambush by the Almighty to offer him a terrible and daunting job. To free his Israelite brothers and sisters from the evil clutches of pesky Pharaoh and lead them to the promised land.
So when I look back to my definition of the word ‘ambushed ’, I can, without any hesitation, say that there is a very real sense in which Moses was ambushed.
“To confront an individual unexpectedly from a concealed or hidden position.”
Initially Moses does not see or know of God’s presence in the burning bush, and so God is hidden or concealed from Him. Moses was not expecting this job offer. In fact, when he was munching on his porridge over breakfast that morning, he was probably just thinking what a nice quiet, uncomplicated day he was going to have. He didn’t plan to be ambushed. No one does; at least not in that Moses sense.
But there are times when we look for a change, a fresh start, a new beginning. We long to be ambushed and for the old shackles of the dreary and drudgery to be shaken and taken from us. In those circumstances, we simply allow ourselves the potential to be ambushed. We are open to the possibilities God has in mind for us. Like Moses, we can come to understand that it is the familiar land where we are ambushed and it is the curious, unexplained event that changes our life forever.
But God is not the only thing that can ambush you. Tricky people and issues can ambush us. You think great aunt Jezebel is a sweetheart, but then one day when she is serving you a refreshing and heady brew with a tasty little morsel, she looks at you with a twinkle in her eye and a barely discernible smile plays around the corners of her mouth. She smiles winningly and asks you that pertinent and incisive question that you cannot squirm away from, and you realise that you have been ambushed.
You can also be ambushed by despair, which can come along in an unexpected tsunami wave and dump you head down in a swirling surf of bewildering sadness. An unexpected tragic death will do it. You didn’t sign up for it, you certainly didn’t want it or expect it, and yet here you are, struggling to know which way is up.
You can also be ambushed by joy. A chance meeting, a letter, a touch, a kiss. Something that is initially concealed from you one moment and then is all-encompassing the next. Some of you will be familiar with the show on TV called ‘Long Last Family’ where people are reunited after long searches and many years. For the person who is searched out and found, there is a sense in which they are ambushed by joy. That which is hidden and concealed now confronts them, and it changes them.
But the master of the ambush is the Master himself. Just ask Saul, now known as Paul, about the ambush on the road to Damascus. Ask the disciples who were called and followed. Ask the widow whose only son was raised from the dead, ask the 10 lepers who were cleansed, or those tortured souls who were delivered from their demons.
A couple of final thoughts about this ambushing business.
First, we will all be ambushed by someone and something at some point in our life. It's not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of when.
Secondly, It’s how we respond to our new reality that is important. Am I perhaps like Moses who tries to squirm out of the job with every flimsy excuse I can think of? Do I perceive the hand of God who has shoved me through into this new dimension; and when I am there with everything swirling around me, do I understand that He is in the tempest with me? Do I understand that this is exactly where I am supposed to be and this is absolutely what I am supposed to be doing?
Thirdly, sometimes a jolly good ‘God ambush’ is exactly what we need. A jolly good shake. Ambushed so that all the cards we hold dear, selfishly and close to ourselves, are wrenched from our hands and are mercilessly and irretrievably tossed to the four winds. Then we are left with only the cross to cling to.
Spare a thought and a prayer for those who are ambushed by war, by poverty, by accident, by natural disaster and by sin.
Those who have their self-righteous perspective shattered and asked to embrace a cross instead. Those like St. Peter who in today’s gospel thought he had it right but he was ambushed by our Lord’s rebuke.
On all who are ambushed by despair … have mercy
On all who are ambushed by sin … have mercy
When we have ambushed others through neglect or indifference … have mercy
On ourselves …. When we are ambushed ... have mercy.