3 1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4 When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6 He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

7 Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."

13 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?" 14 God said to Moses, " I AM WHO I AM."* He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ' I am has sent me to you.'" 15 God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD,* the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you':

This is my name forever,

and this my title for all generations.

Carburetor logotype.

No doubt about it, these phrases don't make much sense. But they are not without significance. The two have something in common, something cool in common - in a geekish sort of way. Both are "googlewhacks," that is, phrases that appear only once in a search of over three billion Web pages.

For those who don't have a life, a new time-waster is emerging on the Internet, a game called "googlewhacking," the invention of some search-obsessed fans of Google.com, the search engine that can quickly scour the length and breadth of the World Wide Web.

The object of googlewhacking is simple enough - even an Internet neophyte can play. A participant types two words into the Google search line with the hopes of pulling off a single search result.

Try, for example, the phrase "burning bush."

Results: Google displays results 1 through 10 of about 324,000. That's a long way from a googlewhack. In fact, we missed by 323,999. The result we are looking for is labeled "Results 1 through 1 of 1."

How about another phrase from today's Scripture lesson: "the Perizzites." Surely that pair of words is obscure enough. The results are better, but still no googlewhack. The search engine gives us "Results 1 through 10 of about 12,800."

That's a lot of Perizzites.

Googlewhacking is more difficult than it looks, according to the Reuters news service. Google's massive database updates constantly, thus making the solitary search result more and more elusive.

How surprising then, to find three googlewhacks in Exodus 3! First, of course, is the bush itself, burning but not burning out. It was for this very reason that Moses stopped to investigate. Moses saw in the bush something unique that called out to him.

Truth is, there are no doubt plenty of such burning opportunities in our own lives - moments presented by God to grab our attention-deficit minds and cause us to wonder and ponder what God is up to. When such moments occur, they should be to us as they were to Moses, "holy ground." Out of these events, we should be able to hear God calling our name, even as he called out to a renegade shepherd: "Moses, Moses!" (3:4).

That God singled out Moses suggests the second googlewhack of this text: Moses himself. Of course, Moses thought God had it all wrong. In his own eyes, Moses saw himself as a backslidden sinner, a fugitive from the law, a man of flawed character, a man with a past, a skeleton in the closet and a bumbling fool. "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (v. 11).

But God saw in Moses, like he sees in us, something special. God is able to see the googlewhackiness in all of us, even when we ourselves are blind to it. In God's eyes Moses gave him search results 1 through 1 of 1.

Not that we are always anxious for this assignment. Moses reveals his reluctance when he asks the question, "But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me ...?" (4:1). God responds by turning Moses' staff into a snake, and then back again.

Then Moses admits that he has "never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now." He describes himself as "slow of speech and slow of tongue" (v. 10). God instructs him to use his brother Aaron as his mouthpiece.

Sort of like the patient asked the psychiatrist: "How is it that when I say I talk to God, you call it prayer; but when I say God talks to me, you call it a hallucination?"

Tom Harpur, a minister who was at one time as cynical as the psychiatrist, reflecting on this comment, argues for the legitimacy of the inner voice of God. Having heard from many parishioners and letter-writers about convincing "peak" or "cosmic-consciousness" experiences in which "hearing" a voice or voices was often a key feature, Harpur began to notice this phenomenon in biblical and other historical characters.

From Moses and Jesus to Socrates and St. Augustine, and Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., the author recounts the similarity and individuality of the voice within and describes it as "definite, identifiable, believable and compelling." While acknowledging that there are evil voices as well, he argues against "labelling all inner voices as 'auditory hallucinations,' as Western psychiatry has done." Citing an article by Beverley J. Scott in the Spring 1997 Journal of Religion and Health, he advocates redefining "auditory hallucinations as 'inner voices' which can be positive, neutral or negative" - explaining, "It depends upon the level of consciousness from which they come."

Point is, God equips us when he calls us. He does not select us and send us to crash and burn. Although we may not have the natural desires, convictions or qualifications to do God's work in the world, although we may not seem suited for God's service, God addresses us, invites us, challenges us and empowers us to do his mission in the world.

To be God's googlewhack is not about us. It's all about God.

To ease the stress, God reassures Moses: "I will be with you" (v. 12). I will stand beside you. I will never let you go. The God of Moses' father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, promises to go with Moses right into the courts of Pharaoh and beyond.

Enter the third googlewhack: God himself. The Lord reveals his personal name to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." I AM ONE THROUGH ONE OF ONE. There's no one like me! I am the one with the power to create, the one who causes everything to be. I am the God who will be present in ways to make possible what is not otherwise possible. I am the very power of newness that will make new life available - available for Israel outside the deadly confines of Egypt. This God, "I AM THAT I AM," is the God of power, faithfulness and eternal presence.

Let's sum up these three googlewhacks this way: The uniqueness of God is calling to the uniqueness of human beings, to enter the uniqueness of everyday, sacred moments in the service of the Holy.

Our mission, like that of Moses, is to liberate people from bondage. The call comes to us every day as God declares us to be one in a billion, and to engage in a sacred and life-saving mission that can only be done the way we can do it.

Today we will encounter a googlewhack moment offered by a googlewhack God to a googlewhack believer.

Let's take off our sandals: We're on holy ground.