Another in the series ... after Vacation Bible School studied Moses:
“Bread and Water” – June 23, 2013
Texts: Exodus
16:(1-10) 11-15 and Exodus 17:1-7
I
completely understand this grumbling thing.
I do it quite well.
First there’s not enough rain. Then there’s too much rain. Then it’s too chilly and now it’s too hot and
humid.
Maybe it’s
just in our DNA, but it seems like it is human nature to complain.
Four years ago Bob and I were in
the Sinai desert – and I became an expert at grumbling. And while we may not have been in the same
spot as the Israelites, I can attest to the fact that it all pretty much looks
alike. As Bob described it: “you can drive forever and see nothing.”
Which is not quite true. You can see some things.
You can see rocks and sand and dirt
and rocks and more sand and more rocks … and sometimes a mountain. Pretty much as far as the eye can see.
Now Bob and I were not out in the
wilderness for 40 years. Although to
hear us tell about it, we might as well have been. We were on the second day of our 2-day trek
through the Sinai when the leader has us all climb out of our Land Rovers (no
air-conditioning, but of course I’m not complaining) and then the leader says:
“let’s take a stroll over to the other side of that hill.”
It was about 110 degrees (or so) -
not a tree or a patch of shade in sight.
And the “little stroll” took about an hour and a half climbing up this
“little hill” only at the top to discover we were actually on top of a steep
cliff with a narrow path that went down into a deep, narrow valley. And we were to hike to the bottom.
At the bottom it was hotter than
110 degrees. Whatever water we still
were carrying in our water bottles felt like it had been in the microwave. And when we finally slid our way down into
this valley with its oven-like heat and no shade, our Egyptian guide showed us
how, by whacking the limestone cliffs with a stick it would release pockets of
water that had seeped through the stone and gotten trapped. Water really could
be released from the rock – although if you ask me, there would have to be a
lot of whacking to get enough water for all those Israelites and their animals.
But after all that, standing in
this brutally hot valley with no shade in sight, the leader has the audacity to
say: “well, it’s time for worship.”
Bob remembers it as “the worst
worship service ever.” The only thing I
remember is thinking that the Israelites had every right to complain.
And while we may question their
judgment about thinking that slavery in Egypt was “the good old days,” I can
understand why they began to feel as if God had abandoned them out there.
If we’re honest, we are usually
ready to believe that God is among us when things go well for us.
When our health is good, when our
children are successful, when everything goes smoothly in our lives – it is
deeply rooted in our culture that these are the signs of a “blessed life.”
Then what about when things don’t
go so well? What about when we don’t
have the “outward” signs of success that we often associate with God’s blessing
– and when things don’t go the way we thought we had them planned. What then?
What about when you don’t have
enough money this month to meet the bills?
What happens when nothing seems to
go right?
When good people seem to suffer
more than others?
Is the Lord among us or not? Sometimes I think we have every right to
complain, to wonder why it is that God may have led us out here where there is
no relief in sight.
From a small infant crying to be
fed … to a child’s complaint about a bully at school … to the very real abuses
that we can experience at work or at home … or the very real concerns of entire
communities left behind in poverty or the debris of war … complaining,
grumbling, murmuring … this is how we make our concerns … and our very legitimate needs known.
Our complaints can be heartfelt and
real. And when they are, we stand in a long line of faithful people who have
complained to God. The “lament” in Scripture
– particularly in the Psalms - is a powerful tradition that gives voice to the
very real times we have known
abandonment, suffering, fear and danger.
Our laments call upon God to see
and act, to listen to us, to do something.
Our laments do not mean that we
lack faith – but it is the cry of faith that knows that this is not the way
that things should be.
A complaint does not have to be about
turning away from God, but instead can be a turning to God – trusting that God will not ignore us in our need.
Which just might be why the stories
of Israel in the wilderness have always been so important not only to Israel,
but to us.
What better example of God’s grace
could there be than knowing that even when we quarrel with and test God … God
will hear and will answer us with “bread from heaven” and “water from the
rock.”
But it can’t just end there,
because it is so small a step from welcoming the blessings of God to demanding
and expecting those blessings to be “on tap” –
to expect that God should respond to our
demands and desires when and where we want.
That is the lesson of the manna and
the water too. For God doesn’t just
whisk the Israelites out of danger – moving them right from Egypt to the
Promised Land.
In fact, the very next verses in this
chapter show the Israelites having to defend themselves from an attack by the
Amalekites. If we are sure of nothing
else, we can be sure that dangers, toils, and snares do not magically disappear
for the children of God – regardless of what others might want to convince us.
But the lessons of the wilderness
remind us that through them all, God is faithful and the grace of God will be
sufficient and will provide … sometimes in surprising ways and in surprising
places. The answer the Israelites got in the wilderness was neither the death
they thought would come, nor was it a quick and easy return back to Egypt.
Instead they got this white flaky
substance that doesn’t look like anything at all. They got water from a blank wall of rock in a
barren wilderness.
It was nothing they had ever seen
before … and certainly not what they thought they asked for.
But it became a reminder to them …
and to us … that sometimes what God provides is new and a little strange, but
it always ends up being just enough … sufficient for the day … even if it comes
wrapped in a gift we didn’t even realize we had asked for. Even if sometimes it
is only later that we look back and then realize what it was.
Is God among us or not?
We keep telling this story of the
Israelites in the wilderness so that we might remember and believe that the
answer to that question is a loud YES.
Even though we may find ourselves
deep in a wilderness that is not of our making, we are promised and we can
trust and believe, that God will always be at work among us and through us.
Now there are several other
passages in the books of Exodus and Numbers that describe times that Moses is
called upon to find water for the Israelites – and the places that are named
are different places.
Scholars provide several reasons
for that:
·
one tradition is that it happened multiple times
– after all the Israelites would have needed a lot of water;
·
another tradition says that much of what took
place in the Sinai is theological rather than historical, so it doesn’t matter
where it took place;
·
another tradition says that because this is all
from an ancient oral tradition, it is the same incident simply remembered in
several different places (like each of us remembering different parts of
Vacation Bible School).
And then there is another explanation
that is my new favorite: apparently it became a tradition among some ancient
interpreters that it was all one rock, but that the rock itself must have moved
with the people. A “traveling rock” that went with them to provide all the
water they would need while in the wilderness – their own traveling water
supply.[i] It brings a whole new meaning to all the
places in Scripture where God is described as our “rock” and our salvation. But
what an image to help us imagine and remember that God’s goodness and mercy
surely follow us all the days of our lives.
I have
mentioned before about the role of poets in traditional Bedouin culture. The task of the poet is to remember the
watering places …. The survival of the
whole group depends on whether you can find the waterholes in the desert.[ii]
Maybe, just
like those poets, our work in telling others about Christ is simply to remember
the places where water can be found, to recall and recognize the manna that God
provides.
For a neighbor, a friend, a
community that is hungry for the bread of life, and thirsty for God’s justice
and wholeness and peace, for a world that wants to know: Is the Lord among us or not?
So where is it we have found manna and water?
Amen.
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