Sunday 21 September, 2008 - Pentecost 19, Proper 20, Year A (RCL)
You’d think the story would be over by now, wouldn’t you?
The people of Israel
have been rescued from Egypt;
the Egyptians came after them
but they miraculously escaped across the Red Sea.
It’s about time that we hear those well known words,
“And they lived happily ever after.”
Well, sorry, but the story’s not done. That was just part one, the escape from Egypt.
Now we’re into part two,
traveling towards the promised land.
Or perhaps as the people of Israel might have remembered it,
endless wandering in the wilderness.
This stage began
when they made it safely through the Red Sea
and began the trek
to the promised land.
But of course it wasn’t straightforward - nothing ever is.
They still had to go way south to avoid hostile towns,
and then of course they didn’t have any maps, and had to just follow where Moses led them. Not that he likely had any idea either; he said he was following where God led, with that cloud and fire that kind of hovered ahead of them,
but who knew
if that would ever get them anywhere.
And it wasn’t as if the first few days
were exactly a promising beginning.
Day one, they headed off with great enthusiasm, still running on the adrenaline from their close escape from the Egyptians.
And when they didn’t find any water that night,
they didn’t worry too much; they still had some from the last spring, and were sure to find more the next day.
The next day began well too,
though by lunchtime when they still hadn’t found water, they were beginning to worry a little.
And that night, they still didn’t find any, and people were beginning to worry about what they would do if they didn’t find any, because they were now too far from the last water to backtrack.
Day three they woke thirsty and grumpy.
They set off as usual, pushing themselves a little harder
with the thought that the sooner they got on the way,
the sooner they would get to water.
But that night, when Moses finally called a halt at a place called Marah,
all they found
was a kind of stagnant
pool,
fine for washing tired feet
but far too bitter for drinking.
And so they complained to Moses
and God overheard
and pointed Moses to some wood
and the threw it into the water
and it became drinkable.
And next we hear
they arrive in Elim, an oasis with twelve springs of water,
enough to drink until they’re bloated,
enough to fill their waterskins for the next part of the journey,
enough even for the children to splash around.
Next time we hear about the people of Israel
it’s a couple of weeks later.
A full month has passed since they escaped from Egypt
and they’re beginning to get tired of the constant travel.
And so the Israelites complain to Moses.
“We should have stayed in Egypt, where at least we had meat to eat, and more bread than we knew what to do with. Why did you bring us here? We’re running out of food. We’re going to die.”
Of course, we know
that life back in Egypt wasn’t good at all.
They might have had enough food,
but to get it they had to work as slaves, back breaking work under the hot sun, making bricks.
And they hadn’t been happy at all.
They’d been trying out to God, desperate to escape their slavery,
and it was because God heard them and acted,
that they’d made their escape and been led out into the wilderness.
And to be honest, you’d think that if God’s plan for them had been to let them die, he might as well have let the Egyptians slaughter them by the Red Sea, instead of opening a way through the water,
or let them die at Marah,
instead of showing Moses that stick that made the water drinkable
and then leading them to that wonderful oasis at Elim.
But all they could think of
was their sore feet and rumbling stomachs.
And just like the last time, God overheard the peoples’ complaints,
and told Moses that food would come from the sky, and every morning they could gather enough for the day, and on the sixth day gather double
so they wouldn’t have to work
on the Sabbath.
And so Moses and Aaron spoke to the people.
“You know, when you complain about me, you’re really complaining about God. Because Gods the one
who brought you out of Egypt; God’s the one
who led you to this place.
And God’s heard your complaints, and will send you food.”
And then Aaron got all the people to come together, and look out towards the wilderness, and there they saw some sort of vision of God
in the cloud,
And God said to Moses,
“There will be meat for dinner
and bread for breakfast,
and you and all the people will know that I am God.”
And that evening
a flock of quails came through, and they had meat for dinner, and next morning they woke up and found white stuff on the ground
and it tasted something like honey bread,
and Moses told them to gather enough for the day.
And of course, some of them rushed out and collected enough for a week, while others just collected what they could eat there and then,
but you know, when it was measured,
each person, no matter how much they had collected, just had the right amount.
And if they tried to hoard it, saving some for the next day,
when they opened it up
it was full of worms.
Except on Saturday, the Sabbath,
when what they had collected Friday
still tasted as good
as when they collected it.
And so it continued,
day after day,
and the people were fed.
It’s another great story of how God provides for the people.
And of course, another one that often makes it into the Sunday School classroom.
But what struck me about this story this time I read it,
is not the honey sweetness of the manna, which is what I remember from Sunday School,
but the fact that the people are constantly obsessed
with not having enough.
It begins with water.
They’re out in the desert
and of course it’s understandable to worry
about dying of thirst.
And then it’s about food,
and again we can understand it.
But both times,
as soon as God hears that they’re worried,
God provides.
And what’s interesting
is the way God provides.
I always thought about it
as a miracle.
The water becoming drinkable,
the quail and manna from the sky.
And it is miraculous, in that they come exactly when they are needed.
And yet it’s not just a miracle.
Because according to the experts
there are some interesting kinds of wood found in the Sinai Peninsula,
one that when you put it in brackish water,
causes the sediments to drop to the bottom so that clean water can be scooped from the surface,
and another which has bark
that absorbs salinity,
so that salty water
can be made drinkable.
And there is a certain time of year
when quail
fly across that region,
and an insect that lives on tamarisk trees found there
that secretes a sweet substance
that is full of nourishment
and often regarded as a delicacy.
So God hears the panic, and provides,
but provides with things
that were there all the time.
It seems that the Israelites were so obsessed with not having enough
that they forgot to see the abundance
that God had blessed them with, just sitting there to be taken.
And it reminds me
of how easy it is
for us to do the same thing.
This last week, and indeed the last few months,
the news has been full of the problems in the financial markets
and the economy.
Everyone is telling us
how bad things are.
And I don’t know about you, but I can feel the anxiety rising,
the worry
that I won’t have enough.
Especially at this time of year because I have taxes due, and my quarterly pledge, and the first oil bill comes in, plus the regular mortgage and bills, and there are family birthdays, and then the weather changes and I panic about what I’m going to wear.
And then I stop
and look in my closet,
and maybe there are enough things
that I won’t have to go ragged,
and I her that my father loved his birthday present of home made socks made out of bargain yarn,
and actually would have been fine with no gift at all,
as long as we got to talk,
and the pledge went in, and there was enough in the bank for the taxes
and the next mortgage payment as well,
and oil prices have come down some in the last few days,
and I suddenly realize
how blessed I am.
It’s so easy to fall into the trap of focussing on how little we have, versus how much God is willing to give us.
We pray week by week, and many of us day by day, the Lord’s prayer, with its line
“Give us to this day our daily bread”
but sometimes
we don’t really believe
that God will provide.
It’s not about being frivolous about what we have;
it’s about getting our thinking right, and trusting God for wisdom
in how we use the abundance we are given...and maybe even trusting God
that we will have enough.
I guess that’s how it was
for that boy
who heard Jesus say, “Does anyone have any food?”
and offered his bread and fish, and there was enough for everyone.
One of the gifts of our faith offers us
is the freedom
to step aside from the way our culture does things, the way our culture thinks of things,
and live with God in mind.
And so we’re invited to not let ourselves
get caught up in the panic that comes from counting
what we don’t have,
from thinking about our lives in terms of scarcity,
but instead to count what we have, the wonderful abundance
that God has blessed us with.
I now invite you to turn to page 837, and join in the litany of thanksgiving, in place of our prayer of the people today.
© Raewynne J. Whiteley 2008