SERMON: “MANNA” Kathy Hobson Warrensburg UMC, 6 October 2013 Exodus 16:1-21 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, we’re back with Moses this week. Last week, we read the story of how God called to Moses from the burning bush. We learned that God commissioned Moses to go and bring a message to Pharaoh to let God’s people go. And later, God followed through; the people were brought out of Egypt. True to the promise God made, God brought deliverance to Israel. And now, we find the Israelites about 2-1/2 months out of Egypt at the beginning of their 40-year trek through the desert. And already they are complaining, with some melodramatic flair. “, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full…” Only three more days out (in chapter 15) they think they’re going to die of thirst. After only a few days more, they think they’re going to die of hunger. As if God heard their cries, sent Moses to deliver them, and acted throughout with signs, plagues, and miracles, only to let them die in the wilderness. And because of their complaining, or maybe in spite of it, God provides. God provides quail in the evening and manna in the morning—just enough for the day. Some of the Israelites tried to take more than they need, but that doesn’t work. Whatever they attempted to keep until the next day, “bred worms and stank.” Even after God delivers them from slavery; even after God provides the manna and the quail, the Israelites don’t seem to trust God very well. They’ve seen all that God has done and they just want to go back to their old life. It’s easy to want to go back, isn’t it? It’s easy to want to go back to what we think is safe and known. That’s what the Israelites wanted. And truth to tell, it’s often what we want, as well. You can probably sympathize to some extent with the Israelites. I know I can. I totally get the notion of creating a past that is far better than it really was. It’s tempting to remember a past that never was; to smooth out the rough edges of what happened. As Billy Joel wrote in his song, “Keeping the Faith:” “Maybe the good old day weren’t always good, tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” It was probably particularly tempting for the Israelites. They were in a situation where they couldn’t see the way forward. They had no compass; they had no roadmap; they had no sense of a clear direction. It’s exhausting to live when you constantly have to navigate your way forward without knowing where you’re going. Sounds like life, doesn’t it? It reminds me of a Sally Forth cartoon printed earlier this week. Sally’s sister, Jackie, and her husband, Ralph, are sitting on the couch. Jackie is holding their new-born baby girl. And they both are looking at her and smiling. In the final panel, Ralph says, “Do you think she knows we don’t have a clue what we’re doing?” Jackie’s reply: “Just keep smiling at her. Don’t let her catch on.” We want to have a clue, don’t we? We want to at least look we know what we’re doing. Some of us [raise hand] want to be in control of our life’s journey. We want to know where we’re going and when we’re going to get there and what stops we’re going to make along the way. We want to have a plan—all the way through. How can we budget to pay our bills? Do we have enough for retirement? Is our food safe or should we only buy from local farmers? Is the government going to come to its senses? I don’t know about you, but wandering in the wilderness is the last thing I want to be doing in life. And Israel’s trip sounds way too much like exactly what I don’t want to do. You can get into real trouble if you don’t plan. But the story of Exodus and particularly this part in the wilderness is about living by faith. It’s about realizing that fundamentally, we are not in control. Our future is not within our ability to script. We live in a relationship of trust with God, realizing that God is taking us into a future that is beyond our ability to control. And God’s going to have to provide for us each step of the way. This doesn’t mean we don’t plan, but it does mean that we do realize who exactly is in control. And that Manna stuff? As it says in verse 16, God commanded, “Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.” Manna is about having enough. It’s about receiving (not taking, but receiving) what we need. God gives it and we receive it. It’s a complete and total gift. The Israelites couldn’t hoard the manna that God gave and neither can we. The Israelites couldn’t collect it ahead of time and neither can we. If God doesn’t provide it, you don’t have it; and you can’t create it and your journey is over. But God does provide it. The Israelites received it from God and we receive it from God. We receive what we need but not more than we need. In a little while, we will be receiving communion. When you come forward, bring with you this notion of receiving what you need. Think about it. Nobody at the table gets the whole loaf of bread. Nobody is given a super-sized chunk of bread. We’re each given a piece. It’s not: “if you give me a bigger piece, do I get more grace?” At this table you’re given the grace you need in the breaking of the bread. It’s not yours to take; it’s only yours to receive and it is God’s to give. It is a pure gift. And the Manna you receive at this table is Christ’s body for Christ is the living bread come down from heaven. As the Gospel of John reminds us, Jesus said; “I am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” And as we come away from this table, as we step forward each day, we experience the reality of what the faith journey is like. God will give us enough for the day as we journey into the future that God is calling us into. This notion of receiving what we need keeps our relationship with God in perspective. It helps us realize that God’s purposes are greater than ours; that our reliance on God, our release of control, is something we’re called to do. And that it’s ultimately God who is going to bring our journey to its fruition. And for that, we can give thanks to God. Amen.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:00:00 +0000
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