Scripture can be found here...
Look at it from God’s
perspective.
These people are a bunch of
whiners.
God, over the many chapters we
have skipped to get here, has responded to the groaning of the people in
slavery with as great a display of power as anyone could imagine—no, greater.
·
The appointment of the nobody/royal insider
Moses as their leader. (Remember, Moses was raised by the daughter of a
Pharaoh.)
·
The empowering of Moses and his brother Aaron to
present themselves to the Pharaoh, at the risk of their lives, with their bold
entreaty: Let my people go.
·
The demonstration of God’s fearsome (and persuasive)
power by means of the plagues.
·
The parting of the sea so that God’s people
could escape Pharoah’s armies, and then, the releasing of that sea, so that
Pharoah’s warriors and charioteers could be drowned and God’s power even more
mightily displayed.
I’m not going to lie to you—some
of those items include a God I don’t much like to ponder, a God who is willing
to kill some to demonstrate power, a God I have a hard time getting my head
around. But ponder these words, from one of the scholars I’ve read this week:
This is a revolutionary act. Slaves are ignored and irrelevant in the
course of history. Gods do not act for slaves, but for kings and empires. This [God]
has turned the world and its rules upside down.[i]
Look at it from God’s
perspective: These people are a bunch of ungrateful whiners. God has turned
history upside down by being the God of the least powerful. And these people
are longing for the fleshpots of Egypt.
Now, look at it from the people’s
perspective.
They are hungry.
Not in the way we feel when we
walk into a bakery—or coffee hour!—and take a whiff of the aromas of delectable
foods. Not in the way we feel when lunch is a little late, or when we skip a
meal and come to the next one with cranky stomachs. Not even in the way we feel
after a couple of hours spent exercising, or a morning spent stripping
wallpaper and painting a room. This is real hunger. This is what is known as
“food insecurity.” The US Department of Agriculture, which is shut down this
week, describes a family as being very food insecure when, “at times during the year, eating patterns of
one or more household members [are] disrupted and food intake reduced because
the household lack[s] money and other resources for food.” When you are in this
state, your stomach is empty, and you are weak from hunger. You don’t have a
clue when you will eat next, or how you will legally get that food, for
yourself and for your loved ones.
Look at it from the people’s perspective. They are hungry. And the memory of the fleshpots of
Egypt—which is a fabulous word that means, basically, pots of stew with plenty
of meat—the memory of them suddenly seems to mock the former slaves’ newfound
freedom. Even the memory of something inextricably wrapped up with the memories
of oppression starts to sound good, it makes it seem like it wasn’t all that
bad, really. That’s what hunger will do to you.
And, of course, hunger is not a problem unique to the ancient world. The
hungry are with us still. I know you know that. Sometimes hunger comes to a
family during a recession; someone is laid off, and before you know it,
someone—sometimes just the adults, sometimes the whole family—has to skip a
meal, or even a whole day’s worth of meals. Sometimes food insecurity comes to
families as a result of even more sinister economic forces. In Cameroon, the
country that gave birth to the wonderful anthem that was our introit this
morning, wealthy merchants hoard crops and speculate on their prices, which
means that chronic hunger exists in large segments of the population.
But look at it from God’s perspective. This is all about trust.
When God gave the hungry Israelites the gift of the manna, it came with
strict instructions. Gather enough for today. On the day before the Sabbath,
gather enough for two days, and no more. God’s response to the hungry people
was to answer their cries—again—but also to try to coax them into a more intimate
and trusting relationship. And just to put a nice, fine point on it, when the
people did gather more than they should, when they didn’t trust that the manna
would be there the next day… it grew worms. It started to smell bad.
This is all about trust.
It is not easy to trust, apparently, not even to trust a God who has
given vivid displays of power. The Israelites wavered in their trust, as food
supplies dwindled and disappeared in the harsh, unforgiving climate of the
wilderness. And still God continued to demonstrate the divine intention that
everyone should have enough, even these wilderness wanderers. As for the rest
of us, God has created a world in which there is enough. There is enough
farmable land to grow our crops. There are enough seeds to be planted. Most
years, there is enough water to help the crops grow. But we know that the food
is not necessarily getting into the hands of those who need it. This is where
we come in.
To help the people in Cameroon, the Presbyterian Hunger Program, which
is supported by our Peacemaking Offering, establishes community-run grain banks,
so that the monopoly on grain is broken, and the people can eat. To help the
people of the Southern Tier, the Broome County Council of Churches collects
food and money to assist those who are food insecure in our midst. In 2012, 22%
of the children in the United States were food insecure. That translates to
2900 children in Endicott, 3292 children in Johnson City, 6021 in Vestal, and
about 10241 in Binghamton. Twenty thousand children within a few miles of this
sanctuary. That is a lot of hunger. That is a lot of need. That is a lot of
opportunity for us to make a difference in people’s lives.
Look at it from God’s perspective. God has given enough food for the
world. We who already have enough are invited into the holy work of God’s creation
and re-creation, as we learn ways to help that food get where it needs to go. It’s
like that wonderful song by Saint Susan Werner, in which she sings:
I got plenty and then some…
what do I do?
I got plenty and then some…
what do I do?
I got plenty and then some…
what do I do now?
I go out and help somebody get
plenty and then some too.
If I’ve got ‘plenty and then
some…’ why wouldn’t I want to help somebody else to have the same?
In a few moments we gather around
this table, to be fed bread from all around the world and the fruit of the
vine. We did nothing to earn our place at this table. None of us is here
because we are good. We are here because God is good. The gift of this table is
pure grace, just like the gift of manna to the whining Israelites. We can
trust: there is enough. There is enough for us here, and there is enough for
God’s vision of plenty to be realized throughout the world. This is where we
are nurtured and strengthened for that work. This is where we are fed, so that
all God’s people might be fed. Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Beth Tanner, “Commentary on
Exodus 16:1-18, Narrative Lectionary/ WorkingPreacher.com, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1811.
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