Community Church Sermons
The Third Sunday in Lent –
February 27, 2005
Exodus 17:1-7
Margaret I. Manning
They called it the
place of testing and quarrelling – in Hebrew Massah and Meribah. It was the place of testing both for the
Hebrew people and for God. Would the
people trust God, and could God be trusted?
These questions weave their way throughout the wilderness narratives of
the book of Exodus. God’s dramatic
deliverance from Egypt had lifted the Hebrew people from slavery and
oppression. But, now, wandering as they
were in the wilderness, facing imminent needs like hunger and thirst, the
people began to wonder if God was really in their midst. Their memory of God’s awesome power in
Egypt – through the miraculous signs, ‘plagues’ as the Egyptians called them –
and their dramatic deliverance through the waters of the Red Sea, grew dim in
that barren, dusty, and desolate wilderness that was now their home. Indeed, it was a test – would they continue
to trust in God, even in the wilderness?
And perhaps, more important, would God prove trustworthy and show up to
deliver them in the midst of a dreary, bleak land?
As we chart the
journey of the Hebrew people through the barren wilderness, we do see God
showing up again and again to provide for the people. Unfortunately, what we also see is a group of people who do not
trust in God, in spite of all God’s provisions on their behalf. Perhaps years of slavery in Egypt had
trained them in the art of complaint – after all they had been crying out for
deliverance for 400 years! Whatever the
case, in spite of God’s provision, the Hebrew people failed to trust in God,
and the failed to believe God was among them.
Let me rehearse for you some familiar stories from Exodus, as examples. After watching the Red Sea part before them,
and just as quickly thunder down on the armies of Pharaoh, the people find
themselves without water. Now given the
deliverance they’ve just experienced, you would think that would convince them
of God’s trustworthiness. But not three
days into their journey, and they’re already complaining. They’ve run out of water. And then, when they do find water, it is
undrinkable. But, God shows up and
instructs Moses to take a tree –a tree, of all things and throw that tree into
the water. When he does, the water is
made drinkable, and they are preserved from thirst.
Not twelve days
after this event[1], the people
have run out of food. While we’re not
certain how many Hebrew people came out of Egypt, many scholars estimate that
there were probably one million people wandering in that desolate
wilderness. So, just as it’s no easy
thing to find a bounty of water in a wilderness, it’s no small test to find
food for a million people in a place so barren and lifeless. Once again, God is put to the test – will
God show up and meet their need? Memory
grows a bit dim and they begin to long for the meat and bread of Egypt. . .
.even if Egyptian oppressors and enslavement accompanied their every meal! They’ve already forgotten how God provided
in the face of their thirst. Instead,
they complain about being led them a wilderness with hardly any water, and now
there is not a bread crumb in sight!
Did Moses have a plan when he delivered them from Egypt, or did he deliver
them just so they could die in the desert?
Now, while God could have punished them for their lack of trust and
unfaithfulness, God provides for them and sends bread from heaven, or manna, in
the Hebrew which means, ‘what is it?’
Manna is God’s provision for their hunger.
Now, the children of
Israel find themselves in this place of testing and quarrelling – Massah and
Meribah. Again there is no water in sight.
And even though God had performed for them before and had ‘shown up’ for
them time and time again, the people tested God with their
unbelief. But God provides for them
again, in spite of their disbelief and complaint. As we heard read in our text, God instructs Moses to take some
leaders and to go to the mountain of Horeb, or Sinai – the mountain of
God. And God told Moses that he would
find a cleft of rock and that God would go before him and be at that rock. Moses simply needed to strike the rock with
the same rod that Moses struck the Red Sea – the rod of deliverance - and water
would come forth for those testy, quarrelling people. The people didn’t see God make this miracle happen – they only
reaped the benefits. There is no record
of thanks, no offering of praise.
Instead, the passage ends with the reason why Moses named this place,
‘the place of testing and quarrelling.’
He gave the place this name because the people tested the Lord by
saying, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?’
What these
wilderness narratives show us over and over is our own tendency to doubt God in
the face of our need. After all that
God had done for the Hebrew people in the way of providing for them –
delivering them from 400 years of slavery, providing for their basic needs of
food and water, leading and guiding them to victory against their enemies
- they still do not trust that God is
among them, with them, caring for their good.
We too, when we wander in the wilderness of our own lives, when we live
with unmet and difficult needs, are tempted to forget that God is among us
still.
Nevertheless, the
question, “Is God among us, or not?’ is a potent question for us to consider
especially during the Lenten season.
For it is during Lent that we enter the wilderness in the life of Jesus. Like the Hebrew people before him, Jesus
also experienced testing in the wilderness.
And like the Hebrew people before him, Jesus had no food and very little
to drink. I’m certain he was physically
hungry and thirsty. And yet, in
contrast to the Hebrew people, his response to this test was to affirm God’s
presence with him, in spite of the fact that his physical needs were
unmet. We see his affirmation of God’s
presence with him in his response to the temptation to ‘turn stones into
bread.’ “Human beings don’t need bread
only, but, every word that comes from God.”
Jesus believed that God was with him in his need, and more than that,
Jesus believed that God’s very presence was all that he needed. In other words, Jesus understood that God’s
presence is what he needed in that wilderness, more than he needed God’s
provisions. God’s presence is more
potent than what God gives to us by way of meeting our needs. Jesus chose to put his trust in the
Provider, and not in the provisions.
That is our choice today. Is God
among us, in the face of our needs, or not?
If we answer that question merely based on the provisions of God, the
blessings of God and not on God alone, we will fail to see God’s presence in
midst of our unmet needs.
The temptation for
all of us, like the Hebrew people before us, and like Jesus in the wilderness
is to put our trust in provisions. But,
trusting in provisions never develops devotion and faithfulness to the
Provider. Certainly, the history of the
Hebrew people in that wilderness shows us that God’s wonderful provision never
cured their unbelief. In fact, in spite
of all God’s provision even in the barrenness, the loneliness, the desolation,
and the desiccation of the wilderness, the Hebrew people continued on in great
disobedience. They were idolatrous and
claimed a golden calf was their god. They
were immoral – not only prostituting themselves with foreign nations, but
corrupting themselves through the worship of foreign gods. The Hebrew people never wanted God for who
God was, they only wanted God for what God could do for them. We, too often fall into this same trap. We want God’s blessings more than we want a
relationship with God.
But, God has always
sought a relationship with us. And the Lenten season helps us to see this truth
in the most powerful way. The Lenten
season answers the question of God’s presence with us by pointing us towards
the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Cross of Christ. The suffering of Jesus with us demonstrates God’s desire to be
present among us, as one of us even in suffering. And as we reflect on the symbols in our Exodus narratives, recall
God’s provisions for the Hebrew people – it was a tree that made the bitter
water, sweet. And it was God standing
before Moses at the rock, the rock Moses would strike, that brought forth
living water. The Cross of Christ – is
the tree that makes the bitter, sweet.
John’s gospel tells us that Jesus is the living water and the bread of
life. The Apostle Paul said it like
this, ‘the rock in the wilderness that Moses struck, that rock was Christ; the
water that came forth from the rock – that was Christ.’[2] God has always been among us, and Paul
argues that Christ is God’s provision for us.
The cross of Christ answers the question of God’s presence among us with
a resounding ‘yes’ for all eternity.
As I prepared for
these remarks today, I discovered a wonderful contemporary answer to these
questions. Gerald Sittser is a
professor of theology and religion at Whitworth College in Spokane, WA and a
wonderful author and speaker. Sittser
and his family were invited to an Indian Reservation to enhance awareness and
appreciation of Native American issues and cultural contributions. As they were driving home, they were hit
head on, by a drunk driver – ironically by a Native American. Sittser’s mother, wife, and four year old
daughter were killed in this accident.
This horrific loss plunged him head first into the wilderness of testing
and quarrelling. Sittser lost the most
important people in his life. And in his loss, he asked, is God with me, or
not? Hear his answer:
“Loss
may call the existence of God into question.
Pain seems to conceal God from us, making it hard for us to believe that
there could be a God in the midst of our suffering….we wrestle in our souls to
believe. As we approach God in freedom,
having minds that can doubt as well as believe, wills that can choose against
God as well as for God, we discover that God has already decided to be in a
relationship with us. I had a waking
dream that illuminated this for me….I was standing in a field with my three
children, near the scene of the accident.
We witnessed the violence, the pandemonium, and the death, just as we
had experienced it in real life.
Suddenly a beautiful light enveloped the scene. It illuminated everything…the light forced
us to see in even greater detail the destruction of the accident. But, it also enabled us to see the presence
of God in that place…God was there at the accident. God welcomed our loved ones, God comforted us….the waking dream
did not give me an answer to the question of why the accident happened in the
first place, nor did it convince me that it was good. It did not erase my grief or make me happy. But it did give me a measure of peace…” [3]
You see, God was
there in the midst of Jerry Sittser’s wilderness. God didn’t meet Sittser’s need they way he would have wanted it
met, but God met Jerry in relationship.
And I could give you example after example of people in this
congregation who have found God present in their wilderness experiences. So I ask, Tellico Village Community Church,
‘Is God among us, or not?’ Can we see
God moving? And especially during this Lenten season, can we see God’s presence
in the cross of Jesus Christ as our ultimate provision even in our wilderness –
the bitter water made sweet; the rock that was struck on our behalf so that
living water would flow freely for us?
Whatever your wilderness, will you see God’s presence in the person of
Jesus? Jesus is the answer to the
question, ‘Is God among us or not?’ In
the cross of Christ, God shows up for all eternity and says, ‘yes,’ I am with
you. Amen.