True Manna

Sermon for August 2, 2009 Proper 13 Text:  Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 Title:  True Manna A.   As a southern boy, I love grits.  Not the instant, imitation kinds, though I will eat those in a pinch.  I mean the real kind, made from fresh corn, cooked and buttered to perfection.  For that matter, I like hominy's too; you know, that delicious concoction which is a kind of grits grown up, made from the whole kernel.  But now my children don't like grits, and I can't quite figure that out.  Maybe it's the fact that their mother is from north of the Mason/Dixon line!   Every time I see grits I am reminded of the story of the little girl who ate grits for years without knowing what they were. She ate cheese grits, buttered grits, grits with pieces of crisp bacon stirred in — all sorts of grits. When she was about 12 she asked a friend if he knew what grits were. "The truth?" he said grinning. "You really want to know the truth?"  And naively she responded: "Of course!"   "Grits," he said, "are small bugs that live in colonies on the surface of fresh-water lakes, like algae, and at the end of every summer they are harvested, shelled, and dried in the sun so that you couldn't tell that they had ever had legs. Mm-mmmm," I'm not sure she ever ate grits again!   B.  This morning's passage of Scripture is not about grits, but it is about food, or more specifically, the lack thereof.   The Israelites had experienced their first real freedom after leaving Egypt.  They were journeying in the Wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, even today a hot, hostile, dangerous, and fearsome place.   Almost immediately some complained to Moses about the food situation.  The rations they had brought with them were running out, and they didn't know what to do.  The text calls the ones who were complaining by a Hebrew noun that we translates as "the whole congregation of the Israelites," indicating that the complaint lodged against Moses and Aaron comes not from malcontents or rabble-rousers, but from the entire spectrum of the people, including its responsible leaders.  This is the third complaint against Moses and Aaron recorded in the Book of Exodus.  The first complaint expresses the fear of the Israelites of being overtaken and slaughtered by the pursuing Egyptians immediately after the miraculous parting of the Red Sea. The second complaint, found in chapter 15, is that of thirst, for which God instructs Moses to throw a piece of wood into bitter water to make it sweet, that is, fresh.  It is obvious that each complaint demonstrates a lack of faith in God's providential care on the part of the people.  But God has 40 years to whip them into shape!   As we have seen, this third complaint is about the lack of food that resulted from their rushed departure from Egypt. The complaint expresses a perhaps all-too-familiar sentiment: "If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots," (not houses of ill repute but rather large communal cooking pots in which meat was boiled and from which groups of people — two or more families — were fed.!) "and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."   Give me a break!   Do you think slaves under the absolute totalitarian rule of an Egyptian Pharaoh ate their fill of tender morsels?  This group could perhaps be called the "Back to Egypt" Committee.  This is the committee of people who look back upon the past as being the "Good Ole' Days", even when they weren't all that good.  They have a selective memory for what has gone on before, minimizing the struggles and stressing the blessings. It's a natural reaction to change.  No one really wants a lot of change and if people are scared of what the future may hold they will cling tenaciously to the past.  This happens not only in secular culture, but also in churches, and smart leaders have to keep in mind that the Back to Egypt Committee is always motivated by fear of a future that they may neither understand nor desire.    A number of years ago I was speaking before a church governing body of a church located in the inner city of a large metropolitan area.  I was there to discuss the possibility of bringing in a church revitalization team, to pull alongside them and help plan new ministry directions that might help equip the church to begin growing again.  While waiting for my turn to speak, I overheard two elderly white ladies talking about the future of the church.  "Our Sunday School class is really dwindling down to nothing," she said.  "Everyone has just passed on!"  "Yeh," said the other lady, "But that Philipino class seems to grow every Sunday."  What a gold mine of a conversation!  In fifteen seconds the entire problem with the church had come into clear focus!!  God was calling the congregation to reach out to people who didn't look like them!  Unfortunately, it was too big of a change to contemplate.  They voted against doing anything that made much of a difference.   Obviously Moses and Aaron didn't lead the people into the wilderness only to die, but the complainer's exaggeration points to the desperation and fear the people were feeling.  This depiction of a well-fed workforce is the result of convenient amnesia on the part of those complaining, as a reaction to fear of a future that may not be to their liking.  And this reflected a lack of faith in a God who has already been where He is leading us to go.   In response, God tells Moses that he is going to "rain bread from heaven" upon the people and cause quails to land among them. "At twilight you shall eat meat," says God, "and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God." That statement sums up the deeper meaning behind the provisions the Lord was supplying.   The food was not only to meet their dietary needs, but also to feed them spiritually.   God proved that in spite of anything they might encounter, the Lord would provide.   Now, we should notice that the bread comes with strict instructions.  The Israelites are to gather the "fine flaky substance" for six days only, and to refrain from gathering on the seventh, which is the Sabbath.  It is called "Manna", a word that means "What is it?"  Even today, no one knows what it was – theories range from bug excrement to plant sap.  But what manna was doesn't matter.  What matters is that manna demonstrated that the welfare of the Israelites was not coincidental or accidental, but was due to the deliberate care of God.     As the rest of the story makes clear, some of the Israelites failed their test.  Unable to obey the instruction to refrain from harvesting manna on the seventh day, some Israelites sought to gather food on the Sabbath and found none, and provoked an angry reaction from God.  That pattern — divine protection, divine instruction, human disobedience, divine punishment — will become the pattern of God's relationship with His people throughout the Old Testament.   C.   I'm sorry to say that we all seem to follow this same pattern so many times in our lives.   Maybe the problem is that we can't treat our spirituality like a roller coaster, going up and down, and then up again.  The Israelites' complaints reflect a deeper spiritual need alongside their need for food.  When things were going fine, they were happy with God.  But when things weren't going so well, then they started to grumble at a God whom they saw as being unfaithful or fickle.  They didn't seem to be interested in a steady, ongoing, covenantal relationship with God.  Their faith lives seemed to be much shallower than that.  And again, I'm sorry to say that all of us, at some time or other, fall into much the same way of living before God.   For we Christians, it doesn't start with manna.  It starts with Jesus.  Remember the Gospel passage we just read, paired in the lectionary with this passage from Exodus, "Very truly I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven…Jesus said to them, 'I am the Bread of Life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."  Food for spiritual hunger is abundantly supplied through faith in Christ.  We can trust Jesus with our lives, through thick and thin.  He is there in good times or in bad.  Indeed, the times when we are at the end of our own rope means that there are less of our own resources to rely on, leaving more room for Him.   And God has provisioned us with sources of divine nourishment — prayer, meditation, Bible reading, church attendance, communion, fasting, tithing, et cetera.   We should remember that we can't assume a take-it-or-leave-it mindset when it comes to our faith life.  Many of us, despite the sincerity of our Christian commitment and the purposefulness of our intentions, find that our enjoyment of prayer, communion, Bible study and so forth varies according to our energy levels, our life pressures, our schedules, our current excitements and enthusiasms, and the other ups and downs typical of our existence.   This is normal, but we have to make sure we don't "get out of the habit" of seeking the presence of God in our lives.   Perhaps, therefore, it would be helpful to remind ourselves of some good practices that can be helpful for spiritual growth.   1) We can make use of the power of regimen. Just as athletes benefit from a habitual routine of exercise, which surely does not excite them to the same degree every day, so, too, we can rely on the power of an ongoing devotional procedure. Some of us will find that the regularity of it makes room for the Holy Spirit to enhance the flavor of each day.   We should have a time of daily devotion, reading, prayer, and study.  In this way we "get in the habit", strengthening our spiritual muscles.  It is also helpful to find a spiritual counselor or join a devotional group.  By joining with others, we can hold each other accountable in our dealings with our neighbors, the Lord, and ourselves.   2) We can examine our lives to see what else is going on that blocks our enjoyment of the things of God. When we are committed to Christ but struggling nonetheless with the practice of prayer, study, and attendance in church, it may be a sign that something else is out of balance in our lives. That awareness can give us an opportunity to make some changes.  Perhaps seek out your spouse or a trusted friend and ask them what might be blocking fellowship with the Lord.   3) We can reduce the distractions that pull us away from our spiritual life.   For example, many of us find that we have difficulty focusing our prayer time. Whenever we try to pray, all sorts of unbidden thoughts come into our minds —, a thought about a nagging problem, a worry about some task we must do later, and so forth.  We might want to find a quiet spot for quiet time, and use that place exclusively each day.  I like to use my rocking chair by my light, usually early in the morning each day.  Distractions are an inevitable drain on prayer time, but we can minimize them by practicing putting them to the side when they pop into our heads.   The bottom line is that God will deal with us abundantly if we but seek Him out.  God wants relationship with us, and will draw close to us if we make any effort at all to draw close to Him. I knew a fellow who was driving with his family from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa, Florida. As far as the eye could see, orange trees were loaded with fruit. When they stopped for breakfast, my friend ordered orange juice with his eggs. "I'm sorry," the waitress said. "I can't bring you orange juice. Our machine is broken."  My friend confessed that he was dumbfounded.  They were surrounded by millions of oranges, and he knew the restaurant had oranges in the kitchen--orange slices garnished their food plates.  They were surrounded by thousands of gallons of juice.  The problem was that the staff had become dependent on a machine to get the juice.  We could have the same problem in our spiritual lives. Bibles might surround us in our homes, but if we don't use them, we'll never get the sweet spiritual juice from them.   An hour or so on Sunday, as good as that is, isn't enough.  We need to seek the Bread of Life, and invite Him into our lives.  God is willing to pour out manna to sustain us, if we are just willing to ask.  Amen.     Keith Almond P.O. Box 4388 Leesburg, VA  20177 703-344-3569 almond_keith@yahoo.com