August 5, 2012, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost

August 5, 2012

10^th Sunday after Pentecost

Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

The Rev. Jo Miller

I am going to do a combination of teaching and preaching. Mostly

teaching I think. When our son was in grade school he had the burden of having both parents being teachers at his grade school. It did get to be a burden for him at times. When he was 34 and I was ordained to the transitional Diaconate I remember him saying: “This is not right.” He has gotten over it, I am still just mom. But the specter of the 10 year old as not only a TK but a PK

shadowed him for awhile.

The point being I will be doing a combination of teaching and preaching.  Actually, I invite you to open a pew Bible to Exodus 16. There isn’t one for each person so some sharing needs to take place.

First of all, Exodus is not a historical document in the strictest sense. It is an interpretation of Israel’s growing understanding of their faith, a growing understanding of the dynamics of Yahweh and Yahweh’s interaction with them. Exodus is first and foremost Torah which means instruction. The book has been voiced, compiled, retold, corrected, formed, and reformed over several centuries. If you listen carefully you can hear Sabbath instructions before the Sabbath was really established as practice and ritual in chapter 20 of Exodus. A number of additions to the writings in Exodus came from the priest during the Babylonian exile. It does not lessen its impact but adds to its beauty and its statement concerning God and people. One historian wrote that history is rewritten to suit the needs of the age, facts become overlaid with commentary. That is what we get with the first books of the Hebrew Scripture.  Most Biblical scholars believe that Moses did have a written form of the covenant it was much simpler, not as detailed.

As one reads through Exodus one will hear much moaning and complaining. They complain about their enslavement and their woes with the Egyptians. Yahweh hears their complaints and sends Moses to lead them. But who is Moses?

As is true throughout both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament God uses fallible humans. Moses is fallible just like the people he will lead save for one thing, he does learn to listen to the voice of God. He has his trials and tribulations starting with Exodus 2:11 when he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills the Egyptian and hides the body in the sand. The next day he tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews but one of them was the man he helped the day before. The man says, “Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Moses fled knowing the Pharaoh would find out. That reminds me of what a four year old in Head Start said when I corrected him: "You’re not the boss of me."

Moses also stuttered which was as much a social problem back then as it can be today. That is why Aaron is with him, to speak for him. Moses was fallible and yet used in a mighty way by God to unite a people.

In Chapter 15 after God destroys the Egyptian army in the Red Sea we read beautiful songs of joy and praise. The song of Moses is in our BCP for Morning Prayer. They sing and dance and are so happy with their freedom and their leader Moses. This lasts for a little while. Can you guess who they begin to blame when they get hungry and thirsty and the trip gets hard and long?  Moses. People do not change. Who is the first person most Americans will start to blame when struggles occur, when life isn’t fun, and it gets hard? The President, right? It usually takes 6 months and not two months.

Our reading picks up 2 ½ months after their deliverance. I love this part because we do this to our leaders to. Verse 2

2 The whole congregation of the Israelites

complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

The whole assembly of people were already getting tired of their trek to the promised land of milk and honey and freedom. Sometimes freedom does not fill the stomach. We read that God again hears their complaint and he speaks to Moses and tells Moses what is right in front of them that they cannot perceive because they had never seen it before, manna. God spoke to Moses, Moses listened, he then told the Hebrews that God’s abundance was before them.

A point of fact. The manna is a sweet, sticky, honey like juice that exudes heavy drops in May and June from a shrub found in the desert where the Israelites were camped. It melts in the heat of the sun after falling to the earth in grains much like coriander seed. When we do not know what to look for, when we are distressed, when we are struggling we often times miss the abundance that is in front of us that God has provided. We need someone who can hear and see what God has provided in order to see it ourselves. Otherwise we just wonder why God has forsaken us. We miss mercy, forgiveness, grace and love. As in the discontented murmuring that occurred in the desert the one in whom we live and move and have our being hears us. We do not always see or appreciate God’s economy in what is supplied . We like more than is needed, we like to hoard.

Moses gave them strict instructions with the gathering of the manna.  They could gather one omar per person which is about 2 quarts. They all had just enough for the day. Hoarding the manna did not work because it rots. The big lesson they had to learn was the dependence on faith.

Their understanding of Yahweh was evolving. As we read through the Scripture we see how the people mature in their understanding of the Divine.  The perfect religious symbol, such as manna or the bread and wine of our Eucharist are founded on an actual incident which has been retold, enjoyed, mulled over, and enriched by one generation after another until it comes to enshrine the combined religious experience of thousands of different people.  The Priestly writers added the hint of the Sabbath to this historical event because it helped build its foundation of religious practice and faith.

This story points to God leading, directing, hearing, and responding to people even when we grumble and complain and fail to see God’s abundance.  This account lifts the natural phenomenon to the level of a sign confirming Israel’s faith: It is the bread which the Lord has given. Manna has become a metaphor for God’s grace and providence. The feeding of the 5000 from last weeks story fits in here as does the story in 2 Kings when Elisha said of the barley and grain, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord”. God's abundance is all around us; it often times takes one person to see and hear God's voice in relationship to the abundance before others can see.

Just for fun read chapter 17 vrs1-5 They quarrel with Moses again because they are thirsty. Moses cries out to God, “What shall I do with this people?” The story continues.