Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11
This morning, I want to look at our reading from Exodus. It’s a strange little story, partly written to explain why some springs in the eastern part of Israel are named Meribah, which means Quarrel, and partly written to shed light on the wilderness experience of the Israelites after they were rescued from slavery in Egypt. But it also has something to say to us about who we turn to when we’re feeling desperate, so it seems like the right text for today.
So, the people of Israel are moving slowly from crossing out of Egypt across the Sinai peninsula, which is desert and mountains (not what we’d call mountains, but enough to make walking more like a scramble), and then north up to Canaan. It is not easy going. They’ve already run out of food, and God has already provided them with quails and manna to eat every day, but there is no fresh water available, and it is not a place where there is a lot of rain. And so the people complain.
Now there are a lot of interpretations of this text that say the Israelites were ungrateful, and they shouldn’t complain so much, and even Moses himself seems to get annoyed with them. But remember, they were a large group of people, with vulnerable seniors and children in their midst. They were not going to survive very long without fresh water, and they would not want to watch their children die before their eyes. It’s true that they might have gone a bit overboard in saying, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? To kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” But we all say things in the midst of our stress, and it doesn’t mean we actually believe them or wish they were true. It’s easy to let our emotions get the best of us when things are looking dire. Some interpreters have said that the people of Israel sinned for doubting God, and even Moses seems to be implying that, but that’s a bit harsh. Doubt and fear are not sins, they are normal reactions. I don’t think the message of this story is that we shouldn’t complain.
No, what’s interesting to me in this text, where I think our message for today lies, is where it says that the people turned to Moses to solve their problem. The people quarrelled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink,” and clearly they issued some kind of threat, since Moses complains to God that he thinks the people are about to stone him. Now to me, that’s weird. Why would the people would demand that Moses give them water. What on earth do they think Moses could have done about it?
I mean, I know that Moses led them out of Egypt, and that when Moses struck the Red Sea, the waters parted, but that wasn’t Moses actually making that happen. That was God. God was the one who brought the plagues that caused the Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, God was the one who split the sea so that the Israelites could walk through on dry land. God was the one who provided them with quail and manna in the desert. Yes, God used Moses to do many of these things, but God was the one who actually did it. And yet the people complained to Moses.
And he accepts it, and then he complains to God. Now, it’s not weird that he complains to God - that’s what he should be doing. It’s weird that he accepts their complaints. You see, what he should have said to them was, “Hey, I’m not the one in charge here. Remember that God was the one who brought us out of Egypt? Talk to God. Complain to God. Turn to God.” That is, after all, the responsibility of religious leaders––to point people towards God, to redirect people from turning to the leaders in their anxiety to turning towards God.
This, I think, is the central message of this text for us this morning. We, too, are in a place where, as a community, as a city, as a country, we are deeply concerned about the vulnerable among us. And of course we turn to our leaders to help us and tell us what to do. Which, for certain things, we should. We turn to our medical leaders to tell us what health precautions we should be taking, and it might interest you to know that the Chief Medical Officer of Alberta, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, is a life-long Lutheran. She is one of “us,” which for some reason makes me feel better.
But who do we turn to in our anxiety and fear? Who or what do we turn to for that “peace that passes all understanding?” Right now, lots of people are turning to the grocery store to feel peaceful. What I mean is, people are stockpiling things like toilet paper, and canned goods, and hand sanitizer as a way to feel more peaceful about what is happening. In addition to this creating more problems for the community around us rather than less, in the long run this isn’t going to help us in our anxiousness. We might walk away from the grocery store feeling better, but as soon as we hear the latest update from AHS, the anxiety comes back.
We might turn to strict cleaning and hygiene protocols to help us feel better. These are good things to do - we want to cover our face when we cough or sneeze, we want to stay home if we’re sick with anything, we want to wash our hands with soap and water for 20-30 seconds. Incidentally, reciting the Lord’s Prayer takes about that amount of time, so you might think about doing that when you’re washing your hands, instead of singing Happy Birthday, or the ABCs, or any of the other suggestions. But again, these things, while helping with germs, don’t help in the long term with our anxiety.
What helps with our fear is turning to God. God is the one who helps us when our spirits are anxious. Those other things––recommendations from doctors, staying home if we’re sick, clean hands, they all help with our bodies, but it is God who helps our spirits. In our Exodus story, yes, Moses failed to be a good leader when he accepted the complaints of the people and didn’t tell them to turn to God, but he did do a good job in himself turning to God. I suppose that’s why I am reassured by our Chief Medical Officer being Lutheran, because I know that she is also turning to God for peace––for a clear head and an open heart.
We turn to God because God has shown over and over and over again that God is there for us. God did give water to the Israelites in their need, and didn’t mock them for their anxiety. God has been the source of spiritual strength for Christians for 2,000 years, and for Jews for thousands more. God was there for Jesus––more than there: God’s Spirit filled Jesus when Jesus faced death. God was there for the apostle Paul, imprisoned and beaten, which is why Paul was able to say that “hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
We have been talking about Lent as a time to “think again” about God’s relationship with us. As this coming week unfolds, when you feel your anxiety rising, I encourage you to think again. Think of God. Turn to God, and remember that God has already turned to you. In times of anxiety, from the bubonic plague of Luther’s time, to the Spanish flu that some still remember, to today, God has always and will always be with us.
Now, it’s one thing for me to say that, and it’s another for us to put that into practice. So, today, and as long as we need, we are going to take more time in the service during our prayers of intercession. Since sharing the peace is taking less time, and since we’re not passing the offering plate, we have some extra time in our service, and so we’re going to use it to pray. When it comes times for people to offer their own individual prayers, we’ll take the time to do that. Whether you pray out loud, or just in your hearts and there’s only silence, we will turn to God together. And God, who has already turned to us, will grant us peace in our hearts, today and in the days to come. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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