By: Rev. Marion Loree - Jun 14, 2024
Sermon from Worship service on October 1, 2023
Rev. Marion Loree
Trinity United Church Guelph
Scripture: Exodus 15-17 selected verses
Oh, these people! These ungrateful, complaining people. First they complain of brackish water so Moses sweetened it for them and then they are complaining that they have no food. Then it is that they have no water. Will they never be satisfied?
I feel sorry for Moses. I think he deserves our sympathy. Think about it. He was startled out of a peaceful existence by a talking bush, a burning bush with a voice that told him he had to go back to Egypt - a place from which he was a fugitive because he had killed a man. And when he got there he was to convince the Israelites that he had been sent by a God with no name to save them from slavery. The only consolation for Moses at this point is that he convinced God to let his brother Aaron come along to help him.
So off they went but their reception was not how we might imagine it. After being in Egypt for a couple of hundred years as slaves one would think, seeing that Moses was bringing a message of freedom, he would have been welcomed with open arms. But what he got was more like - “Ha, ha, ha you are going to what? Lead us out of here to freedom without a fight? Good luck! Ha, ha, ha.” So much for his wonderful message of liberation.
Then he had to go and convince the Pharaoh to let the people go. Another not-so-easy task. The Pharaoh took a lot of convincing before finally and reluctantly agreeing to the plan. So off they finally went - the whole kit and caboodle of them - men, women, children, animals - everyone and everything, striding off into the wilderness. So far so good. But then, just as they realize that Pharaoh had changed his mind and sent the army after them they came up against the barrier of the Red Sea (or actually the Sea of Reeds). Moses again had to do something to rescue them.
You would think the people would have been filled with gratitude - first at being rescued and then at escaping the clutches of the army. But did they start to hail Moses as a hero and begin to trust that he and God knew what they doing? No! No sooner had the sounds of the women’s victory song died away than the people started complaining. Oh how soon they forget.
First it was about the brackish water that they found, then it was about having no food. And even after they were provided manna in the desert some disobeyed the instructions about gathering only what they needed for the day. Some also ignored the command not to go out and gather food on the Sabbath. Poor Moses - these people were impossible.
And now they were complaining again. This time it wasn’t about brackish water but having no water. Now, one can understand their concern about needing water because, after all, water is more essential for life than food is but the way they voiced their complaints. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst? Is God with us or not?” They were not only dissatisfied but downright angry.
It is no wonder that Moses, in turn, voiced his frustration to God as he did. “What shall I do with this people?” he said, “They are almost ready to stone me!” With a little imagination it is easy to hear the exasperation in his voice. He risked everything to come to their rescue and all he got for it was grumbling and complaining and an ungrateful bunch of people who were ready to stone him just because they were thirsty.
I don’t think I would have had as much patience with them as he did. I think I would have been tempted to send them right back where they came from and be done with them.
But that was not to be. God had plans for these people and it was God’s plan that Moses was following, much as he must have found it tough going. It is hard enough to lead people who respect you and want to follow, it is quite another to be leader of a disgruntled and dissatisfied group like this one.
This whole situation brings to my mind a book that was written by one of my professors at University. Her name is Mary Jo Leddy and the book is entitled “Radical Gratitude”. In this book she talks about a prevalent attitude in our society and culture today. That attitude is one of dissatisfaction. We seem to have acquired the idea, and she lays out the reasons why she believes this attitude is prevalent, that we don’t have enough. We seem to think that we always need more and underlying this attitude, says Prof Leddy, is the feeling that we are not good enough.
She suggests that we suffer from a “spirit of craving” is how she puts it. The culture of money that we live with today has created in us the feeling that we never have enough. We crave continually for more - more money, more time, more leisure, more stuff, more, more, more - in the mistaken belief that ‘more’ will make us happy. What is necessary to overcome this constant craving, this ‘ledger view of life’ she says, is a change in attitude. A change from an attitude of always wanting more to one of being grateful for what we have. One of not taking things for granted.
She says, and I quote, “Our general dissatisfaction with ourselves, with others, and with the world is possible only as taking for granted becomes a habit of being. We can want more because we assume we already have something or someone.” And she gives some examples. “I can want air conditioning only because I can presume there is air to breathe. I can want tastier meals only because I already have some food. I can want a better life for my children only when I can assume their very existence is not in doubt. I can hope to be healthier and more whole only when I can take the fact that I am alive for granted.”
“The liberation of gratitude”, she says, “begins when we stop taking life for granted.” In some ways we are like the Israelites in the desert. It wasn’t enough that Moses had given himself to the task of liberating them, they also wanted him to provide for their every need. Like children who had not yet learned to say thank you, they demanded more and more from him taking for granted his leadership and his connection with God. I really wonder what they would have done if he had suddenly turned around and walked away leaving them in the desert. I think that’s what I would have been tempted to do. Would they have suddenly realized that they needed to change their attitude? Would they have learned to appreciate what was being done for them instead of only seeing what they didn’t have?
What kinds of things will help us to realize we need to change our attitude? I suggest that, for one thing, the state of the environment today is telling us to wake up and appreciate what we have, or had. Perhaps we have taken the earth for granted for far too long. Mary Jo Leddy says “what we overlook (that is, what we take for granted) begins to waste away. Will clean air and food come to us as a matter of course if we take the earth for granted? Can any relationships endure if they are merely taken for granted? What happens when we can neither take ourselves too seriously nor too lightly but only for granted?” These are some of the questions she poses for us to ponder.
The Israelites were learning. The reading 1 tells us they journeyed by stages, as God commanded. They were learning in stages about this God who was unfamiliar to them. They were learning about what it means to listen and follow and do as they are told. They were being taught by God about God. They were given the barrier of the Sea of Reeds so that God could teach them that a way would be opened. They were given hunger so that God could teach them that food would be provided. They were given thirst so that God could teach them that water would be provided. These things were happening so that they would learn to rely on God. This whole story of the Exodus is one of learning. Learning to trust God. Learning to be grateful for what God provides. They were learning some very important lessons about life and about God and about faith. Are we learning our lessons for spiritual survival, too?
Israel’s journey in the wilderness is a fit metaphor for life in general and for our life and pilgrimage of faith. We do not instantly go from cooing infant to mature adult. We are given time to integrate increasingly complex movements - whether of our bodies, our minds, our emotions, or our spirits. We grow by stages. And even when we reach adulthood life continues to unfold in stages. The learning is never done.
It takes a lifetime and more to discern by stages what it means to love, and be loved by, another. And so it is with our spiritual journey. Like our mothers and fathers in the wilderness, we journey by stages with and toward God. Like our mothers and fathers in the wilderness, we have to learn about not taking things for granted. We have to learn how to appreciate what we have and to appreciate God’s presence with us.
As I mentioned last week, the concept of an unseen God was entirely new to the Israelites and they needed to learn who God was, what God was about and how God worked. There was a lot of learning through experience for them and they seemed to be a bit thick at times. But God shows them repeatedly that they will be provided for, that they could put their trust and faith in the one who had arranged for their freedom from the bondage of slavery. God was a persistent, patient teacher, reinforcing the lessons over and over again. And eventually it worked. The story of the Exodus is the foundational story to the Judaic tradition and so to ours also.
God leads us, God teaches us, God provides for us, God patiently waits for us to get it. Let’s not be grumblers and complainers. Let’s not take all the gifts that we have been given for granted. Let’s try to learn and change our attitude to one of ‘radical gratitude’. I think, if we can do that, we will find we know the answer to that question our ancestors asked of Moses so long ago. “Is God with us or not?”