2009.08.09: Dr. George A. Purnell

			Dr. George A. Purnell August 9, 2009 “Quit Complaining” Exodus 16:2-5, 14-30 Complaining about the present and worrying about the future are common human tendencies. Some people are more prone to complain about the present than others, and some are more anxious about the future. But we all complain and worry occasionally. Whether we complain or worry has little to do with our circumstances. Some of the most chronic complainers are people whose life station would seem to provide them little reason to complain. And people plagued by worry are often not those in precarious circumstances, but instead are people with financial means, good health, and job security. We can all find reasons to complain about today and worry about tomorrow. Our political adversaries are becoming more formidable threats. North Korea had an underground nuclear test on May 25. The explosion sent tremors to the Chinese border 130 miles away. This came less than two months after North Korea tested long range ballistic missiles, causing increasing concern that this nation would soon be able to launch nuclear warheads capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii. Iran is pursuing the development of nuclear weapons. We are currently in conflicts with Afghanistan and Iraq. The economies of the world are interdependent, so political friction in one place can result in economic destabilization in the global economy. The cumulative effect of industrialization on the world eco system is causing some scientists and policy makers to question how long the planet can last without radical changes in the production, use, and disposal of goods globally. The financial crisis in the United States that came to the surface dramatically in the fall of 2008, with the fall of several leading financial institutions, has resulted in significant reduction of wealth for many Americans. While we may think the present day is dangerous, however, others may say that today’s concerns are frivolous in comparison to those faced by previous generations. Those who lived through the 1930’s might scoff at us as we worry about our quarterly pension plan statements, or our 401 K plan balance sheets. Many of them think that we don’t know what it means to experience financial ruin, even if they don’t say so out loud. Or, if we think that political instability in the world threatens the U.S. today, they might tell us we should have lived when the Nazis were gaining control of Europe, had formed an alliance with Japan, and seemed on the verge of becoming a political and military power more dangerous to our security as a nation than any we had faced in history. Or, think of the perilous times those who lived in nineteenth century America faced daily, when a drought could destroy an entire crop, wiping out a year’s work, the family’s food supply and it source of cash; and when an epidemic of a disease that we now have vaccines for could wipe out entire families and communities. Survival was the concern then, not worrying about whether retirement assets would allow us to maintain our lifestyle after our work lives were over. (Indeed, retirement was not something people of normal means did much before the second third of the twentieth century.) This inherent tendency to be dissatisfied with the present and anxious about the future is as old as the Bible, as our reading this morning indicates… Today we are in the book of Exodus, the second of thirty nine books in the Old Testament. The Hebrew people have escaped slavery in Egypt, and God’s trustworthiness to the people has been revealed repeatedly earlier in this book. God lifted up Moses as their leader. Acting under God’s direction, Moses leads the people out of Egypt. Chapter 13 describes God going “in front of the people in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night.” (13:21) Chapter 14 then describes the dramatic rescue at the Red Sea, when God gave the Israelites safe passage across the sea, and sent the waves crashing around the pursuing armies of the Pharaoh. “The entire army of Pharaoh” perished in the sea; “not one of them survived.” (14:28) However, as the Pharaoh’s army drew near the people, before the people went into the Red Sea and were miraculously rescued, we read that the Hebrews complained to Moses, saying: “was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have take us away to die in the wilderness…it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” (14:11-12) After the rescue, we read that “Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So, the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.” (14:31) In the last verse of chapter 15, just before where we begin today in chapter 16, the Lord led the people to Elim, “where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they camped there by the water.” (15:27) When the people picked up camp and left Elim to continue their journey, they began to complain again. The people tell Moses and Aaron that they would have been better off if they had died by the hands of the Lord in the land of Egypt, because they had plenty to eat there, even if they were slaves. Hearing his critics, God tells Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day,” and no more. “In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not,” God added. The “test” was to see if the people trusted God. Keeping the bread overnight was forbidden, because God could and must be trusted to give fresh food each morning. On the sixth day, then, the day before the Sabbath, they were to gather twice as much as they gathered on the other days; because the Sabbath was a day of rest. Now those instructions wouldn’t have been necessary if God didn’t already know the human tendency to make sure we have enough for an emergency. After all, *what if God forgets to leave food tomorrow?* Some of the Hebrews gathered more than a day’s supply apparently, because they had food left over the next morning. But it was futile to gather more than a day’s supply, because the excess spoiled and became worm - infested. And some not only disregarded God’s instruction about gathering only a one day supply, they also went out on the Sabbath seeking bread. Disgusted by the peoples’ lack of trust, God says to Moses: “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath, therefore, on the sixth day he gives you food for two days; each of you stay where you are; do not leave your place on the seventh day.”(V28-29) Regardless of what God told the Hebrew people during their Exodus to the land of promise, and regardless of our petition in the Lord’s Prayer (give us this day our daily bread), we worry about tomorrow. We find it hard to believe that our daily needs will be met, so we try to create a safety net to protect us against what may happen in the future. In arguably his most famous teaching – the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus told those who came to hear him that they could trust God to provide for their needs, that they should not worry about tomorrow: “I tell you, do not worry about what you will eat or what you will drink…or what you will wear…Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?...So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6: 25 ff) Jesus was not telling his listeners to have a careless disregard for the future. He was telling them that worry is a useless emotion. God can be trusted, Jesus said: Anyway, “your heavenly Father knows you need all these things,” so “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” We do live in a dangerous world. We live in a world where technological advances occur hour by hour it seems…a world where weapons systems are so sophisticated that war can be waged from a distance with smart missiles…a world where a surgeon in Seattle can do surgery on a patient in St. Louis by manipulating instruments on a computer screen… And we sometimes long for things as they were in a more stable time… Maybe back to the 1950’s, when churches were full and families had a mommy and a daddy and prayer was in the schools…when there was less affluence but more contentment with life… Or maybe back to the 1980’s, when we seemed safer as a nation against foreign adversaries, a time before the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, before the Oklahoma City terrorist attack, before nine eleven… Today our reading came from the Book of Exodus, one of the oldest writings in our Bible. But its lesson is timeless: The Hebrew people are vulnerable. They are in the Sinai desert, without food and water. It seems to them that Moses has led them out to die, and that God has abandoned them. It is here that God asks the Hebrew people to trust God, to believe that what God has done in the past God will do today and tomorrow. And it is today – when economies are fragile and international relationships unstable…when the weapons of war that humankind has harnessed are capable of rapid delivery and unspeakable destruction… when medical advances occur that make the quality of life today and potential length of life into the future unimaginable even a few short years ago – in the midst of change and challenge, that God asks us to trust God. In the words of the hymn we sang earlier, we are asked to believe in our hearts what we sing with out voices: Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided; great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me! And to believe in our hearts what we sing with our voices, in the words of the hymn we will sing now: “O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come; be thou our guide while life shall last, and our eternal home”…Amen.