Flow
September
28 / 14
Exodus 17: 1-7
This was moving week – and
I thought that I was prepared for this – I have moved many times before and this move,
thanks to you, is easily handled because it is part of the United Church
compensation package. I thought that
everything was well in hand – because the movers were doing the packing and
taking care of the carting from one house and to the other all I had to do was
tell them what stays and what goes– so when Wednesday came – packing day, and they
were to arrive between 9 and 9:30, plenty of time thought I – although I had a
presbytery meeting the night before, and did not get home from the drive until
after 11 – But I got a good night sleep and I got up in good time. I got
the girls off to school, Erica off to daycare, was back by 8:45 to have my
breakfast and my tea and then time to prepare myself – but just when I sat down the doorbell rang –
it was the movers- they were there, early, and from that moment on everything felt like it went
out of control, the rest of the week has felt like I have been rushing to catch
up – I am not sure what I am trying to catch up too – but there has been this
sense of not being fully ready and not at all prepared for what our family is
doing. And there has been this niggling
feeling all week that if I had just had the 15 or twenty minutes to myself – to
prepare myself for what was coming - then I would have handled it better. If only the movers had not been early then I
would have been ready, and the last few days of tremendous stress and chaos
would have been calmer and had more flow…
I wonder if that is how
the Hebrew people felt this morning, out of control and stress out. They had thought that they wanted to be free
from slavery to the Egyptians - they had
thought that they knew what they were getting into – but it all happened so
quickly – one minute they were in Egypt and the next Moses hastened them along,
getting them to hurry up – because the hard hearted Pharaoh had finally changed
his mind and let them go – maybe if they had had more time to prepare, more
time to get ready – that when they came to the place where they were today –
according to one scholar – only about three months into the journey, would they
have been able to handle it better? They
may have been less threatening to Moses, and more understanding when they began
to get very thirsty.
Old Testament Professor Nancy DeClasse Walford writes: Thus, a weary and downtrodden people left a
life of oppression--but a life of familiarity--and journeyed into the Sinai
desert led by a man they hardly knew. They hoped to arrive safely in the land
that had been promised to their ancestors, a land they had never seen. Each
step took them further away from the known and deeper into the desert
unknown--men, women, children, and livestock.
The Egyptians pursued; the water was too bitter to
drink; food was scarce; the water ran out altogether. Doubt set in; fear
overtook, and the people complained and quarreled. In each instance, God
provided: deliverance, sweet water, food, water from the rock. These were the
early days of the wilderness wanderings, and God persistently guided the people
and provided for them.[1]
Doubt set in – fear overtook…., they weren’t ready –
but could they have been? I think the
thing of it is that life is not something that you can be ready for – I was not
prepared for the emotions I experienced when I watched all our belonging being
packed up and moved from a beloved home and treasured location. The Hebrew people were not ready for the
hardships of the dessert and were also not ready to trust in God whom they had
not seen for a long long time – for they had not witnessed God like Moses had
and were forced to trust Moses, a man whom they barely knew with their lives,
and the lives of their children. It is
no wonder, when there was no water that fear set in and doubt overtook….and
they started to complain, and to threaten and to regret their decision.
We have all been there – that place where life is not
what we had anticipated. Where the
direction we are headed is not what we signed up for. Life has a way of handing us curve balls –
and unanticipated problems and sometimes outright tragedy. We have all been so thirsty we cannot think
straight –
· we
could be thirsty for love,
· or
withered by grief,
· we
could be parched in despair
· or
desperate for security or safety
· we
could be dried out inside, feeling lost and alone
· or
dehydrated from years of neglect
But God was there, and God heard, and God responded –
God was in that desert with the Hebrew people and out of a rock – water flowed
and thirst was assuaged and the people drank until they could drink no
more. God came and saved them yet
again. Water flowed from a rock – and the
Hebrew people drank and were thirsty no more – at least no more that day.
Sometimes the hardest thing we have to do is remember
who we are and whose we are. It is easy
to forget when the thirst gets deep and hard that we are not alone in the desert
that God is with us, just as he was with the Hebrews. It’s hard in the midst of
fear and doubt to trust that God will provide and that water will come, even
from the most unlikely of places.
I am grateful for this opportunity today to celebrate
with you the lives of three people whom have been in the past contributing
members of this congregation. I know
that for some of you it especially hard today, as your grief is
re-awakened. But what a great example of
God’s love enacted here, that these precious lives that have touched so many
here continue with their gifts to bring life to the church – like water from a
rock – a bench by the labyrinth offers rest and restoration – and a
defribulator may give life to someone whose heart has stopped and in the music,
which opens us up in profound ways and God is able to break down barriers so we
can get a little bit closer to our Creator.
Thank you, families of Rick, Fern and Steven, may we honour your loved
ones by using their gifts well.
God cares deeply for each of us and helps move us from
places of fear and doubt to places of trust. God provides for us and reveals
Godself to us, and then God asks us to trust when the good provision doesn't
come as quickly or in quite the form as we would like. Look back, remember the
provision of God in the past journey; it will come again in future journeys.
For "I am the LORD your God." And I am with you and you shall be my
people and I will be your God – Thanks be…Amen
[1] Nancy
DeClasse-Walford: Working
Preacher.org, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=160
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