The Old Testament lesson for Sunday is about the Israelites and Moses wandering in the wildnerness, having just escaped Egypt (plagues, Passover, Red Sea, chariots drown, the whole nine yards).
Now, in Exodus 17:1-7 they seem to have forgotten that whole God-saved-them-from-everything experience and they are whining. Whining!
"We're thirsty...why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us with thirst?" In another part of Exodus, when hungry and sick of manna, they say, "Would it not be better to be back in Egypt where we at least had leeks and onions to eat?"
Egypt would have been better? Yeah, if you're into building pyramids for some pharoah who views you as a replacable part. If you don't mind the lack of freedom to practice your religion. Yeah, slavery was great. Whatever!
Maybe I should give them a break. I mean, they did thank and praise God for the act of liberation from Egypt. And if I was wandering in a wilderness with no water and my kids and cows were dying of thirst, I guess I might cry out to God in such a way.
But what interests me most is the question in Exodus 17:7 "Is the Lord among us or not?" Gosh, how many times have we asked this question? Put another way: "Where is God when I'm suffering?"
At Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, where I studied, there's a fountain based on this story outside of Sawyer Hall, where community meals are searved. A bronze statue of Moses is striking a bronze "rock" and water gushes forth. It's lovely and always running.
The statue grabbed my imagination because I had a tough first year of seminary. California was too big, too scary and too far from home. I missed my family and Iowa terribly. I spent most of my first year figuring out how I could transfer back to a seminary in the Midwest. I had filled out all the paperwork for Luther Seminary in Minnesota. I just wanted to go home.
I was a grumbling Israelite: Why did you bring me to this God-forsaken place?!?
Somehow, though, that water fountain comforted me. It reminded me that God does call us into weird and wild places. It reminded me that God never promised our journeys would be neat, tidy and full of comforts of home. It reminded me that God was right next to me in my painful experiences.
In the end, I stayed in Berkeley and was forever grateful for that wilderness journey. An older friend once remarked that when she looked back at her life, she had many happy times to recall. But the times that were most formative and that she was now grateful for, were those times of struggle.
Is the Lord among us or not?
He is here. They call him Emmanuel.
1 comment:
I'm glad it all worked out for you at Berkeley, although we sure would have enjoyed having you at Luther as well. Funny how it all works out in the end, isn't it?
I've been thinking about those Israelites in relation to the Gospel from last Sunday as well. "Is God here or not?" How often do we settle for the water from the well instead of the living water that God is offering us? I am convinced that God wants to nourish us with the living water that flows from Christ, from that darn rock, but don't recognize it, or deny it, and we just drink from the well out of our ignorance.
Thank you for your faithfulness in pointing us towards the water that gives life, the water that comes from God!
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