“Enough” based on Exodus 17:1-7 and Philippians 2:1-5
Not
to give the answer away or anything, but I think both of these
passages try to prod us toward trust; trust in God and trust in each
other. Exodus tells of God giving the people what they need,
Philippians instructs people to take care of each other (which is a
way of ensuring everyone’s needs are met, if it is done well). When
people are paying attention to each other, and to the ones who are
most vulnerable, God’s abundant creation is able to care for all. I
suspect that trusting in God requires two things of us: trusting in
each other, and being trust worthy for each other. Let’s take a
deeper look.
The
Exodus story is about the people of God being quarrelsome, whiny, and
unfaithful. Or, at least, it seems to be. I’ve never quite
understood this passage though, because they’re said by the text
itself to be quarrelsome, whiny, and unfaithful BECAUSE they want
access to water, and are afraid that they are about to die of thirst.
Just as a reminder, they are wandering around a desert. In fact, in
the Bible, the words desert and wilderness are functionally
interchangeable, and they both indicate that the land is not capable
of sustaining human life without God’s help.
The
people are in the desert without water, and they ask for water, and
that’s unfaithful? I don’t follow. It doesn’t seem unfaithful that
the people in Puerto Rico are asking for water, water is necessary
for life, and they don’t have water. They need more than water, but
they desperately need water. Just like the people in the desert. In
both cases, asking for water doesn’t make them whiny, or quarrelsome.
It makes them alive, and wanting to stay alive! Being without water
is dangerous to life! Articulating that it is a problem and asking
for help finding a solution is reasonable, rational, and wise.
Regarding
Exodus, I don’t think the people misbehave nearly as much as Moses
does. The people notice there isn’t water and ask for water. Now,
if we want to defend Moses we can say that they don’t ask terribly
politely (“Give us water to drink.”) but within the story itself
Moses has preformed a heck of a lot of miracles already and has
claimed to be leading the people. They don’t know why he hasn’t
dealt with this already. If the leader isn’t taking care of the
people’s needs, the people need not be POLITE in demanding what they
need to live.
Moses
responds poorly. He takes their request personally. He asks why
they are quarreling with him and why they are testing God. Clearly
we can now see whose perspective is dominating the interpretation of
the story! (Maybe this is why the tradition has said Moses wrote
this book… 😉 ) His angry response and accusation quiet the people
momentarily, but they are still thirsty. They still need water, for
life. So they can’t be silenced. The second time they ask for water
with significantly more drama, perhaps hoping that it will elicit a
different response. They are desperate, indicating that dying of
dehydration in the desert is worse than slavery in Egypt.
Moses,
again, mishears them. He turns to God, but not to advocate for the
people, to advocate for himself! He prays, crying out that he
doesn’t know how to handle the people and they’re so angry with him
he is afraid for his life. #MissingThePoint The story says that God
does NOT miss the point though, and responds with a way to provide
water. Moses does as he’s told, and the people get water. However,
the narrative ends with Moses naming the place “Quarreling” and
“Testing” as his interpretation of how the people behaved.
According
to Deuteronomy, the entire story of the people wandering in the
desert is said to be so that they can learn to depend on God, and not
on their own capacities. Deuteronomy, in fact, spends a lot of time
worrying that once the people enter the land and have milk and honey
in abundance they will think this is because of their hard work,
rather than God’s good grace. Thus, the Exodus narratives are meant
to teach that God can be depended on.
This
is both an imperative lesson for all people of faith, and a dangerous
one. God can be depended on, this I believe. Creation is abundant,
and there is enough food, water, shelter, and love for everyone.
However, I haven’t found human societies to be as dependable as God,
and while there is enough in the world, there is not enough if it is
hoarded, or wasted. Abundant clean water is being destroyed by
fracking, sources of it are drying up with global climate change, and
various companies are seeking to glean profit from limiting people’s
water access except through their sales. Analysis I’ve read about
the humanitarian crisis in Syria that has created a refugee crisis
around the world suggests that it started with years of drought that
kept people from being able to grow crops and sustain themselves.
Furthermore, our sisters, brothers, and siblings in Puerto Rico and
other Caribbean islands don’t have clean water, and that reality is
life threatening.
God
created enough, but that doesn’t mean people have access to enough.
Simply claiming that God will take care of the vulnerable and thirsty
doesn’t do them any good if the mechanisms of human society prevent
them from having access to life giving water.
And
yet God created enough, and works with us and through us to
connect resources to people in need. In this church we seek to
connect food, water, coffee, soap, toilet paper, diapers, hygiene
products, home furnishings, flood buckets, hygiene kits, beauty,
music, and knowledge to those who need them! (To name a few.) We
are part of the work of redistributing so that God’s abundance can be
known. We are seeking to live out the instructions in Philippians 2.
Did
any of the computer geeks notice that the Philippians text is
basically written in if/then code? Just me? That’s OK. IF there is
any encouragement in Christ (implication here seems to be that anyone
hearing this would say “YES! Of course there is), IF there is any
consolation in love (almost everyone would agree with this), IF there
is any sharing in the Spirit, IF you have experienced any compassion
and sympathy (so most people by this time are yearning to say yes),
THEN “make my joy complete.” OK, how?
With
connection. Use your lives to take care of each other. Let go of
ambition that is only about you and work towards helping others. Be
together in love. Actually, it says a lot more, but I think the
church and the world both abuse the idea of “unity” as a means of
controlling the vulnerable: that is they claim that those who call
for justice for all are disturbing the peace and should be silenced
in the name of unity. This makes me squirm and I want to to skip
over the “same mind, same love” part. However, I think more
nuance is called for! (#whenindoubtmorenuance)
In
an article I read this week on NPR, they
talked about the form of Russian influence on US public opinion
saying, “Moscow’s
intelligence agencies not only used secret cyberattacks to steal and
leak information, as the U.S. intelligence community concluded. The
Russians also openly bought ads on Facebook aimed at amplifying the
most controversial issues in American political life — including
abortion, guns and LGBT issues — and used fake accounts to spread
disinformation and even organize real-life
rallies.”1
While
I have many strong opinions, most certainly including on the issues
that Russia is trying to use our society, I’m really struck by this
story. Another country thinks that the best way to destabilize our
society and gain influence is by keeping us fighting with each other.
It is likely a great strategy, it leads to deep divisions, and could
even lead to the destruction of our country. When issues divide us,
we can end up not seeing or hearing each other as people at all! So,
while I don’t much like the instruction to be of the “same mind”
(ok, fine, I still hate it), I think perhaps it needs to be taken
very seriously. We must work to humanize each other, even across
differences.
To
return to the stories, God created and created with abundance. When
we trust in each other and are trustworthy for each other, there is
enough. On this World Communion Sunday, where we are reminded that
God’s table extends around our globe, may we savor the abundance of
creation and seek to be people of trust in that “enough-ness.”
Amen
1 Philip
Ewing “As
Scrutiny Of Social Networks Grows, Influence Attacks Continue In
Real Time” published September
28, 2017 at 5:01AM ET
http://www.npr.org/2017/09/28/554024047/as-scrutiny-of-social-networks-grows-influence-attacks-continue-in-real-time
Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady
October 1, 2017