Is the Lord With Us or Not? Preached on October 1st, 2017 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7 Over the past weeks in our Hebrew Scriptures readings, we have been hearing the story of Moses and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. This week, I decided, it was time to pay attention to this foundational story of liberation which is also a story of struggle and challenge in the wilderness. In our reading, the Israelites asked the question “Is the Lord with us or not?” and that is certainly a question that is still relevant to us today. So the story so far …the King, Pharaoh, was perplexed by these strange Israelites. They have been providing the labor he needed for the massive construction projects going on in a thriving Egypt. They had come long ago, as nomads from the desert, the brothers of Joseph. It was a time of famine, they had been desperate for work, for food, for a place to live. As far as Pharaoh was concerned, things had turned out well for them. They had their own encampment, although the housing was not quite what a well-to-do Egyptian would require. Each evening they had enough meat for a simmering pot of stew, enough grain for fresh baked bread. Surely their lives were good! They were expected to work and pull their weight. But, this was the same for everyone wasn’t it? But now a problem had come back to bite Pharaoh. Years ago, he had allowed his daughter to adopt the Hebrew infant she had found floating in basket in the Nile. Moses had been raised with the best education the Egyptian culture could provide. But he had returned to join his birth tribe, the Hebrews. He had even returned to the wilderness to stay with the nomads. And then, stranger still, just when they had forgotten him, he returned with a peculiar demand from the Hebrew God: “Let my people go!” Go? Go where? The only place to go was out into the wilderness where no one could survive. It was a foolish suggestion. No, of course the Hebrews could not go! Pharaoh made his feelings clear. You’re better off here. Don’t follow that crazy Moses with his messages from your invisible one-God! Going out into the wilderness will mean death. No matter, the Hebrews were done being slaves. The wilderness may have dangers but the calling of their one-God who desired their liberation and wholeness would strengthen them. The God of the Hebrews had not taken the Pharaoh’s answer “no” lightly. The Egyptians had been afflicted with plagues. Each time the Pharaoh resisted, until, the last devastating plague, when he finally gave in. They left quickly, because Pharaoh might well go back on the decision. There was drama, of course, in their escape … with all that thunder and might, there was no doubt, for the Israelites: the Lord was with them, God was on their side. But as the journey into the wilderness continued, their confidence in the presence of the Lord diminished. They began to falter and fall as they trudged, well into their second month in the wilderness. They were hungry, and had cried out for food – using Moses as their go –between. They cried “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread.” They were suffering from nostalgia. They were looking back on their captive lives in Egypt through rose-tinted spectacles. And yet God responded to their need and provided manna each morning, and quails each evening. Quite a luxury diet for freed slaves wandering the desert. This went on for a while, but some time later they came Rephidim to camp, and there was no water. The company was parched and worn out. Again they complained against Moses. Moses saw their arguing with him as a direct challenge to God. “Why do you test the LORD?” he asked. The people may have been afflicted by hunger and thirst, but Moses was afflicted by the people who were almost ready to stone him! None the less, God was patient, and simply responded to the need. The Lord says to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders with you … I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb.” In this place the Israelites would receive enough water for their needs. There was no need to go back. In fact, the leaders needed to press on to meet the Lord. And so, this place is named for the people’s question: “Is the Lord among us or not?” The Israelite liberation parallels the classic tale of human spiritual growth. A young person sets out on a journey into the wilderness. Sometimes it is necessary for survival, sometimes it is just for adventure. Despite dangers and depravations, it is essential that the sojourner completes the mission, grown, in maturity and spiritual wisdom. The story of St Francis, who we remembered today with our blessing of the animals, is true to this type. As the story goes young Francis was something of a playboy and troubadour. He was the son of a wealthy merchant and enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. When Francis was 20 years old, his region, Assisi, went to war. Enticed by the idea of chivalry and adventure, Francis enlisted. But Assisi lost the war and Francis was taken prisoner, incarcerated in dungeons for a year. At the end of that year Francis return home, sick and defeated. His former flamboyant lifestyle was no longer possible. The wilderness of war, imprisonment and sickness had changed him forever. There would be more challenges and struggles down the road, but this was the beginning of Francis’s life of spiritual devotion, peacemaking, and service to the poor.[1] We also see this story reflected in current day life: young people go away to college, bunk up in a dorm with a stranger. The new roommate becomes their best friend or their greatest challenge. But it is our hope that they learn and grow socially and spiritually as well as academically. This is not in spite of leaving the comforts and safety of home, but because they do. Some journeys are extremely difficult, and not always safe. A young military recruit may grow in strength and wisdom, as they serve. But others may return from training and deployment wounded and broken, physically or emotionally. It’s understandable that they would ask “Is the Lord with us or not?” Most of us, we do not have to take the story of the journey into the wilderness literally. But, the truth remains the same: in order for us to become the people God intends us to be, growth is necessary. The people of Israel had remained in Egypt for generations. They were enslaved and oppressed. God had other things in mind for them. God’s desire was for them to grow into a thriving and free people. God’s people would not be put down into slavery anymore. In spite of the fact that all people are challenged to grow into who God intends them to be, there is often resistance. As Brian McLaren writes in “The Great Spiritual Migration”, “Exodus and exile, the two main storylines of the Hebrew Scriptures, are tales of a people in motion, and the biblical plot line seethes with the deeply human tension between settling down and moving on.” McLaren has come to see the Christian faith as “no longer a static location but a great spiritual journey.” I concur with McLaren and I believe that the church itself has been settled down for much too long. The culture has moved on without us. Now we are the ones who are called to move on, even if it means we will be out in the wilderness for quite some time. That may be a scary thought, but it is also liberating. In an effort to move into the place where God will meet them, I have seen many churches make bold vision statements. They talk of becoming more welcoming and inclusive, or engaged with the issues of our times. They head down that road a little ways, but then things get tough and challenging. Their people disagree about which way to go. Resources seem scarce. They look around them and see the wilderness and so they get scared and hurry back to the safety of business as usual. Often they don’t even pause long enough to ask the question ... is the Lord with us or not? Instead they turn to nostalgia, like the Israelites in the desert. Wasn’t it wonderful back in the day? Do you remember? With rose-colored spectacles looking back on the comforts of “church back in the day.” Blogger and “church professional” Maggie Nancarrow tells the story bluntly, in the article “The Church is not Dying. It’s Failing.”Nancarrow has talked with many “Nones” (those unaffiliated with any religion) and Millenials about their relationship with church. She says that most are “profoundly hungry to talk about God.” They are “profoundly in need of spiritual guidance, profoundly hungry for acceptance, trust and love.” But the churches they have encountered in the past excluded them, with unloving stances on GLBT issues, or they deeply scarred them through sex abuse scandals and abuses of authority in the church. Or, they just got tired of churches obsessed with “the way it used to be.” Nancarrow goes on to say, “The church of the 1950s has failed. It is already gone. We don’t get to rely on the ‘just because’ model anymore … now we have to authentically feed people spiritually, emotionally and physically to earn our existence in society.” Friends, we at Wollaston Congregational Church, may sometimes ask “Is the Lord With Us or Not?” as we move on toward being church God would have us be. Perhaps the ways of worship and programming of the past looks rosy from this place. But though we a sparse in numbers, I do believe that the answer is “yes” the Lord is with us. It is my hope that we will soon make bold statements about welcoming and inclusion and engagement with the issues of our time. And we will press on. And if we grow thirsty and discourage, because that road is not necessarily smooth, we will pause long enough to ask “Is the Lord with us or not?” I trust and pray that the answer will be, “go on ahead, I will meet you … I will meet your thirst with streams of living water. Do not be discouraged.” Amen [1] http://www.messengersaintanthony.com/content/st-francis-conversion
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