THE MANNA PRINCIPLE Exodus 16:1-18

Transcription

1 PENTECOST 18 October 8, 2017 THE MANNA PRINCIPLE Exodus 16:1-18 Rev. Jeffrey H. Rickards Last Sunday evening in Las Vegas, Nevada, a single gunman, with an arsenal of weapons, ambushed a jam-packed crowd of country music lovers from the vantage point of the Mandalay Bay Hotel, that overlooked the fenced-in concert venue 39 floors below. Under a blanket of withering gunfire, unsuspecting and innocent concert-goers began falling randomly to the ground, amidst a stampede of confused and panicked people, seeking safety and solace. What was amazing to me were those who sacrificially used their own bodies as a shield to protect their loved ones. Strangers, as well as others, braved battlefield-like conditions to rescue the wounded and to shepherd the exposed. Of course, one cannot forget the dutiful first responders, who professionally and proficiently answered the call without complaint, to do what they do best save lives. In the wake of such a string of tragedies we have witnessed recently, in the form of three destructive hurricanes, and the largest mass shooting in American history, the first and best response it to reach out in love and concern for the victimized, and to offer help and hope in the form of hands and resources. This also seems to be the lesson we learn from our fourth Narrative Lectionary reading, and our second and last reading from the Torah s record book the Exodus, or departure.

2 Almost immediately following the Israelis miraculous crossing of the Red Sea, with an army of Pharaoh s chariots on their heels, Moses, whose raised staff divided the sea, providing a pathway to safety for his people, is now faced with another crisis that he neither foresaw, nor had the means to meet. We are told at the outset that just two months after obtaining their freedom from slavery in Egypt, the whole congregation of Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness (16:2). The Israelites complained: If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out in this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger (16:3). I remember a time, early in my city ministry in Baltimore, when I heard a variety of complaints from the congregation about the budget, the building, the worship attendance, the youth, and what was I going to do about it. After two years as an assistant pastor in Western Maryland, I was just months into my first experience as the pastor, when I faced my first crisis as the leader. Leadership, like the Bible itself, can be learned from teachers and study. However, the best lessons are the ones you learn from life experience. Part of my job, when working for a Sears Service Center, was to answer calls from customers complaining about their appliances mechanical breakdown, and to send out a repair man as soon as possible. For some people, the loss of their washers, dryers, dishwashers, air conditioners, ranges, and televisions had turned their comfortable homes into a wilderness experience. I became adept at answering complaints and finding technical solutions to their problems. Like the customers I helped at Sears, the congregational members at Zion seemed to yearn for technical solutions that required a

3 minimum of personal or collective responsibility and disruption. Too often, we look for the wrong kind of leadership. We call for someone with answers, decisions, strength, and a map of the future, someone who knows where we ought to be going. In short, we want someone who can make hard problems simple. Instead of looking for saviors, we should be calling for leadership that will challenge us to face the problems for which there are no simple, painless solutions problems that require us to learn new ways. There have been times, over my 44 years of ministry, when what I I learned at Sears served me well as a situational leader or problem solver. However, the Bible, and especially the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, also offer a unique approach to life and leadership. I like to look at it this way: the stories of the patriarch and matriarchs and their children in the first book, Genesis, and Moses and the Israelites in the rest of the four books, as they left Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness, were all faced with the responsibilities of freedom. That is what I taught our children as a parent, that freedom means responsibility. The more you become responsible, the more freedom you enjoy. That seems to be the central drama of our Jewish spiritual forebearers. The Torah offers us some dramatic and unexpected scenarios and heroes. It was not Noah, the righteous man, perfect in his generations, who became the role model for the religious life, but rather Abraham, who stood up boldly to God before Sodom s destruction. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just? (Genesis 18:17). Moses, the hero of four of the Torah s five books, is surely the most unexpected leader of all time, as we learned last week. Moses told God, before the burning bush, that he was inarticulate, heavy of tongue, and utterly unconvinced of his own leadership capacities to fulfill the task to which God had summoned him.

4 For the second time in this new lectionary series of single stories, we meet Moses, who is in his 80 th year. He had spent forty years as a sheep herder, and probably thought his life and work was coming to a close. I can squarely associate with Moses, getting ready to retire, to be relieved of daily and weekly tasks and responsibilities, being able to travel and bit and spend some quality time with grandchildren and some friends, who want more of my time. Then surprise! God calls upon Moses to go to Egypt, stand before the ancient Near East s most powerful leader, and demand the release of a people, with whom he as not lived since the time of his infancy. That was last week. This week, against seemingly impossible odds, we find Moses in the wilderness, leading his people to a rendevous with God at Mt. Sinai. Moses has stood before Pharaoh, defeated his gods with nine plagues, killed all the firstborn males, human, animal and Pharaoh s son, celebrated Israel s first Passover, and led his people to safety through the divided Sea of Reeds, with Pharaoh s army bearing down on them. After all this, he has no time to kick off his sandals, relax, and bask in the glory of his amazing leadership accomplishments. Instead, there s another crisis he has to deal with, another problem that needs solving. Moses did not have much time to make provisions for his wilderness journey. He had only 24 hours to paint the Israelites door posts with blood, pack up a few precious belongings, eat a fast meal, and be ready to move in a moment s notice. Moses did not have a leadership team, a board of trustees, a policy manual, or even a disaster relief fund. In fact, he didn t have a GPS, or even a map. Rather, he was faced with the complaints of thousands of hungry Israelites, who trusted in Moses and his promise of freedom.

5 But now, after running low and out of food, they wanted to be fed like they were accustomed before taking this fool s errand into the wilderness. Charles Swindoll, in his book, MOSES, suggests that the secret of happiness in life is perspective. Perspective had to have pervaded Moses life, as it must pervade the lives of leaders in these times of rapid change. Moses left the familiar, did the unusual, defied the critics, took no shortcuts all actions requiring considerable effort to maintain one s cool and one s perspective. Again, is not my work as a Christian pastor to help others to maintain perspective? As I learned, when confronted by angry and complaining members, being a servant leader requires one to be passionate and dispassionate while hearing the pain and concerns of others, while also reminding them that the good old days were never as good as we may think we remember. The future may, in fact, surpass our expectations. Moses learned the manna principle of leadership. God responded to the Israelites complaining by providing enough food for each day, and on the sixth day, twice as much as could be gathered, so that rest would occur on the seventh day (16:4-15). Today s story is not about what the Israelites were eating, but rather about God s trustworthy generosity, the need to share resources related to basic human need, and reassurance in the face of common human urges to hoard out of fear and anxiety for the future. The manna principle of leadership recognizes that, even in times of wilderness and chaos, the Sabbath mentality of trust in God, and the manna economy of daily need, will have the final say over the mentality and economy of Egypt and the Pharaohs of the world. Beloved people of God, because we have learned to live by trust, relying on God s weekly manna-like provisions, we have remained faithful to our callings and responsibilities.

6 This year, we have received several generous cash gifts, that have enabled us to shed our wilderness mentality and look to the future with greater hope, expectation, and promise. This convinced our leadership that we have been truly blessed to be a blessing. So, we dedicated last Sunday s offering to the ELCA s Disaster Relief Fund. On Wednesday, a group of us traveled to St. James Lutheran Church in Folsom, where Rev. Daniel Rift was meeting with our synod s Hunger Appeal team. There, we presented him with a check for $6, We can imitate Pharaoh, and refuse to hear, or we can be like Moses and God, and acknowledge and respond to the complaints and needs that are borne of hunger, lack, and crippling anxiety. Thank you for all the good that has been and will be done. AMEN