Sermon 091999

Not long ago Lois and I attended a dinner party and there I sat next to a young woman who is a personal trainer and nutritionist. In the course of the evening I learned the following: if you exercise more, that doesn’t mean that you will lose weight; skipping lunch and munching mid-afternoon on peanut butter and chedder crackers is not a good idea; that fat and carbohydrates are not the same thing; and as for chocolate? Well... Yes, I sadly confess that the "You are what you eat" revolution passed me by. But now I recognize that I really should pay attention not only to how much I eat, but what I eat, when I eat, and what foods get grouped together.

I thought of that evening when I read in the scripture from Exodus this morning.

When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?"... Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat."

Last week we celebrated in worship the story of the Hebrews’ amazing delivery from the armies of Pharaoh. Now the Hebrews endure the challenges of freedom in the wilderness. And, at once, they are faced with the problem of how they will be physically sustained. They complain to Moses and Aaron:

If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

We are sometimes quick to berate the Hebrews for their fickle lack of faith. Why are they so willing to turn against a God who has only recently, and so dramatically liberated them? But hunger is real. Hunger hurts. Who can envy the fate of the hundreds of thousands of East Timorese who have fled to freedom into the mountains only to face starvation?

In response to the Hebrews’ cries God declares that bread will be sent from heaven and this is a test of their faith. I personally don’t like the idea of God "testing" peoples’ faith (but that is another sermon). Suffice it to say that the realities of life test our faith all the time. The test the Hebrews undergo here is "Can you truly trust God to provide for you?" We Christians have gotten into the bad habit of separating the physical from the spiritual, as if they were two distinct realms. Here we are shown that the experience of bodily hunger tests our spiritual faith. We find this all through the Bible. In Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness following his baptism, he experiences hunger. Satan offers the power to turn stones into bread. Jesus declines, saying that it is the Word of God that nourishes. Danger to our physical well-being always puts our faith to the test.

I don’t want to pretend that there are not hard questions here, because there are. People are dying from hunger at this moment throughout the world. Is it their fault because they have failed some test of faith? I don’t believe that. Surely there are those among their number who love and trust God, yet they suffer and die miserably. No manna fell from heaven for them. Like so many Bible stories, this one can be dangerously misused if one is not careful. It is never right to assert some easy connection between misfortune and lack of faith or weakness of prayer.

How can we use this story to help us understand important things about our relationship with God and with our neighbor? First of all, if we live in the freedom to which God calls us (as Christians we would say the new life in the resurrection) , we must trust that God will provide. Jesus says bluntly "Do not be anxious over what you shall eat or drink or what you shall wear. God will give you what you need." But having said this, it is important to stress that living in freedom, living in the resurrection, involves a transformation of who we are and our understanding of what we need. Trusting God with our lives is not just trying out some interesting new angle on living. No, it is trusting God with our entire being, and as we do that, recognizing a radical new perspective on what truly sustains us. If you are going to be a whole and healthy physical being, you have to think about what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat. You can’t skip lunch, live on Slim Fasts, and eat barbecued ribs three times a week. In the same way, to live in Christ means a change in your spiritual diet: the rejection of things that don’t nourish, and the recognition of that which does. The list of what does not nourish is long and includes: power, money, alcohol, drugs, sex, shopping, popularity, work, work, work. The Hebrews in the wilderness, got stuck with a false choice. It is a no-win situation to have to choose between bread in bondage, and starvation in freedom. The true answer is trusting God in our freedom and recognizing what truly nourishes. And it will be different. "What is it?" the Hebrews said when they saw the manna. And Moses said "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat." And the emphasis here is on the Lord, the giver. It is not the bread that the world gives you, which cannot satisfy. It is the bread that the Lord gives you.

What nourishes you? What are the ways in which God provides you with what you need to live in soul, mind and body? Let me suggest at least three things.

First of all, Sabbath. Sabbath is a time of rest, reflection and detachment from the world. Sabbath is not just getting away on vacation. Vacation is often work in another form. Sabbath is the intentional and regular stepping out of the world and into eternity. It is understanding this world as not the be all and end all, but God’s good creation into which we are called to live and serve. Sabbath can be experienced at Christ Congregational Church in numerous ways. None is more important than worship. You are entitled to worship that is meaningful and feeds the soul. And I believe that you have a church staff and deacon leadership that is passionately committed to this. Worship is central. At the Executive Council Retreat last weekend, Linda made an interesting observation. She noted that our Retreat House in West Virginia is a "Sabbath space" for us. That’s right, isn’t it? Walking down to the river on Friday evenings is a powerful and healing ritual. What if we were to use the Retreat House even more with opportunity for Sabbath space and time? Where and how do you find Sabbath in your own personal day? I am convinced that when people experience burn-out, it happens not simply because they yield to stress or other peoples’ unrealistic expectations. A person burns out because he or she does not take Sabbath seriously.

This leads to another source of spiritual nourishment, which is personal prayer and reflection. St. Paul, who knew something of Christian spirituality, said that to truly pray is about the hardest thing in the world. "We do not know how to pray as we ought," he said. Prayer involves discipline, training, practice and humility. Linda and I, in particular, are really committed to continue and expand the ministry of spirituality here at CCC. For example, what if we were to intentionally train and provide spiritual directors for our members, skilled folks who could work one on one with anyone who has determined that this is a source of nourishment they want to experience?

And a third source of nourishment is engaging in acts of compassion and justice. That is, actively caring for the needy, feeding the hungry, acting on behalf of the oppressed and suffering. Shepherd’s Table and Progress Place provide such opportunities. Did you know that there is a United Church of Christ human rights ministry in East Timor? We are global partners in a world wide ministry of service and advocacy. Let me say more about this in light of such questions as the relationship between physical needs and spiritual needs, human suffering in the world, and our relationship with God and our neighbor. My worry about whether or not God will provide for me tempts me, as Jesus was tempted, to think that the issue is simply getting bread. But Jesus said, the real issue is trusting the Word of God to provide. And this Word of God is itself a source of nourishment as well as a redefining of what nourishes us in the new life. But, at the same time, we are not spiritually defined solely by our one-to-one relationship with God. We are also defined by our relationship with our neighbor. Indeed, Jesus said that you cannot separate the two at all. How well you love God is shown by how well you love your neighbor. And the other way around. God’s promise to provide us with what we need to live in fullness cannot be separated from our responsibility to care for others. In feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, we are fed in the deepest sense. And we are the means by which God feeds the hungry and clothes the naked.

It is one thing to engage in theological speculation about why it appears that God permits hunger and suffering in our world. But our preoccupation with this issue may be our way of dodging the harder question: Why do you and I permit hunger and suffering in our world? It has often been pointed out that starvation and poverty happen, not because there is not enough food and resources to go around, but because humanity has yet to learn how to equitably distribute what is already there in abundance. Even with our growing world population, this is still so, though, of course, one day soon it may not be. The barriers are well-known: war, the narrow self-interest of the rich, love of power, racial and ethnic hatred, and more. We apparently either don’t know how to do it, or lack the will to do it. And it’s hard. Who knows what it will take to get the Russian economy on its feet? Good intentions and generosity are not be enough without tough minded wisdom and technical skills.

But God’s message to us in this is a simple one. God has said "I have created you and set you on a beautiful earth. You have everything you need to survive and care for one another, including the intelligence and creativity and compassion to solve any problem you face in making it work. But you must do it. What I ask you to remember is simply this: you and this creation belong to me. If you remember this and return to me, if you do not lose that perspective, you will have everything you need as well as the ability to recognize and appreciate what you need. And remember, you are all in this together." AMEN.