Please pray with me as we prepare to listen for God’s Words for us this morning: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
As we look at life, I think that we can agree that it is marked by a series of new beginnings. Remember the excitement of beginning a new school year which will be upon us again in just a few weeks. Whatever the failures of the past, here was a chance to begin again often accompanied by some new clothes and the prospect of new teachers and maybe new classmates. Granted, sometimes that excitement was mingled with some anxiety and worry because newness is also combined with uncertainty.
The truth is that new beginnings are a natural part of the fabric of our lives. It could be said that every day represents a new beginning. Some of you know that I had my own new beginning when I lost my dear wife, Pam, two years ago. In fact, Pam used to say that she hoped I would go first, because if she did, I wouldn’t know how to take care of myself. So, as you can imagine, I am having to learn a lot of stuff I should have learned a long time ago.
I have a picture that I have carried with me and hung in my various studys for over 40 years. It was given to me by a friend when I left my 14 year pastorate in Seattle to journey cross country to New Jersey. It is a watercolor picturing crocuses bursting up from the ground in early spring. And, my friend entitled it “A New Beginning” in honor of my new adventure.
And that’s the story of the Exodus: Moses leading the people of Israel out of Egypt on a journey to the Promised Land. The story has all of the excitement and adventure of a great escape. The horrors of slavery were left behind as they were introduced to the glorious prospect of freedom. Yet with all of their excitement over finally breaking the shackles of bondage, they failed to anticipate the additional burdens that freedom brings.
Hence there came a day when this motley crew of wanderers become nostalgic for the good ol’ days of authoritarian rule. Sure, they had worked 24/7 under conditions which daily challenged their survival, but at least they had a roof over their heads and food on the table. And so they did what free people often do, they complained to their leaders: “What have you got us into?” In light of the hardship of the present and the uncertainty of the future, they yearned with rose colored glasses for the predictable past, somehow forgetting the abuses and suffering which they had endured.
We know that it is part of the function of leadership to be in charge of the complaint department. Sometimes we leaders don’t handle it very well; we become defensive; we may even argue that things are not as bad as they are made out to be. And, of course, when we respond that way, we often lose credibility because we have not really listened or heard.
But, in this case, the complaints were heard. The path from the Red Sea to a promised land that they would call home was long and winding and filled with challenges. It led through wilderness and dry desert. While they had started out with a few provisions and picked up a few along the way, as their journey continued and their rations dwindled, their joy and wonder at God’s saving power was overtaken by thirst, hunger, fear, and anger. Hence the initial exuberance of freedom gave way to complaining and grumbling.
A natural response might have been to tell the folks to “suck it up” and remember “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” While that might be good advise if you’re a coach trying to get the most out of the players, it doesn’t make sense when you’re starving. The fact was that their hunger was real, and when they voiced it, God hears and even more importantly, God shows up.
This visible manifestation is described as “The Glory of the Lord.” Now the visible manifestation of God doesn’t happen very often throughout scripture. When it does happen, it is meant to reassure us that we are not alone as we make our way through the challenges of life. Later on the journey they would be guided by a cloud, but here something more dramatic was required to calm their fears. Here Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reminds us, “It is easier to face the future without fear when we know that we do not do so alone.”
And so, here, the complaint is heard and God responds by meeting the need. On the one hand, we could probably say “Problem solved” and move on, but “Surprise!”! This is not a simple straightforward transaction. There are some conditions attached. Yes, Yahweh will meet their hunger with “Manna” – Good News! But only for each day, forcing them to live in the present trusting God for each meal…not such good news if you are super security conscious wanting to hoard a little extra for that rainy day just in case God decides not to show up.
And so, part of the message of the manna is that freedom involves dealing with uncertainty. The Israelites looked back on their time in Egypt with nostalgia because they could not bear the uncertainty they faced as a free people. The problem with freedom which we preach and value is that ultimately it is uncertain and unpredictable. And so, the first lesson of the manna which all free people must learn is how to bear uncertainty and trust in the unknown.
Sue Monk Kidd puts it another way when she asks, “What has happened to our ability to dwell in unknowing, to live inside the questions and co-exist with the tensions of uncertainty?”
There was the parishioner who came to tell me that he was leaving the church. First, that was an unusual event in and of itself. Not that folks have never left my churches, but I have found that most unhappy folks just fade away. But this young man had the courtesy to tell me that his spiritual journey was taking him in another direction. In fact he was complimentary about many things. But he told me, “I am at a place in my Christian life where I need answers, and here I am finding more questions than answers.”
I couldn’t fault him and I certainly didn’t argue with him. Unfortunately, I wasn’t articulate enough to help him understand, and that is exactly the point. Some of you will remember how the poet Rilke makes a beautiful case for embracing uncertainty in a letter to a young friend: “I want to beg you as much as I can to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
You see, “living into the answers” means living with the tension of not knowing. In fact that’s the message of the Bible isn’t it? It’s Abraham and Sarah risking a new beginning by leaving their homeland; it’s the people of Israel forging a new identity while exiled in Babylon; it’s Joseph and Mary believing that God was leading them as they journeyed to Bethlehem; and it’s Jesus in the Garden willing to trust God to lead him through death.
And It’s First Presbyterian Church and all churches that respect diversity and work for inclusion as we face the uncertainty of the rise of Christian Nationalism and the threat of erasing the separation of church and state. It’s an uncertain time with many threats that we fear and some that we can’t even name.
Clearly, one of the first lessons that we all must learn as we make our way through this life is the lesson of the manna which is how to bear uncertainty and trust in the unknown. It teaches us that life is a series of new beginnings with the start of each new day. It reminds me of the motto of Alcoholics Anonymous: “One day at a time.” There is that old adage: “God laughs at our plans.” Of course, there is nothing wrong with plans, we all make them, but the lesson of the Manna is that strength for the journey comes one day at a time.
Each day the Israelites would have to go out and gather their daily supply of manna — just enough for that day. The manna provided the necessary preparation for living life to its fullest and being prepared for the new beginning of the next life…to bear with uncertainty and to trust in the unfolding journey.
You see when our plans are too stiff, rigid, and uncompromising there is no room for surprises, which means there is no room for God. The story of the manna started out with grumbling, but ended with resilience. It started out with complaining and ended with curiosity. Resilience and curiosity, two character traits that help us deal with the tension of not knowing and moving into an uncertain future.
Resilience is that ability to get up after you have been knocked down, and curiosity the ability to welcome and explore new experiences. Living with their daily portion of manna gave them strength for each new day and the mindset to be open to what each new day revealed. For instead of seeking answers that gave them an artificial sense of security, the manna taught them to live the questions, to understand that the journey is about remaining awake and curious and not going into sleep mode.
We hear a lot about being “Woke” these days. Well, the root of “Woke” is simply being awake, awake to new possibilities, awake to embracing change.
Back in the day, there used to be a bumper sticker that read, “Jesus is the answer. What was the question?” As a Christian, I believe that Jesus is the answer, but the questions change: What about abortion? What about sexual identity? What about gun violence? What about welcoming diversity? What about seeking racial justice? What about climate change? And we can’t help having our curiosity question some of the answers we have been given. And because the questions change, the true answer is to seek to live the life of love as Jesus lived it, and then we will live into the answers.
And so, with each new beginning, with each new day, may we seek to live that life of love marked by compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and forgiveness which is the way we clothe ourselves in love. May it be so!