Moaning or mission?

Today’s sermon on Exodus 17: 1 - 7 

A man goes to join an order of monks.

The head Monk says to the man "This is a silent order. You will only be allowed to speak once, every 15 years."

The man says "Ok" and so begins his time with the silent order.

15 years pass and the man is sitting in the refectory when the head monk approaches and says to the man "It has been fifteen years. What would you like to say brother?".

The man responds, "The porridge could do with a little more sugar." The head monk nods in acknowledgement and walks away.

Another 15 years pass and the head monk finds the man in the dormitory and says "Brother, it has been another 15 years. What is it that you wish to say?".

"The bed sheets are a bit thin." Replies the man. Again the head monk nods in acknowledgement.

Yet another 15 years pass and the head monk sees the man and asks "15 years have passed. Have you anything to say?".

"Well actually I've been thinking about it and I'm leaving the order. It's not really for me." says the man.

"Yes, yes" sighs the head monk "I think that's for the best. You've done nothing but moan and complain since you got here."

 

My mother a few months before she passed away went into residential care. She hated it. She moaned all day and it got so bad I was called into the home for a conversation with the manager because no one wanted to sit with her at dinner because she was making them feel miserable! We meet people who moan all the time and it’s not easy being with them. 

 

The Israelites should have learned to trust God to supply their needs, based upon His previous provision of water at Marah and quail and manna in the wilderness of Sin The Israelites had grumbled against Moses and Aaron but now they are quarrelling with Moses and about to stone him. Before, the Israelites asked Moses what they were to drink but now they are demanding that Moses give them water to drink. Since Moses had been able to miraculously sweeten the waters at Marah and to produce quail and manna, the people appear to be demanding that he perform another miracle for them. It is as though he must prove he has God’s authority to lead them by producing water miraculously.

 

It is bad enough that the Israelites argued with Moses and demanded that Moses provide them with water, but the text informs us that they were also challenging God here as well. Moses accused the people of “putting God to the test”.  

Since Moses’ authority is due to his divine appointment, to quarrel with Moses is ultimately to dispute with God. The issue, however, is not only whether Moses had the right to continue to lead this people, but whether God was among His people. The challenge of the Israelites was, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Imagine this question being asked as the pillar of cloud, in which God was present and by which He revealed His glory and led them to this place, hovered in their sight. Moses’ rebuke (that the people were putting God to the test) fell on deaf ears. They began to rehearse their memories of the “good old days” in Egypt, contrasted with their miseries and near-certain death in the desert.

I was a lay worker (today we call them local pastors) before I candidated for ministry in 1993. I looked after a church that liked to moan and fall out. They would moan they didn’t have a proper Minister. Some ladies in the choir would mutter in my hearing “we don’t know why the village up the road got aproper Minister and we got any old body!” They behaved disgracefully. So much so the Superintendent Minister arrived to meet with them. In those days the village churches only saw the Superintendent perhaps one Sunday a year or when there was trouble. My Superintendent got out of his car, said nothing, walked to the front of the meeting he’d called and said “if you lot think I’ve time to come over here to watch you mucking about, you are very much mistaken!” After that, my senior steward who had called me “that boy” for two years started to call me “the boy” so things got a bit better. 

Unable to dissuade the people, Moses could only cry out to the Lord for help. 

God’s answer was that Moses should walk on ahead of the people. Among other things this indicated that Moses was not about to quit. It also reminded the congregation of Israelites that Moses was their leader, because when water was provided from the rock the people had to follow Moses to get to it.

I think today we are called to move on from moaning to be missional. 

A good moan is okay, it’s good to get things off our chest with a good friend and even with the Minister which several of you have done this week. How we move on is important to work out. Do we keep moaning or do we open our hearts beyond what is bothering us to see what God might be up to? 

The very act of God becoming human in the person of Jesus Christ was the amazing act of God saying yes to humanity. And what an amazing way for God to say yes to us. To want to know us and know our pain and our struggles that we have to suffer in world that has fallen away from God, and to want to know it so much that God would become one of us to feel the suffering first-hand. Because God certainly knew what humanity was like when we were created.

Moaning or mission? 

God never promises it will be easy. He promises he is with us. We will moan. But we mustn’t get stuck. Deuteronomy says “ He led you through the vast and dreadful desert, that thirsty and waterless land with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the desert, something your fathers had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” 

The point is if we follow there is one constant and one certainty that guides us –

God can transform our thirst, our frustration, our lack of faith, our disillusionment and our inability to see a future. So many people have been affected by the felling of that tree by Hadrian’s Wall. 

It was a place of pilgrimage for many. It’s felling for so many has become a parable for all that seems lost in these days. The prayer writer Malcolm Duncan had this prayer to offer on Friday: “When what is familiar is removed, may you remember God is still with you and can be trusted. When loss and pain seem pointless, may God pour comfort and hope into your soul. As you wait to see if life can grow where death feels all pervading, may God give you faith.”

We drove up to Tan Hill Inn the other Friday. It was too busy to stop. I’ve never seen so many camper vans! So we drove on west towards the A66 and Kirkby Stephen. The weather was mixed, rain, rainbows and sun. Ahead, on the horizon was brightness, a parable that the journey wherever we take it will be okay if we trust. 

So, friends, today let’s look up, when we get bogged down with church worries or moan it isn’t how we like it, let’s remember our call and our vision. Help us to accept with joy the challenge of tomorrow’s day. 

Moaning or mission? 

God in hiding, waiting in the dark, blowing over the formless void, speak a word of light and life, we pray, and make something out of this nothing once again.

God hidden in plain sight, divine treasure to be found in seeds and soils, yeast and dough, birds and trees, hunger and thirst, enemy and neighbour, bread and wine, open our eyes, give sight to our blindness and make us to see you once again.

God hiding in me like water, underground rising, seeping out, bursting out, pouring out, come Holy Spirit come and make me full to overflowing once again.

(A prayer by Rev Mark Slaney)