Candle Lighting
In the mystery of life about us there is light.
It gives us a way to see
And a place to be, to grow, to rejoice together.
It opens the pathways to love.
Let the Christ light we kindle be before us, between us, within us –
strong in hope, wide in good will, inviting the day to come.
Call to worship
We are a pilgrim people, called to journey in faith
With hope and imagination,
With passion and courage.
We are called to pioneer forth toward a future yet unnamed, along an unknown path, leaving behind what we long to cling to, trusting ourselves to God’s guiding.
So let us join in worship of the One who calls, who leads and guides, and who will never leave or forsake us,
for our God is Now,
our God is Always,
our God is Life.
Reading: Exodus 16:2-15
The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, “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 into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.
On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.”
So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?”
And Moses said, “When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him–what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'”
And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
The LORD spoke to Moses and said, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'”
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.
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?”
For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.
Poetry for the soul
From Steve Garnaas-Holmes – unfolding light
The word “Manna” in Hebrew
sounds like “What is it?”
It’s not a name,
it’s a question.
There is no handle for grace.
No tag, just a tug.
No logic,
just wonder.
You can’t name it,
understand, measure it.
You can only take it in.
Like a kiss.
Grace comes to you.
It leaves a taste in your mouth.
All you can do is receive it,
and wonder.
And live
the question.
Reflection
As I listened to this story over the week, what I noticed is that this story from so long ago still offers us some fascinating insights into how a community functions under stress, and what the role of a leader often is at these times. The people are nearing the end of their resources. They have been worked half to death in Egypt until Moses appeared with an unexpected announcement – God has heard your cries and he has sent me to lead you to freedom. They fled for their lives, taking only what they could carry and now here they are in the wilderness, apparently on their way to the land that God has promised to their long ago ancestor. Apparently now is the time, and this is how God is choosing to fulfil that promise.
But for these people – hungry, bewildered, afraid and overwhelmed – they are not seeing promise fulfilled but rather disaster approaching. As the anxiety rises, the people of Israel demonstrate for us some of the five things that all people everywhere do when they get stressed.
First of all, they collectively engage in under functioning. Under functioning is when the story you tell yourself goes something like this:
We can’t do anything. This problem is way too big for us to tackle. It’s useless – we’re helpless here and we’re sure someone else will know what to do. Also, we’re pretty sure that it’s not our fault that we’ve ended up here. This wasn’t even our idea. We had a better idea, probably maybe.
This may be ringing some bells for you, but if not, chances are you have a tendency to over function under stress. This is a different but not less damaging stress response.
As a faith community, it’s easy for everyone to fall into the under functioning mode of thinking because we believe that God is ultimately responsible and that we do have a significant element of helplessness hardwired into our very existence. Every breath is a gift. We cannot increase the span of our lives by a single minute. What comes to us is often – always? – completely out of our control.
But God is looking for active partners not passive puppets. God is inviting us to participate in the flow of life, so our helplessness is tempered with our capacity to choose to cooperate, to accept and receive, to offer and give away.
The people of Israel don’t know that yet, so they do the next thing that people under stress often do. They look for someone to blame. The story they tell themselves shifts from, “we’re tired and hungry and scared and lost” to:
we trusted Moses and he clearly has no idea what he’s doing! We’ve lost what little we had in Egypt and it’s his fault! Our families are at risk and suffering. Where is this all going? Are we just going to die slowly in the wilderness? Why is it taking so long to get to this so called Promised Land? How is this ever going to get any better??
As I wrote out this list of questions, it occurred to me that the chances are some of these thoughts, or versions of them, may well have crossed your mind in the last year or so. It is always something of an anxious time as you move into a vacancy and then the pandemic jolted everything up a notch. All of us are in communities experiencing anxiety about our lives on a global and a personal scale, with pressures from outside and inside and still with the normal daily rounds of family/work/health/finances to manage.
When things feel out of control, when we feel beleaguered and under the pump then blaming is a popular coping strategy. Finding someone else to hold accountable for our pain gives us a target to release some anger onto. It allows us some relief both from the helplessness we feel and from the sense of responsibility for our own lives and the outcomes of our own actions. It gives us a way to shift focus from uncomfortable feelings to feelings we are more able to manage.
If you don’t do outright anger, you’ll probably find that snide comments, sarcasm, complaining, undermining and grumbling are more your style.
The people of Israel started with the complaints. Later they get more openly aggressive, so much that Moses tells God that they are ready to stone him. But here, they are just murmuring. Obviously loudly enough for it to be clear what the problem is…
The people of Israel have only recently been introduced to God. They do not yet know the character, the constancy, the faithfulness and tenderness of this God who has claimed them and liberated them. So God offers reassurance. What else would work to ease the tension and fear they are quite naturally experiencing in those stressful circumstances? God provides for their needs with gifts that are new every morning. With grace that is sufficient for each one as they need it. With the fleeting kiss of manna, of mystery and of glory.
This is what we get to sustain us. Not certainty. Not nailed down and in the bank security. But enough each day. Enough for now.
This story reminds me that humans are hard wired for survival. For the most part, we have a tenacious hold on life that we do not easily give up. At every level we want to survive – as individuals and as part of a family, as a community of faith, as a nation with a viable economy, as a species in an increasingly endangered habitat. But more than that, beneath that we want to thrive. We want life, the promised life in all its fullness.
Fullness of life means the light and the shadow, the hunger and thirst as well as the feasting and savouring. Fullness of life means suffering and sadness as well as love and delight. Fullness of life means eternity lived in each moment, heaven all the way to heaven and a death without a sting.
Blaming doesn’t lead that way. Neither does under or over functioning. Complaining, gossip and distancing or avoidance don’t lead to fullness of life, but when we are anxious they are often second nature. It feels natural to avoid those who are making you feel crazy or scared. It feels natural to blow off steam about them to a sympathetic friend. It feels natural to micro manage the situation or to throw up your hands and walk away.
It’s just that God offers us a much better, admittedly more challenging way to live. It’s also a way to live that is life giving. And I think that’s really what we need. Don’t you?
I also think that this story invites us to dwell with some questions that are particularly pertinent for these uncertain times.
Conversation questions
What are the ways I react when I feel anxious and dissatisfied?
How have I seen this community deal with stress before and what was my part in that?
What do I expect of a leader?
And then:
How have I seen God provide for my needs and reassure me when I am uncertain of the way ahead?
What might help us as a community of faith to trust God more deeply?
Prayers of the People
Loving, joyful God, it is with a sense of deep gratitude that we pause in your presence desiring to offer our thanks and praise to you
Silence
For the mystery of love, which draws us, excites us, animates and connects us, God we bless you, we thank and praise you.
You have provided us with friends and family, communities where we learn to practice compassion, trust and grace.
Give us teachable hearts, listening ears, willing hands and humble tongues we pray.
Silence
For the energy and vitality of love, that inspires us to dreams and visions, that nurtures hope and casts out fear God we bless you, we thank and praise you. You have given us imagination and creativity, a scope for seeing beyond what is to what may yet be.
Guide us and inspire us to live in the hopeful now, and dwell in its fullness we pray.
Silence
For the wisdom and discernment of love, that teaches us the peaceful paradox of learning to live with more questions and less answers, God we bless you, we thank and praise you.
You have provided us with guides through the centuries, women and men who knew the humbling experience of being so loved by you that they responded with joyful abandon, uncompromisingly; offering themselves to you as generously as you have offered yourself to us.
May we also be inspired to live with integrity and unrelenting courage we pray.
O God, we bless you, we thank and praise you. Amen.
Blessing – from ‘Benedictus’ by John O’Donnohue
May the maker’s blessing be yours
encircling you round
above you
within you
May the angels blessing be yours
and the joy of the saints
to inspire you
to cherish you
May the Son’s blessing be yours
the wine and the water
the bread and the stories
to feed you
to remind you
May the Spirit’s blessing be yours
the wind, the fire
the still small voice
to comfort you
to disturb you
And may my own blessing be yours
a blessing rooted in our common pilgrimage
the blessing of a friend
Amen
