Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
I don't remember all of the fencers I grew up with in my first fencing class, and not all of them necessarily fondly. But there is one fencer, we'll call her Susan, who does still stick out in my mind. She was a solid fencer and a hard worker. And she was always very kind to those around her, which is not something you often see in a competitive sport like fencing.
So one of the things that always shocked me was whenever I would see her interact with her mom. She was often quite mean. And it was hard to reconcile what I saw from her in class and what I saw from her when her mom was around.
It's not that there was something going on behind the scenes with the two of them. I think Susan was just trying to fit in, and often saw her mom trying to talk to her as opposed to that.
But no matter how cold Susan was with her mother, her mother was always there. I never once saw her mother yell at her. I never heard her say a bad word about her daughter. In fact, I only ever heard how proud she was of Susan's accomplishments. And she was there at every tournament I can remember, cheering her daughter on.
This is the love of a parent, who no matter how much her child lashes out at, still loves that child. This is the kind of parent that no matter what happens with her children, still want what's best for them.
That kind of parental love is what we see in the reading from Exodus this morning. The Israelites have just been freed from captivity in Egypt. Freed being the operative word here. The Israelites have been enslaved for generations by the Egyptians. A people who hated them so much, they were willing to slaughter an entire generation of new-born males just to keep these people down.
But freedom is not always met with gratitude, especially in the face of discomfort. Now that the Israelites are free, they were trying to return to the Promised Land. The land God gave to their father Abraham eons ago. But first, they had to travel through the desert to get there.
On this journey, the Israelites come to a place with no water. And they lose it. It doesn't matter now that God freed them. It doesn't matter that they have escaped oppression. They now want to know why God and Moses had to take them away from what they knew. And they get dramatic, asking why they've been dragged out to this place to die. Asking why God has abandoned them.
But, they've only just camped in this area. They don't have water here, but who knows? There might be water around the corner. Here is the God who has done nothing but good for them, and the second one bad thing happens, their entire trust in Him falls apart.
In this situation, God could do what is at times tempting for most of us to do. He could yell at them. He could call them ungrateful and selfish, which would be true. He could even just leave them there to fend for themselves.
But God is a good parent. He is there to support His people and to keep them safe. And He shows them that. He has Moses strike a rock with his staff. And immediately, water comes out for the Israelites to drink.
In spite of all the good God had done for them, the Israelites still managed to wail against Him. To whine and complain that He was a terrible God to them. But just like Susan's mom, God takes the complaints thrown at Him. And shows His continued love and support by helping them.
Sometimes in all our lives, we can be like the Israelites. We sometimes wail against God. We sometimes complain about how little He has done for us. We sometimes deny Him when we think something better has come along. And sometimes we fail to call upon Him or to try to approach Him or to just try to be near to Him.
But we can take comfort because even in the worst of our worst moments, God is still there. He's still there to be a love and support for us, even when we can't see the very thing we need from Him that He is getting ready to provide. Even when we hate and despise Him, even when we sin against Him and against each other, He still loves us.
God is the parent who always loves us, even when we don't deserve it. He's the parent who would do anything for His children, even if it means coming down and dying to protect them from death.
And that is exactly what He does. He came down and took on the punishment of sin for us so that we would no longer have to die, but so that we could live.
And if we can see that compassion that God has for us, we can move away from the reaction of the Israelites. The Israelites who continued to test and whine and complain against God throughout their journey in the desert. Who ended up wandering 40 years in the desert thanks to following their own way instead of the path God was trying to illuminate for them. If we can allow the example of God's love that we see in His dealings with the Israelites and with His death on the cross as Jesus to penetrate in us, then we will know that in fact God has not abandoned us. That He still loves us and is with us. Even though our own despair at times may blind us from that fact. Even though we sometimes don't see Him with us along our journey.
And in seeing that God does love us, no matter what grief or trials we go through, maybe, just maybe, we won't wail against Him. Maybe when times get tough, we won't throw insults at Him. And maybe then we can try instead to move ourselves closer to be more fully His.