26 August 1990
Exodus 16:2-15 26 August 1990
In this mornings scripture passage we find ourselves in the
midst of the desert, with the Israelites who have recently been
freed from Egypt. Yet the songs of Miriam and the joy of the
people have come to an end. They face the reality of the desert
in a very real way; through their stomachs. Suddenly they long
for the not so distant past, and their memories have become
clouded indeed:
Would that we had died by the Lord's hand in the
land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, when
we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us
out into this wilderness to kill this whole assem-
bly with hunger.
I think there are several things happening here at once.
First we see a prime example of the "good old days" complex. In
it we romanticize the past in the face of an unknown or
unpleasent future. The fleshpots of Egypt become a symbol of the
relative security of life under Pharoah. In effect they are
saying "we lived the good life, we had regular meals, and we knew
what tomorrow would bring." In their hunger they forgot the
cruelty of their taskmasters, and the murder of their first born.
In many ways the "good old days" complex continues to be a
metaphor for us -- longing for a return to a certain set of
values or a certain kind of stability and seeing it in a past
which may or may not have possessed such things.
This complex points to another motif in the verse concerning
fleshpots -- security in the familiar. The Israelites understood
the life of a slave; one could say they knew the routine. In the
same way the Elizabeth Fry Society helps women cope with life
beyond prison, the Israelites need a means to cope with life
beyond Egypt. Despite the beatings and the bricks without straw
there remained a certain comfort in a familiar lifestyle. In the
wilderness there was only the unknown. No routine, no heavy-
handed taskmasters, only the horizon which one could bearly make
out.
This in turn leads to another insight concerning verse three
of our reading, from Douglas Ort, a pastor in Canton, N.Y. In
their longing for Egypt, the Israelites lomg for an identity, a
sense of who they are, or perhaps what they are. In Egypt, this
definition came from outside themselves; from Pharoah who defined
then as slaves. As long as they remained in Egypt the Israelites
had a firm identity as slaves, and did not need to move beyond
this. When they were free people, they could no longer rely on
someone outside themselves to provide an identity. They found
themselves in unfamiliar territory, both geogaphically and
emotionally, with no one to tell them who they were. I suggest
this can be said for many who face such a wilderness. Too often
we allow others to define who we are. Their is comfort in
looking to others, rather than searching ourselves and looking
within. We make ourselves slaves when we could be free, adopting
taskmasters we can live without. This becomes the lesson of the
wilderness -- with the Israelites we must define for ourselves
who we are as part of God's chosen people. God seeks freedom for
us -- freedom from the taskmasters and those who would tell us
who we are.
As we move forward in today's passage, God speaks to Moses,
comfirming that indeed God hears the suffering of the Israelites,
and will provide for their needs. Moses and Aaron in turn pass
this promise on to the people, yet pause to raise one important
point: the issue of blame. The Israelites point the finger of
blame at Moses and Aaron -- the leaders of the people -- claiming
they have led them into the desert to die. We see hear a common
response in the face of hard times; seeking a scapegoat to blame
this situation on rather than remembering that they longed for
this freedom, they cried out to the Lord for deliverance, and the
Lord stretched out a mighty hand to set them free. Again, they
look beyond themselves to understand a given set of
circumstances, rather than within. We encounter blamers in many
human situations; people who point away rather than point to
themselves. Often this is a misdirected kind of anger, a
response people undertake in the face of a complex set of events
they fail to understand.
When the Israelites are made to understand it is God they
are angry with, they have moved into a specific form of worship
called lament. Also seen in Job, and in almost fifty Psalms,
lament is a cry to the Lord, most often a loud complaint. With
this definition in mind we can understand Jesus cry on the cross
-- "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" It is a call of
suffering, a complaint in the form of a prayer. Jesus, the bread
of life, prays to God in lament, yet is obedient to the cross.
In the desert God answers the lament of the Israelites with
a blessing and a test. God provides food for the hungry ones,
yet seeks obedience as they gather the food -- they must take
only what the need. As the next reading in Exodus proves, they
cannot keep this simple injunction, yet God continues to provide
for them. This fact becomes a touchstone of our faith -- God
hears the grumblings of the people, provides bread for the
hungry, and yet when God encounters disobedience, God responds
only with Grace, an unconditional love. It would be fair to call
these people an ungrateful lot, Yet God continues to provide for
them.
This in turn leads me to my final point, God is with us most
particularly in the wilderness. In verse 10 the Israelites look
into the depth of the wilderness and the glory of the Lord is
revealed to them. It is in looking to the wilderness that they
accept the reality of their situation. They can no longer enjoy
the "good old days," rather they must redefine who they are in
the desert, and in doing so they se God. It is in the complexity
and wilderness of life we find God. In the freedom of the
wilderness we can call on God and accept God's grace.
posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 4:58 AM
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