September 28, 2014 Into the Wilderness

Exodus 17:1-2 Matthew 21:23-32 In the Musical “Into the Wood” Stephen Sondheim helps us as adults to see that all the Nursery rhymes and stories we heard and blithely passed along to our children, include danger and threat. Exodus takes us not into the Wood, but into the Wilderness, an even more dangerous place to lose your way. Ironically, Exodus, which means to Go Out, to Leave, is less about leaving Egypt, and going away from Pharaoh, than about Whom to trust, where do we look to for leadership, for power for authority? The wilderness is a place where we are concerned with daily needs and how are we going to survive? Wilderness is a frightening place which we entered out of desperation, with some life-altering horrific experience, where we no longer know where we are going. Wilderness is where we have all been since September 11th 2001, where we are no longer certain what the future holds or what our goals are in life, except that daily we hear of international threats, economic threats to our survival and our children's, physical threats from Ebola or Triple E virus, and out of fear we doubt our leaders, doubt anything we cannot see and control. In the Book of Exodus a group of former slaves, ran headlong toward the sea certain they would drown but the waters parted. They were pursued by those wanting to destroy them, and yet the natural elements of chaos protected the vulnerable and eliminated the threat. The people found water, which was polluted, but when they cried out to God, the resource was made sweet and clear. They were hungry, starving and in need, complaining that they were better off when they had been slaves, and bread fell from heaven. Now they were thirsty, not just thirsty but dying for lack of life's most basic element. And the people cry out to Moses “Was life not hard enough when we were Slaves, did you need to bring us here to die?” God reassured Moses, both by reminding him that he still possesses the staff of authority with which he demonstrated his power to Pharaoh, and that God will stand before Moses on Mt. Horeb as he strikes the rock to make waters flow. Immediately after God provides water from a stone, the people were attacked by the Amalekites, and the only thing that separates the people winning or losing, is whether Moses lifts his hand or drops it. But the battle is long, and Moses is only human, there comes a point when he can no longer even lift his arms, so they set up a rock for him to lean against and they hold his arms up for him. The demand of the people is not only for water, for life, but whether they can trust Moses, whether they can trust God? Is the Lord among us or not? Wilderness is not simply about facing life's hardships, or how to survive; in the wilderness, we must embrace a different way of living, embrace our vulnerability and our dependence upon God, because everything seems to have multiple layers of meaning. Just at this moment, when Moses seems worn out from responding to crises, when the people seem worn out from doubting, Moses relatives show up. Remember back before the Exodus, when Moses had run away from Egypt, he had gone to the edge of the wilderness, where he had married a woman and become the shepherd of his Father-in-Law Jethro's sheep? Shepherding Jethro's sheep, was when Moses had first witnessed the Burning Bush and been assured of God's presence with him. Jethro looks at all that has been taking place and offers wisdom to Moses: If you continue trying to respond to every need of every person, you are going to wear out the people as they are going to wear you out! Instead, you need to delegate authority and responsibility to others who will be accountable. But therein is the problem with authority, can we trust others to be accountable? Will they be like the one who says “Yes” but does not follow through, or will they be like the one who says “No” but then acts as is needed? Reading the Gospels, we approach the text with bias and suspicion. We have previously come to know that in the Gospels, Prostitutes and Tax Collectors, Lepers, Sinners are not automatically condemned; Scribes, Pharisees and Saducees who were in authority, are to be treated with doubt and apprehension. We have a tendency of reading the Bible, like opening Email. Before we understand the context or content, we instantly reply: Junk! Delete! What does Judas want? But what we need to remember here, is that according to the Gospel, Jesus had entered Jerusalem, he had gone into the religious Temple, where he had overturned tables, taken up a whip and began chasing people out of worship. I have to believe that as healthy and vital as this congregation now is, if someone were to come into the middle of worship and begin overthrowing tables or whipping people, calling them heretics, we would at the least be dialing 911 on our cell phones, and probably having a visit from the Presbytery Committee on Ministry. Part of the irritation of politics in other parts of the Church, is that these concerns disrupt our peace. I can recall as a teenager, living in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the 1960s, and First Presbyterian Church was in the shadow of that great University. I recall one beautiful Sunday morning, where the day before the Wolverines had won the Homecoming Game, the Sanctuary was filled with Faculty and Alumni in business suits, when the Leader of the local Black Panthers marched up the aisle, took over the pulpit and began reading the Black Manifesto. In response to such an affront, would we not ask: “By what authority are you doing these things? And Who gave you this authority?” In the same way, enough time has now passed for us to be able to question... The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has now become immortalized in American culture, his "I have a Dream" taught to all our children. Like John the Baptist, we need to ponder, whether he was doing God's Work, or Human Civil Rights? The thing about Authority, is that it is given in TWO Ways. Not only is authority bestowed upon an individual from those with power, authority also needs to be accepted by those who listen. I remember being a child, when my father reprimanded me for having not followed through, and I challenged him for making me feel bad. He responded that no one can make you feel anything. You are in charge of your feelings. Now realistically, we try to make people feel things all the time. Advertizing is based on making people feel, and most often we are each motivated by feelings of guilt. But actually 99% of the time, those with authority over us, have it only because we have given the authority to them. We may have been victimized, we may have been bullied or abused, but by replaying the circumstance, by choosing to stay in that position, we allow ourselves to continue to be victims. We allow the past to have power over us, to influence our thinking and our futures. Rather than Jesus Parable only being “You are judged by your actions rather than your words” I think this parable is about choosing a different Open Future, rather than a Closed Past. The first child goes along with whatever is asked, but is then limited by what has happened in whether to follow through. The second child may have had all kinds of reasons for saying “No.” This child may have been overwhelmed by other responsibilities, may have been annoyed by the father always asking for something, may have been nursing a grudge. But this child chooses to change, to let go the past and trusts a different future. I remember years ago, when our children were quite small. We had been at the lake, I was working on the house, and being sweaty and tired had sat down on the grass with a tall glass of water. Just then one of the children came up asking if they could have a sip? As they put the glass to their mouth, you could see the wheels suddenly turning inside their head, as they remembered something from a Kindergarten teacher about sharing the germs and infection they had on their hands or in their mouth, then used the wrong word when they asked “Dad, am I going to catch your dreams?” I remember saying, as family we have all been exposed to each other's stuff, but as they ran to play, I thought “I hope and pray you do catch my dreams, and have dreams of your own with futures I never imagined.” We live in this wilderness, where none of us know exactly where we are going. We imagine a future generation making it to a Promised Land flowing with Milk and Honey. We struggle from day to day, especially with our fears and doubts of survival. In the midst of all this we question IS THE LORD AMONG US OR NOT? But part of what we are learning to do, is to imagine everything spiritually as well as physically. What if, our hunger and thirst is also about our need for someone and something to trust? What if, our drinking water were having everything we needed to satisfy our desires? What if, we could catch one another's dreams by drinking of the same stuff?