Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming to worship this morning. I know it’s been a busy week for many of you. I’m grateful that you all took the time to be here today.
November is the season of giving thanks. The crops are in. The summer is done. There’s still plenty of work for us to do. But it’s a time of year when people can pause for a little bit, and feel that we made it through another year.
Some of you are making plans to see family and friends. The holiday season isn’t that far away.
I’d like to share another Scripture, about being thankful. It’s a story from a long time ago. It’s one of the big ones in the Bible. We all know it. But it’s worth hearing again.
The whole community of Israel set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt.
In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The people of Israel said, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death.”
Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions.On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
So Moses and Aaron said to them, “In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?”
Moses also said, “You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord.”
Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’”
While Aaron was speaking to the whole community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
The Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’”
That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.
When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Everyone is to gather as much as they need. Take two quarts for each person you have in your tent.’”The people of Israel did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it, those who gathered much did not have too much, and those who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.
Exodus 16:1-16
What’s the longest camping trip you’ve ever been on?
Suppose you were going to go on a big trip, what would you take with you? (tent, canteen, pots, food, maps, sewing kit, first aid kit, clothes…)
What kind of food would you take with you? (simple and light, junk food, concentrated nutrition, food that won’t spoil…)
Today’s Scripture is the story of one of the greatest camping trips of all time. It wasn’t up in the cool mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was through the hot, dry desert of the Sinai peninsula in the middle East.
The people who started out on that trip didn’t have a whole lot of time to plan. They didn’t have a lot of time to pack. They just took what they could, whatever they could carry. And instead of being just an overnight trip, or a couple of weeks, it lasted forty years.
I’d like you to think about what it would be like, to live off the land that way, for that incredible length of time.
Every day, moving on. Maybe once in a while stopping for just a few days in one place, to rest a little bit, but always moving on.
We’re pretty settled, by comparison, aren’t we? I mean, we call ourselves a mobile society, but most of the time we move from one settled place to another place a whole lot like it.
Almost everywhere you go today, you know that certain things will be available. There’ll be supermarkets, and fast food, and shopping malls, and familiar national chain stores that are always laid out just the same.
Even if you’re far away from home, you can still send for things you need by mail order.
If your car breaks down, you can always get it fixed. If you get sick, you can find a nationally-certified doctor not far away. If you get lost, pretty soon people will come looking for you.
That’s our kind of mobility. Even when we’re out “roughing it”, that’s our kind of camping out.
Today’s story was different. These were people who had been slaves, for 400 years. They had no idea where they were. They had no idea where they were going.
God told them they were headed to the Promised Land, but they didn’t have a map of any kind.
They met enemies along the way – people who came at them with sharp spears, who stole their animals and kidnapped their women and children. They fought with each other, instead of helping each other out.
And they ran out of food. This story takes place only six weeks after they crossed the Red Sea. They only had a few days’ worth of food when they left Egypt.
They had no skills for living off the land. They were out in the desert, with no fish to catch, and no berries to pick. They were all getting pretty hungry.
And they did exactly what you and I would have done. They complained about everything. They blamed their leaders. They blamed God for their problems.
They said, “We’d have done better if we died back in Egypt! We were slaves, we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted! You brought us out into this desert to starve us all to death.”
Well, you know what happened. God heard them. God helped them.
First, it says, God showed them all a vision of glory, out there in the desert. We don’t know if it was just a beautiful sunset, or if it was one of those incredible desert nights, where there are more stars than you ever saw before in your whole life.
We don’t know if God let them actually see heaven, or a vision of angels, or what. But they saw it, and they were speechless.
The glory of the Lord. Somehow, they recognized it. Somehow, they knew. They saw it. They felt it. They knew it in their hearts. They knew, without anyone telling them, that God was there.
That evening, a flock of migrating birds settled at their camp. Everybody had enough to eat. And the next morning, when they woke up, a layer of dew had settled on the ground, all sparkly and beautiful. You know how it is? And when the dew dried off, there was something left.
They didn’t know what it was. People said to each other, “What is it?” That’s what the Hebrew word, manna, literally means– “What is it?” You can imagine what people were saying that morning:
“What’s for breakfast this morning, mom?”
“That stuff. That’s all there is.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know. Try it. You’ll like it.”
Do any of you remember a commercial for cereal that ran on TV years ago? Nobody in the family wanted to try this new cereal. They said, “Let Mikey try it.”
Probably, some little Hebrew kid named Mikey was the first one to figure out that God had given them all something to eat.
Everybody watched, and they expected Mikey to drop dead, but it was OK. People said to each other, “Mikey likes it!”
So they all tried it. If you read to the end of the story, it says that it was light brown, it smelled spicy, and it tasted sweet. Kind of like flattened-out hush puppies. It was delicious!
That’s what God gave them to eat. It was delicious. And God gave them a fresh batch, every morning.
That was the big lesson. And it took them 40 years to learn it. God was going to take care of them.
These were not perfect people. They fought with each other. They got jealous of each other. God gave them ten simple, basic rules for daily living, and they broke those rules over and over.
They pestered Moses, night and day. They had no idea how to worship God. Hey, let’s dance around a golden statue for a while! But God never stopped feeding them, every morning.
One of the few things the descendants of Israel learned, during those 40 years, was to be thankful. It took them a while, but they learned to thank God, every day.
We still know the prayer of thanksgiving that they said, every time they sat down to eat. They passed it down to their children and grandchildren, and from them, down to us.
It’s a prayer that I printed on the front page of the newsletter this month. Did any of you see it, when the newsletter came out? It’s in Hebrew.
Let’s just go over that prayer together.
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu
Melekh ha’olam
ha-motzi lekhem min ha’aretz. . .
“Blessed are You, Lord our God,
Ruler of the Universe,
Who brings forth bread from the earth. . .”
That was the prayer they learned to say together. It’s probably the same prayer that Jesus said, when he broke the bread and fed a crowd of 5,000 people.
It’s probably the prayer that Jesus had in mind when he said, “Give us this day our daily bread. . .”
It’s probably the same prayer that Jesus said, at the Last Supper. It’s a prayer of thanksgiving.
We don’t get manna every day now. That was something they needed back in the desert. But we do get food of a different kind, and it’s fresh, whenever we need it.
Spiritual food. Food for our hearts. Food for our spirit. When we get discouraged and hungry, when we’re scared and clueless, God is always here to feed us. Like the manna in the desert, it fills us up and nourishes us.
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life! Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, whoever believes in me shall not thirst. . .”
We can come to Jesus, and be filled. We can pray for daily bread, and get not just food for our table, but food for our hearts.
When we thank God, we let go of fear and anxiety. Because when we thank God, we know that God will take care of us.
When you’re giving thanks, there’s no room for fear or anything else inside you. When you give thanks, you let go of everything else.
And, as you’ve heard me say before, once you give thanks for something, don’t turn back, and get anxious about it all over again. Give thanks, enjoy what you’ve been given, and move on.
This past week, I was reading my Bible, and I happened to come across one of my favorite readings, in Psalm 37. It says,
Don’t fret because of the wicked.
Don’t be envious of wrongdoers.
They will soon fade away like grass,
And wither like plants in the fall.Trust in the Lord, and do good;
So you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
Take delight in the Lord,
And he will give you the desires of your heart.Commit your way to the Lord;
Trust in him, and the Lord will act.
Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for himRefrain from anger, and forsake wrath.
Don’t fret – it only leads to evil.Yet a little while, and the wicked will be nor more;
Though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And delight in abundant prosperity.Better is a little that the righteous person has
Than the abundance of the many wicked.Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
When he delights in our way;
Though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong,
For the Lord holds us by the hand.I have been young, and now I am old,
Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken,
Or their children begging for bread.
They are ever giving generously and lending,
And their children become a blessing.
Thank you, Lord, for our daily bread.
Thank you for our homes, and for safety every day.
Thank you for our families, who we love so much.
Thank you for peace in our land, and justice, and freedom.
Thank you even when we don’t see our next step clearly.
Thank you for feeding us every day, for inspiring us, for lifting us up when we’re down.
Thank you for glimpses of glory, when our hearts are feeling low.
Thank you for healing us, and saving us.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.