Sermon Tone Analysis

Exodus 15:22-17:7; Luke 2:6-7

Introduction:

We are in the season of Advent, which means "coming" in Latin.

It's the four weeks leading up to Christmas day designed to prepare our hearts, minds and souls for the birth of Jesus.

Spoiler Alert: Jesus has already been born!

So why do we celebrate Advent?

When we take time to remember the birth of Jesus and the way the people of God had been waiting and waiting and waiting for centuries for the birth of their savior, we come to a great appreciation and realization that we are also living in a time, a period of waiting.

Not for Jesus to come the first time, but to return!

And as we remember the birth of Jesus, we are continuing our study through the book of Exodus, and we're looking at the way God has always worked with his people.

We're comparing how God worked with Israel, how he worked with Mary and Joseph…and we're applying all of it to how God works with you and I today.

In our passage today, we are reading about what happened after the Israelites crossed the sea—remember the God split the sea and they walked through to freedom on dry land, and all of Pharaoh's army was drowned.

They are free!

Their pursuer, their slave driver is gone.

They are free and they are in the wilderness.

Let me introduce you to a concept called Liminal Space.

Liminality is defined as a threshold, a space between, neither inside or outside the building; a time between what was and what's next.

Sociologically speaking, a liminal space is a transitional space where a person lacks social status and is reduced to dependence on others.

Liminal spaces come in all sorts of transitional packages:

Think about a wedding ceremony, as the bride and groom are being set apart for one another, they are neither married or unmarried—they are wearing new symbolic clothes, using other symbols of their life together, lighting a candle, exchanging rings, vows, a kiss—and those gathered witness their change of status, and they are re-introduced as husband and wife with a new identity.

An airport is a liminal space.

It's not the destination, its a space you go through on the way to your destination.

Pregnancy is a nine month liminal space—you’re a mom, there’s a baby on board, and you're not quite a mom, you haven't nursed or bathed or changed a diaper, or pushed a stroller, or disciplined or taught ABC's yet.

BTW, that's one of the things that makes a miscarriage so painful…entering a liminal space and not coming through to the other side).

Colleges intentionally create liminal spaces…new place to live, new routines, new friends.

Graduation is a liminal experience…

Immigrants or refugees are subject to long stretches of liminality—always feeling like an outsider, unable to put down roots or feel secure.

During the lockdowns of Covid, we all lived in a liminal space…how long is this going to last?

You get the idea!

Here's something to pay attention to, very few of us enjoy liminality.

We look for order and belonging and predictability.

Liminal spaces are generally uncomfortable and awkward, it can feel completely disorienting.

In our passage today, Israel has entered into this kind of space—the wilderness.

It brings up all sorts of questions: Are we safe?

Where do we find food and water, Who the heck is in charge?

Where are we even going?

God has lessons to teach us that can only be learned in liminal space—the wilderness is God's workshop for building our character.

Let's jump into the story.

We are in Exodus 15:22…

Pray and read the passage…

Exodus 15:22–17:7 (NIV)

22 Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur.

For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water.

23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter.

(That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”

25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood.

He threw it into the water, and the water became fit to drink.

There the LORD issued a ruling and instruction for them and put them to the test.

26 He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.”

27 Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Learning to trust in God's provision

They've traveled for three days, in the desert wilderness, and have found no water.

What's the thirstiest you've ever been?

This brings to mind an old song, about being in a desert on a horse…any time along the way I think he could've named the horse!

Sometimes we give the Israelites a bad rap…how could they be such complainers after only three days?

It wasn't that long ago that there were amazing plagues which didn't affect them, there's the whole crossing of the sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army…

…but it doesn’t take very long when your throat is completely parched and dry, that you are only thinking about one thing.

Right‽

Listen, when things are going well, we underestimate how disorienting transitional periods—liminal spaces—really are, and we overestimate how stable/secure we really are.

We all have friends who are in spaces like this right now…our response needs to be full of compassion

And many of us are in these kinds of spaces right now…I think God wants to meet you right here, right now

Remember the reason for their freedom…God is making his name, his character known to the entire world through Israel.

Our lives, you’re and mine, are much less about our comfort, our ease of life

remember this is God’s workshop…He’s establishing Israel as a people who will live completely differently than their surrounding culture.

as followers of the resurrected Christ, we are to live a completely different way of life, empowered by the very presence of God, bearing the name of God in our world…

You are going to become my people who bear my name and show the entire world what I'm like.

And the first step is learning to trust me in the wilderness.

Trust is the thing that was originally broken in Genesis 3. A lack of trusting God led to our first human parents disobedience—sin.

The essence if sin is that we don't trust God to provide what we need when we need it.

Originally it was the knowledge of right and wrong, good and evil.

What is God's withholding something good from me?

I want to determine what's good and what's harmful on my own.

I don't need/want his input in my life.

So…How are you experiencing disorientation?

Perhaps you’re currently disoriented…God will meet you.

We all have friends who are disoriented…

Their forgetfulness and ingratitude are met with God's gracious provision, and then they are immediately invited into obedience.

This is a pattern we are going to see over and over again.

And notice that in God's provision, he invites them into a relationship of obedience: if you listen, if you do, if you pay attention, if you keep the commands—then you will not experience what Egypt experienced.

Their forgetfulness and ingratitude and rebellion are met with God's gracious provision, and with an invitation into a completely different way of life connected to the creator of all.

One of the things I've loved about learning to follow the resurrected Christ, is how when I turn to him, he welcomes me with open arms.

It doesn't mean that there is not real consequences to my rebellion.

But I've experienced God meeting me, and graciously providing for me the moment I turn towards him.

BTW, turning away from rebellion and towards God is the definition of repentance.

Let's read part of the next section:

Exodus 16:1–5 (NIV) 1 The whole Israelite community 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. 2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.

3 The Israelites said to them, “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 this entire assembly to death.” 4 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.

5 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.”

Learning to trust in God's continued, daily provision

Not they's been out of Egypt for a bit—two and a half months—and have run out of the food they brought with them I'd expect.

And as they look in the rearview mirror, they're remembering more meat than they could consume—the Egyptian food was glorious!!

And presently, it just seems like God just wants to slowly kill us!

Exodus 16:10–15 (NIV) 10 While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud.

11 The LORD said to Moses, 12 “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.’ ” 13 That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.

15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?”