Deadly Grumblings - School of Ministry Worship

Intro and Scripture

Exodus 17:1–4 NIV

1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Pray.

“I am not coming to church if I have to wear a mask.”

“We never sing any old hymns”

“Why won’t you bring back our 8am early service?”

“No one signed up for my program and it’s because it wasn’t in the bulletin”

“The other day, you introduced me as the Care Coordinator and I am the Care director.... are you demoting me?”

“I don’t feel safe receiving communion by intinction”

“The packaged communion doesen’t taste good”

“We are tired of filling up the individual communion cups every week”

My favorite… from an acolyte....who sat next to me on the chancel....

“The pastor preaches too long and we dont get out at 12.”

COVID, Disaffiliation, preferences in an hyper-individualized world/consumer world, and leading people with broken marriages facing diagnosis, betrayal, pain, loss.... it is a seedbed for grumblings.

Make no mistake, grumblings can turn deadly. Ok maybe not physically kills you…if any of your congregations are threatening to stone you like Moses then let someone know asap please.

But these can add up quickly, still joy consistently, distract from the mission precipitously, and leave you empty ruthlessly.

That is where Moses is by Exodus 17.

Exodus is hard

As you know the Israelites are just months into this new journey. They have been in Egypt for over 400 years and now Yahweh has rescued them from bondage through the servant Moses and they are now in a wilderness.

It is shocking for us to see them grumble. We giggle when they say things like....

Exodus 17:3 NIV

3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

Before we distance ourselves from them, consider how difficult the Wilderness might be. Nothing is for certain, everything is different and unknown. In slavery, food (even if terrible or minimal) it was still secure in the known. Even if the conditions were awful, it was still something they knew how to survive.

My brother has been in prison for 10 years. He is approaching his first chance of parole and he told me the other day… “I am scared to get out because I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Leading people into the unknown is scary. That is why so many leaders and churches have settled with comfort and status quo and doing church the way we have always done it.

Change is hard and it cascades when it is painful change like disaffiliation votes, pastoral transitions, and navigating unchartered territory. Leadership theory calls this season the neutral zone. This place of transition and change is unsettling and dangerous, but it is also pregnant with potential. William Bridges describes the neutral zone:

It is the winter in which the roots begin to prepare themselves for spring’s renewal. It is the night during which we are disengaged from yesterday’s concerns and preparing for tomorrow’s. It is the chaos into which the old form dissolves and from which the new form emerges. It is the seedbed of the new beginnings that you seek.

Moses becomes the scapegoat, the punching bag, because of the anxiety of the wilderness. As a leader, he must help them weather the onslaught of the liminal season between what was and what will be.

When Grumblings surface, there is almost always a deeper problem

I am walking through a serious conflict in one of the services that is at my church. I dont want to air our dirty laundry....but some of it is helpful. There are a handful of people that are very upset with one of my staff. In listening to them, all I heard was grumbling. Nitpicking decisions, second guessing motives, and unfounded accusations. At one point an adult told me of a fun game that was played at a leadership gathering. They played bible olympics....which personally sounds awful, haha. Not the point. From 4-5 years ago, he was hurt because he believed the pastor gave preferential treatment to one of the tables and did not give this gentelemen’s team enough points.

While we were listening, my colleague listened and afterwards asked him.... “who hurt you? In the past, is there some church hurt?”

There is almost always something behind the grumblings.

Side note: If you are grumbling....this is a check engine light to turn to wonder about a deeper problem.

This is not the first occurrence of the grumblings in Exodus. They have been out of Egypt for three days at the first occurrence:

Exodus 15:22–23 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.)

then after just a month out of Egypt....

Exodus 16:1–3 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.”

And now to our text they are grumbling yet again about a need that is not being met.

Here is the thing:

Moses is the target of the grumbling but he is not the object of them.

The Israelites are really dealing with something deeper. They have a faith problem. They do not trust that Yahweh will provide what they need.

Now we could psychoanalyze this and talk about their trust issues from Pharoah and projecting their relationship with Pharoah onto yahweh. There is probably something there....but the bottom line is, they have not learned what it means to trust God.

Friends, when grumbling comes up, there is usually a deeper spiritual void.

When a spouse who is caring for a dying husband calls and yells at me because I didnt come and visit (even though they didnt tell anyone)....there is something deeper going on there.

Moses is undifferentiated

In Exodus 17, Moses is caught up in the anxiety of the people. There are few hints of this anxiety.

Justifying himself

Exodus 17:2 NIV

2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?”

When we are anxious we justify our actions or defend ourselves.

2. Moses anxiety controls his emotions

Exodus 17:4 NIV

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

There is really no sign or threat that they will stone him. But this is the exaggeration of an anxious leader.

3. Moses looks for the quick-fix

Exodus 17:4 NIV

4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

When we are anxious we will stop asking deeper questions and look for quick-fixes. Bandaids. We will succumb to grumblings. We will accomodate or retreat.

Differentiated Leadership from Edwin Friedman:

For him, a well-differentiated leader is able to escape the anxiety of a group while still being connected to the group. He/She can maintain a “non-anxious, well-principled presence” in the face of the stressors swirling outside and within the group. Rather than getting caught up in the same dysfunctional behaviors which plague the group, he/she stands apart from and above the dysfunction.

In short, a well-differentiated leader can be a part of a dysfunctional group without its chronic anxiety affecting them.

The Calling of Christian Leadership

The calling of Moses in Genesis 17 is to identify the greater need. He only half gets it here, but again God is faithful and thank God for the honesty in Scripture about the leaders. Moses (and Aaron) are not baby-sitters for grumblings or CEO’s for desired preferences.... they are chosen mediators of God’s presence. God leads Moses out with the elders to strike a rock and remind the people of God’s provision.

Our calling as leaders involves deep personal work. As leaders in an anxious world, we have to do the hard work of being differentiated and fully aware and accepted of the presence of provision of God.

And when we can do that....and a lot of times when we dont, we get to join God in some truly remarkable things.