Thanksgiving Sermon

Exodus 16:11-18 The Lord spoke to Moses, 12 “I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat. And in the morning you will have your fill of bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” 13 In the evening a flock of quail flew down and covered the camp. And in the morning there was a layer of dew all around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the desert surface were thin flakes, as thin as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” They didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. 16 This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Collect as much of it as each of you can eat, one omer per person. You may collect for the number of people in your household.’ 17 The Israelites did as Moses said, some collecting more, some less. 18 But when they measured it out by the omer, the ones who had collected more had nothing left over, and the ones who had collected less had no shortage. Everyone collected just as much as they could eat.

INTRO

Tonight, we gather at this Community Thanksgiving service to give thanks to God. While there is so much tragedy in the world, from the Israel/Hamas and the suffering of Palestinians living the Gaza strip, Russia invading Ukraine, Political infighting and the ongoing budget fights in Congress, to a fire in our own city that destroyed 12 apartments. Sometimes we can get caught up in all that is wrong in the world. When we do this it causes us to live into a mentality scarcity. We start hoarding that which is not meant to be stored by shared that all might have enough.

In this head space of scarcity we begin to look at life through a negative view.…Maybe get a a little nostalgic in spaces like this. We think about the good ole days when life was seemly perfect. When life was simpler, Easier, Better… To be clear, this is not the kinda of storytelling that we will experience later this week as we gather around the table in fellowship with family or friends, and we share good memories that make us smile. This kinda of good ole day mentality is more of a lament. A grieving of sorts. For example, recently I took my oldest son trick or treating and I lamented to my wife and friends that its just not the same from when we were kids and every porch was lite up ready to receive excited kids. This lament can spiral into deeper complaints of violence, kids having to grow up to fast, all the changes that have occurred in our community over the years, and so on.

Just before our scripture lesson today, the Israelites have been doing their own walk down memory lane. Earlier in the book of Exodus, Moses was tasked with leading the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the promised land. Prior to our text, Moses had led the people out of Egypt through the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army drowned and the people were delivered. After this deliverance the people of Israel gave thanks and praise to God for liberating them from slavery in Egypt.

Then the journey began, and the mood begins to shift quickly. For it was a difficult journey through the desert and as the journey wore on the people began grumbling. As their food rations continued to dwindle, their joy and their wonder at God’s acts of salvation were overtaken by hunger, fear, and anger. They took on a mentality of scarcity. Maybe they couldn’t fully live into who God called them to be in Egypt, but at least they could eat! As one theologian notes, “Rather than face contemporary challenges, people focus on the past and forget all if its challenges. They romanticize it. Israel seems to forget even slavery, bondage, and the mighty acts of God; instead, they focus on Pharaoh and the security that sin can offer.”[1] Rather, then placing their hope in the God who is leading them from the present into the future they are lost in their love for the way things used to be.

Many times in our lives, we find ourselves in this very place. We end up in desert living. We face challenges, much like we have over the past several years, that we never have faced before. Instead of focusing on God’s faithfulness, instead of focusing on the ways in which we have been blessed by God, we would rather dwell on the past. We look at all that’s wrong with the world rather than what is right, good, holy and beautiful. We focus on the number of people we had in church, how big the youth group was, or we spend time questioning the future to the point that we fail to see the God who is present with us now.

We forget the struggles that we have been through to bring us to this point. We forget God’s gracious actions in our lives. We instead memorialize a false narrative that brightens the past, dims the present, and darkens the future. Often, we even begin to take comfort in sinful activities and ways of living that seem to provide us with more security than to trust in where God’s leading. Maybe, we decide to tithe less until we know where the church is heading or until we feel our voice is heard. Maybe, we cling to the idea of filled pews instead of focusing on who is and is not coming and looking into our neighborhoods for how we can witness to the love of God.

Our negativity distorts our view of how God is at work in such a way that sin, slavery, and bondage look or appears to be more comforting in comparison to the challenges we see in our future. So we, like the Israelites, begin to complain. The Hebrew word that is translated as “complain” is less about complaining and more about rebellion. Placed in context, rather than complaining to God, the Israelites are more likely in open revolt. They are so “harmed” by God’s treatment of them in the desert that they would prefer a change in leadership. The Israelites would rather abandon their relationship with the living God and return to worshiping idols than continue in relationship with this God who has led them into the desert.[2]

I imagine that at one time or another we have felt this way too. Things aren’t going right for us. We pray and pray and pray, but it doesn’t seem like God is intervening in the situations of our lives. We get fixated on living the “American Dream.” If we just work hard enough, we can make it ourselves. We don’t need a God who lets us wander through life’s deserts alone! We can do it ourselves and make a better life for ourselves. And in this frame of mind, we are abandoning our relationship with the living God and worshipping the idol of individualism.

When we get to the place of abandoning our relationship with God, when we choose to worship various idols in our lives, we run the danger of living into a cynical attitude of scarcity. When we look at what’s wrong in the world instead of focusing on what’s right things begin to go astray. We replace our hope in God with sentimentality for our past. Rather than go back to physical Egypt, we prefer, as Rev. Dr. Greg Jones states, to go back to our own Egypts. We want the church full. We want the programs we used to have. We want our families built back the way they used to be. We want the job we used to have. But the truth of the matter is, we can’t go back to Egypt.

Things will never be exactly like they were in the past. We, like the Israelites, romanticize the past. We gloss over the struggles that we have been through and remember only the warm, happy moments of success. We cling to these memories as a means of avoiding the challenges of the present. Instead, we must look to the future trusting God’s guidance along the way as we are once again pushed, prodded, and challenged to grow in our faith.

Despite the complaints or their threat of rebellion, the Israelites are not met with the threat of death nor are they judged for their complaints. God hears their complaint and responded by meeting the needs they have voice. God responses by showing up…the presence of God as found in the manna is almost lost in the passage. Yet, God makes God’s glory known by demonstrating God’s commitment to the community of faith. For Moses and the Israelites, food was an immediate concern. The deeper need is found in the challenge of becoming their own community. For the past 430 years, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. Sure, they had food and shelter, but they had to work and live around the Egyptian’s schedule. They had never been able to be a community of their own. The desert narratives of Exodus is the space where they try, fail, and are challenged again and again with how to become an authentic community. Yet, all throughout their struggles God sustains them.

Perhaps the questions we need to ask today as we celebrate all we are thankful for is… how is God sustaining us? How is God forming us just as God formed and shaped the Israelites? How is God working through all the changes we have experienced over the past several years? When we begin to examine these questions, we begin to realize all the places that God has shown up. We begin to realize all the ways in which God has provided for us even when it was hard to see or feel God’s presence. We begin to shift our focus from our ways and what we want to realizing that God provides. When we look at our lives, we do not have too much, we do not have too little, we have enough. We have enough that we might share it with others, bless others, and share a glimmer of God’s love.

We give thanks that God has given us our families. We give thanks to God for our friends. We give thanks to God for our jobs and our communities of faith. All that we have been given is a gift from God and friends, it is enough! We also give thanks that God gave us enough when he sent us his Son Jesus Christ to be our bread of life, to die on the cross that we might be saved. The salvation we are offered in Jesus Christ is enough. When we give thanks for these things, we begin to realize that all God has given us has been enough. It might not have been what we expected; it might not have been what we thought we needed; but it was enough.

As we gather tonight to celebrate and give thanks to God, may we remember all that God has done for us. Even when we, like the Israelites begin to grumble and complain against God, may we be thankful that God is working in our lives to provide us enough. God is faithful even in the midst of the storms of life. When all else fails, may we look to Christ who rules over all creation. May we be thankful for his sacrifice on the cross and may we decide each day to choose him. In choosing Christ, may we put aside our difficulties.

May we put aside our wants. May we put aside the ways we think we need to live and begin to live the lives that God is calling us to live. May we open ourselves up to the transformational power of God so that we might become a part of God’s kingdom, the body of Christ. In doing so, might we be thankful as we once again encounter the living Christ. Christ who is the bread of life. Christ who is our daily bread. Christ who provides enough. Christ who is our enough.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Connections, Year B, Vol. 3, pg. 197.

[2] Ibid., pg. 198