Epic vs. Everyday

Intro

On this Thanksgiving weekend...

With the images and stories of Southwest’s long involvement with Guatemala perhaps bringing up memories and experiences, or for those of us who have arrived here more recently, stirring curiosity and a better understanding of the history of this community....

In the midst of watching pressure mount on our Canadian healthcare systems even while we see many parts of the world wait for their turn to have access to vaccine...

During the mundane everyday things… of masks and programming our phones to show our vaccine passports with minimal fuss...

On this morning where we have already enjoyed the sound of voices raised in song, laughter of children, and the hand of a friend on our shoulder… things we missed for those months we met on Zoom…

On this special weekend, where our nation pauses to gather and to give thanks, in small, everyday ways and with large epic feasts, however mediated those might be this particular weekend…

We pick up the story of God and God’s people with a reading from Exodus 16. Now, as you may recall, last week, we read of Moses and the burning bush in chapter 3. So what did we miss?

Moses becomes a leader…sort of.

Plagues.

Exodus.

EPIC.

Moses & Miriam sing a victory song.

We pick up the story 6 weeks post-Exodus. It’s easy to imagine that whatever provisions that the Israelites managed to grab on their way out of 400 years of slavery are potentially starting to run out…

Water and food will be an issue in the wilderness - in fact, right before and right after today’s reading, water will be in short supply. Just before our text, Moses & the people make it three days into the desert only to find that the water was undrinkable - bitter! And God provided. Just after today’s reading, they will find themselves without water at all. And, spoiler alert, God will provide once again.

But today’s reading centres around the issue of food - or its lack. And what happens when the everyday provisions are insecure. Linda, will you come and read for us?

[READING]

The Epic vs. The Everyday

Story

As we gather this weekend for a family dinner, or maybe some FaceTime conversations with out of town family, it is inevitable that someone will tell a story… Remember back when…

Failing memory, selective memory...

Family stories that get told over and over again.

And we do this in the church, of course, too.

…[A former pastor, from before I was around, was much beloved and often spoken of by congregants.… The stories were many and varied, because he was (and is!) an amazing guy and, under his leadership, the church grew and flourished in many good ways… however, people didn’t tend to tell stories about what didn’t go well during that time, they skipped over some of the struggles, and no one ever finished the stories in the way that I started to after a few years of hearing all about the ‘glory days’… after learning a bit more of the back story, I began to respond to each of these nostalgic stories that often started with a “do you know what [our old pastor] used to do?” by whispering under my breath … and then he had a heart attack.

We do this outside of the church, too.

A lot of our “good old days” stories are only partial truths if we dig a little deeper.

We tell a portion of the story and forget about the rest… and we can do this in either direction… remembering only the shiny, or only the terrible, when often there was actually quite a mix of bad and good, wonderful and difficult.

I can look back when my kids were little as being so much better/easier/special…but I forget about the interrupted sleep, the foggy brain, the exhaustion of being so very necessary to their daily existence.

Or, I can look back to my childhood and think about a memory - good or bad - and now, with a little bit of reflection, I can see how my parents or my siblings were also living their own stories, that I wasn’t the centre of anything more than my own existence. How we each were doing the best we could…and sometimes that was enough. Sometimes it fell short.

People’s complaint

The Israelite community were no different in this regard… Now that they are out in the wilderness, they remember Egypt as the place that they were well-fed. But that’s not the whole story. They were fed in Egypt, yes. But they were fed as slaves. They were fed by their masters. 400 years of slavery. 400 years of mistreatment and back-breaking labour. Oppression.

But now, not even months after being liberated, the EPIC provision has faded and their growling tummies make them feel like going back to what they knew would be preferable to the insecurity and uncertainty of FREEDOM.

If God wanted to kill us, why did we do the whole Exodus thing?

Complaining to Moses - and (already) forgetting that it wasn’t Moses who got them out of Egypt. Though he was involved.

God’s response

(First response is to Moses) How does God respond? God first tells Moses, “Look, I’ll take care of this”

(Leadership clarification)Moses & Aaron announce to the people that they’re about to see proof of who indeed brought them all out of Egypt. And they make a clarification with the people. “Your complaints aren’t for us. They’re against God. And, oh, by the way, God is listening.”

(Invitation) Then Moses, through Aaron, issues an invitation - “Come near.”

Provision - “meat & bread”

evening and morning - potential echo of the Creation story?

enough

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.

“The underlying conception of the deity in ancient Israel, beginning with the Garden story, is of a God who offers humankind a great abundance of gifts but always stipulates restrictions to be observed in their enjoyment.”

Robert Alter

Our complaint

So, on this Thanksgiving weekend… while we come up with all the things we’re grateful for, what might also be the murmurings of our hearts? I’m not going to ask you to share these… but I do want us to take a minute to actually name, at least to ourselves and to God, what complaints we have right now.

We, most of us anyway, aren’t just like the Israelites. I mean, maybe we have the complaining and murmuring down, but last I checked, most of us haven’t been recently dramatically saved in an EPIC demonstration of power like in the Exodus.

However, we ARE like the Israelites in other ways, aren’t we?

We, too, worry about whether there will be enough.

We, too, often only remember parts of our own story. (We were well fed. Well fed SLAVES!) And so we long for “better days” that weren’t necessarily better. Befores and afters aren’t always like a makeover… before/after! Sometimes our “afters” are hard. Sometimes before really does look better than after.

We, too, are in a story that is long saga. We, too, are on journeys that will take longer than we want them too. Personal journeys. Family journeys. Church community journeys. And more.

God’s response

And what of God’s response to us.

How does God respond when we complain? When we murmur?

Well, I think the invitation to Come near still stands. I hear you. I see even where your complaints are misdirected. And I will take care of you. Not just in the epic moments, but in the everyday.

Provision - is God still the God who offers these journeying people meat every evening and bread every morning?

Is there are chance we’ve limited God’s provision to the “big things” - the epic events like Exodus and crucifixion/resurrection?

What about the everyday?

What if God, this God, isn’t just the God of EPIC events but also the God of the everyday.

And enough-ness. This might be the biggest everyday miracle of all…in a culture consumed by consuming, where is always better.

How has God provided for you - how IS God providing for you - in small everyday things. Daily routines. In the enough-ness of what God has given.

And this is for us as individuals, but also for us as a community…

So… even as we tell stories of our history as a community, how do we avoid telling half-true stories? Either that slant so that the past isn’t as good as now, or that some part of the past was the good bit and the future simply needs to be a return to those glory days. This is particularly difficult in communities like churches. How do we give thanks for the provision of God in the past without forgetting how we’ve been set free? How do we remember and re-tell the EPIC stories of what God has done while also staying alert to the EVERYDAY provision. To the enough-ness of what God is giving us today?

We need God for this. We cannot, as the stories of the Israelites will remind us, we cannot do this on our own.

Let’s pray....