Rev. Dustin ParkerThe Journey - Refreshment on the Journey
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Concordia Lutheran Church
Lent 3, March 27, 2011
Refreshment on the Journey
Ex 17:1-7
May the grace, that incredible mercy and love which results in you knowing God’s peace, was over you and cleanse you from the struggles of living in this world!
The Incredible miracle, the more incredible back story!
As we look into the story in our first reading, it takes us a moment to grasp how challenging the situation is, and how even more incredible the miracle reported is, and what it means. It is not easy to grasp that we are talking about enough water for 2.3 million people! If you filled every baseball stadium in the USA, Not quite the population of Orange County, but close.
At 2 gallons of water per day for just the people, we are talking 500 plus tanker trucks – just for drinking water! That’s not counting water to cook the Manna and quail that would more than feed every one the 2 million plus men, women and children or to wash them, or the cooking utensils.
From the rock face that Moses would strike, the water would gush, and people would have more than they need, the water flowing would be abundant, as God would provide for His people once again. As God would show to Moses again, how much God loves His children, as God proves that He will never forsake His people.
Even as the story becomes more powerful, the miracle more awe-inspiring as we realize the immense crowd that travelled, led by God’s presence in the cloud and pillar of fire, this story will strike home for us, as we grasp the story behind the story. For this story, God’s promise is not just history. It is the incredible blessing the Samaritan woman would learn at the well. It is the incredible love Paul writes about to the church in Rome. The lesson that we know! That we are beginning to grasp; that we can rely upon. When it is not parched tougues and throats that cry for refreshment, but our hearts, and our minds, and they find it!
For we, like the people of old, walk and are led by a God who is willing to take a stand for His people.
Places of Despair
We would grumble too!
Our Leaders would be.. stressed!
Would either cry out to God
The question – Is God among us, or not?
As Israel leaves the wilderness around Sin-ai, they begin a journey towards the promised land. At Sinai they celebrated their being rescued from the slavery in Eqypt in the presence of God who called them into His presence to make them His people. At Sinai they saw miracles, they celebrated with God, they learned to worship and they learned that God would forgive their sin. It was time to move out – to go to the land promised to their fore-fathers by God, some 450 years prior.
They are so numerous, this band of pilgrims called Israel, the people of God, that they have to move out in sections. They head to this place – called Rephidim, a dry and barren oasis. If we translate the name of this desert way station, it means the “place of losing heart” or “the place of being let down”.
Such was the place where they first stopped on the journey from the Mount. There was not any water, never mind enough. After journeying for a while, eating the dust of those who go before, the first rest area has no water for drinking. For that matter, there are no bushes, no chemical toilets, or other places for sanitation! Just dirt and more dirt and some rocks.
No wonder the people ambush Moses with their complaints, no wonder the mothers and fathers, watching their children thirst, hearing the complaints. Moses may not know how God is going to work, but even knowing that God will provide doesn’t provide relief from the stress causing mob he thinks will surely kill him. The cries and accusations that it is Moses fault that they will die resonate in his ears, Moses will cry out, but not mercy, but in despair.
The question we see at the end of the reading is what haunts them, “ Is the Lord among us…. Or not?”
The reason I brought up Sinai, was to remind us that these people are unbelievers, they are not ignorant of God, nor of His love and His work in their lives. Because of Him, they have left heartbreaking work in Eqypt. Because of His love, they walked through the Red Sea that would drown the army that chased them. They were saved by God… and yet, they seem to reach this point of despair, this breaking point.
They ask what we would, perhaps what we have when our lives are likewise breaking.
God, are you with us, or NOT?
God makes His stand…
The rock
The Strike
Christ struck? And again
God made His stand
In the barren desert in this place where there is nothing to provide refreshment they receive their answer. They would have God prove Himself, and while they should have known that He would, that is what their cries are about. Their complaints ignore that which they should know. God is faithful. Completely faithful.
The English translations don’t bring it out well, but when God tells Moses that He will stand before Moses on the rock, he isn’t talking about physically locating Himself there. He is talking about making His stand, about not backing down before the complaints, as much as passing this test, assuring the people doubting and complaining.
You don’t know I am here Israel? You doubt I will provide? Here is your proof that I am Your God, that You are My people. Moses, hit the rock, this rock that offends, and see that in striking it I will provide the water of life. Witness people of Israel, elders of the people, God loves and cares for you!
And the rock pours out more water than we can ever comprehend! Enough to quench 2.3 million people, their livestock, and God provides. Would that we all could have such faith, that wouldn’t require us to question God’s plan, that would simply accept that He would provide! Even the leaders needed to find refreshment!
In our world today, we might not always be so desperately craving refreshment, yet we need refreshment, we need rest from a world, from lives that are so effected a world devastated by sin and its consequences, from natural disasters, from just the fact that everything gets older and fades, if not breaks.
We complain, we challenge our leaders, waiting to ambush them with blame, because there are times we look for hope, or answers that will refresh us. What we really struggle with? The question the people there dealt with – God, are You really here with us?
The answer is the same as when the rock was struck, and outpoured the answer. God made His stand… Here is how St Paul explained it.
1 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. 2 They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. 3 They all ate 4 and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. 5 But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 (MSG)
The lesson learned the hard way in the desert was that they needed to look to God, knowing His love would never allow Him to desert them. Of course He would provide His refreshment to them – that they were HIS PEOPLE. The temptation is too think that for a moment, or a season, God would walk away – and He never will. It is impossible for Him to do so.
Paul says the rock struck was Christ – even as He would be struck as he walked as one who was fully man, fully God. That time, it would just not be a rock where he would make His stand, where he would prove that He was our God, and that He loved us, His people. It would be at the cross, and we would strike God so hard, and yet, as His blood would pour forth, it would pour out something more refreshing, more life giving than water….
His blood would wash away all that takes life that diminishes it, the sin, the guilt, the shame, the resentment, the hatred, the fear, the pain. All wiped away with the power of tsunami. Instead of death and destruction, the flood waters of baptism leave us more alive, knowing the abundance of His love, of His work in our lives. That is what the lady in the gospel needed, and it radically changed her life. She would go from the one who was the object of gossip, to the one who would bring an entire town of people who mocked her to know God’s love.
God has taken His stand - not against those in need - but to show us His love! He is our Rock – but that rock is there to prove His love, His grace, that He is our God, and that nothing can separate us from Him. He took the hit, in the desert, at the cross. Every prayer was answered there.
Would that instead of complain, we simply look to Him, and cry out, Lord have mercy, Lord Love us….and rest assured, He does.
Let us, as we look to the fact we are the baptized, we are His communion, find rest and refreshment knowing His love, for we are His people, cleansed, fed, refreshed, nourished, loved…
Knowing that, we live at peace…. Peace that passes all comprehension, peace that fills our hearts and minds, guarded and kept by Christ Jesus… Our Lord, our Savior, Our Rock, our Refreshment…
AMEN?
Concordia Lutheran Church
Lent 3, March 27, 2011
Refreshment on the Journey
Ex 17:1-7
May the grace, that incredible mercy and love which results in you knowing God’s peace, was over you and cleanse you from the struggles of living in this world!
The Incredible miracle, the more incredible back story!
As we look into the story in our first reading, it takes us a moment to grasp how challenging the situation is, and how even more incredible the miracle reported is, and what it means. It is not easy to grasp that we are talking about enough water for 2.3 million people! If you filled every baseball stadium in the USA, Not quite the population of Orange County, but close.
At 2 gallons of water per day for just the people, we are talking 500 plus tanker trucks – just for drinking water! That’s not counting water to cook the Manna and quail that would more than feed every one the 2 million plus men, women and children or to wash them, or the cooking utensils.
From the rock face that Moses would strike, the water would gush, and people would have more than they need, the water flowing would be abundant, as God would provide for His people once again. As God would show to Moses again, how much God loves His children, as God proves that He will never forsake His people.
Even as the story becomes more powerful, the miracle more awe-inspiring as we realize the immense crowd that travelled, led by God’s presence in the cloud and pillar of fire, this story will strike home for us, as we grasp the story behind the story. For this story, God’s promise is not just history. It is the incredible blessing the Samaritan woman would learn at the well. It is the incredible love Paul writes about to the church in Rome. The lesson that we know! That we are beginning to grasp; that we can rely upon. When it is not parched tougues and throats that cry for refreshment, but our hearts, and our minds, and they find it!
For we, like the people of old, walk and are led by a God who is willing to take a stand for His people.
Places of Despair
We would grumble too!
Our Leaders would be.. stressed!
Would either cry out to God
The question – Is God among us, or not?
As Israel leaves the wilderness around Sin-ai, they begin a journey towards the promised land. At Sinai they celebrated their being rescued from the slavery in Eqypt in the presence of God who called them into His presence to make them His people. At Sinai they saw miracles, they celebrated with God, they learned to worship and they learned that God would forgive their sin. It was time to move out – to go to the land promised to their fore-fathers by God, some 450 years prior.
They are so numerous, this band of pilgrims called Israel, the people of God, that they have to move out in sections. They head to this place – called Rephidim, a dry and barren oasis. If we translate the name of this desert way station, it means the “place of losing heart” or “the place of being let down”.
Such was the place where they first stopped on the journey from the Mount. There was not any water, never mind enough. After journeying for a while, eating the dust of those who go before, the first rest area has no water for drinking. For that matter, there are no bushes, no chemical toilets, or other places for sanitation! Just dirt and more dirt and some rocks.
No wonder the people ambush Moses with their complaints, no wonder the mothers and fathers, watching their children thirst, hearing the complaints. Moses may not know how God is going to work, but even knowing that God will provide doesn’t provide relief from the stress causing mob he thinks will surely kill him. The cries and accusations that it is Moses fault that they will die resonate in his ears, Moses will cry out, but not mercy, but in despair.
The question we see at the end of the reading is what haunts them, “ Is the Lord among us…. Or not?”
The reason I brought up Sinai, was to remind us that these people are unbelievers, they are not ignorant of God, nor of His love and His work in their lives. Because of Him, they have left heartbreaking work in Eqypt. Because of His love, they walked through the Red Sea that would drown the army that chased them. They were saved by God… and yet, they seem to reach this point of despair, this breaking point.
They ask what we would, perhaps what we have when our lives are likewise breaking.
God, are you with us, or NOT?
God makes His stand…
The rock
The Strike
Christ struck? And again
God made His stand
In the barren desert in this place where there is nothing to provide refreshment they receive their answer. They would have God prove Himself, and while they should have known that He would, that is what their cries are about. Their complaints ignore that which they should know. God is faithful. Completely faithful.
The English translations don’t bring it out well, but when God tells Moses that He will stand before Moses on the rock, he isn’t talking about physically locating Himself there. He is talking about making His stand, about not backing down before the complaints, as much as passing this test, assuring the people doubting and complaining.
You don’t know I am here Israel? You doubt I will provide? Here is your proof that I am Your God, that You are My people. Moses, hit the rock, this rock that offends, and see that in striking it I will provide the water of life. Witness people of Israel, elders of the people, God loves and cares for you!
And the rock pours out more water than we can ever comprehend! Enough to quench 2.3 million people, their livestock, and God provides. Would that we all could have such faith, that wouldn’t require us to question God’s plan, that would simply accept that He would provide! Even the leaders needed to find refreshment!
In our world today, we might not always be so desperately craving refreshment, yet we need refreshment, we need rest from a world, from lives that are so effected a world devastated by sin and its consequences, from natural disasters, from just the fact that everything gets older and fades, if not breaks.
We complain, we challenge our leaders, waiting to ambush them with blame, because there are times we look for hope, or answers that will refresh us. What we really struggle with? The question the people there dealt with – God, are You really here with us?
The answer is the same as when the rock was struck, and outpoured the answer. God made His stand… Here is how St Paul explained it.
1 Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. 2 They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. 3 They all ate 4 and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God's fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. 5 But just experiencing God's wonder and grace didn't seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased. 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 (MSG)
The lesson learned the hard way in the desert was that they needed to look to God, knowing His love would never allow Him to desert them. Of course He would provide His refreshment to them – that they were HIS PEOPLE. The temptation is too think that for a moment, or a season, God would walk away – and He never will. It is impossible for Him to do so.
Paul says the rock struck was Christ – even as He would be struck as he walked as one who was fully man, fully God. That time, it would just not be a rock where he would make His stand, where he would prove that He was our God, and that He loved us, His people. It would be at the cross, and we would strike God so hard, and yet, as His blood would pour forth, it would pour out something more refreshing, more life giving than water….
His blood would wash away all that takes life that diminishes it, the sin, the guilt, the shame, the resentment, the hatred, the fear, the pain. All wiped away with the power of tsunami. Instead of death and destruction, the flood waters of baptism leave us more alive, knowing the abundance of His love, of His work in our lives. That is what the lady in the gospel needed, and it radically changed her life. She would go from the one who was the object of gossip, to the one who would bring an entire town of people who mocked her to know God’s love.
God has taken His stand - not against those in need - but to show us His love! He is our Rock – but that rock is there to prove His love, His grace, that He is our God, and that nothing can separate us from Him. He took the hit, in the desert, at the cross. Every prayer was answered there.
Would that instead of complain, we simply look to Him, and cry out, Lord have mercy, Lord Love us….and rest assured, He does.
Let us, as we look to the fact we are the baptized, we are His communion, find rest and refreshment knowing His love, for we are His people, cleansed, fed, refreshed, nourished, loved…
Knowing that, we live at peace…. Peace that passes all comprehension, peace that fills our hearts and minds, guarded and kept by Christ Jesus… Our Lord, our Savior, Our Rock, our Refreshment…
AMEN?
