Proper 21A Alt 1st Reading
Exodus 17:1-7
Levi Jones
The road to freedom is not always a direct route. Sometimes the wilderness journey is required. The Israelites are wandering from place to place. It is a circuitous journey moving from the realm of bondage under Pharaoh toward God’s promised future. The song of deliverance has faded; the groan of dismay and doubt has risen. The one thing God’s people didn’t imagine the journey toward freedom being? Difficult.
Wandering through the desert is hard. It is especially hard when you don’t have water and you don’t know where to find it. God’s people are worn out, dehydrated, and stuck in a place that doesn’t promise to change their situation. Their prior condition under Egyptian bondage appears preferable to their current predicament. They ask Moses accusingly, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Are you trying to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst” (v. 3)? Surely God didn’t free them only to deliver them unto death. If that’s true, then it’s obvious Moses either made a wrong turn or is an incompetent leader.
Moses is also in a tough place. The wilderness journey has been a test for his leadership and his trust in God’s direction. Who doesn’t question their decisions when it seems like the community under their care is now in a bad spot? Moses asks God in desperate exasperation: “What should I do with these people? They are ready to stone me” (v. 4)! Not only is Moses’ leadership under scrutiny, but he feels like his life is on the line.
Maybe Moses was considering a vocational shift or a geographical relocation to another calling. Life with this flock has become vindictive and vicious. But, God does not release Moses from this people. Instead, God calls Moses to stand before the people again. Moses is to go to the rock with his staff and strike it so that water will flow from the rock. Then, the people’s thirst will be quenched. So, Moses stood before the people and did as commanded. The people’s thirst was satisfied by the water from the rock. It was yet another amazing act of deliverance and provision by God. Moses named that place “test” (Massah) and “arguing” (Meribah) because the people asked, “Is the Lord here with us or not” (v. 7)?
We have all been to the crossroad of “testing” and “arguing.” We are often primed to believe that the journey with God will not require a wilderness detour. Pastors and congregations are given visions of success that do not resemble a cross. We imagine the path out of Egypt will be more like “green pastures” than the “valley of the shadow of death.” Like God’s Exodus people, we sometimes find ourselves in the desert at the end of our resources and wondering if it all was worth it. We didn’t sign up for this!
In those moments of despair, we have a tendency to point the finger of blame at one another. It has to be somebody’s fault that we’re in this mess! We lay the blame at each other’s feet and complain about no longer living in the “glory” days of Egypt. A return to Egypt seems much more promising than the opaque promise of God’s future. After all, we didn’t come all this way just to die. And EVERYBODY knows that you can’t get water from a rock!
If Moses had formed a committee to assess their situation, the committee would have returned with a simple verdict: We’re dead. There is no possibility of life here. There is too much conflict between pastor and congregation. There is no hope for the future. There are no resources to continue on our journey. This place is a dead-end place with no potential. If that committee had their way, the group would have headed back for Egypt and the easy way out of the desert.
God, however, tells Moses to stand before the people and to strike the rock. God’s presence will be there before Moses and life-giving water will flow out of the most unlikely place, the rock. God is not deterred by an impossible predicament for God’s people. Where the people’s resources and power meet their limit, God’s capacity to make a new way emerges. When a community has begun to self-destruct, to argue, to fight, to create conflict, it is difficult to imagine that God can bring water from that rock. When denominations are torn by internal strife, we find it difficult to believe that God can bring water from that rock. When the culture around us threatens to swallow us up and we find ourselves bickering with our brothers and sisters about theology, politics, economics, and other vital issues, we may be pressed to find faith that God can bring water from the rock in our wilderness sojourn. But, rather than running from our dire situation and the ensuing conflict, we may find new hope to see these testing places as the very spots where God can bring living water from the not-so-promising rock of our limited imaginations.
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