What is it?

Exodus 16:2-15

John 6:24-35

I never seem to recognize God- at least not right in the moment.  I often miss God’s answer to my prayers, or God’s presence or a gift God wants to bring because I am looking for something else.  I know I am not alone.  I heard the story of a local fisherman caught in a flash flood.  He was a man of deep faith and he had little doubt that his love of God would bring him safely to where he needed to be.  He had no warning at all when the waters began to enter the lower windows of his house. He quickly crawled to the top of his roof and began to pray with all his might. “Dear God, you know when I am in trouble and when danger is near me, but I know you will rescue me in my time of need.” The man stood and waited for God to save him.  Soon after he finished his prayer, a teenager on a fallen tree came by the house and said, “Hey mister climb on, there is room for two of us.”  The man smiled and said with pride, “No need son, God is going to save me.”  “Whatever,” said the teenager as he paddled off.  Not long after, a motorboat came pulling up with the sheriff, “I heard there was someone trapped up here, get in sir and I’ll take you to safety.”  “No need officer, my God is going to save me!” the man retorted.  The sheriff looked at him crosswise and said, “You are a fool, but I can’t waste any time, I have other people to save!” And with that he motored off.  Finally a helicopter hovered overhead and dropped a rope. The man waved it off yelling in a most holy manner. “No, I am okay. God is going to save me.”  The helicopter left and a little while later the floodwaters crested the man’s roof and he was swept away and he drowned.  When the man made it to heaven, he stormed up to God huffing and puffing indignantly, “God, you have never let me down, why didn’t you save me?” God gave the man a puzzled look and said “What do you mean?  I sent a tree, a boat and helicopter, what more did you want me to do?”

I never seem to recognize God at least not right in the moment.  I often miss God’s answer to my prayers, or God’s presence or a gift God wants to bring because I am looking for something else.  It is so much easier when a prayer is answered like a catalogue order arriving neatly packaged on the front porch in just the form I expected.  It is easy when things go as planned and life is good even if just for a moment.  It is easy when there is no need for surrender at all because our tiny ordered worlds remain in tact.  It is easy to see that it is God- that is until the world demands that we wait and we find ourselves in the wilderness. 

You remember that when the Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt, a deliverance which they believed was an answer directly from the hand of God, they ended up in the wilderness.  They were off on a long desert march only to run out of bread and discover that they had no instructions, no compass and the two brothers, Moses and Aaron, who were called by God to guide them, had yet to solidify their authority and skills as newly forming leaders.  The Israelites wanted to move ahead, to leave their past behind, but they weren’t sure they trusted whom God had brought to guide them.  It is easy to see that it is God- that is until the world demands that we wait and we find ourselves in the wilderness. 

I found myself in what felt like a wilderness time, two years ago yesterday, when I began my time here as your pastor.  I remember with clarity the difficulty of the months that followed.   And while I believed that I was called here and that God would equip each of us with what we needed to follow faithfully, it felt as if we had agreed to embark on a long desert march only to be faced with a significant deficit, small worship attendance, no instructions, no compass and some among us who believed that even if the new pastor was called by God, she had yet to solidify her authority and skills as a newly forming leader.  The congregation wanted to move ahead, to leave your past behind, but not everyone was sure you trusted whom God had brought to guide you.  It is easy to see that it is God- that is until the world demands that we wait and we find ourselves in the wilderness. 

Wandering in the wilderness, the Israelites remembered the pain of their past and knew profoundly the ache that was behind them.  But now, all they had in front of them were questions, fear and hungry stomachs.  When they were bound by the burden of oppression and captivity, faith held them up, but when they found themselves on the other side, they struggled.  We read that “The whole congregation…complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness…and said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

And you all wandered in a wilderness like this too.  Like the Israelites, you remembered the pain of your past and knew profoundly the ache that was behind you.  But even on the other side, all that you had in front of you were questions, fear and maybe not hungry stomachs, but hungry hearts.  Some among us even wondered whether God had led us into the wilderness mistakenly, only to make us wait.

In response to the cries of the Israelites and knowing how far they had come, God tells them that they will soon have what they need, “I have heard your complaining”…God says, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.”  And so they waited.  They waited for God to respond.

They probably had dreams of a banquet table or the kind of feast known to have occurred on high holy days.  And the next morning when they awoke, they emerged from their tents to find a layer of dew around the camp.  And when the dew lifted, there was a fine flaky substance, like nothing they had ever seen before.  We might expect to read that they all broke out into dancing and singing, loud circles of praise around the camp, throngs of men dropping to their knees in praise, but instead the Israelites race to Moses and ask, “What the heck is this?”  “What is it?”  This is not the feast for which we have waited and yearned and prayed.  The Israelites having come so far and wandered for so long looked to Moses to ask, “What is it?”  They didn’t seem to recognize that it was indeed God’s answer to their prayers.  They missed God’s presence and the gift God wanted to bring because they were looking for something else.

And I fear that you all have done the same. It seems that in your wilderness time, you waited for God to respond and God did, but many of you have missed it entirely.  You have missed God’s answer to your prayers.  You have missed God’s presence and the gift God wanted to bring because like the Israelites you were looking for something else, so you missed how God responded. 

In the past months, there have been newspaper articles, blog posts and TV spots all celebrating that I have transformed this place, that I have made this church something special, but that is not so.  Like the Israelites, you have spent some time in the wilderness and God now has covered you with manna.  But the difference is that I am not Aaron or Moses, I am not the answer to your prayers, I am not the gift God has given to you, I was not what you were waiting for…you are.  You are the answer to your prayers.  Each and every miracle that has happened in this place has happened not because of me, because you have let God use you.  Perhaps I have given you permission to remember what you already knew, but it was your openness that made creative worship possible, Monday yoga, pancake breakfasts, children’s choir, confirmation and youth group, Vacation Bible School, a growing church school, young adult fellowship, men’s breakfast, a revamped CraftFest, our first Pastoral Intern and beginning steps to implementing the new framework for ministry.  God has covered you with manna and it isn’t because of me.

I understand that many of you have connected these things with my presence, but if you think that what has happened here in the past two years is because of me then I have failed as your pastor.  The Christian church, this church, is not about who leads you, but whether you let God use you, whether you are willing to see God’s answer to your prayers when it arrives- even when the answer is within your very being.  Each of you has the gifts you need to follow the God we know in Jesus Christ.  Each of you has the spirit of God burning so brightly within you that you can live the life God has in mind for you. 

The next time someone asks “What is it?”  What is it about this church?  What has happened here?  Why has manna rained down on this place?  I hope you get it right.  I hope that next time you don’t miss God’s response because you are waiting for more young people or more money or a better space or for a pastor to remind you what you already know.  I hope you see that God’s answer to your prayers has been with you all along.  Indeed God has showered you with manna but not because of me, you are the answer to your prayers.  Amen.