When the Manna Comes

Image Source

September 21, 2014

Exodus 16:2-15

²The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. ³The Israelites 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.”

⁴Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. ⁵On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.“ ⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, ⁷and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” ⁸And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him — what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.”

⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’” ¹⁰And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. ¹¹The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ¹²“I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘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.’”

¹³In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.”

Sermon:  “When the Manna Comes”

When least expected,

The manna

Comes.

Like a burst of lightning in a moonless desert night

Suddenly

Allowing you to see all at once in white

The deep ravines and gaping canyons,

The chiseled walls of protruding boulders,

The strangely sculptured statues of mesas,

The huge cliffs

Surrounding you.

When the manna comes,

You taste

(Instead of the dry rations of stale bread)

The most exquisite varieties of ice-cream

And chocolate-covered pastries

Filled with whipped-cream.

When the manna comes,

You drink

(Instead of a stingy, measured allowance of stagnant water)

Bottles and gallons of fruit juices,

From citrus to mango, from apricot to kiwi.

When the manna comes,

You smell

The fragrance of incense

Enwrapping and enveloping you,

Drifting down from the mountains of myrrh

And the hills of frankincense.

When the manna comes,

You see

A black raven perched on a leafless bush

Transform

Into a phoenix

Whose peacock-colored feathers dazzle,

Unscathed

By the halo of flames

Blazing around her.

When the manna comes,

You hear

The noise of traffic (honking horns, drivers’ curses, coughing buses) fade away;

Distant symphonies gradually grow louder and clearer

As chariots of ivory and translucent crystal draw near you,

Their wheels turning

Like gears inside a mother-of-pearl music-box,

Creating crescendos you never heard before:

The music of chariots driven by hosts of angels.

Or are these angels just notes of music:

Semibreves, crotchets, quavers

Somehow come alive.

And when the manna falls,

God's fingertips

Descend and gently

Touch you.

_________________________________

This poem by Yakov Azriel weaves magic out of the story of God raining down manna in the wilderness for the people of Israel to eat.

According to our text, the story is more grim than that, full of displaced refugees wandering in search of a home for themselves and their families.  In these 13 verses, we hear of their complaining 7 times.  It could definitely be seen as a theme.  But this is not just any complaining.

They’re not lamenting the lack of a good parking spot near the door.

They’re not grumbling about paying taxes, or a rude email, or a latte that wasn’t hot enough.

They’re life-and-death complaining, y’all.  They actually tell Moses they wish God had let them die in Egypt instead of making them endure such hardship.  I’m not sure if you’ve ever been in that sort of darkness, but if you or someone you love has, you know that there is one element to this sort of complaining, that makes it almost unbearable.  That element is hopelessness.

These wandering wilderness people felt utterly hopeless.  They couldn’t feed their children.  They couldn’t endure the heat of the sun one more day.  They couldn’t see any end to their struggle.  And so they did the only thing they could do: they complained.

And then a miracle happened – no, not the miracle of manna raining down to feed them—before that there was another miracle.  The miracle was, God heard their complaint.  And God answered them.  Not with words, not with comforting sayings, not with theological statements on suffering and endurance.  With food.

God responded by telling the people to gather together and listen.

“I’ve heard your complaints,” God said.

“And so every night, I’m going to bring you meat to eat, and every morning, you will have bread to eat.  Then, you will remember who I am.”

No, not words, not sayings or statements.  God gave them food, “manna”, the Hebrew word for “what is it?”.  And when their bellies were full, when their hopelessness was met with the extravagant grace of God, they were finally able to remember who God was. 

Who God is.  That God is the One who always hears our complaints.  That God is the one who provides the food we need, meat and bread, but even more than that, the food our souls most need: hope.

Yakov Azriel’s poem tries to get us to imagine what happens “when the manna comes.”  You taste, you see, you smell, you hear, you feel.  All of your senses are caught up in the undeniable reality of God with you.   The numbness of hopelessness gives way to the overwhelming sensation that God has heard your complaints, and God has answered.

I’m not nearly as good at poetry as Yakov Azriel is, but I’m going to try my hand at what I believe happens when the manna comes.

_________________________________

When the manna comes,

the unending monotony of

wilderness

becomes a pathway to something

new and surprising.

When the manna comes,

the frustrations of yesterday

and the worries of tomorrow

become small and fleeting in the face

of the eternal compassion of our

God.

When the manna comes,

what seemed so urgent to get done today

pales in comparison to the more urgent tasks of

loving, forgiving and reconciling.

When the manna comes,

not even death itself,

not even the deepest of darkness,

can damper the brilliance of God,

shining like a guiding moon in the night,

a light that never goes out.

When the manna comes,

tired bones and aching feet

feel their worth and

importance

and human made-in-God’s image-ness.

When the manna comes,

the church becomes not

a club for the comfortable

and not

a hiding place for the faithful

but a shelter

for the seekers

and a family

for the forgotten.

When the manna comes,

the children of God – all of us –

come, eat, drink and are

filled.

Because when the manna comes

God hears our deepest

complaints

the ones we don’t even dare utter to ourselves

of hopelessness

of weariness

of emptiness

of loss

of never being found

And having heard, God

sends

even more manna

tasting like our mother’s apple pie

smelling like the first cool whiff of Fall

sounding like the laughter of a child

looking like sun breaking through dark, troubled clouds

and feeling like the place from which it

came,

heaven.

The manna comes.

It always comes,

because God Is.

and God hears.

and God acts.

Thanks be to God!  Amen.