Exodus 16:2-21 & Psalm 105: 1-6, 37-45
I love a really good roller coaster. The exception to that is the great Wall Street roller coaster. For those who keep up with that sort of thing, we have been on quite a ride this week! My husband and I (after reading Monday morning’s disastrous headlines) sold all of our stocks, cashed in our 401k’s, and liquefied all of our assets. Now we’re keeping every red cent with us at all times. (Pull out coin jar.) Ok, I’m teasing you. This is just the jar for our spare change. We muse about this being our college savings plan for our 1.5-year-old son, Jake. At this rate he’ll be able to go to college when he’s 72. I’m curious: how many of you have a jar or a bowl or something at your house holding your spare change?
The fact is, if you have money in the bank, in your wallet, spare change in a drawer, a pocket or somewhere you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest people.[1] In other words, 6.2 billion children of God aren’t fortunate enough to have spare change, yet we (at least I) grumble and fret every time the market takes a dip.
Aren’t we just like the children of Israel wandering in the desert?
Moses led them out of slavery in Egypt and God performed miracles all along the way like sending plagues against Pharaoh and parting the Red Sea. But in the scripture we hear them whining that they’d rather have full bellies and be oppressed than to have empty bellies and live in freedom. At the first sign of trouble they were ready to cash in their freedom for a measly pot of soup.
So they grumbled. This grumbling was not simply an isolated complaint; rather it was a kind of negativity that oozed through the community and casted a dark cloud over the entire wilderness adventure. But our patient Lord did not get angry with the nation of whiners. Instead God said, “I will rain bread from heaven.” So every day God provided manna for them to eat. They had all the manna they needed for each day. For 40 years they ate manna. For breakfast, they had manna over easy, for lunch they would throw together manna sandwich, at cocktail hour . . . mannatinis.
In the next part of the Biblical account, Moses instructed the people to gather just enough manna for the day, and he told them not to save any manna until the next day. As always, some renegades rebelled and kept some of the manna for the next day. Those folks received another wonderful gift: manna maggots. The manna spoiled overnight, so that each family could only collect enough manna for the day. This daily practice was an incredible exercise in trusting God. They could not save for their future, and when they tried, worms ate holes in their 401k’s. They had no choice but to trust God would provide manna for tomorrow.
This summer my husband and I enjoyed taking our son, Jake, to the pool. Still too little to really learn to swim, we would take him into the pool with us to get him used to the water. He enjoyed splashing and riding in his little float. One day when we were there I watched as my husband played with Jake. He would set Jake on the side of the pool, and then he’d hold his arms out and tell Jake to jump. At first, Jake wanted nothing to do with this game. He would cry a little and fuss, so my husband would hold his hands and gently pull him in, and of course he’d catch the little guy every time. Then he’d start the game all over again. Each time, Jake became less resistant to the idea of jumping in. He learned that his daddy would catch him. By the end of the summer Jake loved jumping into his daddy’s arms unassisted, squealing with joy each time.
If only it were that easy for us. We’ve lived entire lives experiencing God’s provision. Certainly we’ve faced difficulty just like the Israelites did as they wandered in the desert. Yet here we are, and in this moment, at least, we’re OK. Yet when we worry, we’re like Jake at the beginning of the summer when he didn’t trust his daddy to catch him. We’re like the Israelites who didn’t trust God to provide manna tomorrow so they hoarded it. Trust in God is appreciating God’s daily provision. Trusting in God is being thankful for what we have in this moment. When we worry about tomorrow, we are essentially saying to God, “I don’t trust you.”
There’s a story about a British executive, Arthur Rank, who decided to do every bit of his worrying on one day each week. He chose Wednesdays. When anything happened that gave him anxiety and annoyed his ulcer, he would write it down and put it in his worry box and forget about it until next Wednesday. The interesting thing was that on the following Wednesday when he opened his worry box, he found that most of the things that had disturbed him the past six days were already settled. It would have been useless to have worried about them.
Each Sunday we come together and recite the Lord’s Prayer. We say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” DAILY bread. Not bread for tomorrow, not bread for 10 years from now. DAILY bread. “Grant what we need for today, Lord. Tomorrow is in your hands.” To me, that’s a powerful way to understand the prayer Jesus taught.
Yet the simple fact that you and I have food in our refrigerators makes it difficult to understand this prayer for what it meant to the people who first heard it. People who had no annuity, no savings, no refrigerators. Like 75% of the people in today’s world[2] Jesus’ hearers more often than not had no idea where their next meal would come from. Their very lives insisted that they trust God for God’s provision in the morrow.
For those of us who can’t remember the last time we missed a meal because we could not afford to eat, one theologian[3] suggests that the only way to pray the Lord’s Prayer with authenticity is to identify with the poor . . . to think of the 5 billion people living today who are food insecure.
I was in a meeting this week and heard a gentleman speak who has his Ph.D. in missiology,[4] the study of religious missions and missionaries. He said that the church is undergoing a seismic shift in how we understand missions. Generations past have understood the role of the church in missions to be sending money and supporting missionaries through prayer, etc. Churches are moving toward understanding their job as being integrally involved in God’s plan. From asking, “How can we support the missionaries in Botswana” to “how can we reduce poverty?” Individuals are asking, “How can I reduce poverty?”
Maybe we’re finally getting it!
Once we get over fretting over our own tomorrows, we can get down to the real work Christ calls us to . . . caring about the world in need. When I stop and think about it, I’ve got everything I need for today. For that matter, I even have a little extra (show coin jar). If I place tomorrow in God’s hands, I can get busy doing God’s work for his children who might not have what they need for today.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched as our political candidates engaged in a forum about community and global service. I was inspired by both of them in various ways. I started thinking about my own community, Tellico Village, and started imagining what it would be like if our entire village, starting right here at this church, began to engage more fully in the world around us.
I started thinking about the many ways people are already involved, like volunteering at local hospitals and non-profits. I started thinking about how lots of folks are active in various civic groups that give money for scholarships and cures and causes of all kinds. I thought about how our own church sponsored and built a habitat house. But then I thought, “But there’s still so much more to do!” I discovered that roughly 5,000 people in Loudon County live in poverty, many of them children.[5] “What if our church caught the vision to reduce poverty in Loudon County?” I began to wonder. “What if every member of our church took this vision to heart, responding on an individual level to reduce local poverty?”
When we set aside worrying that God will provide for our future, our energy can be directed to asking these kinds of questions. When more of us start asking these kinds of questions, we will change the world.
So go and trust God for your tomorrow. And after that ask God what role you are to play in somebody else’s tomorrow.
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