Exodus 17:1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin,
traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim,
but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to
drink." Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put
the LORD to the test?" 3
But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses.
They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our
children and livestock die of thirst?" 4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with
these people? They are almost ready to stone me." 5 The LORD answered Moses, "Go out in front of the people.
Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with
which you struck the Nile, and go. 6
I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water
will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the
sight of the elders of Israel. 7
And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and
because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"
This
week will be the last of our Old Testament sermon series based on the
"semi-continuous" readings option of the lectionary. Although the
readings continue on, we are devoting the four weeks of October for a
stewardship emphasis series.
Concerning
the above passage from Exodus 17, as usual, there's a LOT going on--some of
which is, by now, familiar to the reader. For instance, it can be mentioned all
over again that Liberation at the hand of God does not mean that the trials of
life will end...nor does it mean that the path to the Promised Land will be
easy.
For
instance, here in Chicagoland it's big news that Cardinal Francis George is
suffering from cancer and has recently resigned due to ill health. Just
yesterday I was at my dentist's office and couldn't help but overhear a
conversation about this. The gist was that it seemed strange to one of the persons
that a man who had dedicated his whole life to "his God"... hadn't
received some "consideration" in his hour of need. Point being, where's the miracle for Cardinal George?
Better yet, why did God even allow him to get cancer in the first place?
Questions like why did God allow ____
and why didn't God prevent ____ are
known as 'theodicy' questions. They're religious brain-teasers that wrestle
with vindicating God's essential goodness in the face of a prevalent evil. If God is all-good and all-powerful, then
why _____ is how the question goes. Philosophically there is no good answer
to the question; one is forced either to live with mystery or adopt a
philosophy of random meaninglessness without a God.
Regardless,
for the Israelites, 'Liberation' has meant a series of unexpected problems:
being trapped between the sea and Pharaoh's army in chapter 14; having no
drinkable water in chapter 15 (the bitter waters at 'Marah' were miraculously
sweetened after the Israelites murmured); having nothing to eat in chapter 16;
and now, again, having nothing to drink in chapter 17. The cynic might well
ask, with a liberation like this, who would want to leave slavery? And as the
reader well knows, the Israelites basically express this thought repeatedly. It
takes FAITH to see that the destination is worth the trip; it takes FAITH to
see that the process is better than
the status quo of bondage; it takes FAITH to see and remember the mighty acts of God along the way (surely the God who
rained bread from heaven can handle the water problem); and the problem with
FAITH is that it needs to be exercised in
order to grow... and exercise usually hurts.
There
are several specific points of interest about this week's reading. From vs 1 we
note that camping at water-less Rephidim was no accident. It says: traveling
from place to place as the LORD commanded. In other words, what often seems
random and pointless in human terms at ground level, hasn't taken God by
surprise at all. NOT that this detail changes the basic human need; it's still
hot and they're still thirsty, but God *knows the problem.
Vs
2 amounts to an interesting development. In the Exodus story it is a first. The
people had 'murmured/grumbled' before (and indeed do so in vs 3), but now it
says: they quarreled with Moses. The
Hebrew word is riyb, meaning, to
strive; quarrel; contend with. This was getting PHYSICAL. It was a near mutiny.
No wonder Moses is in fear for his life (vs 5 they are almost ready to stone me). In other words, the sequence of
events that require God's
intervention and that require waiting
on the Lord, rather than building faith, seems to be leading to more desperate
action on the part of the people. This illustrates the difficulty of
faith-building in difficult times.
In
vs4 Moses sets the example by crying out
to the Lord. Was this his first prayer? Was it anyone's first prayer? The
narrator doesn't tell us. All he tells us is that finally at the point of total desperation, God acts. Noted, there
is an undeniable frustration when God's action is needed most in our lives and
all we can do is wait. It is as though God wants to be sure that we know that every other POSSIBLE
human alternative has been exhausted; there are no other options; there is no
'good luck' waiting to happen; there is only death or divine intervention.
Vs5
amounts to another great citation for any discussion of sacramental theology.
God tells Moses: take in your hand the
staff with which you struck the Nile. Why? If God is going to work a
miracle, why does he 'need' something as mundane as this staff? Surely he can
just speak the word; surely he can just think the thought. Yet over and over
again the Bible presents just the opposite happening; God interacts at our level with mundane, ordinary,
every-day things like a wooden staff, water, bread, wine, etc. In the famous
Protestant debates of the Reformation, Zwingli had argued against Luther's
sacramental view of Holy Communion and Baptism, saying the Holy Spirit needs no vehicle. Meaning, the Holy Spirit need not
be chained like an ox to a cart to things like water, bread and wine. To this
day, most of Protestants agree with Zwingli, and see the Lord's Supper and
Baptism as important, but empty
rituals (Lutherans, on the other hand are often seen as "too catholic"
on these matters). At a certain level, Zwingli is correct. The Holy Spirit doesn't need these things. God is God.
But you and I are not. The Spirit may not need these things, but we do. Zwingli
was right, but he missed the point entirely. It's not a matter of what God needs, it's a matter of what God has
graciously condescended to use on our behalf. God did not need the wooden staff
Moses carried. But perhaps Moses needed the reassurance that he held in his own
hands a physical, albeit mystical, connection to the God of the universe. And
so once again, how can we miss the sacramental connection as every Sunday in
Holy Communion we hold in our hands a physical, albeit mystical, connection to
the God of the universe?
Vs6
will be very climactic for any Christian familiar with his/her Bible. Strike the rock, and water will come out of
it for the people to drink. Strike the rock; water will come out; dying
people will receive life. St. Paul makes a startling statement in 1Corinthians
10:3-4 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the
spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. In
the suffering servant passages from Isaiah chp. 53, most often read in
Lent/Holy Week, we read: 3 He was
despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore
our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him,
and afflicted. 5 But he was
pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. And
finally, John 19:34 at the death of Christ: one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there
came out blood and water.
There is, of course, a biological significance to Jn 19:34
pointing to the full humanity of Jesus; but the ancient Church has always seen
something more in terms of the
significance of the mention of water gushing
forth from the side of the crucified Lord. Water gives LIFE. All those
years ago in the dessert something very unexpected happened. A rock was struck
and water gushed out, giving life. That's not normal; it goes against our
expectation. Usually striking a rock with a wooden staff means a broken staff
and perhaps a sore hand. On Calvary's cross something also happened that defies
logic and our expectations. God in the flesh DIED. God in the flesh allowed
humanity to strike him, and humanity didn't
suffer as a result. When the Greeks (and others) told stories about 'the
gods' interacting with humanity, woe betide the person who strikes against the
god(s). Not so in terms of the one true God. He takes on flesh & blood; he
allows himself to suffer and die at the hands of humanity; and what happens?
Just as in Exodus 17, but now on an eternal and cosmic level, water gushes
forth; and that water GIVES LIFE.
Cheers,
T.M.
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