Hebrew Testament Text for 3rd Sunday in Lent, 15 March 2020

Exodus 17:1-7        From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Reflection        Is the Lord among us or not? As it was with our ancient Israelite ancestors, this seems to be the default question when we find ourselves wandering in the wilderness of Sin, when life tosses us a curve ball, or a coronavirus.

How do we proceed from COVID-19 to hope? How do we ride out a roller coaster stock market? How do we face armed guards in Walmart doling out toilet paper? How do we submit to social distancing? How do we brave the grave uncertainties of our time without succumbing to fear? In short, how do we endure?

Let me suggest, in this time of great unsettlement,  moment to moment we must choose in which direction we will walk.  Like Jesus, do we turn our face to Jerusalem, consent to our suffering and put our faith in God with us declaring, “Not what I want but what you want?” Or do we join the ancient people of God in the wilderness of Sin, anxious and testy, quarreling among ourselves, looking for someone to blame? 

Decades ago during a retreat with the late Thomas Keating, the Cistercian monk responsible for bringing the practice of Centering Prayer out of hallowed  monastery halls to the general public, I asked Keating about suffering. This gangly six foot six inch tall man threw back his awkward arms and exclaimed with the glee of a giggling two year old, “Welcome, welcome, welcome!” Keating taught, it is in welcoming our suffering that it is redeemed. **

We find the crowning example of welcoming or consenting to suffering on the night that Jesus shared his final Passover meal with the disciples. After supper Jesus took Peter, James and John with him to a place called Gethsemane, “Then he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.’” (Matt 26.38-39)

Many of us are “deeply grieved, even to death.” Anxiety pumps our blood and our imagination finds no place to rest. We want to throw ourselves onto the ground and plead, “O God, make this stop! I don’t want coronavirus. I don’t want my loved ones to contract COVID-19.” Of course we do not. But are we willing to stay with Jesus face down in the dirt?  Are we willing to go the next step and submit (which by the way, means endure) are we willing to consent with Jesus, “yet not what I want but what you want?”  

Ours is not a religion that promises if we follow the rules and do everything right, check all the boxes, pay our pledge and say the right prayers, nothing bad will happen to us. Frankly, that is magical thinking. Ours is a religion that asserts, bad things are likely to happen even to good people but do not be afraid because God is with us, right in the midst of our suffering. Knowing God is with us gives us the strength and courage to endure. And the place in which we are most likely to meet God is face down in the dirt when we surrender saying, “Not what I want but what you want.” Or in Thomas Keating’s words, “Welcome, welcome, welcome.”

Covid-19 is spreading. As of March 11th there are nine cases in Arizona. Mindful measures to stop its spread have cost many their hourly wages, have kept elders confined, students out of school and parents out of work. We are anxious, deeply grieved and must choose. Do we turn our face to Jerusalem, put our faith in God with us saying, “Not what I want but what you want?” or do we join the ancient people of God in the wilderness of Sin, anxious and testy, quarreling among ourselves, looking for someone to blame? 

** To learn more about Welcoming Prayer, a method of consenting to God’s presence and action in our lives,  click on

https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/welcoming-prayer

If you found this post to be meaningful please share by clicking on icons below. Thank you.

Hebrew Testament Text for Sunday 1 October 2017

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Reflection        A bit of wisdom that appears to be lost on many of us is, “From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages.” To be clear, the literal interpretation of “the wilderness of Sin" refers to a geographic area near Mt. Sinai, not to a person or persons’ sinfulness/behavior. The wilderness of Sin is the place where the Israelites wander, trying to find their way, struggling to grow into right relationship with themselves, each other and God.

When I imagine this scene I see images of women, men and children on their journey with God, stumbling along through times of celebration for their freedom from slavery as well as times complaining of lack of water or food, experiencing blessing and loss, triumph and defeat, hope and despair, faith and fear. I see them loving their leaders and hating their leaders.  I see them looking back at the way life used to be and looking ahead to how life could be. I see life as described in the Hebrew Testament as well as in our local and national news today. Little seems to change.

We are a people who “journey by stages” even though we tend to forget that point. We do not leap into a happily ever after life. We do not all walk at the same pace nor do we all start with an equal hand. Nonetheless, we, the “whole congregation” are all on this journey through the wilderness that we call life. And like it or not, we are on this journey together. The turmoil of our current social political religious environment has divided families, communities and our nation. Like our quarreling ancestors we regress to our lesser, self-interested, selfish selves (narcissistic, nihilistic, individualistic) rather than grow in our understanding that we are not all equal, we are not all the same, every single one of us deserves dignity and a decent life (wholisitic) and there is no happily ever after life ( a hold-over ideal from our fantastical childhood).

Response to the election of Donald Trump has evoked foment among supporters as well as opposers.  Across the board people are suffering as they cling to their particular position of what is right and foster their need to win. The fact of the matter is, for as long as we wage a win or lose culture war, eventually everyone loses. 

And here we return to the wisdom of the Hebrew Testament, “we journey by stages.” As the contemporary philosopher Ken Wilbur* explicates and I summarize, much as a child first learns to make a sound, then a word, then a sentence, and much as each developmental stage “transcends and includes the former stage” (e.g. the capacity to make a sentence includes the ability to make sounds) so too proceeds the social, emotional and spiritual development of each person. As we proceed on our developmental journeys in the “wilderness of Sin” a fatal flaw festers when we deny, degrade or denigrate people expressing attitudes and beliefs of a former stage of development. In other words, vying to win and prove ourselves right inevitably discounts others and is less than helpful.  

Wilbur argues, people in the leading edge must seek, “out the most appropriate, most complex, most inclusive, and most conscious forms that are possible at that particular time and point of evolution, pointing to new, novel, creative, and adaptive areas for the future to unfold into.” 

The narrow win or lose perspective pits one side against the other. A more expansive view is humble, acknowledging we are all in this wilderness together. The question is not who is right or who will win, the question is, “How do we include everyone in the conversation while seeking the common good?”  or “How best can we stumble by stages through this wilderness of life?” Or perhaps we ought to borrow Moses’ humble cries, “What shall we do, O Lord?” and then deeply listen.

If you found this post meaningful, please share by clicking on icons below. Thank you. 

*  Wilbur, Ken.  Trump and a Post-Truth World. (2017: Shambala Publications, Boulder, CO).