Reflections on ”Where Have you Seen God…in our times of crises” Exodus 17:1-7; John 4: 5-42Lent 3

A strange day of worship as I preached to the camera doing our Livestream with a handful of musicians, our associate pastor, liturgist, sound and video persons, and a few others.  Like many churches, we had canceled public attendance at our worship service due to COVID-19 concerns.  

I laid out the preaching series a couple of months ago, not realizing that a sermon on seeing God in crises would be so timely!  In a busy week without a lot of focused preparation time, I read a really good article (referenced below) that helped quite a bit.  

The John passage (4:5-42) is the lectionary passage linked to the Exodus passage, although there was not a clear connection between the two, at least for me.  It is a wonderful passage, though, and would be worthy of several sermons. I would recommend reading it for some more thoughtful reflection.

”Where Have you Seen God…in our times of crises” March 15, 2020; Lent 3 St. Andrew, Denton; 

Exodus 17: 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. 2 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?” 3 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?” 4 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 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. 6 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. 7 He called the place Massah[a] and Meribah,[b] because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Introduction:  “Is the Lord among us or not?” 

That is the question the Israelites have as they find themselves in the wilderness facing a water crisis.

Wilderness for the Israelites was that place they did not want to be.  Being in the wilderness meant they were not home; they had not found their place; they were still wandering; still in transition;  still surrounded by the unknown.

Wilderness was a place of vulnerability.

Maybe you feel like you and all the world is in the wilderness at this moment.

Unsure of what the future will hold.  Easier to see obstacles and challenges than solutions and answers.

“Is the Lord among us?”   A wilderness question.

When we ask our Lenten question:  “Where do you see God?” it is another way of asking the wilderness question.

this morning, we reflect on where we might see God in the midst of crises.  No doubt, the current crisis we are in with the coronavirus is our immediate context, but we can might also consider other crises we have faced as we look for God in those moments.

move 1:  As we look for God in crises, we see God, the one who is calling us to step out in leadership.

a.  Look at Moses.

1.  “what shall I do with this people?” he wants to know.

2. I suspect he had a few ideas.

3.  Run away from them.

4. Tell them they are on their own.  he’s tired of their quarreling.

5. He’s tired of their blaming him when they are mad at  God.

6.  time to turn in his staff because they start throwing those rocks at him.

7. he’s done.

b.  but God has a different plan. 

1. God tells Moses to put himself out in front: “go on ahead of the people” (Exodus 17:5). The Hebrew verb is ‘br, “to cross over”, followed by the preposition liphnê, literally “to or before the face of”(http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3432;  Anathea Portier-Young; Associate Professor of Old Testament

Duke University Divinity School)

2.  Moses must cross in front of the people.

3.  He must risk stepping out and facing their anger and fear.

4.  he must move beyond his own fears and insecurities and lead the people.

b.  When we find ourselves in times of crisis, we often want to shrink from the moment.

1. let someone else step forward.

2. LEt someone else risk making the decision.

3. What if it goes wrong and they blame me?

4.  But there is God, calling us to step forward.

5. Most of us do not have the influence or the responsibility like President Trump and other elected leaders in our country have in this moment of crisis.

6. But we do have opportunities to lead and influence people who look to us in our social circles, neighborhoods, and work.  

7.  Look for the God who calls you to lead in this places.

c.  Why can Moses step forward in leadership?  Why can we step forward in leadership?

1. Because  God is present with us.

2. God tells Moses: “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb” (Exodus 17:6). 

3.  Moses does not take his risky step forward to lead God’s people alone - God is ever before him and present with him.

The God we see, who calls us to lead in the face of crises, is ever before us and present with us.

Move 2: Move 3:  We see God in the call to shared leadership.

a.  When God tells Moses to step forward, God also tells Moses to take some elders with him

1.  Moses is not in this alone.

2. Moses is not limited to only the ideas he can come up with or the resources that he alone has.

3.  Moses works with a leadership team.

b. Collectively, they have many more tools to use to guide and direct the Israelites during this crisis moment in the wilderness.

1.  The elders carry with them their experience and their history of having witnessed God’s saving action.

2.   The elders carry the trust and the hurt and the hopes of the people. 

3. The elders will join Moses in being present for God’s people.

4. Moses is not the solution himself - he needs to share the leadership (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3432;  Anathea Portier-Young; Associate Professor of Old Testament

Duke University Divinity School)

c.  As we face crises, we are not alone. 

1. We have God with us.

2. We have those people God sends to join us in leadership.

Look for God in those people.

Move 3: Look for God in the ordinary tools you already have.

a.  Notice that the water gushes out to wet the lips of the Israelites when Moses touches rocks with his staff.

1.  the staff he has used for most of his life.

2. He has corralled sheep with his staff.

3. he has protected sheep with his staff.

4.  He has leaned on it when tired; used it for sure footing when climbing.

5. In fact, he has already used his staff to part the Red Sea.

b.  The rocks.

1.  the wilderness has little edible food - remember, God had to provide manna a quail for the Israelites as they hungered in the wilderness.

2. There is not oasis with water for the people.

3. But there are plenty of rocks, part of the landscape.

c.  God has Moses use his staff to transform the ordinary rock into a spigot of life-saving water (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3432;  Anathea Portier-Young; Associate Professor of Old Testament

Duke University Divinity School)

1.  Ordinary things used by God for extraordinary results.

2.  God already has given you gifts.

3. As you face crises, look for the gifts and abilities God has already given you and put them to work.

4. We believe God equips us for the tasks to which God calls us.

5. When we face crises, look for the ways God has already equipped you and use those gifts.

Move 4:  A final thought,  look for God among the most vulnerable

a.  perhaps not explicit in the Exodus text.

1.  But like the Samaritan woman at the well, we live our lives knowing Jesus Christ.

2.  We know how the stories of what Jesus did and those about whom Jesus worried, how much Christ cared for those in need.

3.  We can expect that when we look for God in crises, we find God among the most vulnerable.

b.  As challenging as a crisis is for those of us who have resources. how much more challenging it must be for those with limited resources.

1.  Yesterday, at our closed church, Our Daily Bread still met to feed the hungry.  they had to modify how they served the people in an effort to reduce the potential for spreading germs, but still the hungry were being fed.

2. yesterday, at our closed church, the American Red Cross blood drive still took place in our Rec Center.   they had extra precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.  But, there is s dire need for blood right now.

So they were there.

3. As we modify the patterns of our daily lives and change how we interact communally, we must continually be on the lookout for how we can care the most vulnerable in our midst. 

4.  I suspect we will see God when we do.

Conclusion:  I recently ran across this poem about being in the wilderness:

I’m not the first.
That’s what I tell myself when I wake up in the wilderness—
Big sky, worried heart, wondering which way to start.
I have been here before.
We have been here before.
For as long as there has been creation,
There has been wilderness.

First it was an endless void,

Until God and God’s paintbrush painted the sky gold.

And then it was all that lies east of Eden,

Which is everywhere that our story unfolds. . . 

So where is God, you ask?
God is in the big sky and in my worried heart.
God is the sidewalk cracks where new life starts.
God is in the realization that I am not the first.
So may we take these limited days left
And remember that we’ve been here before—
God and I and this untamed world.
God and the Israelites and the gathered assembly.
God and the horizon and the new day beginning.

—Sarah Are {poem from our "Wilderness Poems," Wilderness Lent Bundle}

Crises will find us as we live our lives.   so too will God.