God provides what we need for this day to quench our thirst and sustain us on our journey.

Vicar Andrea Bonneville
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 26 A
Texts: Exodus 17: 1-7

Beloved in Christ, grace to you and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The people of God are thirsty.

Days and nights on this wilderness journey. Days blending together. Losing track of time. Forgetting the past. Wanting to turn back time. Frustrated. Uncertain. Powerless. Angry. Anxious. Afraid. And thirsty.

Thirst so consuming that the Israelites suggest turning back to Egypt, saying to Moses, “why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”

Thirst so consuming that they forget about the oppressive system they were living under. Can you blame them? At least in Egypt there was water… even if it was toxic water.

Thirst so consuming that they quarrel with God saying, “is God really among us or not?”

Thirst so consuming they are questioning if they are going to be able to survive to sustain their community during this journey. Wondering if the next generations will have a future where they can thrive.

I don’t know about you. But I am thirsty. And really, it wasn’t until reading and meditating on this story of the people of Israel that I realized I am thirsty all of the time.

Are you thirsty?

Thirsty from all that is happening around the world that is dehydrating our souls?

Creation is crying out as we witness to the effects of climate change. The U.S. has now reached over 200,000 deaths caused by COVID-19 and this virus continues to threaten our lives and our communities. The election is just weeks away. And there is still no justice for Breonna Taylor and George Floyd among countless others.

This is just to name a few major things on a societal level. Recognizing that there is still so much happening in our personal lives and in this community.

Author and Professor Kate Bowler wrote this week, “Lord, we are moving through time no longer believing it is taking us to somewhere good. Mark our Paths. Lead us now.”

Let me say that again. Bowler quarrels with God, “we are moving through time no longer believing it is taking us to somewhere good. Mark our Paths. Lead us now.”

In times like these we thirst with the Israelites asking God, “are you with us or not?”

When the Israelites begin to set up camp at Rephidim, they know that it is not the place where God is leading them. In order to settle in a new place, there needs to be a good source of water. If there isn’t flowing water, they know they have not reached the promised land.

No water = no life.

Their feet are blistered. Their backs aching from carrying their whole lives on their shoulders. Watching as members of the community, especially their children, their elders, and their livestock, suffer.

They stop to rest for the evening and set up camp. But they know they won’t be staying there long. What’s the point of getting comfortable if there is no water?

Even the journey can be deceiving. They possibly can hear the running water as they lay awake at night, but the water is nowhere in sight. They know it has to exist, but they don’t know what it will taste like.

Last week, we listened as we heard that these people were provided with an abundance of manna and quail. Maybe once they had food, they thought they were one step closer. An appetizer to what will be a full course meal of milk and honey.

A promised land so wonderful that the whole community could thrive.

But they are not there yet.

And the people of God are afraid.

They fear that they may not live to see another day let alone make it to the promised land.

We hear this fear in Moses as he cries to God, “what shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” Moses is representing his fear and the fear of the people.

God in return tells 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.” So Moses struck the rock in sight of the Elders of Israel.

Water comes out of the rock so that the people may drink. The source of water isn’t enough for the people to build their community around it. But it is enough to quench their thirst.

When God’s people drink of this water, their thirst is no longer all consuming. The flowing water is all that they need for today.

Because…

Water for today = Life for tomorrow
Water for today = Hope for tomorrow
Water for today = Nourishment for the Journey

Like the people of Israel, we don’t know what the promised land here on earth will look like. But we know God is leading us there. Not because we see it, or hear it, or taste it. But because we know that God is with because God is marking our journey.

When Moses strikes the rock, he does so in the sight of the Elders. This is a sign of hope. A sign that the people of God are going to be transformed from generation to generation. God is showing the Elders how to find hope. This hope is going to live through the generations.

God shows us…

How to find life in ordinary objects
How to find hope in ordinary places
How to find nourishment in unexpected ways

People of God, We are Thirsty.

But we have been on this wilderness journey far too long to turn back now.

So for today, for the next week, maybe for the next month. However long. Let’s seek out our rock of life-giving water that God is leading us to and camp out for a while. Long enough to quench the thirst of today and give us nourishment for the journey ahead.

Water = Life

And we have water for today.

Amen.
And thanks be to God.

God chooses that every child of God must be blessed by the abundant resources of this earth, and invites you and me to join in that generosity and find life and joy.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 25 A
Texts: Matthew 20:1-16; Exodus 16:2-15

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

What if in this story Jesus actually means God cares about real things like money?

After all, Jesus used a financial transaction as the chief image in this story. He describes a farmer who hires workers to bring in a harvest, workers who were hired at different times in the day, workers who end up being paid the same.

Most of us were taught that in this parable Jesus is speaking of people who come to faith early and work as disciples for years, compared to those who might, on their deathbed, seek hope in God’s love. This interpretation says God’s grace is full and complete even to the one who only turns toward home in the last moments of life. But I know you, my family at Mount Olive. You don’t need this parable to teach you what you already deeply believe, that God’s grace belongs to all God’s children, late-comers or long- workers.

But if we turn this parable like a jewel in the light, focusing on the money image Jesus uses, we see a truth about the reign of God hidden here Jesus also wants us to see. A truth about the economy and how God desires the world to work.

To see this, let’s imagine that the vineyard owner is God.

There are ways to read the parable where we’re the owner in the story, or where we’re the long-hours workers, or where we’re the ones standing idle who receive both the grace of being hired and a full-day’s wage for an hour’s work.

But here, let’s consider God as the owner. If this parable might actually be about wages, that suggests that God’s intent, God’s generosity, is that the economy of this world is one where everyone, without exception, has enough to live on, a roof over their heads, a meal on the table.

This is not how our world works, is it?

We can’t even agree on a fair minimum wage in this country that allows everyone who works to earn enough to feed all who depend on them. We’re seeing steady attempts to dismantle what structures we do have to care for the health of all people, to ensure that those too old to work still receive money to live.

Most people can’t see this parable as speaking to the actual economy because it seems ridiculous. Argument after argument is made how this isn’t sustainable, how the world doesn’t work that way.

But none of those arguments matter to us if God wants the world to work that way. “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?” the owner asks. If we imagine the owner as God, that question weighs heavily on those who want to follow God’s way.

God has provided a world with abundant resources, enough for all. That’s not disputed. But humanity has largely decided we won’t let God choose what we do with God’s resources. Our systems are built not with abundant generosity at their core, but with strict rules of how to earn money, rewards for accumulating for ourselves and building up treasures at the expense of others.

I know this is uncomfortable ground for those of us who have money laid away.

You might value how you’ve worked hard, and put aside money, and are reluctant even to consider that God might hope for something else. It would be easier to spiritualize this parable and say, “of course it’s not about money and the economy.”

The problem is, hearing this parable with real money and the real economy in mind resonates with everything the Bible says about God’s view of wealth and poverty, abundance and scarcity. God constantly calls us to live justly, feed those who are hungry, care for those who lack. God never says in the Bible, “build up barns for yourself so you make sure you’re taken care of.” So, God happily saying in this parable, “Everyone eats tonight, everyone gets a day’s wage,” is exactly what we expect God to say.

So if you and I wish to be faithful to Christ here, what can we do?

First, imagine living with a belief in God’s abundance for all – manna for everyone to live on, wages enough for everyone to eat and have shelter and clothing. If that’s what God chooses to do with what belongs to God, consider: how can you be part of that plan and not one of the grumblers or hoarders?

Second, imagine how to learn what’s enough for you to live. In both the manna story and Jesus’ parable, there’s one clear standard: do you have enough for today? Israelites who tried to save more manna than they needed for that day found it was rotten. Vineyard workers all got a day’s pay, regardless. If what God chooses to do with what belongs to God is ensure that every single child of God gets what they need for today, what does that mean for you, your decisions?

Third, since you want to follow Christ, when arguments rise up in you against an economic understanding of God’s will– as they can in all of us – you could make an effort to set them aside. It’s far easier to find reasons “that can’t work in the real world” than to imagine what God might call all of us to do. So you could practice the discipline of setting aside your gut-level objections and letting the Spirit open your mind and heart to new possibilities.

Don’t be frightened, though. You aren’t asked to find all the answers all at once.

Jesus wants parables to stick with us, roll around in our minds and imaginations. Let this one do that. Ponder it and hold it in your heart and see where it brings you in the next weeks, months, years.

Because if you know you want to follow Christ on this path to economic justice for all people, a society where everyone is cared for and has what they need, a world where every nation equally shares in the resources of the earth, remember that Christ calls you to follow a path, not instantly arrive at the destination. Baby steps are still steps. You and I can learn this together, follow Christ together, and that in itself is faithfulness.

And remember the main point of this story: the Holy and Triune God is abundantly generous, and that includes, you, too.

You learned that at the cross, saw it at the empty tomb, know it in the Spirit’s breath in your heart. Here, your faltering steps to be faithful are welcome to God, because you’re starting to choose what God chooses. When you stumble, God’s abundant love and forgiving grace wash over you and lift you up again.

There’s enough for everyone on this earth. Everyone gets to eat every day. Everyone has a place to sleep. Everyone has what they need to live. That’s what God chooses for what belongs to God.

Are you envious of this generosity? Or might you, living as Christ, want to find the delight of joining in it with the Triune God for the life of the world?

In the name of Jesus. Amen