Henrietta United Church of Christ

1-3 On the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt, the whole company of Israel moved on from Elim to the Wilderness of Sin which is between Elim and Sinai. The whole company of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron there in the wilderness. The Israelites said, "Why didn't God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? You've brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death, the whole company of Israel!"

11-12 God spoke to Moses, "I've listened to the complaints of the Israelites. Now tell them: 'At dusk you will eat meat and at dawn you'll eat your fill of bread; and you'll realize that I am God, your God.'"

13-15 That evening quail flew in and covered the camp and in the morning there was a layer of dew all over the camp. When the layer of dew had lifted, there on the wilderness ground was a fine flaky something, fine as frost on the ground. The Israelites took one look and said to one another, man-hu (What is it?). They had no idea what it was.

15-16 So Moses told them, "It's the bread God has given you to eat. And these are God's instructions: 'Gather enough for each person, about two quarts per person; gather enough for everyone in your tent.'"

17-18 The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren't short—each person had gathered as much as was needed.

19 Moses said to them, "Don't leave any of it until morning."

20 But they didn't listen to Moses. A few of the men kept back some of it until morning. It got wormy and smelled bad. And Moses lost his temper with them.

21-22 They gathered it every morning, each person according to need. Then the sun heated up and it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, about four quarts per person [so that they could rest on the Sabbath].

The sermon:

God specializes in abundance. You want stars? There are some 70 sextillion stars visible within the range of modern telescopes. You want life? Scientists guestimate there are between 5 and 30 million different species of plants and animals on our planet. You want complexity? You have between 10 and 40 trillion cells in your body, each of them working together as one entity to keep you walking, talking, sensing the world around you, fighting off illnesses, and thinking (at least some of the time!).

It’s hard for a Scot like me to say this, but God’s economy is not economical. God’s economy is profuse, lavish, extravagant. It’s designed for a dizzying variety of creatures to use what they need to live, grow and thrive, provide what others need, and create new life to take their place. It’s an economy based on continual adaptation, harmonious balance, and intricate interdependence.

Within this natural economy, humans have created their own artificial economies–ways to survive together by exchanging and distributing goods, services and wealth. The Israelites were keenly aware of Pharaoh’s economy when they were in Egypt. Pharaoh’s economy was designed so that all the power and wealth were concentrated at the top, which happened to be Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh had enslaved the Israelites to get all the work out of them that he could and build his kingdom by the bricks they made.

Our economy today is a lot more sophisticated then Pharaoh’s, and it benefits a lot more people. And yet the same human greed for wealth and power that drove Pharaoh to take as much as he could for himself still drives a lot of people today–like multinational corporations that buy off governments, or Wall Street firms playing fast and loose with people’s money, or lots of businesses here and abroad who exploit their workers, plunder the environment, or sell shoddy or dangerous goods.

So today we have lots of Pharaohs trying to build their empires by exploiting whomever they can. And they exploit us. For example advertisers spend $650 billion a year–over $2000 for each one of us–to tug on our greed, pride, insecurity, and impulsiveness to get us to buy trillions of dollars worth of stuff. And we do, because we want to be more satisfied, sexy, successful, stimulated, secure, or whatever we feel we’re not enough of. Over the last 50 years, our economy has mostly boomed. Today we Americans spend twice as much per person as we did in the 1950's. But studies show what we’re less happy. We’re more stressed, harried, and insecure than we were then.

So if living in our economy doesn’t deliver real satisfaction, what can? Maybe living in God’s economy can. Once God liberated the Israelites from Pharaoh’s economy, God showed them how to live in God’s economy, which could provide satisfaction and abundance even in the dessert. Let’s see what we can learn from their experience to help us thrive in these uncertain times.

The first thing that God teaches us through this story is that God provides for our needs. I don’t mean this in a naive or magical way–that whenever we think we need something, if we pray to God, God will deliver it to our address. What I mean is that God’s nature is abundance, and that God has created things in such a way that everything we need to live and grow is available to us.

Now let’s take this manna, for example. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know exactly what happened. The fact that the manna was found right after the quail suggests to me that God probably didn’t cook up a new substance and rain it down from heaven for this occasion. The Israelites found something they hadn’t seen before.

There are actually a number of things that the people could have found in the dessert that roughly fit the description of manna in the Bible. One is resin from the tamarisk tree, that is sweet like honey and melts in the sun. In the early 20^th Century, Europeans observed Arabs selling it as “manna from heaven.” Another possibility is sweet drops of a honey-like substance produced by certain insects. In the sun it becomes a sticky solid, and it’s considered a delicacy in the Middle East. In Arabic, “man-hu” means “this is plant lice.” Still another possibility is a whitish light-weight lichen that often drifts in the wind, settles on the ground, and can be used as a substitute for corn.

As long as the people thought of food in terms of what they were used to but didn’t have, they felt they were starving. But when Moses opened their eyes to what they did have, and that this manna was the bread God had given them to eat, they found that they all had enough. Maybe they hadn’t seen it before because they had been looking for something else. Sometimes believing is seeing.

If you’re going through a loss or a disappointment, or staring a closed door in the face, this part of the story is for you. God will provide. It’s unlikely that you’ll receive a replacement of the same name, brand, or serial number of what you lost, because that would keep you stuck in your old comfort zone. But if you stay in an attitude of trust and expectation, when the time is right, God will provide you with what you need to take the next step forward in your life, maybe in a direction you hadn’t anticipated. It is simply God’s nature to do that. But you won’t see the blessing if all you can see is what you lost.

The second thing God taught the Israelites about living in God’s economy is that it’s meant to supply our need, not our greed. The story says, “The people of Israel went to work and started gathering [the manna], some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren't short—each person had gathered as much as was needed.”

In this economy, it didn’t work to get up extra early and get more than you needed so you make them jealous and get them to buy some from you. No, living in God’s economy means receiving what you need, no more, no less, and receiving it with gratitude.

Maybe this part of the story is for us who are running ourselves ragged or are steeped in debt from trying to accumulate all we can, under the assumption that more must be better. Maybe it’s for those of us who feel impoverished because our IRA or 401(k) has taken a serious nosedive.

If we’re living in God’s economy, the things we really need are available to us in the right amount–the amount that satisfies. Do you want to love and be loved? So does every person you meet. Offer your love, respect, care, and compassion to the people God puts in your path, and you will always have enough love in your life.

Are you afraid that if the economy tanks, you won’t be able to enjoy life? You can always experience the pleasure of playing with a child, the exhilaration of teaching someone to read, the satisfaction of working for a cause that makes a difference in the world. You can always breathe in the beauty of a fall day like today, or let some music move you, or create something with your own hands or mind or voice.

You can’t hoard these gifts. Yet you never need to be short of them. In God’s economy, you can always have enough to make you satisfied, by approaching your life with appreciation, love and generosity.

And the third thing we learn about living in God’s economy is that we can only receive God’s gifts one day at a time. Even though Moses had warned the people, "Don't keep any of the manna for the next morning,” a few of them hoarded some for the next day anyway. But it got wormy and smelled bad. “And Moses lost his temper,” because they showed such lack of trust in God.

Ouch! I mean, Yikes! Does this mean that we’re faithless if we store up some savings for an unexpected illness, or our kids’ college education, or our retirement? No, as long as we live in our human economy, we’d best have something saved for the future-even if the best investment instrument these days might be a mattress.

But if we’re going to receive the dividends of God’s economy, we can’t live by trying to carry yesterday’s blessings into tomorrow. We have to maintain an attitude of trust and gratitude every day, one day at a time.

We all know people who hold onto the way things used to be, and can’t see past the past enough to embrace life in the present. Their lives aren’t enriched by their memories; they have become constricted by them.

And we know people who are so anxious about the future that they miss the present. I just read about a woman who was fighting to get her child into the right private kindergarten, so that he could get into the right prep school, so that he could get into Davidson college, so that he would have the right connections to be among the successful elite in their city. She was so intent on investing in the future that she was depriving her and her son of his childhood in the present.

Jesus taught us to live in God’s economy by praying for our daily bread, so that we are expectantly open to God’s blessings the only time that we can receive them–today. And so that we can experience the great-fullness of being so intimately connected to our loving God who provides for our daily needs. And so that we can receive what we need to strengthen us for living the only time we can meet life as it comes–today, day by day.

You know, sometimes we think of living in faith as risky. What if God doesn’t provide what we need, or give us what we want, or leaves us empty? But I’ll tell you something. God’s nature is abundance and God’s economy hasn’t crashed yet. The stock market might crash and our investments might fall, but in God’s economy we can never fall out of the universe, and we can never fall out of God’s eternal embrace. You know, I think I’m going to stop worrying so much about our artificial economy and start investing more in God’s economy. How about you?