Pastor DeeAnn
Show Me the Manna
Thanksgiving Eve Service
Nov. 26th 2008
Show Me the Manna
Thanksgiving Eve Service
Nov. 26th 2008, UMC Nemaha IA.
Exodus 16:1-5, John 6: 1-5
It was the year that our oldest son, Christopher was a
senior. In the single digits of an Iowa December, the day after Christmas, we
loaded up the car, bundled up our family of six and headed for a vacation to
remember: three days at Disney World. We had just come to the junction of 20 and
71 in Early and our seven-soon-to -be eight year old began to mummer: “I’m
hungry” Before we passed Cross Roads café, the murmur became a unison chorus,
“Can we stop?” I remember the car accelerating just a little. I turned my head
and saw three mournful faces. Even baby Drew seemed to resonate with their plea.
I tossed back, “You just had breakfast an hour ago!” One by one came the
excuses: “I was helping Dad load the car… I was not hungry then…I was too
excited to eat.” Three healthy well-fed grumblers balked until at last, in Sac
City, snack food at a convenience store satisfied their them. Every parent knows
the grumble and whine capabilities of their children. When they were babies,
they trained us. They had no other way to communicate but to cry. As they grew
in vocabulary, the crying became whining, grumbling and complaining.
As a people, the Children of Israel were in their
infancy. Certainly they celebrated their Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
recounted the stories of Joseph and his twelve brothers which brought them to
Egypt in the first place. But 400 years had passed. So numerous, they had become
a threat to uneasy Pharaoh, and he put them under bitter bondage. You know the
story of Moses, the ten plagues, how he brought them out of Egypt, how and how
God parted the Red Sea to deliver them from Pharaoh’s army. Roaming the desert,
they were free, but they did not have a clue as how to be a people. They knew
only how to be slaves. The wilderness was the place God chose to test and teach
them to trust and depend upon His provision. They had already witnessed great
works of the Lord even in the desert. At Mara, the bitter waters were made sweet
by a miracle of the Lord. But not long out of camp and they began to grumble
against Moses and Aaron. We’re hungry! The desert of Sin is most hospitable.
There were no Home town grocery stores, no Sparkies, not even a place or time to
plant a garden. Nothing, Zip. Nada. They were approaching starvation.
We know they were a people in their infancy because
they didn’t pray. They didn’t seek God who was seeking to establish His gracious
loving relationship with them. Instead they assaulted the ones they could see,
Moses the one who brought them out into the desert, and Aaron his brother, his
spokesman. Their grumbling is bitter. “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in
Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted.” Their
memory was a little dimmed by their hunger. They had been enslaved, whipped,
beaten, oppressed, betrayed and beset by some of their own people as
taskmasters, and brutally treated as less than scum. The meat in the pot would
have been very meager, and if they were caught sitting instead of slaving, they
would have been flogged. By the hand of God through His servant Moses, the
Children of Israel had been delivered from a life of brutal labor and servitude
to a future and a hope, the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham to bring
them into a land of their own. Safe after crossing the Red sea they had sung
praises with Moses and danced joyously with tambourines. But here in the Desert
of Sin, grumbling, unbelieving, they accuse Moses: ”You have brought us out into
this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” Reality check here; Moses
did nothing for himself, but in everything obeyed God for the sake of his
people. Talk about ingratitude!
God in His love and grace does not punish the
grumblers. Instead He feeds them. They didn’t even have to wait until they got
to Sac City! He tells Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” And
then gives Moses specific instructions to tell the people: The people are to go
out each day and gather enough for that day. Then God tells Moses why He is
doing this: In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow My
instructions.
Now we get to the heart of the matter. God is testing
this assembly of nation newbies. As children and youth in school, we are tested.
Not as punishment, but as a means for us to learn, to understand, and to grow in
what we need to know to function as mature adults and citizens. Listen carefully
students, this is a TEST. In much the same way God tests us, not as punishment,
but so that we may learn more of Him and grow in our relationship with Him as
His people. Through testing we learn to trust in His goodness and faithfulness.
Of tests and trials, the Apostle writes in 1 Peter 1: 7 These have come so that
your faith - of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by
fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus
Christ is revealed. Beloved this is a test. Through testing, our faith is proved
real. Through testing our faith is proved real.
Test Question: How do you feed 2 million hungry people
wandering in the middle of an inhabitable desert? Answer: Show them the manna!
Every morning, just as God had promised, when the dew began to evaporate there
remained a thin flaky substance which they gathered. In Hebrew the phrase for
“what is it?” is man-hu -hence the name manna. The book of Numbers tells us it
could be boiled, baked, stewed, served on the half shell if they liked. After
forty years in the desert, I’m sure the resourceful wives managed to serve Manna
every way conceivable.
It wasn’t until I was married I planted my first
garden. I’m from Long Island, New York. Out East folks grew gladiolas and ducks.
I knew nothing about pole beans and cucumbers. Nobody told me you are supposed
to pick Zucchini when it is this big…(about 10 inches) and not wait until it’s
this big (24”). All that winter we ate Zucchini fried, boiled, baked in muffins,
chocolate cake, sliced, diced, and made in everything but julienne fries. My
zucchinis rivaled watermelons. I thought considered cutting off large chunks,
letting them dry, and sell them for step stools. The point is, the Zucchini
never ran short.
Neither did the Manna. Every morning, there it was
glistening on the ground. If they waited to gather it, the manna would evaporate
in the hot sun. And if they gathered more than the needed for the day and tried
to keep the leftovers, it would rot and stink and be full of maggots the next
morning. The one exception was the manna they gathered Friday morning. Two
portions, one would last over night. There would be none the following morning,
so that they would not have to work and gather on Saturday, the Sabbath.
Everyone gathered enough and was satisfied. For forty years, the depended upon
God for their daily bread - a lesson in trust and dependence upon God that has
been gifted to us through Jesus Christ.
People flocked to Jesus was it to hear Him preach, to
be healed, or delivered, to see what He might do next, or to satisfy curiosity.
I’m sure the motives were as numerous as the people gathered on the far shore of
the Sea of Galilee: some five thousand not including women and children. Jesus
sees the approaching wave of need for God’s provisions. He casually asks
Disciple Philip, “Where are we going to buy bread for all these people?” Imagine
a crowd coming to a late meeting, say the size of the population of Sac City,
and ask the Board Chair of your Church, “How are we going to feed these folks?”
Philip is a smart man. He can figure is good at
numbers. We know this because he had it calculated: Eight months wages wouldn’t
make the grocery bill. Ever have that happen? Run out of money before you ran
out of month? Or face a need that none of your known resources could possible
meet? This is a test. Through testing our faith is proved real.
Twenty seven years ago - almost to the day, my husband
and I most everything we owned, bundled up our then two small children, sold our
loaded the smallest u-haul we could rent with clothes, linens, what few
possessions we had left, and having nothing in our pockets but 500 borrowed
dollars, drove 800 miles on Thanksgiving weekend to Evanston Illinois where I
was to begin Seminary that Monday. No job waiting, just a call to enter
ministry. Beloved, this is a test. Testing proves our faith is real.
Every day for the next three and a half years was an
opportunity to trust God to get us through. At the end of each quarter I was
resolved, well, if there’s no money, I guess this is as far as God wanted me to
go. When our eldest son was sick and nearly died, this is a test. Through
testing faith is proved real. Like the fish and the loaves, God took John’s two
pay checks, and my five scholarships and fed us for three and a half years.
We know the story of the first Church picnic.. Andrew finds a
boy with a meager lunch of five loaves and two fish. What is that against a
hungry multitude of over five thousand. Jesus takes these, and blesses God for
them just as if they were the Thanksgiving turkey, dressing, gravy and pumpkin
pie. We know the rest of the story. The disciples kept passing out fish and
loaves until everyone was satisfied. The left over pieces filled twelve baskets.
A pastor this story to children during worship one time, and one little boy
piped up, “Give those left-overs to Grandma. She’ll know what to do with them.”
This miracle is so significant, that it is the only one
recorded in all four Gospels. Why? It demonstrates our total dependence upon a
totally trustworthy and faithful God. For this we are to give thanks every day
in every way. This miracle points to our need for Christ for our spiritual
sustenance is as great as our need for food for our physical sustenance. In the
very same chapter, John 6 vs. 26 we see Jesus respond to the crowd again, I tell
you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but
because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils,
but for food that endures to eternal life , which the Son of Man will give. you.
Show me the manna! What are you looking for? What
causes us to grumble, complain, whine? What do we lack, other than gratitude for
what we have. Or Who are you looking for? Who is present with us, here this
moment, who will not only provide what we physically need, but delights in
providing what we need to spiritually live. Bread will fill the belly, but not
the heart. Bread will abate hunger, but can do nothing against sin and death.
Bread can sustain life, but it cannot give eternal life.
Lord God, show me the Manna: show me the full cross,
the empty tomb, the resurrected Christ. Make me thankful for all things in this
life; even my trials because this is a test. By testing my faith is proved real.
Make me thankful everyday in every way, for Jesus who loves me, forgives me,
nourishes me, and sustains me in this life for life eternal. Amen.
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