Rev. Jay Rowland
Exodus 32:1-13
Psalm 106:1-6,19-22
Philippians 4:4-9
As I’ve thought about everything that’s been happening recently I’ve found myself wondering if people are starting to believe that God is asleep at the wheel. Or asking, “where’s God?” in all this, wondering if/when God will show up.
Maybe you are having similar thoughts.
And so that’s what I’d like to explore with you today. But I must clarify that this reflection is not about whether or not God lets us down but, rather, how to handle it when we feel like God is letting us down--which is just as hard. I want to reflect upon this because it’s very human and totally appropriate.
I don’t believe that God ever intentionally lets us down, but I know that we can be quick to think so, especially during a crisis. Another of my beliefs is that I do not believe that God causes suffering. I know many of us wonder why God allows suffering—and that’s a very important question. But right now I’m more interested in the “what now, God?” question than in the “why, God?” question. Because the “what now, God?” question invites us toward acceptance more readily than the “why” question. The “what now, God?” question allows us time and spiritual space to express our grief, our disappointment, our pain and suffering to God who suffers with us and longs to lead us through it.
I also believe that we can be disappointed in God--even angry at God--while also still trusting in and counting on God to see us through. This is one of the most important facets of our Judeo-Christian faith: lament. Lament is an ancient gift of our Judeo-Christian faith tradition found throughout the Old Testament.
Another important note to reveal is that I do not personally fancy, as some do, an adversarial relationship between God and us (or between us and God). But clearly, in the living of life, adversity happens to us. “Stuff” happens that wrecks us and ruins us and threatens our faith. We suffer terribly whenever our life, our sanity, or our family is hurt or suffers. There’s no shortage of suffering going on lately and it’s still too raw, so I prefer to address our common reality indirectly by considering the crisis situation faced by our religious/spiritual ancestors the Hebrew people as told in Exodus.
To briefly review what lead up to our reading today, God has rescued the Hebrew people from their brutal enslavement in Egypt and choses Moses to lead this rescue mission. The good news is that it succeeded. The Hebrew people are free thanks to God. But this good news is tempered by the reality that they now have no place to live. They are, effectively, homeless for the foreseeable future, living “on the road” day after day until a place is found where they can start a new life together. God is putting as much distance between the Hebrew people and everything that went with their previous life of slavery and abuse. God has done everything possible--even the “impossible”--to prove to the people that God is with them.
But the people are sort of like, “Thank you for setting us free from slavery. But … this is dangerous! We’re stuck way out here in the wilderness--totally exposed and vulnerable! We could easily die out here! This feels nearly as bad as slavery in Egypt. At least there we had food, water & shelter”
The Exodus story presents to us the narrative of the relationship between God and God’s people--beginning with the Hebrew people. Exodus documents the beginning of this relationship and some of the um, complexities along the way. Exodus reveals so much about our ongoing relationship with God, the complexities of the God-human relationship and the human-human relationship too. After God rescues the Hebrew people from the brutality of slavery in Egypt, the days pass slowly. The people realize their newly won freedom has created a different kind of struggle, now they are worried about food and water. This is totally appropriate. But God responds and provides for their most basic needs faithfully, patiently.
Whenever adversity strikes, we worry and we easily panic. And when we panic, we tend to presume the worst possible outcome and assume that God Has Let Us Down. We forget how God has always come through for us.
An example comes from our Exodus story. God calls Moses up the mountain to meet with God to make plans for their new life together in a new place. But after Moses is gone for many days the people worry, then panic. They presume the worst, that Moses is either dead or missing and that God has suddenly forgotten them. And so they decide to make their own “god” - one they can see and touch and project themselves onto; one they can literally pick up whenever their panic-driven impulses run wild, a god to help them feel (falsely) secure while they do whatever they want to do.
It goes to show how in any crisis, whether it be it in Exodus or in life in the year 2020, we can see how easily panic and anxiety-fueled assumptions only add more confusion and stress to an already confusing and stressful situation. This is a recurring theme throughout the Bible and in our life together: God’s people worry, panic, act on panic and end up making a very difficult situation even worse. Even so, throughout Exodus, God (just like God does throughout our life) faithfully responds and provides. In the midst of a crisis, in the panic and the fear, we’re often too upset to see that God is intimately involved. And so it FEELS like God has let us down.
Let me back up a bit. Wanting the end of something bad is good, of course. But when the bad thing is finally over, life doesn’t instantly switch from being all bad to being all good. On the contrary, when we spend so much time and life-energy wanting something bad to end, this does nothing to prepare us to live without it. It’s one of the complexities of life— longing to be free of something “bad” in general or in particular is one thing; living free of it is quite another thing and perhaps creates complexities we didn’t see coming, whether the bad thing is slavery or bullying; heart-break or heart disease; addiction or cancer.
Whatever bad thing we long to be rid of has the power--or is it the consequence--to warp our perception of good and evil; faith and fate; fair and unfair, God and people; etc. So how do we handle that?
The Apostle Paul has some thoughts worth considering. Paul and his congregations faced all kinds of adversity and complexity. His letters and his prayers are not pithy, flowery, “Hallmark” sentiment, but, rather, honest responses to life & death crises—both for Paul personally and for his friends and congregations too.
When life spirals out of control, whenever we are provoked to panic and presume the worst, whenever we start believing that God Let Us Down, Paul shows us how to turn toward God and trust God in those moments: how to hang on until things settle down and we can respond from a place of calm and faith rather than panic; to hang on until we can process what’s going on, give it more thought, seek support, apply our imagination, and spirit.
And so Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always” —but this can be counter-intuitive especially during a crisis, so Paul repeats this"—”again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.”
Remember that the Lord is near Paul says. Keep that in mind when fear and panic and presumption and chaos are spirling all around you seeking to pull you down too. Instead of joining that current of panic, Paul says, “let your gentleness be known to everyone”
Gentleness. Sounds impossible. But how? Here’s how, Paul says: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Set down worry and panic; choose instead to not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Paul offers himself as an example, he’s saying, “hey if I can do this, you can too.” Paul has learned to lean on the Lord in the midst of crisis and panic, in the midst of beatings, imprisonment, hostility, isolation. And so he says to us, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me.
What things? All the things God has shown us in Christ; all the things Paul has done and shown through crisis after crisis he has endured. And what does he say will be the result? Total unfiltered, unbridled success? Total Victory and domination? The end of our problems? The end of all crises? No.
Only this: “and the God of peace will be with you.”
And this: “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
