Exodus 17: 1-7 Psalm 78: 1-4, 12-16
Philippians 2: 1-13 Matthew 21: 23-32
Grace and peace to you from God our Creator, Jesus our Savior, and the Holy Spirit our Advocate and Guide. Amen.
One of my favorite old songs is the song “Smile”. I am partial to Tony Bennett’s version. Beautiful melody…smooth voice….Smile though your heart is aching, Smile even though it’s breaking, When there are clouds in the sky, you’ll get by. If you smile through your fear and sorrow, Smile and maybe tomorrow, You’ll see the sun come shining through for you. Here’s the thing, though. If I am always smiling, how will you know that my heart is aching? How will you know it’s breaking?
The Israelites were certainly not smiling in our reading from Exodus this morning. They were grumbling and complaining and questioning. Is God With Us or Not? This is the question the Israelites ask today as they find themselves traversing through the wilderness. You might recall that in last week’s reading from Exodus they were complaining about being hungry and in today’s reading they are complaining about being thirsty. It seems that there is always a problem, real or imagined. Bottom line, question of the day, where the rubber meets the road…Is God with us or not?
Other groups of people, other nations, indeed even our own nation, have faced times of great trial. Times when what they were experiencing seemed to indicate that they had been abandoned or forsaken or forgotten by the God who had created them and promised never to leave them. The people of Haiti come to mind…as they continue to try to re-build their entire civilization after a harrowing and devastating earthquake. Is God with us or Not?
The people of Japan, who also endured an earthquake, in addition to a tsunami that followed. Is God with us or not?
A visit to New Orleans is a reminder of the power of hurricane to wreak havoc on a city and the inability of a government to help with recovery. It is also a testament to the short attention span we have…once New Orleans was out of the news cycle, we forgot that the need for aid would linger for years, not months. People there are still struggling to rebuild and regroup, at least the ones who are left. Is God with us or not?
We have been reminded this month of the events of 9/11. Over the course of this year we have endured other tragedies…floods, tornadoes, record snow. Is God with us or not?
The people in the countries in Eastern Africa are dying slow and tragic deaths. They are watching their children die either of starvation or dehydration or terrible disease. Is God with us or not?
And still in Africa, thousands die from malaria, easily preventable by the use of a ten dollar…ten dollar….mosquito net. Ten dollars that we spend almost without thinking could save their children from malaria, but they do not have either the means or the measure to get these nets. Is God with us or not?
We know too well, that with every story of communal tragedy come stories of individual hardship. And stories of individual suffering can come all by themselves.
On Wednesday I received a call from a dear friend from seminary. He married Bruce and I. His father, also a pastor, has left his mother for another woman. Their family is devastated. And pastors do not have pastors. Bishops are too busy trying to keep the church together to deal with mundane things like the wrenching apart of families by sin. And despite years of theological training, and despite the fact that he is one of the wisest, most brilliant, most compassionate pastors I know, in that conversation he was a hurt son. Is God with us or not?
On Thursday a dear Christian friend told me that she had lost her job, her housemate, and had her car stolen, with phone and purse in it, all in the same day. She has a son to support. She has to find a way to craft a life together and keep their heads above water. Her car was stolen from her church parking lot while she was in choir practice. Is God with us or not?
And just when I thought that it was truly a week filled with situations that cause one to wonder about the presence of God, my very dear, life long friend, Taylor’s surrogate aunt, called to tell me of her diagnosis with breast cancer. Is God with us or not?
It has also been a difficult few months for people within this community of faith. Jobs have been lost. Addiction wreaks havoc with life. Relationships have been torn asunder. Difficult diagnoses have been received. Cancer and strokes and depression and dementia and alcoholism live among us. They are a part of us, but they do not define us. They only define us if we let them. They only have as much power as we give them. But friends, if we don’t acknowledge their difficulty. If we don’t dare to speak their name, then they are in control.
Early last Sunday morning, when I came into this space to put my sermon in the pulpit, there was a pew envelope sitting right here. On the outside it said “I tried so hard but…” and written on the back of a prayer request card was this:
“God took everything away from me, my family, my home, friends, and the one person I love more than anyone on the earth. I give up. Pray for me.” I have no idea who left this anonymous note. My usual practice with notes left anonymously is to ignore them, but I have prayed fervently for this person this week. For their pain, to be certain. That they would feel God present with them, walking very closely with them, holding them up, bearing their burdens. But in addition to that it has been my fervent prayer that this person find community, for it is in bearing one another’s burdens that we come together as the Body of Christ.
It’s tricky business, this burden bearing, because our own stuff gets mixed up in it as well. I am saddened for my friend whose car was stolen and I want to FIX IT, because I am a FIXER. But fixing it is not my place. It is my place, and the place of all of her friends, to offer her our support in whatever way we can, so that she can find a way to piece things together. I want to tell my friend with breast cancer to do whatever it takes to beat this thing because I do not think I can bear to lose another friend to this disease. But that’s about me, that’s my stuff. My role, my task, is to be there for her, when she calls from halfway across the country to tell me how she’s doing. My task is to listen and distract and listen some more.
It is a sacred privilege to accompany one another when the journey is difficult. It is a sacred trust. Some days we can only complain to God that we are hungry for a word of good news or that we are thirsty for life to stop dishing out one challenge after another to the people we know and love the best. Some days we want to throw ourselves down in front of the throne of God and scream that THIS REALLY SUCKS! THIS IS NOT FAIR! ARE YOU WITH US OR NOT? And other days, other days, we can remember who it is that leads us on the journey….in good times and in times of challenge. We know that know matter what is happening in our lives that it is God who leads the way, who walks with us. God does not cause our difficulties, but God has placed us in communities of faith, and in families, and in neighborhoods, so that there will be people to bear the light of Christ for us.
Instead of Tony Bennett’s Smile, let me offer a different tune today, one that might encourage us as walk together as a faith community and one that might encourage us as we encounter the rough and weary spaces in our lives and in the lives of those we love. It’s a verse of a hymn, commonly called The Servant Song.
Won’t you let me be your servant? Let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.
I will weep when you are weeping, when you laugh I’ll laugh with you, I will share your joys and sorrows, til we’ve seen this journey through.
I will hold the Christ light for you, in the nighttime of your fear, I will hold my hand out to you, speak the peace you long to hear.
Amen.
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