Rocks - September 28, 2008

Exodus 17:1-7

Audio Version

For the last 11 years, an anti-lawsuit group has held "The Wacky Warning Label Contest" to show the effects of lawsuits on warning labels.
A warning sticker on a small tractor that reads "Danger: Avoid Death" took home the top prize in 2007.
Second place - for a label found on an iron-on T-shirt transfer that warns: "Do not iron while wearing shirt."
Third place - a label on a baby stroller that featured a small storage pouch that warns: "Do not put child in bag."

Life can be pretty silly …
And sometimes very hard …

Instead of faith, hope and love,
It’s nope, nada, nothing.

Tough times …

One of the most fascinating parts of my work over the years – talking with people who’ve come through hard times –

A striking similarity to what they say:

“Don’t know how I did it.”
“Didn’t think I’d make it.”
“The worst time of my life.”
“Thank God for friends who stood by me.”
“And God was there.”

The faithfulness of God in the worst of times …
That’s what the Exodus stories are all about …
God is present in the worst of it …

We will make it!

Surviving in tough times …

People around the world have been encouraged by the Exodus stories …
The Civil Rights movement – Let my people go!”
Free at least, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last.

Hang in there.
Don’t give up.
God has the last word.
We shall overcome.

One of the fun things with a story like this … take a few pieces … hold them up to a bright light … sort of like looking at a piece of cut glass – turn it this way, turn it that way; each turn catches the light differently … a unique pattern of glass, color and reflection …

Let’s take a few pieces of the story and see what happens.

The first piece that caught my attention: the whole congregation of Israelites”– they were in it together – strength in numbers, standing together, side-by-side; arm-in-arm …

Now think back for a moment.
A story like this was told in hard times …
When hard thinking and hard hearts can rip life apart.
What happens to a family when bills mount up, things go wrong, issues erupt … what happens? … folks turn on one another … words grow harsh … things said that shouldn’t be said …
The Hebrew story tellers knew that the community of faith could fall apart in a heartbeat … wrangling and blame would inflict permanent damage … so they told stories, stories of hanging together in hard times … they didn’t paint an impossible picture – no, it’s filled with reality … thirst, anxiety, squabbling … but if you listen carefully to the story, it’s all about making it, leaving no one behind, finding a way … even in the wilderness.

“The whole congregation” – standing together …

I’ve noticed that here at Covenant.
Powerful and good.

We’re a team.
We’re a church.
We’re the whole congregation of Covenant on the Corner.

We’re Democrats and Republicans and Independents …
We’re hawks and we’re doves …
We’re conservatives and we’re liberals …
We’re all over the map …
The very center of it all, Jesus Christ.
His cross lifted high!

The ultimate expression of God’s love and grace.
Forgiveness and mercy.
Faith, hope and love.
For you and me.
For all the world!

We’re a team.
We’re a church.
We’re Covenant on the Corner.

The next piece:

They journeyed by stages, just as the LORD commanded them.

Stages … one step at a time … one day at a time.

We get up in the morning, and wonder if we’re going to make it.
Plans and hopes lay like dust on a coffee table …
We get outta bed, put left foot ahead of right foot …

Barbara Kingsolver writes:

In my own worst seasons I’ve come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again [High Tide in Tuscon, p. 15].

By stages … one day at a time.

The next piece is hard to grasp: As God commanded.

How in the world do we know what God commands?

Women and men of faith agree …
We come to know God in stages … fits and starts …

When we come to know God, the result is a profound humility …
“I don’t know” is a good prayer.
“I don’t know” is a good answer to many of our hard questions.
“I’ll do my best; I’ll give it a shot; I will try to love.”

Getting to know God … lots of questions.
Questions are the fuel of truth.

Truth requires questions, lots of questions …
When we ask questions, and keep on asking, truth continues to grow.

The Bible produces tons of questions, questions that turn the mind over … like a gardener turning the soil prior to planting …

Questions are the fuel of truth!

How do we know what God commands?

We spend time with Jesus …
With the woman at the well …
Zacchaeus up a tree …
Blind Bartimaeus …

We can watch Jesus overturn the tables …
Challenge the teachers …
Raise hard questions in his hometown, questions so disturbing, they tried to throw him off the cliff.

How do we get to know God?

Sit down with a group of fellow travelers and read the Text together, pray together, ask lots of questions, but do it together … the whole congregation … yesterday at the Acts 16 workshop, a good phrase: the chemistry of the company … together, we’re stronger, better, brighter.

We’re going to do “chemistry of the company” in a few weeks … we’re going to study the Bible together.
We dive into the deep end of the pool … sputter and flounder … but we’ll learn how to swim … we’ll learn how to ask good questions ; we’ll help each other… and lo and behold, we will get to know God.

Years ago, I learned a little mantra:
To know God is to love God.
To love God is to serve God.

The Hebrew people wanted to remember that.
They wanted their children to know it.

Are we any different?

There is water in the rock.

Amen and Amen!