Chapel Homily: April 5, 2022

"Wilderness, Woe, and Weaving"

For more than 40 years, from 1974-2016, Garrison Keillor had a public radio program called, "Prairie Home Companion." This was homespun wisdom and humor about a fictional town in Minnesota called Lake Woebegon. The stories Keillor told were both about contemporary times and dating back to the frontier days.

In this one he told about what he referred to as "Storm Homes" for children. Minnesota winters are brutal. Storms and blizzards can sweep in with no warning, with subzero temperatures. Or it may be a case of a fierce wind blowing the top layers of snow and no visibility at all and blinding conditions. Or in the summer, it might be a tornado. In the years before radar and cell phones, kids on the prairies could be at the mercy of being far from anywhere and without shelter. Coming and going to school every day, the children had no way of knowing for sure whether it would be safe travel conditions. And so, every child was assigned storm homes where they could take shelter when they were lost and couldn't see a route to safety and security. During the years when children walked long distances to rural schoolhouses, children knew where to locate storm homes if they ever needed one. No matter what the condition, there was some kind of refuge for them. Safety and security, and probably something or someone familiar.

And so for today, we now find Moses and the Israelites in the desert, wandering, hungry and thirsty, and the people grumbling about their conditions, not knowing for sure what they would eat every day. We have the privilege of knowing and seeing what they couldn't at the time—what Psalm 91 and Lamentations inform us, that:

Psalm 91: I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and fortress, my God in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge."

Lamentations 3:22-24: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

God is our Refuge. He is the one to trust. He is the One who will provide protection from whatever we may face. He is present in whatever we are dealing with. In a text today about deserts and manna, we are reminded that the Lord is our portion.

I can still hear my mom's voice today, from when I was little, assuring me that things were going to be okay. That soothing, calming voice and presence. You can trust me. I'm here. You are safe. You may have had those moments too, with a parent or grandparent. For me, it was sometimes at night, or with an injury that meant a broken bone. And it might be much harder moments, like the loss of a friend or family member. Whose voice was that for you? When did you need it? "I'm here. You're safe."

And in our house, because tough love was part of the household recipe, at different times I was told that whatever it was that I didn't like or was troubling me was actually good for me: Tomato juice, cauliflower, tripping and falling and getting a skinned knee, burning my hand. But it's true, sometimes we benefit from things that sting and bruise and hurt. I expect you can name those things, too.

For today I'd like to draw two points from the text: 1) We are not promised a life of nothing but easy times. Sometimes things can be hard, and that might feel like wilderness and darkness; 2) Don't panic. God is in control. We can trust him. We should trust him. And by His presence, He is working out his divine purposes through those situations.

The text for today is about manna and quail in the wilderness, God's provision, and how they had to trust him every single day.

Exodus 16 1-8, 13-14, 35

The whole Israelite community set out to Elim and came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, "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, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days." So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we that you should grumble against us?". . . That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. . . The Israelites ate manna for forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

Point #1: Life can be difficult

Let's be fair to the Israelites. Every night, for 40 years, they went to bed on the bare desert ground, with nothing on hand to eat for the next morning. For you and me, that would be going to bed every night with bare cupboards, and waking up the next morning to the same, single bowl of corn flakes, every day for 40 years except the day before the Sabbath when there were two bowls.

As Christians, or maybe it's just me, we can hope and think that we won't encounter difficult times, after all, God loves me; He wants the best for me; He doesn't want to see me suffer.

Giving our lives to Christ isn't some insurance policy against things being hard. But our storms and deserts don't mean that God is absent.

If we think that way, that life will be trouble-free, we'll certainly be disappointed. And that may also lead us to pull away from God. "You just must not be with me, Lord."

But look at the writers of the Psalms. So many of them write about darkness, or what they feel as the absence of God, even to the point of feeling darkness or distance more than they felt the presence of God. So, when we feel that darkness, we are in good company. The Psalmists felt it, too. But we learn that sometimes there's no better place to learn about God, and become a more faithful person, than in the desert.

Job and the Psalmists cried out to God through prayer. They complained and expressed their anger. But they remained in conversation with God. They were speaking to God; and because the holy word of God includes the words of disappointed and hurting people, that tells us that God understands.

Point #2: God is in control and He is at work

A pastor friend of mine had the sad and difficult and holy task of eulogizing a 9-year-old girl who died of cancer. In this eulogy for a broken-hearted family and congregation, he shared the story of Joseph, but in a way I hadn't heard before.

I know the Old Testament story of Joseph is familiar to many of you. So a quick summary to get to a familiar word at the end of the story. It's the story of a spoiled and probably bratty son whose brothers despised him. They sold him into slavery, told their father Jacob that he had been killed by a wild animal, and then went about their lives. Joseph eventually rose in favor in the household of Egyptian royalty. He was a privileged servant, but then gets falsely accused of pursuing Potiphar's wife. He is thrown in prison. After what we think was a number of years, after interpreting Pharoah's dreams and predicting 7 years of feast followed by 7 years of famine, Joseph is appointed second in command of all of Egypt. And you know the story—his brothers, in need of grain, at the direction of their father, come to Egypt. Joseph recognizes them, toys with them, traps them, and then eventually reveals himself as their brother, the one whom they had sold into slavery perhaps two decades before. And here is where Joseph shares those well-known words, "What you intended for evil, God meant for good."

Jim spoke about that word "intended," or "meant," how God intended this for good, or meant this hardship on Joseph for good. Jim made certain that the congregation and grieving parents heard that nothing about this terrible situation was good. This was awful; this was hard, and this girl's death was an unspeakable loss. But then Jim went on to say that the translation of that word "intended" in the Hebrew is best understood as a picture of how God was at work in this hardship.

One line is this life difficulty you are enduring, and there is another line, where God is working out his good and holy purposes in the midst of what you are going through. It's like two strands of rope coming together in a braid, or two lines of a marching band merging together, forming a single line. Your hardship, your wilderness, and God weaving Himself into that difficulty or loss, forming something new and stronger and different, and according to his plan, working out his holy purposes. That doesn't mean the hardship isn't real and that we won't endure them, but God is at work and intent on seeing something good.

When we hear Romans 8:28, that God is working all things towards good for those who are called according to his purposes, may it remind us that, through God, things are moving in a holy direction.

Hear again Psalm 91, which says, "I will say of the Lord, 'He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.' Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart."

Under those protective wings and feathers, we are sheltered from the heat, from storm, from predators, those things that might do us harm.

Conclusions: What does this mean for you and me?

Stay in conversation with God. Move towards Him, not away from Him. Allow his weaving work to do a work in you, hard as that can be. Trust that He is with you. He will never leave you or forsake you. He is in control. Manna is good. The true Bread of Life is way, way better. Rest in Him.

What does this mean for us as a community?

We have others in our midst who are suffering. May we be attentive to be used by God, as that strand of rope is in His hand, available to be used for his good and holy purposes to bring about something which he intends for good. May we be a weaving community providing storm homes for one another in need of refuge.

Amen.

Benediction: Now, go from here, knowing that the Lord is your refuge, he has covered you, he is with you in whatever wilderness you find yourself, he is your full portion, Jesus is the bread of life, every day. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.