The Crumbs Beneath Thy Table:

Reflections on Exodus 16 and Matthew 20

This is an abridgment of a sermon I preached a few weeks ago on Exodus 16:2-4, 10-16 and Matthew 20:1-16. A further abridgment of this will be in the newspaper this week. They are actually the lectionary texts for the upcoming Sunday, September 18th.  The original title of the sermon was "When Grace Falls". 

         

          The people of Israel were wondering around in the wilderness with Moses at the lead. Imagine this wilderness – this desert place. This was not a comfortable place for the people of Israel to be. Recall that prior to this time of travel they had been slaves in Egypt. They had been a settled people, not nomadic people. They had been city dwellers and construction workers. They were not a traveling kind of folk. They were not like the pioneers, venturing out and fending for themselves, making a life in the harshest of conditions. These Israelites had never had to do this before. So even though the wilderness is a difficult place no matter who you are, for these Israelites it was the hardest of times. It was so difficult that they began to think about the good old days when they were just slaves in Egypt. Oh those were fine times, weren’t they? Everyone had food to eat; it was simply grand to be a slave. We all at times look back at the “good old days”. The grass was always greener back then, wasn’t it? We fool ourselves into believing that we have it so bad, when in fact the blessings abound (we just don’t see them clearly).

          But complain they did, and God was quite unsettled by it. As the story goes, God did not dismiss the complaints, but in fact heard them. God caused bread to fall from the sky and quail to appear each day. By God’s own provision, the people had their fill of food (and they didn’t even have to work for it).  I would like to say that this was the only time they complained. It was not. Complaining is something that seems to go alone with human living.  

           And, yes, we will all find something to complain about. It’s all a bit trite; a bit cliché. Don’t complain. Count your blessings. Be content with all you have. Those are wonderful platitudes, but perhaps the scripture today has something deeper to say to us than just the typical old sayings.
          Almighty God – the one who created the universe out of nothing; the same God who stretched the heavens, who crafted you and me in his very own image; the Sovereign Lord over all at whose very name the mountains tremble – this God called Israel together to follow him out into the world: to serve Him, to worship Him, to keep His commandants and live as a holy people. God then made a covenant with Israel that He would forever and always be with them.

Try to put yourself in the story. Imagine yourself there and the wonders you beheld. You saw with your own eyes the plagues that fell upon Egypt. You walked on the dry land across the Red Sea. You heard the voice of the Lord God speak! From Exodus 16:10, “And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said, ‘I have heard you.’” The voice of God is not a small thing, but even more, God rained down bread for the life of the people (Exodus 16:14).

            Grace is so abundant you can almost pick it up off the ground. Everywhere that God is, there is grace to be had. Grace is, very simply, the undeserved presence of God among us. God’s very presence is grace, and it brings with it forgiveness and the strength to live day to day in the face of hardship. God’s presence is active; it’s not just God residing out away somewhere; God is doing stuff in your life! God is speaking to you, guiding you, preparing you for the future. God’s grace brings out of us repentance and a desire for reconciliation. All of us are unworthy so much as to gather the crumbs beneath God’s Table. But, remember, grace is the undeserved presence of God among us. Wherever God is, there is grace to be had. It falls upon us, and you can almost just pick it up off the ground.

In my experience we tend to have at least two problems when it comes to grace. On the one hand we don’t trust that God’s grace is available. On the other we act like we’re entitled to it when we’re not. On the matter of not trusting in the availability of grace, simply look at the Israelites. They took one look at this bread from heaven said “What is it?” (the Hebrew word for “What is it” is Manna). We so often do not comprehend that God is active in our lives even though God promised to be. I’ve heard it so many times: “I just don’t feel like God is in my life. I don’t feel God near me. I used to feel the presence of God, and now I feel nothing.” When did being Christian become all about feelings? There are days I don’t feel like following in the ways of God. And yet, there are other days when I know with certainty that God is speaking from the cloud. Still, on those other days when the mountains do not tremble and the cloud does not portray to my liking the glory of God I must still trust that God promised to be present always – that God’s grace will still fall abundantly.

We also struggle on the other end of the spectrum, I’m afraid, with thinking that we deserve God’s grace, even perhaps more than others. There’s this story from Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus tells a parable of a landowner who goes out early in the morning looking for workers. He finds some day laborers who agree to work all day for a typical day’s wage. As it turns out, there was a lot of work to do that day, so the landowner went back out at 9 o’clock and again at noon and still again at 3 in the afternoon. Each time he gathered and hired more workers. He went out the last time at 5 o’clock and hired the last bunch. When the day was finally over (at about sun down), all the workers from the day lined up to receive their wage. The landowner paid them one by one, beginning with the ones who started working at 5 and went on down to those who worked all day. In a twist, the landowner paid everyone the same wage. He paid them all for a full day’s work. Didn’t the workers who had been there all day deserve more than the ones who arrived late? The landowner simply tells them that he can do what he wants with his money. It’s his after all! So it is with God’s grace: you don’t get to decide who gets it; you don’t get to decide how much; and you don’t get to horde it all for yourself. It’s God’s to give, and he just lets it fall from the sky so that everyone has the opportunity to live. 

My sisters and brothers, hear the Good News. Our ancestors ate manna in the desert. God graced them with the promise of himself. God’s grace is abundant and free, and it is here to be received for the sake of your very life. It is for you, for your neighbor, and for all who are in need of God. Will you receive God’s grace today? Will you share it? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.