Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Today’s Reading  |  Exodus 17:1–7
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (NRSV)      

Reflection
I have compassion for these people who, without directly hearing God’s voice themselves, are following an uncertain leader, and for so very long. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to leave in the first place.

Many of our great leaders have had dry patches in their faith. And of course there are Jesus’ last words on the cross. The question then is, how do we carry on: in the face of doubt, of continued suffering, of silence? And how do we carry on when the lives of our children—our neighbors’, our nation’s children—are at risk, and the way forward is uncertain and stony, and we thirst, Lord, we thirst for justice?

I take refuge in others. During worship, in listening to the congregation reciting the prayers and knowing that others feel deeply the words that may feel dry to me then. By myself, in reading the words of those who have come before and who have suffered their own silences. With others, in finding the blessings and small miracles in the relationships I have or in the faces of those I do not know. I call out and hear my cries answered, sometimes as a quiet stillness, sometimes as a great shout. The Israelites thirsted and feared, and they called out, they quarreled and complained, and Moses heard them and called out in turn, and God gave them water from a rock.

Meribah. There is no shame in wanting more when life is not just, in wanting life abundant. It takes a certain faith even to call out. A kernel of faith, as small as a mustard seed, perhaps?

Prayer
God of desert and ocean, of food and drink, of quiet and quarrel, keep in us the thirst for justice and the hunger for faith. Thank you for your signs in the world and for those who draw our sight to your signs. And may our thirst and your signs guide us in finding—and creating—life abundant for all. Amen.

Written by Anne Ellis, Program Manager for Congregational Life

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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