Speaking of Life 5044 | God’s Generosity
This week we’re sharing a Speaking of Life message from our archive as a supplemental resource. We encourage you to use this for reflection and preparation, or small group discussion. For your worship gathering, consider how a call to worship from a local voice or contextualized introduction to the theme might serve your congregation well.
Watch video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riJf-En9oT8
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5044 | God’s Generosity
Greg Williams
I grew up in apple country. My grandparents and my parents owned apple orchards, and each year we would hire laborers during harvest time to pick and pack apples. We paid a fair wage, and we rarely had trouble finding laborers. Sometimes a worker had to leave early or start late for some unforeseen reason, and I sometimes saw my dad or my grandfather pay them a full day’s wage anyway. Still, I’m not sure I ever saw them do the practice we read about in the book of Matthew.
In chapter 20, Jesus tells an interesting parable to illuminate the kingdom of God. He spoke about a landowner who sought to hire workers to labor in his vineyard. Similar to when I was young, day laborers at that time would gather at a central location and wait to be hired. The landowner hired his first batch of apple-pickers early in the morning, around 6:00, and agreed to pay them a denarius, which was the typical daily wage for work like this. He went out and hired workers at 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and 5:00. When evening came, the landowner decided to pay all of the workers, starting with the last hired. Seeing that the landowner paid those hired at 5:00 a denarius, those hired first expected to be paid more. When they also received a denarius, they began to complain. Those hired at 5:00 only worked one hour yet were paid the same wage as those who worked for 12 hours in the hot sun. In Matthew 20, we read the interesting response of the landowner in Jesus’ story:
But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Matthew 20:13-16
A lot is going on in this story. The one central lesson is that God, the landowner is good, gracious, and generous to all of his servants. This is the triune God’s nature, all the time.
The concept of human fairness is brought into question. How can a laborer who worked just one hour get the same pay as a laborer who worked 12 hours? The story is not really about labor laws and fair wages. It is about a personal God who offers grace and salvation to all.
Let me ask a strange question – “Are grace and salvation better for me than they are for you?” There are no degrees of separation, and Jesus’ teachings always deflate the notion of a competition or contest.
The landowner has space and rewards for all. As Jesus assured his followers, “In my house are many mansions.”
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking of Life 5044 | God’s Generosity
Greg Williams
I grew up in apple country. My grandparents and my parents owned apple orchards, and each year we would hire laborers during harvest time to pick and pack apples. We paid a fair wage, and we rarely had trouble finding laborers. Sometimes a worker had to leave early or start late for some unforeseen reason, and I sometimes saw my dad or my grandfather pay them a full day’s wage anyway. Still, I’m not sure I ever saw them do the practice we read about in the book of Matthew.
In chapter 20, Jesus tells an interesting parable to illuminate the kingdom of God. He spoke about a landowner who sought to hire workers to labor in his vineyard. Similar to when I was young, day laborers at that time would gather at a central location and wait to be hired. The landowner hired his first batch of apple-pickers early in the morning, around 6:00, and agreed to pay them a denarius, which was the typical daily wage for work like this. He went out and hired workers at 9:00, 12:00, 3:00, and 5:00. When evening came, the landowner decided to pay all of the workers, starting with the last hired. Seeing that the landowner paid those hired at 5:00 a denarius, those hired first expected to be paid more. When they also received a denarius, they began to complain. Those hired at 5:00 only worked one hour yet were paid the same wage as those who worked for 12 hours in the hot sun. In Matthew 20, we read the interesting response of the landowner in Jesus’ story:
But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
Matthew 20:13-16
A lot is going on in this story. The one central lesson is that God, the landowner is good, gracious, and generous to all of his servants. This is the triune God’s nature, all the time.
The concept of human fairness is brought into question. How can a laborer who worked just one hour get the same pay as a laborer who worked 12 hours? The story is not really about labor laws and fair wages. It is about a personal God who offers grace and salvation to all.
Let me ask a strange question – “Are grace and salvation better for me than they are for you?” There are no degrees of separation, and Jesus’ teachings always deflate the notion of a competition or contest.
The landowner has space and rewards for all. As Jesus assured his followers, “In my house are many mansions.”
I’m Greg Williams, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 105:1–6, 37–45 • Exodus 16:2–15 • Philippians 1:21–30 • Matthew 20:1–16
Today’s theme is God’s grace is greater than we can imagine. Our call to worship psalm recalls God’s faithfulness in delivering and providing for his people, according to his covenant love. The reading from Exodus tells of God’s provision of manna in the wilderness, where God’s grace meets daily needs despite human grumbling. The epistolary reading from Philippians presents Paul’s reflection on life and death, showing in suffering and service the believer can rest in the surpassing grace of Christ even at the expense of personal gain. The Gospel text in Matthew offers Jesus’ parable of the laborers in the vineyard, where God’s generosity overturns human expectations based on comparisons.
Reminder: This introductory paragraph is intended to show how the four RCL selections for this week are connected and to assist the preacher prepare the sermon. It is not intended to be included in the sermon.
How to use this sermon resource.
God’s Grace Is Greater Than We Can Imagine
Exodus 16:2–15 ESV
Over the past four Sundays, we’ve been following Israel’s journey from slavery toward freedom. We’ve seen God hear the cries of his people, confront Pharaoh with his power, and protect Israel through the Passover. At every step, God has been revealing who he is — the God who is at work to rescue us even when we cannot see him, the God who comes down, who keeps his promises, and does not abandon his children. God’s grace is greater than we can imagine.
Last Sunday, we saw a spectacular rescue from slavery. God led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. But now the celebration has faded, and the wilderness lies ahead. Today’s passage asks an important question: What happens when God’s rescued people begin to doubt the God who rescued them?
Let’s read Exodus 16:2–15.
2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.’” 10 And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 11 And the Lord said to Moses, 12 “I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. 14 And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. Exodus 16:2–15 ESV
If Israel’s story ended with crossing the Red Sea, it would read like a fairy tale classic that concludes with “and they lived happily ever after.” However, today we see how it is going for the Israelites beyond the Red Sea.
In the wilderness, it becomes clear why God instructed Moses and the people to observe the Passover before their deliverance from Egypt — not after (as we discussed two Sundays ago). Passover was given as a built-in reminder. It was meant to help Israel remember what God had done for them when their natural tendency would be to forget.
But it was more than a personal reminder. It was also a way of preserving the story for future generations — so that even those who had never experienced the exodus firsthand would know that God is the one who rescues, provides, and keeps his promises.
God knows us well. He knows how quickly celebration fades into forgetfulness. When the music stops, we forget the song; when the dancing ends, we lose the rhythm that once filled us with joy. So, in his mercy, God gives us reminders — practices, stories, and signs — to keep us moving forward when the journey becomes difficult.
Because the journey rarely feels like “milk and honey.”
That phrase, “a land flowing with milk and honey,” was God’s way of describing the Promised Land — the land God promised to their ancestor Abraham. Speaking to Moses at the burning bush, God said:
So I have come down to rescue [the Israelites] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Exodus 3:8 NIV
After being enslaved, what an abundant blessing to have a land of their own! “Milk” points to ongoing provision, the daily nourishment of flocks and herds. “Honey” points to sweetness, delight, and the richness of life as God intended it. Together, they paint a picture of fullness — of life not just surviving but flourishing in the presence of God.
But Israel was not there yet.
They were living in between — between the Red Sea, where God had already rescued them from slavery, and the Promised Land, where they would one day experience the fullness of God’s promises. God had already determined to make them his own, providing and protecting them and setting them free for relationship with him. But their current circumstance was the wilderness: uncertain, uncomfortable, and often disappointing. And it was precisely in that in-between space that their faith was tested.
And that is where we live, too. We sometimes call this the “already / not yet.”
Through Jesus Christ, we have already been delivered from bondage to sin and death. We are redeemed and reconciled to God. We belong to God, and our future is secure. We have not yet fully arrived at the “Promised Land.” We are still waiting for the fullness of God’s kingdom, when Christ returns and all things are made new.
So, we live in the wilderness of the present age — where we’ve been saved but evil still exists. That is why we need reminders.
Now, with that framework in mind, let’s return to our passage.
As we listen to this story, we need to be careful about where we place our focus. It would be easy to focus only on Israel’s poor response and miss the far more important response — the Lord’s response. It would also be easy to keep Israel’s grumbling at a distance, as if we would never do that. But their grumbling is a mirror held up to us as well.
And with humility, we can admit that we often respond in similar ways when our own wilderness becomes difficult. This story is not given to leave us wallowing in self-condemnation. It is given to show us how the Lord responds to his people in their weakness, and to encourage us to keep moving forward. God’s grace is greater than we can imagine.
The passage begins by telling us that the “whole congregation” grumbled against Moses and Aaron. This will become a repeated pattern throughout Israel’s wilderness journey. And it is a shocking response, especially so soon after their deliverance through the Red Sea. How soon they forget, we may think. And what’s worse, they are not just forgetting what the Lord did for them, but they are remembering wrongly what it was like in Egypt.
They focus their grumbling by fixating on food. They say they sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. But was slavery really so abundant? Was life under Pharaoh truly better than life with God? Their complaint suggests that Pharaoh treated them better than the Lord. They are looking back to their former life of slavery and thinking it was not so bad after all. They have become so distracted by the hardship of the wilderness that they have lost sight of the promise of God.
Ultimately, they have forgotten that God revealed to them that he can be trusted. Now that the journey has got a little rocky, they start to think that God is not who he says he is.
At the heart of their grumbling is a misjudgment of their circumstances. But worse yet, they have misjudged God’s character. Instead of seeing him as the God who delivered them from slavery into life, they begin to believe that he has brought them into the wilderness to die.
Their circumstances have become louder than God’s promise. And if we are honest, we know this temptation as well. When our own lives become dry and rocky, we can begin to wonder whether God is truly good, whether he is truly for us, whether he really intends to give us life. We hear again the old whisper of doubt: “Can I believe what God says?” We begin to believe the lie that God is withholding life from us, rather than leading us into it.
So, we should ask ourselves: what are we allowing to feed our understanding of life? Are we measuring life by the diet of this present evil age? Are we tempted to prefer what the old tyrants once fed us, forgetting that every morsel came with chains attached? The world offers many things that promise fullness, but they cannot nourish the soul. Only God’s living Word gives life. Israel’s story warns us not to confuse bondage with blessing simply because the wilderness feels hard.
Yet this temptation is real, especially in the wilderness, and we all face it. So, what do God’s people need when fear, hunger, and disappointment begin to distort their vision? The answer is found in the Lord’s response. As surprising as Israel’s grumbling may be, God’s response is even more surprising. He does not abandon them. He does not send them back to Egypt. He does not answer their complaint with rejection.
He plans to feed them. Because God’s grace is greater than we can imagine.
That is not how we usually respond to unjustified grumbling and complaint. But there is hardly a pause in the passage between Israel’s grumbling and the Lord’s provision. There is no word of disdain, disappointment, or dismissal in God’s response. He simply tells Moses what he is about to do.
Once again, God reveals his heart and character through his actions toward his people. God hears the cries of his people. God is rescuing us, even when we cannot see him. God comes down, keeps his promises, and does not abandon his children.
Now notice how he feeds them. The bread from heaven will come one day at a time, with enough for each day and twice as much on the sixth day so they can rest on the Sabbath. In other words, God’s provision will also train their trust. They will have to learn, day after day, that the Lord is faithful to his word. The test in the wilderness is not simply about food; it is about faith. God is feeding their bodies, but he is also feeding their trust in him.
God gives them a daily reminder of his provision in the wilderness. And we can ask: has God provided for us in similar ways? Maybe not in dramatic abundance, like the lottery, but has he not given us daily bread? More importantly, when we see Jesus as the Bread of Life, we can say that every day we wake on this earth, we are met by the One who came down from heaven for us. Even when we grumble and complain, we find that his mercies are new. His grace covers the ground we walk on. He provides not only what we need, but also what strengthens our faith along the journey.
Regardless of our unfaithful responses, this is the grace God gives. God’s grace is greater than we can imagine. And thankfully, Jesus shares his perfect faith in his Father with us!
God’s greatest provision in this story is not the manna or the meat. It is his presence. After Aaron speaks to the people, they look toward the wilderness, and “the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.” That is what they needed most in the wilderness. They needed to know that God was with them, that he had not abandoned them, and that he would see them through to the end. He is the same God in a cloud who stood between them and the Egyptians at the Red Sea.
That is what we need most as well. Living in this present evil age does not always feel like a land flowing with milk and honey. It often leaves us thirsty, hungry, weary, and longing for more. The journey includes disappointment, suffering, and sometimes great loss.
Yet when we recall our Lord Jesus on the cross, we are reminded that he entered our wilderness to restore it and bring us into his new creation. And by the Spirit, he continues to be present with us in the wilderness. So, no matter what wilderness you may be walking through today, look up. The God who brought us out will bring us home. And until the fullness of his kingdom comes, we can keep moving forward in hope.
Finally, at the end of the passage, God is faithful to his word. He gives Israel meat in the evening and bread in the morning. The quail and the manna both come from above. This is a picture of God’s grace that comes down to us. Ultimately, it is Jesus who was sent down to us as God’s grace. It is Jesus who is our Bread of Life who sends his Spirit to descend on us like a bird.
Israel’s story points us to the greater story — the final deliverance from every form of bondage and oppression, secured for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. In him, we see the full and perfect self-revelation of God. Through Jesus’ words and actions, we come to know the God who is holy, righteous, and relational — the God who is more committed to us than we are even to ourselves. Jesus shows us the Father that we are unable to see because sin has blinded us.
When we read Exodus in the light of Jesus, the two testaments stand together as one witness to the Almighty God we know as Father, Son, and Spirit. This is the God of love — the God who will not abandon his creation or surrender it to anything that stands against his children. God heals what is broken, reconciles what is estranged, and makes us into a new creation. God’s grace is greater than we can imagine.
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 20
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR079-Nordling-YearA-Proper20.mp3
Program Transcript
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 20
Anthony: Let’s move on to our next text. It’s Exodus 16:2–15. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 20 in Ordinary Time, September 20. And it reads:
2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites: ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” 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. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses, 12 “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
So, Israel’s complaint against Moses and Aaron reflects a longing for Egypt despite their deliverance. What, if anything, does this reveal to modern people about the challenges of living between redemption and the fulfillment of God’s promises?
Cherith: Oh, boy. It reveals, if anything, and there’s so much, right? So, we’ll pick one thing. Two things. Again, as we’re reading this and hearing this with Jesus, I’m amazed that in the, I’m thinking of John’s Gospel in particular right now, of all the ways that Jesus is going to put in his own mouth the I Am, right? That everything that we’re reading of the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, as you and I are seeing it in this translation, is the unspeakable name, right? The name they won’t say at the point that Jesus is alive and hearing these read in the synagogue. But it’s the name of Yahweh who is the Lord of Hosts, is the transcendent one, and the I Am That I Am who has met Moses.
And Jesus starts putting the I Am in his own mouth, and one of the I Ams that says, “This is, if you really want to know God, you do not keep his laws and think he is a taskmaster who will give you a good report card and keep you alive and bless you. You find out by my life what your Abba, who is the Lord,” the unspeakable name looks, “and he is your bread. I am your bread from heaven,” right? “And I will be the one who feeds you.”
And yet the only prayer that Jesus gives us for being the one who seems to be praying more than anybody in the New Testament, certainly in the Gospels, even though they are, you know, their daily rituals of prayer ― Jesus gives us only one prayer, and in the middle of that prayer is himself, right? Again, which is, “Ask me for your daily bread.”
Anthony: Yes.
Cherith: Don’t ask me to give you enough to store up in your barn, because then you will stop looking at our Father in heaven and ask what his will is.
Anthony: Come on.
Cherith: And walk in it, and find your delight by walking in his will and knowing his ways, right? You will not look for the intersection of heaven and in earth, which is actually where you live, because the Spirit has birthed you into this new covenant in my blood, and that is the space that you just asked about, right? It’s the place between redemption and telos, which is already, you have been marked by the Spirit of resurrection, who is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. So, when you want to know how this turns out, you look at the one who is the one who makes himself your daily bread to feed a world that he loves, to see if by you partaking of him, you might be strengthened enough and look enough like him to actually be able to recognize his voice and to go with him in your day, where he would invite you to come alongside him in where he would want you to be the bread of the world, right?
Because you are his body. We are one body, one loaf, to be given for the world. So, I think in some ways it’s like if we cannot keep our eyes on him, who is the host of our table, who lays himself down as the host of what we eat at the table, by which we are fed and made into his image at the table, empowered to go into the world by the Spirit, having partaken of him at this table, if we are not people of his presence who see his face across the table, and those of our neighbor, and everybody sitting next to us as our neighbor, and we’re like, “How the hell did they get there?”
And Jesus is like, ” everybody gets the same invitation,” and so that he might ask you, “How did you get here,” right? “Everybody just gets here because I am here, and everyone comes with me.” And somehow everything about what it means to live the life in between is to say Jesus is, like, “Ask me how I did this, in the power of the Spirit, knowing my Father in heaven as Abba, and also the creator and ruler of the universe, as I am,” right?
“But I am revealing to you that God is humble, and with the marginalized, and with the weak, and with the ones who cannot store up great barns for themselves, and usually doing it on the backs of others,” right? At the expense of others.
But also, he just doesn’t do that. He’s, like, “No, I am enough. I am more than enough for every day. And then what would happen if you actually took that bread and gave it away, and trust that I could multiply it so that there would not just be enough for you and your neighbor? It’s not that I want you to go hungry at your neighbor’s expense, it’s that I have … I am bread. Could you go be that and see miracles happen in your midst in the most ordinary and extraordinary ways?”
So, I just feel like even the manna story, if we just sit with him as the revelation of that, it reorders us into that already-not-yet space that says, “Oh, I am tempted to move out of the storyline, but there is no other story. There is no other story. I’ve got a lot of fake stories that I could act out, but they’re not true and they’re killing me,” right? “And there isn’t bread there. It’s temporary snack, and I’m willing to let it satisfy me for the moment. But it is not life, and I’m dying if I just have that diet.” So, yeah, there’s just so much there.
Anthony: There is. And the imagery, the way I sometimes think of it is, this daily bread notion, is we really want our bread from Sam’s Club or Costco, don’t we, in bulk …
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: … where we can store it up and have enough for our people, my people, that we’ll eat well for weeks and weeks. But it is relationship, so it is dependence. It is trust. And there’s something about recognizing our need every day in a way that we don’t live often, here in the States anyway. That’s really powerful. Give us this day our daily bread, Lord.
So, God responds ― speaking of bread ― to Israel’s grumbling, not with punishment, but with provision. So, that’ll preach. So, tell us more of how this points us to the ultimate provision in Jesus Christ, beyond what you’ve already said.
Cherith: I just think the Lord is just gracious. I used to read these texts. I remember sitting as a girl in church and just being like, “What is their deal?” “What does God have to do?” And then I would re-preach the sermon on the way home. My parents would tell me this, too, “You would sit your brothers in the backseat, and then you would say all the things you thought the pastor should have also said.”
And he said, “And then by lunchtime, little Pharisee that you were, knowing the Scriptures oh so well, but you were just brutal on your little brothers and I would just be like, ‘Oh, yeah.’” There’s this way of kind of knowing but not knowing and I just think it’s so funny that I was that person who could read these things and be like, ” I would not be like that.” And my parents were like, “Oh, honey, we’re all like that, and you were like that within about 35 minutes after church.”
And I think I have to just, at this stage of my life, laugh at how many seasons of my life I have grumbled or been …
[00:44:00] Anthony: Yeah
Cherith: … pissed off, or reluctant priest, or the whatever.
Anthony: Yeah.
Cherith. And just have to have Jesus really sit me down and almost look at me face-to-face so that I can see how hard he is trying hard not to laugh. But really not at me …
Anthony: Sure, sure.
Cherith: … but just, like the older I get, the more kind of childish and childlike all at the same time. And then at the same time, the humor in those eyes, there’s so much compassion that is part of that, because whatever laughter of God is at the ground of the world’s being, because there’s just joy, there also just has to be so much compassion. And I just keep recognizing that actually there is a difference between my daily orneriness and tiredness or whatever else is, and the places where I’m like, “Why can’t I just…”
And instead of being ashamed of that, I just hear his compassion saying, “Cherith, I know the answer to that question. You don’t know the answer, if at all, but I do know. I know what has formed you. I know all the influences that have been on your life. I know the things that have shaped you. I know the country that you live in, the time in history in which you live, in the country in which you live, that is different than had you been born in another country at the same time, let alone a different time. That this time in which you live, people died all the time 100 years ago. People didn’t have enough to eat all the time in your country 100 years ago. But right now, that is not normal for you. And so, even your very framework has been shaped by a sense of ease and entitlement and privilege that assumes so much. And I understand that, and I have compassion on you for being someone formed in convenience instead of hardship. And I have compassion on those who have been formed in hardship. I know what brings you to these moments.”
And so, I think the invitation is always there, and then the invitation becomes one of, “Would you like to see more? Would you like to know what is troubling your heart really?”
And come into a place that confesses that, to just acknowledge, “Oh, this is the sin working on me, that I didn’t even know exists in my deep heart. And you, Lord, are always the Lord whose character is to have mercy and to have compassion. And so, how do you help me realize that what you really provide for me is the love and the mercy that I need to keep entering into the promise of life with you, and not become afraid of you, or not trust that you are one who keeps a record of wrong, or all the stuff?” There’s just a deep call to who he really is as the Lord of compassion and mercy, which he’s been before I ever met him, right? And before I ever recognized him. Yes.
Anthony: Amen and amen. Yeah. Thank you.
Program Transcript
Cherith Fee Nordling—Year A Proper 20
Anthony: Let’s move on to our next text. It’s Exodus 16:2–15. It’s the Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 20 in Ordinary Time, September 20. And it reads:
2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.” 6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “In the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your complaining against the Lord. For what are we, that you complain against us?” 8 And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the Lord has heard the complaining that you utter against him—what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.”
9 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites: ‘Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.’ ” 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. 11 The Lord spoke to Moses, 12 “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. 14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
So, Israel’s complaint against Moses and Aaron reflects a longing for Egypt despite their deliverance. What, if anything, does this reveal to modern people about the challenges of living between redemption and the fulfillment of God’s promises?
Cherith: Oh, boy. It reveals, if anything, and there’s so much, right? So, we’ll pick one thing. Two things. Again, as we’re reading this and hearing this with Jesus, I’m amazed that in the, I’m thinking of John’s Gospel in particular right now, of all the ways that Jesus is going to put in his own mouth the I Am, right? That everything that we’re reading of the Lord, capital L-O-R-D, as you and I are seeing it in this translation, is the unspeakable name, right? The name they won’t say at the point that Jesus is alive and hearing these read in the synagogue. But it’s the name of Yahweh who is the Lord of Hosts, is the transcendent one, and the I Am That I Am who has met Moses.
And Jesus starts putting the I Am in his own mouth, and one of the I Ams that says, “This is, if you really want to know God, you do not keep his laws and think he is a taskmaster who will give you a good report card and keep you alive and bless you. You find out by my life what your Abba, who is the Lord,” the unspeakable name looks, “and he is your bread. I am your bread from heaven,” right? “And I will be the one who feeds you.”
And yet the only prayer that Jesus gives us for being the one who seems to be praying more than anybody in the New Testament, certainly in the Gospels, even though they are, you know, their daily rituals of prayer ― Jesus gives us only one prayer, and in the middle of that prayer is himself, right? Again, which is, “Ask me for your daily bread.”
Anthony: Yes.
Cherith: Don’t ask me to give you enough to store up in your barn, because then you will stop looking at our Father in heaven and ask what his will is.
Anthony: Come on.
Cherith: And walk in it, and find your delight by walking in his will and knowing his ways, right? You will not look for the intersection of heaven and in earth, which is actually where you live, because the Spirit has birthed you into this new covenant in my blood, and that is the space that you just asked about, right? It’s the place between redemption and telos, which is already, you have been marked by the Spirit of resurrection, who is the one who raised Jesus from the dead. So, when you want to know how this turns out, you look at the one who is the one who makes himself your daily bread to feed a world that he loves, to see if by you partaking of him, you might be strengthened enough and look enough like him to actually be able to recognize his voice and to go with him in your day, where he would invite you to come alongside him in where he would want you to be the bread of the world, right?
Because you are his body. We are one body, one loaf, to be given for the world. So, I think in some ways it’s like if we cannot keep our eyes on him, who is the host of our table, who lays himself down as the host of what we eat at the table, by which we are fed and made into his image at the table, empowered to go into the world by the Spirit, having partaken of him at this table, if we are not people of his presence who see his face across the table, and those of our neighbor, and everybody sitting next to us as our neighbor, and we’re like, “How the hell did they get there?”
And Jesus is like, ” everybody gets the same invitation,” and so that he might ask you, “How did you get here,” right? “Everybody just gets here because I am here, and everyone comes with me.” And somehow everything about what it means to live the life in between is to say Jesus is, like, “Ask me how I did this, in the power of the Spirit, knowing my Father in heaven as Abba, and also the creator and ruler of the universe, as I am,” right?
“But I am revealing to you that God is humble, and with the marginalized, and with the weak, and with the ones who cannot store up great barns for themselves, and usually doing it on the backs of others,” right? At the expense of others.
But also, he just doesn’t do that. He’s, like, “No, I am enough. I am more than enough for every day. And then what would happen if you actually took that bread and gave it away, and trust that I could multiply it so that there would not just be enough for you and your neighbor? It’s not that I want you to go hungry at your neighbor’s expense, it’s that I have … I am bread. Could you go be that and see miracles happen in your midst in the most ordinary and extraordinary ways?”
So, I just feel like even the manna story, if we just sit with him as the revelation of that, it reorders us into that already-not-yet space that says, “Oh, I am tempted to move out of the storyline, but there is no other story. There is no other story. I’ve got a lot of fake stories that I could act out, but they’re not true and they’re killing me,” right? “And there isn’t bread there. It’s temporary snack, and I’m willing to let it satisfy me for the moment. But it is not life, and I’m dying if I just have that diet.” So, yeah, there’s just so much there.
Anthony: There is. And the imagery, the way I sometimes think of it is, this daily bread notion, is we really want our bread from Sam’s Club or Costco, don’t we, in bulk …
Cherith: Yep.
Anthony: … where we can store it up and have enough for our people, my people, that we’ll eat well for weeks and weeks. But it is relationship, so it is dependence. It is trust. And there’s something about recognizing our need every day in a way that we don’t live often, here in the States anyway. That’s really powerful. Give us this day our daily bread, Lord.
So, God responds ― speaking of bread ― to Israel’s grumbling, not with punishment, but with provision. So, that’ll preach. So, tell us more of how this points us to the ultimate provision in Jesus Christ, beyond what you’ve already said.
Cherith: I just think the Lord is just gracious. I used to read these texts. I remember sitting as a girl in church and just being like, “What is their deal?” “What does God have to do?” And then I would re-preach the sermon on the way home. My parents would tell me this, too, “You would sit your brothers in the backseat, and then you would say all the things you thought the pastor should have also said.”
And he said, “And then by lunchtime, little Pharisee that you were, knowing the Scriptures oh so well, but you were just brutal on your little brothers and I would just be like, ‘Oh, yeah.’” There’s this way of kind of knowing but not knowing and I just think it’s so funny that I was that person who could read these things and be like, ” I would not be like that.” And my parents were like, “Oh, honey, we’re all like that, and you were like that within about 35 minutes after church.”
And I think I have to just, at this stage of my life, laugh at how many seasons of my life I have grumbled or been …
[00:44:00] Anthony: Yeah
Cherith: … pissed off, or reluctant priest, or the whatever.
Anthony: Yeah.
Cherith. And just have to have Jesus really sit me down and almost look at me face-to-face so that I can see how hard he is trying hard not to laugh. But really not at me …
Anthony: Sure, sure.
Cherith: … but just, like the older I get, the more kind of childish and childlike all at the same time. And then at the same time, the humor in those eyes, there’s so much compassion that is part of that, because whatever laughter of God is at the ground of the world’s being, because there’s just joy, there also just has to be so much compassion. And I just keep recognizing that actually there is a difference between my daily orneriness and tiredness or whatever else is, and the places where I’m like, “Why can’t I just…”
And instead of being ashamed of that, I just hear his compassion saying, “Cherith, I know the answer to that question. You don’t know the answer, if at all, but I do know. I know what has formed you. I know all the influences that have been on your life. I know the things that have shaped you. I know the country that you live in, the time in history in which you live, in the country in which you live, that is different than had you been born in another country at the same time, let alone a different time. That this time in which you live, people died all the time 100 years ago. People didn’t have enough to eat all the time in your country 100 years ago. But right now, that is not normal for you. And so, even your very framework has been shaped by a sense of ease and entitlement and privilege that assumes so much. And I understand that, and I have compassion on you for being someone formed in convenience instead of hardship. And I have compassion on those who have been formed in hardship. I know what brings you to these moments.”
And so, I think the invitation is always there, and then the invitation becomes one of, “Would you like to see more? Would you like to know what is troubling your heart really?”
And come into a place that confesses that, to just acknowledge, “Oh, this is the sin working on me, that I didn’t even know exists in my deep heart. And you, Lord, are always the Lord whose character is to have mercy and to have compassion. And so, how do you help me realize that what you really provide for me is the love and the mercy that I need to keep entering into the promise of life with you, and not become afraid of you, or not trust that you are one who keeps a record of wrong, or all the stuff?” There’s just a deep call to who he really is as the Lord of compassion and mercy, which he’s been before I ever met him, right? And before I ever recognized him. Yes.
Anthony: Amen and amen. Yeah. Thank you.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Can you think of times you responded with grumbling like the people of Israel did in this story? Did you see God’s grace in his response to it?
- God responded to Israel’s grumbling immediately, by feeding them and without scolding them. What does that teach us about his character and his grace?
- Israel’s circumstances became louder than God’s promise. What reminders or “daily bread” help you remember God’s faithfulness?
- The Israelites lived between the Red Sea and the Promised Land, and we live in the “already/not yet” between Christ’s victory and the fullness of God’s kingdom. How does that perspective change the way we understand hardship, waiting, or disappointment?
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