Readings: Psalm 78, 1-4,12-16, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32, Exodus 17:1-7
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on October 1 2023
Over the past few weeks in our “Wilderness Living” sermon series we have been following the Israelite's journey to their promised land. We began with the birth of Moses, his miraculous deliverance, his coming to terms with who he was and what God was calling him to do. We saw how after a series of plagues, Pharaoh let the people go, only to pursue them to the banks of the Red Sea, and witness again, a mighty act of God that saw the Hebrews safe on the other side.
Then they begin their trek through the desert. They complain to Moses that they are in danger of starving. God again supplies what they need, and they are given bread from heaven to feast upon. But man cannot live by bread alone. You also need a water supply. And one thing that there is a lack of in the desert is... a water supply!
Predictably, the Israelite's begin to complain again. “Give us something to drink, Moses... or else.” Everybody is getting a little edgy. It’s been a long journey and there were as many obstacles ahead of them as there were behind them.
I’m sure we can identify with that picture. It sometimes feels as though we get through one difficult situation only to find that there’s another problem rearing its ugly head. We think we’ve solved the problem and then… another dilemma presents itself that is just as hard to figure out how to deal with. One step forward, two steps back. It can be like that in our personal lives, and it can be like that in our lives together as faith communities.
It wears you down. It doesn’t matter if you are a follower or a leader, this feeling that no matter what you do, you are still going to have to keep fighting through creates a lot of pressure, and when people become stressed, it is often only a little step before that anxiety can turn to anger and even violence.
In our reading the Hebrew people in the wilderness are just about at breaking point. They are in the desert and at their current resting place, a camp in Rephidim, there is nothing to drink. This time they are not just asking Moses to provide what they need, they are threatening to pelt him with rocks if he doesn’t come up with a solution.
And Moses himself hasn’t got as much patience as he had the last time they started to complain. He doesn’t calm things down any by reprimanding the people, for criticizing him, and in the process testing God.
So, when Moses goes to ask God for help, there is a very personal element involved. He doesn’t ask God for water. He asks Him for protection and safety. His concern is not just for the people, it is for his personal survival. “What shall I do with this people?” he asks God “They’re threatening to throw rocks at me!”
What we witness is one of those beautiful turn around moments that appear quite frequently in the Hebrew narratives. God, being God, has everything under control. What appeared to be a major crisis was about to be turned into a blessing. The Israelite's were about to be given yet another sign that the Lord their God was with them.
As with the manna that fell from heaven, it’s an unusual sign that they are offered. At first glance it seems to involve the sort of ‘trickery’ that would make Harry Potter proud. Moses is to take his stick, strike a rock that was at a place called Horeb and water would come flowing out from it. Lest there be any doubt that this was a genuine miracle, Moses is to take the elders of the people along with him, so the leaders of the peoples get to examine the rock, observe the events and testify to the people. Picture the scene…Moses as the magician… resplendent in Top Hat and cloak.
“I’d like to invite one of the audience here tonight to come and examine this rock. As you can see, ladies and gentleman, this is just a normal rock, solid granite through and through. You can check around the edges, on the top, underneath, there are no secret catches, latches or hatches, this rock is rock solid, solid rock, 100% rock, with no creases, or cracks or other un-rock like characteristics. And now, prepared to be in awe. I take this stick, I smash it on the rock, and “Voila- Woosh” water from the Rock!” Hurrah, Hurrah! Then he takes off his hat and wanders into the audience seeking donations :-)
Ridiculous illustrations aside, what happens is that the people are turned from seeing rock as something they could use to hurt with Moses with, to rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land.
Are there any things we can take from this passage to encourage us as we journey through the contradictory experiences life brings our way? I’d like to share two thoughts about the never ending faithfulness of God.
• Firstly… God is ahead of us.
• Secondly… God is a God of transformation.
God is ahead of us.
The words of Exodus17:6 are important in understanding this event. The Lord says to Moses, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb". God was still their God and they were still God’s people. Even though they complained and quarreled and fretted and worried… God was not about to give up on them!
God is here described as not being alongside us, or above us, or behind us, but “in front of you.” The God who goes ahead and prepares the way. The God who knows what is around the next corner and knows the way through. The God who is always ahead of us.
It is hard to look forward when the troubles of the day cause our heads to hang low. It is hard to think of future blessings when present troubles fill our agenda. When the sky turns black, and the thunder rolls and the rains start to fall, we are not thinking about sunny days in the future, we’re just trying to stay dry and stay safe from the storm.
Scripture tells us that God was not in the rock, but on the rock. God was ahead of them. God viewed the bigger picture There is a whole other sermon in there. When you’re standing on the rock you see possibilities that those who are standing on the sand will never see! We’ll have to save that message for another time, but the important thing right then was that they knew they hadn’t been abandoned. They could move on in faith, as long as they kept their heads held high.
As we face the many trying circumstances that come our way, the way forward is not to look for somebody to throw stones at or somebody to blame! Nor is it to assume that the presence of problems equates to an absence of God’s activity. Rather this is a call to trust that God’s love is here and now, leading us, guiding us, in front of us… always ahead of us! Because… that changes everything. The second thing we see in this story is that…
God is a God of transformation.
In John 4:14 Jesus meets a woman by a well in Samaria. The woman is between a rock and a hard place. She needs a transformation. Jesus tells her; “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." And we are told elsewhere that the water He was speaking about was the Holy Spirit. Through her encounter with Jesus Christ, she truly is changed, and her life would never be the same again.
The most powerful imagery in this chapter is the contrast between the rock of the desert and the water that flows to bring life. Under the touch of God, stone is transformed into refreshment. It speaks of how the hard and bitter and dry places of our lives can become places where we experience God’s life and love.
Did you notice that Moses had to strike the rock before any water came out? I don’t intend suggesting that we go around hitting each other with sticks in order to release the blessings of God. That we become some weird cult. “So, what church do you belong to?” “Oh, Presbyterian of ‘Hit ‘em with a stick’ in Bridgehampton.”
But… is it not true…that the hard knocks that life throws at us refine our faith in ways the good times fail to do? That it is the storms that we travel through that make us truly appreciate the daily blessings that surround our lives?
Wilderness times will come our way. In the wilderness the Israelite's wanted to know, “Moses, Is God still with us? Or are we going to die of thirst out here?” Moses himself was fearful that God had only bought them so far and now had left them to work it all out for themselves.
Time and time again the experience of faithful people has been that when they thought there was no way forward, the love of God came through for them. God takes situations that outwardly seemed hopeless and somehow everything is turned around as they put their faith in God’s ability to transform situations of desperation into opportunities for new life.
Was there ever a more desolate place than the cross? The cross of Calvary, upon which Jesus was crucified, has become for the church a symbol of faith. God took the hard place and used it as a means of blessing. God took that bitter hour and bathed it in glorious light as the stone rolled away from the tomb and the church ever since has declared Jesus Christ as the ‘Rock of Ages’ from whom love and grace now flow freely.
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure, Save from wrath and make me pure."
When we share in communion, we use bread and wine. The elements of bread and wine represent that hard place. That place of crucifixion and death. Bread, a broken body, wine, blood that was shed. But those elements are bathed with resurrection glory. God raised Jesus from the dead and God will intervene when we are lost and broken.
Through this strange action of bringing water from the rock, the people received the assurance that God was still on their case. Through this account we are offered two wonderful pictures of the faithfulness of God.
Firstly… God is ahead of us. Whatever our present circumstances we are called to trust that God is the One who knows exactly where we are and has a way forward that Jesus calls us to follow. For sure we often hope the struggle is over and we can step away and relax. But life does not cooperate. There will always be new challenges to face, whatever stage of life we may have reached.
Secondly… God is a God of transformation. Wherever we are right now, is not where God would have us stay. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform and renew, to bring blessings to the hard places and extract from stone the living water of life.
Just as the Hebrews were turned from seeing rocks as something they could use to hurt Moses, to the rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land, may our hard places be turned to opportunities, and our hearts of stone be transformed to thanksgiving and generosity.
So, remember this. God is before you, on the rock, seeing the way ahead and promising to guide you through it. As we place our trust in God, we are changed. We see new possibilities. We find strength for the journey. God’s Holy Spirit is sent as a promise that God can work in us, the transformation that our lives so desperately need.
To God be all glory. AMEN.
The Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D
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