Lent

March 10, 2020

Scripture 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?’

‘Is the Lord among us or not?’

One of my favorite little golden books as a child told the story of a chicken who walked under a tree and got hit in the head by a falling acorn and proceeded to instill panic in all the town running around crying out, “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!” I would laugh and laugh at the silly chicken acting so crazy over a little acorn. My little book was based on the traditional story out of Europe called Henny Penny. The moral of the story in my little book was we need to have courage and that panic never helps. The real folk tale has several endings one of which shows the animals that followed the chicken in their panic running into a cave where a fox ate them all.

We live in a world where tweets and other media posts serve as acorns bouncing off our heads diverting our energies in all directions with little impact on solving problems and creating a sense of hopelessness. Scripture recounts another story of Elijah withdrawing from a world going out of control in which he sees no way to correct its course. He runs away to a mountain:

[God] said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake;  and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” –1 Kings 19:11-13 God follows up this experience by setting forth a plan to address the issues at hand for Elijah to complete.

Prayer: Lord, help us to ‘Be still, and know that you are God! exalted among the nations, exalted in the earth.’* as you calm us write your plan on our hearts and give us the hope and the courage to carry it out. Amen.

*Derived from Psalm 46:10

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.