Thirsty, Exodus 17:1-7, 10/1/23

Thirsty

Exodus 17:1-7

Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins

October 1, 2023

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?” (Exodus 17:1-7 NRSV)

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Water. So delicious! So refreshing! If I had a little extra money, I’d put it in water. Not literally, mind you. I would invest in water. Realize that I would question your intelligence if you took investment advice from me. But I know that the people who really know how to make money are betting on water. From mega-banks[1] to Michael Burry[2] (the guy who made millions by predicting the housing market crash), big-time investors are putting their money in water through buying up land with water rights and by investing in water infrastructure, technology, distribution, and retail. “Water is the oil of the 21st century,” said the CEO of DOW Chemical Company.[3]

Why is water such a hot commodity? It’s everywhere, right? 70% of the earth’s surface is water. But freshwater, the kind that matters, is only 2.5% of that. Of that, something like 99% of the earth’s freshwater is held in snowfields and glaciers. Ultimately, only 0.007% of the world’s water is available for you and me and 7 billion of our closest friends. The worldwide population is growing. The climate is changing. Infrastructure is aging. This has already, and will increasingly, result in water scarcity. We’ve seen it in the ongoing tragedy in Flint, Michigan. The canary in the coalmine is singing her heart out. Investors are listening even if governments aren’t. Water is hot.

Most of the time, we take our clean, fresh water for granted. Apart from crazed buying before a hurricane, most of the time we mindlessly drink, shower, cook, and wash without thinking about where the water came from or whether we’ll have water tomorrow. So it’s a little hard for us to relate to the Israelites, who were hungry last week and thirsty today. 

Maybe I was a little hard on them last week. If I were worried about how I was going to feed my kids, I’d probably have a pretty good case of the grumpies. This week, they’re grumpy again . . . no, they’re downright livid . . . because they’re out there in the desert, and they’re thirsty. It’s hotter than Clearwater, Florida and there’s no A/C. No water. No wonder they’re ready to stone Moses. We’d be ready to stone our leaders too. It’s part of the pattern in these 40 years the Israelites roamed in the desert: the people complain, God provides, wash, rinse, repeat.

This time, God provided water from a rock. Moses named the place after the question the Israelites posed there in the wilderness: “Is the Lord among us or not?”

And that question, to me, is the most compelling part of the story, because this is the most relatable part of the story. There’s been a time or two in my life when I’ve asked that same question. Just guessing, I’d say many of you have asked that question as well. Maybe you’ve asked it multiple times in your life. Perhaps you even brought that question to church with you this morning. Maybe you’re debating if science and faith are mutually exclusive: “Is the Lord among us or not? Is God real or not?” Or maybe you look around at the pain and suffering, or experience your own pain and suffering: “Is the Lord among us or not? Is God real or not?” So if you have doubts, or have ever doubted, this message is for you. Those of you with perfect faith can take a little nap. I’ll wake you up for communion.

When is the first time you asked that question, “Is the Lord among us or not? Is God real or not?”

At the last church I served, there was a very smart little boy named “Caleb.” He was about 8-years-old. He figured out the Santa thing when he was about 7, and now he wondered if God was real, or maybe just a hoax. In Sunday school, he learned to “pray to God and ask God whatever you want.” So Caleb had a terrible stomachache one day. He prayed that God would take the stomachache away. But the stomachache lingered longer than Caleb (understandably) wanted. “I don’t think God is real,” he told his pastor.

Then I think back to my time as a campus minister. A devout young lady (about 19), Susan, came to my office. She was angry at God, if “God exists at all,” she said. She told me a story about a gal in her dorm who had gotten pregnant. She wasn’t prepared to have a baby, to be a mother, to tell her family. She thought she might have an abortion. Susan and some other devout Christian girls counseled her against that, and for her part, Susan prayed so fervently that she would make another choice. She didn’t. God, in Susan’s estimation, chose not to answer her prayers. “Where is God?” she wondered.

Ron was a 60-something man at the church I served. I didn’t know him well because he rarely attended church. I learned he stopped coming to church after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean—the one that killed over 200,000 people. The enormity of the loss and devastation made Ron give up on the idea that there was a God who cared about humanity. “So much for God,” Ron decided.

“Is the Lord among us or not?” For those of us who consider ourselves “thinking” Christians, this is a question we will have considered. For me, I really wrestled with that question following the death of someone I loved. I was already in ministry, but pretty fresh out of seminary. But this Christian minister’s prayers for healing fell flat. The suffering of my loved one was intense. Stories of God healing other people made me wonder why God wouldn’t heal my loved one.

Someone encouraged me to read a book, perhaps you’ve read it, by Rabbi Harold Kushner entitled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. A Jewish Rabbi helped this Christian minister rekindle her faith in God. But first I had to dismiss some ideas about God instilled in me (both intentionally and unintentionally) in church and seminary. Rekindling my faith in God required that I understand God anew—that I adopt a fresh understanding of who God is and how God acts in this world. Rabbi Kushner helped me grow from an immature (albeit seminary trained) belief in the “Cosmic Santa Claus” god who, with magical super powers, makes prayers/wishes come true. The Rabbi opened up the possibility for me that maybe God doesn’t sit around with superpowers, healing some people but not others, allowing suffering here but not there, picking and choosing in some random way that no human can understand so we’ll just say, “that’s God’s sovereignty and not for us to question.” But I’ve never been that compliant. So, I questioned. And the result of that questioning is that the God—the Divine Presence—I discovered on the other side of that doubt is so different, so amazing, so beyond words. The Unifying Presence waiting to be discovered after saying goodbye to the Cosmic Santa Claus is pure, radiant love. That’s the gospel I have preached ever since. That’s the God I want to help other people discover. The God and the gospel of unifying love.

Somewhere in that journey I discovered a quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that helped make a little bit of sense as to why the journey can be so challenging sometimes: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” If that’s true (and I think it is) it explains why it feels like so often we’re wandering in the wilderness, like we’re trying to find our way home.

“We are spiritual beings having a human experience,” offers insight into St. Augustine’s prayer: “Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Thee.” This human experience is the wilderness.

The Israelites wandered for 40 years. Life expectancy then was 30-35 years. If you lived to be 40, that was a ripe old age. 40 years in the wilderness equaled a lifetime. We spend our lifetimes—our human experience—in the wilderness as well. And here in the wilderness it’s so very human of us to wonder “Is the Lord among us or not?”

A couple of weeks ago, right after Hurricane Idalia, I was helping a few of our church members as they dealt with the aftermath of flooding in their homes. One of the things I did was round up a couple of dehumidifiers and deliver them. In the process, I ended up with a dehumidifier no one else needed (it belongs to Mel & Pam Ora), so I brought it home. I had been wondering if a dehumidifier would help with the humidity in my own home, so this was my opportunity to find out! I plugged in the dehumidifier, and within a few minutes, the reservoir was full of water. I yelled at my husband, “Would you come look at this?!?” as I poured out the water from the reservoir into the sink. I was amazed and astounded that all that water had been in the air in my house. I plugged it in again, and again, the reservoir filled up. I called out to my husband, “Would you come look at this?!?” as I poured out the water. He entertained me once again. He got a little tired of this game after the fifteenth time I asked him to come look at how much water I’d collected from the air in our house.

And so it is with the presence of God. Like water in the humid Florida air, God is all around us, at all times, whether we’re aware of it or not. God IS the very air we breathe.

So today, if you brought the question with you, “Is God among us or not,” or if it’s not quite resolved in there somewhere, first of all, know you’re not alone. It’s a normal question for those of us having a human experience.

Then secondly, if your god (little g) appears to be hiding or missing-in-action, I wonder if there’s a God (big G) right there waiting to be discovered. Behind the clichés, behind the magical superhero Sunday-school god you knew in grade school. Beyond the limits of theology or doctrine or biblical interpretation. The human experience clouds our view of God, of Essence. The Apostle Paul said it well when he wrote, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” (1 Cor. 13:12).

So, dear child of God, if you’re thirsty for God, take a deep breath, because God IS the air we breathe.

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[1] https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-new-water-barons-wall-street-mega-banks-are-buying-up-the-worlds-water/5383274

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/gurufocus/2016/04/05/gurus-invest-in-water-stocks-as-risk-to-resource-grows/#6d137c6e3434

[3] http://www.economist.com/node/11966993