Wandering

Hi! Good morning and blessings to you all on this frosty, fall day.  The message today is based on chapter 6 from The Story and Number 11:4-15, Deuteronomy 8:11-20.

 

Tonight Charlie and I leave for a trip to Ireland.  We've been planning this trip for 6 months.  We  have our passports, our Euros, reservations, plane tickets, train reservations for our transportation from one city to another.  We have written out an itinerary and have a good idea where we will be each day and where the best places to eat are. We’ve scoped out the pubs, too.  I’ve heard it on good authority that you can’t go to Ireland and not visit a few pubs.

 I wish my life was so planned out.  But it isn’t.  Not for me, not really for anyone.  We can do our best to plan ahead, but those unforeseen things can pop up very easily and we find ourselves wandering in a place we never expected to be, whether it is physical, emotional, mental.  We never know how we will react until we are actually in that position. 

Today we will talk about a group that is in a place they never expected to be.  It’s the children of Israel.  Remember them? We’ve been following their progress.  Now they are wandering all over the desert.  Complaining, disobeying, trying to go off in their own direction, not satisfied with anything God is doing. Always anxious about something. Today in our 1^st reading, we heard that they are not happy with what is on the menu.  They’re bored with what God has provided for them.  They are sobbing to Moses, the man who faced down Pharaoh many times to get them out of Egypt, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Numbers 11:4-6. 

What short memories they have.  For years and years the children of Israel cried out to God to deliver them from their bondage to slavery.  So God did the impossible and got over a million people out of the country on foot with an army on horses after them.  They even crossed through a river and didn’t get wet.  Now they are looking around at the dismal landscape, the boring food and are wondering if freedom from slavery was worth the price they were paying.

Poor Moses.  He’s still wondering why God chose him to lead this ungrateful and unruly bunch out of Egypt.  In desperation, frustration, and exasperation, he cries out to the LORD, “Why have you treated your servant so badly?  Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all these people on me?...........I am not able to carry all these people alone, for they are too heavy for me.  If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once.” Numbers 11:11,14,15.

Nobody is very happy with God right now.  The people are way more than angry over their circumstances, stuck out in the middle of nowhere and Moses would rather be dead than spend one more day with them.  Because nobody can see past their present circumstances.  I guess you could say their vision is impaired, nearsighted.  They can see what is right in front of them, but can’t see into the distance.  God’s vision for their future as a holy nation is too far away for them to focus on.  The here and now is what is important to them.  So instead of asking God to help them to see their circumstances through God’s eyes, to help them to adjust their vision, they just all whine and complain and think about the good ole days that never were.

Where are we in this story?  Because this story is about us, too.  We go through these desert periods, too.  We know that God is with us, we know that the scripture says that all things work for the good for those who love God.  We know that Jesus, our Savior died so that we may live new and transformed lives, empowered by the Holy Spirit.  We know that our sins are forgiven, we don’t have to carry around a suitcase full of guilt and shame over anything we did or didn’t do in our lives.  We know there is a higher purpose for our lives.  We know we are to serve as a light to the world, a witness of the justice, mercy, and power of the living God.  We are to stand up for the helpless, to feed the hungry, to help the poor.

And then something happens; life changes for some reason.  Joblessness, health crisis, family problem, addiction, accident, sudden death of a loved one.   We find ourselves out in a desolate place and we can’t see that vision anymore.  All we can see is what is in front of us and somehow we step off the path.  And the more we focus on what is in front of us, the bigger it gets until everything else is obliterated.  You might notice something in your peripheral vision, but not enough to command your attention.  Fear and anxiety take over.  And we get lost….and angry.  At ourselves, at God, at other people in our lives.

How do we make it through the hard times without turning from God?  Because God never abandons us; it’s usually the other way around.  How do we remember who we are in the hard times?  The children of Israel were punished by God for their disobedience and their lack of trust in God.  Not one of them who  were over 20 years old when they left Egypt would enter the promised land.  They would die in the wilderness.  They didn’t get to see the land of milk and honey.  Was this unfair of God?   Maybe a little too harsh?  They had turned their back on God’s plan for them. 

How do we escape their fate in the desert places of our lives, when our lives are off course, when our itinerary for life’s journey just went down the toilet?   Do you feel like you are wandering in your own wilderness right now and would love some clear direction as to which way you need to be going?  Are you worried that maybe you missed the entrance into the promised land because of fear and distrust and now disconnected from God and can’t seem to find your way back? And if and when you do find your way back, will God even want you anymore?

Take heart!  You might feel lost, but you’re still in God’s sight.  You might feel alone…….but you’re not.  The children of Israel finally did enter the promised land.  They might not have been happy with the food and accommodations along the way, but their clothes never wore out, their shoes protected their feet all those years. Clothes are protection and shoes help our feet to move forward.  God protected  and guided them throughout their desert experience.  They could not go onto harder things, like the actual taking of the land, until they trusted and loved God.  Their desert experienced turned them into a nation.

No matter what your circumstances, in the good times, in the bad times, remember who you are.  You have been made in the image of God.  You are loved.  There are no places in your life that are hidden from God so don’t even try to hide from the one who created all things in the first place.  Through Jesus Christ, we have entered into freedom, into a place of grace and forgiveness.  If you feel like you’ve lost your way, remember, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39.

Stop running….stop feeling guilty……stop isolating yourself.  You are not lost.  God is now in charge of your itinerary and has a new destination for you that lines up with his vision for your life.  You might even need a new passport for the journey.  Remember always that Jesus loves you and so do your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Come on back.   Amen.