Moses: On Getting It Wrong. Seriously Wrong
Numbers 20:2-13
January 28, 2007

I take up this morning the subject of goodness, God’s goodness, and what we too often do to sabotage it. Sounds grim, I know, but I don’t mean to have you leaving here going, Oh, my God, I’m so sorry, I so need to repent and turn my life around! No, not like that at all. I pray that when you leave – supposing, of course, that I make my point well enough – I pray that when you leave, you will say something like, Oh, you mean there’s another way? Because, you see, I believe we all push God out of our world and we don’t even recognize that we’re doing it. I give us a lot of credit that we come here on Sunday morning seeking the presence of the Lord. I give us credit that we pray. I give us credit that we call ourselves Christians and try to be good people. I give us credit that when trouble comes, we are willing and able to say, OK, now Jesus, walk me through the valley, walk me through the valley, walk me through the valley. I will dwell in your house, your house, your house, forever.

But when we walk out that door after all this God talk about a powerful, mighty, good and loving Lord, we walk out assuming it’s all up to us! Am I right? It’s not that we’re so arrogant. It’s just that we forget and we think we’re in charge! We think we leave the house of the Lord and go out and make the grass grow and the sun come up and the planet spin!

It isn’t so! And then when things do go wrong, we remember that God’s supposed to be in charge, and we ask, So, God, where are you when we need you?

Does that sound anything like the Israelites in the wilderness?

This is a sermon, then, about giving the credit back to God and seeing where God might take us. It’s a sermon not about judgment and feeling sorry, but about discipleship and taking a chance on God.

God’s goodness comes to us in so many ways. In simplest terms, the goodness comes in ordinary things, just as the Israelites remember bread and jam and wine and dessert back in Egypt . We take ordinary things for granted until they are taken away and then we remember, Oh, those were the days!

I am currently negotiating a deal with my doctor. He’s going to win, but I am procastinating as long as I can. The problem is my cholosterol, which is high. My doctor says I need to go on Lipitor. I do not like pills. Pills mean I am getting older! I say I can do without pills. In any case, I am informed I need to give up butter, cheese, red meat and ice cream of the premium, buttery kind. Who knew when I went back for a second black rasberry ice cream cone with sprinkles? Who knew about fresh, hot bread with, well, lots of butter? Who knew that chocolate and caffeine aren’t two of the basic food groups?

My wife, of course, says, well, you can also just have a little….. You think so? Oh, those were the days! Yeah, those were the days when I didn’t have to think, when I didn’t have to measure, when I didn’t have to appreciate what I had…… the gift of a healthy heart and arteries like life lines.... Those were the days!

You think I am being facetious and unserious about what we take for granted? Take our addiction to oil! Does anyone remember the days when you could fill your gas tank with pocket change and you could heat this church for a year one one person’s pledge? Oh, those were the days!

What happened? Am I being too extreme when I say to you that if President Bush wants to find a graceful exit from Iraq , he could begin by attacking our addiction to oil at home!? Part of why he feels that we cannot back out of Iraq is that Iraq is our strategic hand in the Middle Eastern oil game! What if – well, what ifs are Monday morning quarterbacking, aren’t they! What if we had put as much money into mass transit as mass highways, and research into alternative fuels as into oil exploration, and our commitment into urban neighborhoods instead of sprawling suburbs? Is it too late? Would we even be in Iraq ? I don’t know!

But I do know this! We’re like the Israelites crying out at God in the desert, saying God, we need oil! Moses, you strike that rock and get us more oil out of it! Moses, why did you lead us into this god-forsaken place just to live without oil? Moses, ask God, would you, God, how come we’re in this tough place in Iraq ? God, how come nobody believes we’re good guys? God, are you even listening?

You ever been around an addict? It’s always someone else’s fault?

I heard a bizarre story the other day. The father of a friend of my daughter’s is an airplane pilot. He told me that a few months ago he was lifting off from the Los Angeles airport in a big cargo plane, headed for New York . The plane was heavy with cargo and fuel. The crew got up in the air just fine, but the landing gear got stuck open. Now this is a huge problem. Since the landing gear was already down, you would think that they could just circle around and land back down at LAX and get the problem fixed. But, no, they can’t. The plane uses so much fuel for the long haul that at the start of the trip the plane is just too heavy to land – the landing gear would just break off like matchsticks.

So, the answer from the federal airline authorities to the pilot was for the plane to dump 35,000 gallons of fuel in the air over Catalina Island , and then return to the airport. Thirty-five thousand gallons. Not only that, but the problem didn’t get fixed. Three times they went up. Three times they dumped 35,000 gallons of fuel. Three times they returned until the decision was made to scrap the flight.

Do the math. Three times 35,000. Three times 35,000 gallons at near $3.00/gallon. Never mind the earth and sea below.

Is there something wrong with this picture? Is this crazy?

What has God got to do with it? Maybe God has to do with gratitude. Maybe God has to do with planning ahead. Maybe God wants to free us up from bigger, better, faster, longer. Maybe God is not in the fuel tank. Maybe God is not in the addiction. Maybe that’s about us.

So far, I have spoken of gratitude and freedom. Let me take us one more step into scripture and life. Let me also speak of imagination!

Moses, you see, got it wrong. Seriously wrong. Now Moses was the leader of the people. And Moses had a mighty staff in his hand and Moses was used to doing mighty things with his staff. That staff did miracles right in front of Pharoah. That staff parted the Red Sea . That staff had once struck the rock and water had come gushing out for thirsty people.

But now God has a new thing in mind. God is going to ask the people of Israel to imagine an unimaginable goodness. The land of slavery and Egypt was long ago and far off. Now they are a free people, but they are hungry, exhausted, thirsty, at the end of their rope.

So God is going to ask the people to imagine that they are destined for a land flowing with milk and honey. You have to understand what milk and honey meant to people without either one. Milk meant flocks of sheep and goats. Milk meant plenty. Honey meant bees requiring land and security. Milk and honey meant plenty and security. An unimaginable goodness for a people without either one.

Here’s the thing. This is perhaps the deepest insight in the bible. God needs people to stop thinking like slaves! You see, the Israelites are free of the oppression in Egypt , but they are still thinking like runaway slaves. They assume they have no power. They assume that somebody, presumably God, is going to take care of them. They assume that as long as you are good people and do good things, God will do the rest. They assume it’s all about bribing God with beautiful sanctuaries, good sermons and offertory bribes. I know – I’m gettting carried away!

The Bible says that’s slave talk. Free people take a chance on God. Free people imagine the promised land when they are hungry and thirsty and lost. Free people step out in the direction God is pointing. Free people even leave their staffs behind – yes, they even leave the tried and true behind, and take a chance on God!

But Moses gets it wrong. Seriously wrong. God says, Moses, I hear the people and their desperation. Moses, I will provide. But Moses, I need you to do a new thing. Moses, once upon a time I told you to strike that rock with your staff and I made water come out of it. Now, Moses, I want you just to speak to the rock. Don’t use your staff! Speak to the rock and I will make water come gushing out and the people will take a chance on me. Moses, will you take a chance on me?

So Moses picks up his tried and trusty staff and Moses whacks that rock once, twice. And water comes gushing out, sure enough, just as God said. The people drink, but they are still not ready to imagine the unimaginable.

Can you imagine the sadness of God? Can you imagine how God feels when God’s people, whom God has equipped with gratitude and freedom and imagination, instead act like slaves?

Once there was a story about a bear in a travelling circus. One day, the circus ran out of money and the owners ran away. The townspeople who had admired and feared the bear who prowled the perimeter of his small cage – ten feet by ten feet -- and roared, terrifying all; still, those townspeople, with great trepidation, opened the door to the cage – set the bear free, let him go away, far away, and everybody ran for cover to see what the bear would actually do. When the door was open, the cage simply fell apart. The bear stood there, eyeing the mess, and then he began to pace and roar just where the cage used to be – ten by ten, ten by ten, ten by ten.

Imagine the disappointment of God when we never leave our ten by ten....

God asked Moses to speak to the rock. Moses used the tried and true instead. The price was long more years of wandering the wilderness, and a whole generation never getting to step into the promised land.

Here’s where I’m going with this. I believe God has a dream for us in this church. I believe it so strongly sometimes it hurts to think about it. I believe God has something totally unimaginable in mind for us. Whoever heard of a Jesus-centered, Open and Affirming, multi-racial church! Whoever heard of such a church! Whoever heard of stepping along the way, every song celebrating the goodness of God and every word that falls from the mouths of people a word of gladness! Whoever heard of such a thing!

Whoever heard of black people and white people and rich people and poor people and gay people and straight people getting along as though they were one family living in plenty and security. Whoever heard of a congregation that does not take what it has for granted, does not depend on its past, but believes in the future God is offering it and is even willing to look ridiculous by speaking to the rock! That’s right! Speak to the rock of fear – speak to the rock of what worked before – speak to the rock of suspicion – speak to the rock of hopelessness – speak to the rock of division – speak to the rock of cynicism – speak to the rock of asking are those our kids – speak to the rock of do I still belong – speak to the rock of quarreling over music and pulpit – when all God wants us to do is imagine the promised land!

Who will sing a song of celebration? Who will say a prayer of thanks for what we have right now? Who will speak lovingly of the future we are already doing today?

I went to the movies the other night with YSET, our community youth group here at South Church . I went with 100 kids, sixteen adults and a man from outside the church who sees what we are doing and offered to pay for the movie and dinner afterwards. That’s right – movie and dinner for more than a hundred people. His name is Dan Roulier. Not a member of the church. Never once been here on Sunday morning. But he sees goodness in this place.

It was good for me to see the movie, called Freedom Writers. It’s about a teacher in a gang-torn school who speaks to the rock of kids who no longer believe and a school system that no longer cares. The school system isn’t going to change, so the kids have to.

Each kid has to decide whether to rely on the gang or on the unimaginable possibility that that kid can make something of him or herself without the gang when nobody believes they can.

Go see the movie.

After the movie, all hundred plus of us went over to Chuck E Cheese across from the Eastfield Mall – you might have read about it in the paper the other day. We ate and talked about whether anybody really thinks the unimaginable.

I wished you were there. I missed you. It was church. Don’t get me wrong. It was all a little crazy. But it was holy work. I was reminded not to despair, not to keep whacking the same old rock, but instead to trust God will see us through to the only dream I believe matters here in this wilderness – the dream where people who do not ordinarily belong together make a new community, a community of plenty and security where God is glad.

I believe in that dream. I will work for that dream. I will not spend my energy attending to what has divided us in the past. I will not spend energy on what has worked before. I will leave my trusty staff behind. I will speak to the rock of my own hesitation and doubt.

I will not sabotage God’s goodness. I will trust the Lord and expect water from rocks.

Will you come with me?