For the Next Step--March 16, 2020

For the Next Step--March 16, 2020

"They spoke against God, saying,

     'Can God spread a table in the wilderness?

 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out

     and torrents overflowed,

 can he also give bread,

     or provide meat for his people?'

 Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of rage;

    a fire was kindled against Jacob,

    his anger mounted against Israel,

 because they had no faith in God,

    and did not trust his saving power.

 Yet he commanded the skies above,

    and opened the doors of heaven;

 he rained down on them manna to eat,

    and gave them the grain of heaven.

 Mortals ate the bread of angels;

    he sent them food in abundance." [Psalm 78:19-25]

When God brings us to life, it is never a reward for good behavior... not even for strong faith.  When God preserves our lives, it is always simply an act of love meant to show us that God is worthy of our trust.

And, as the Scriptures keep telling the story, God is heaven-bent on bringing us to life and getting us to learn to trust, just because that's who God is, and apart from how good we have been or how firm our faith is already.

That's an important thing to remember, especially as we buckle up for what is sure to feel like something of a wilderness journey for us these days in the time of coronavirus closures.  We will trust that God will provide along the way for us, not as a reward for being religious enough, and not as a prize for our piety, but simply because God is faithful.  And, even when we find ourselves complaining, doubting, and questioning, God continues to invent new ways to sustain our lives.  Maybe even especially in those moments, God goes to great lengths to bring us to life again, because it is in those moments, when our faith is wobbliest, that God can teach us trust.

These verses from what we call Psalm 78 are helpful in remembering that.  They recall, both how God provided manna in the wilderness to people who were settling in for a long haul of uncertainty, and how frustrating it was from God's perspective to have the people doubt God's goodness or provision.  The Israelites had been set free from slavery, passed through the Sea, seen wonder after wonder, and even been given water miraculously out of nowhere when God brought water from the rock... and still they doubt God's provision.  They are still panicking.  (They probably would have hoarded toilet paper, too, if they had had a Walmart in the wilderness.)  And they are still acting out of fear.

And, as the psalm says, God is upset over it.  Of course--wouldn't you be, if you had provided everything these people needed, and still they were stuck in fear-and-panic mode?  I know I get upset at situations when my kids think I haven't provided for their needs, or when they melodramatically fuss, "There's NOTHING to eat around here!" when I am literally in the middle of cooking their dinner.  Well, that's where God is--in the middle of providing for them, and still they can't dare to imagine that God can preserve their lives in the midst of this new challenge.

But watch--look how God responds to the doubts and fuss and panic of the people, because this is everything:  God responds to their wobbly faith... with provision.  God gives them what they need, both to feed their bodies, and to build trust. There is no lightning bolt from the sky to punish the doubters.  There is bread from heaven to steady their faltering faith.  That's how God gets us through wilderness seasons. Grace is, quite literally, how we survive.

I want to ask us to hold onto this for the season we are entering, because it will help to inoculate us (so to speak) against bad theology, and it will keep us hopeful in what could be difficult, anxiety-producing days.  The poet in the psalm is honest that the people's lack of trust is a disappointment for God--maybe not a surprise, since God already knows their faith is wobbly--but God's response when we struggle to trust is not to zap us for the doubt, but to bring us more fully to life.  We need to be clear about that because already, even just in the last couple of days, I've heard and seen plenty of nonsense from Respectable Religious people (sometimes coming from official church spokespersons) insistent that if we will only pray hard enough, God will keep you and your loved ones from getting sick.  The unspoken (but clearly hinted at) corollary is that if someone you care about does get sick... or if people do develop complications or more serious cases of disease, they must not have had strong enough faith. There is an attitude out there, floating in the ether like a theological contagion, that "real faith" means defying the recommendations of scientists and doctors who are giving warnings about being in large crowds, or the need to close or cancel public events, and the like.  And again, although they don't like to say this part loudly, the flip side of that is if you follow common-sense safety precautions, or cancel your events, or limit your time in crowds, it must be because you don't have faith in God to keep you safe.  And all of that is built on the bad theology that healings or help are a reward for either good behavior or strong enough faith.

And that has got it completely backward.  What we see instead from the Scriptures is that precisely in the times when our faith is weak and our fears are threatening to overtake us, God continues to provide for us faithfully, in order that our trust can be strengthened.  The God we meet in the Scriptures doesn't penalize for doubts, but pulls out all the stops to find ways to nurture and fortify our faith, and to bring us to life all the more.

I don't know what's coming down the pike with this situation we are facing with the coronavirus.  And, sure, we should be honest that this is the kind of situation nobody who is alive right now ever imagined happening.  But that was true in the wilderness years. Nobody went into the wilderness out of slavery in Egypt with a clear picture of where they would go, how they would survive, or even how long it would last (and it ended up going a lot longer than most of them would have guessed).  In that sense, Pharaoh's Egypt always seemed alluring to look back to, because at least it was predictable and routine (and sometimes when they were living on manna and hope in the desert, they forgot the unpleasantness of slavery).  But God was faithful, and God brought them through.  And precisely at the places where the doubts seemed bigger than their faith, God kept on carrying them through so they could see they really were in the hands of a faithful God who would not let them go.

That's where we are today, maybe--on the start of a journey that feels like the wilderness for all of its sparseness, isolation, and uncertainty. But the promise that will hold us is that just at the point where our faith is wobbliest, God provides what will carry us through, precisely for the purpose of assuring us that God is worthy of our trust for the next leg of the journey.

So, let's go... trusting enough for the next step.

Lord God, bring us to life where our faith is weak, and show yourself again to be reliable to our doubting eyes.