Thirsty In the Wilderness
Sermon Note:
There was no sermon this week. Because of the quickly escalating global pandemic, we chose not to meet as usual. Beginning March 22, we moved our Sunday service on-line and resumed posting audio recordings of sermons beginning March 29.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 17:1-7 (NRSV)
From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the Lord commanded. Read more…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
The wilderness is a place of absence and need. It’s a place of fear and even panic. It’s the place in which we ask: Will I survive this? How will I survive this? Will I ever escape this place?
I’m reminded of the story from Mark 4, in which Jesus and some of His disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat when a great windstorm arose and the resulting waves threatened to capsize it. The disciples were terrified so they woke Jesus up with these words: Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?
Those words sound to me like the words of Moses’ people when they found themselves in the literal wilderness confronted by a complete lack of water. In their fear and uncertainty they turned on Moses like Jesus’ disciples turned on Him: Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst? (Read the story in full in Exodus 17:1-7).
When we’re in the wilderness fear gives rise to panic, which in turn gives rise to accusations and anger. Faith is less certain; God is questionable; even the worst of what was seems better than what is. Some of us know this wilderness; we’ve been there or maybe are there right now. But over and over again in all the wilderness stories in Scripture, God proves faithful and good. God is in the wilderness with us. God never stops caring, even when all we know in the moment is absence and need.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to think about a time when you experienced the kind of fear that confronted Jesus’ disciples and the Israelites in the stories referenced above. How did God show up? How did God prove His faithfulness? Perhaps you’ve never before been in such a place, or perhaps you’re in it now. If that’s the case, I invite you to reach out to someone you know and trust who is a follower of Jesus who can tell you about their experience in the wilderness and about God’s faithfulness in the midst of it. And if you’re not sure you know someone who’s been there, I invite you to reach out to me. I’ve been there a few times and each time God has proven to be faithful.