Rock, Paper, Scissors

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16, Exodus 17:1-7 and Matthew 21:23-27

It’s hard to get away from films in this pulpit.

A couple of nights ago Aron and I watched The Kids are All Right. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. It’s about a lesbian couple with two adolescent children, but near the conclusion of the film, after events that have caused incredible pain and hurt to everyone in the family, Julianne Moore’s character ‘Jules’ delivers a speech which could apply to any marriage – or any close relationship:

Your mom and I are in hell right now and the bottom line is marriage is hard. It’s really f... hard. It’s just two people slogging through the s..., year after year, getting older, changing — f... marathon, okay? So sometimes, you know, you’re together so long you stop seeing the other person, you just see weird projections of your own junk. Instead of talking to each other, you go off the rails, and act grubby, and make stupid choices, which is what I did. And I feel sick about it because I love you guys, and your mom, and that’s the truth. And sometimes you hurt the ones you love the most, and I don’t know why. You know, if I read more Russian novels… Anyway… I just wanted to say how sorry I am for what I did. I hope you’ll forgive me eventually. Thank you.

This speech also bears a marked resemblance to the experience of the Israelites journeying ‘by stages’ through the wilderness. The honeymoon of the Exodus is over and they get down to the working out – the testing – of this divine-human relationship. They stop seeing God. They see weird projections of their own junk, the experience of slavery in Egypt. They act grubby. And they hurt God – who loves them the most. And all the time, the underlying question is, ‘Is the Lord among us or not?”

Thinking about it this week I was reminded of ‘rock, paper, scissors’. For the Israelites faith seems to be – at first – paper-thin. Every hardship they experience meets with complaining. Then complaining is amplified to quarrelling. The scissors come out, cutting at this fragile alliance. They pick up their rocks. And then God makes a play.

The passage we have read this morning is the last in a section of very similar interactions between God and the Israelites:

- In Exodus 15 after three days without water, they reach Marah, but the water there is undrinkable. They complained to Moses. Moses cries out to God. And God intervenes, quenching their thirst.

- In Exodus 16 they complain about the lack of food, and God intervenes, providing manna and quails.

- And here they come to Rephidim – because God has commanded it – and there is again no water. So, it is with very little surprise, that we read in Exodus 17:2:

The people quarrelled 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?”(17:2)

Is it a sign of failure in Moses’ leadership that the people don’t complain directly to God? That they don’t acknowledge that it is God – not Moses - taking them through the wilderness? And why does Moses deny their need for water – a basic need – along with another basic need, to test the boundaries of this relationship – just as God is testing them!

- Exodus 15:25 states that God was putting them to the test. He says, “If you will listen carefully to my voice and do what is right” your lives will avoid the destructive trajectory of the Egyptians and experience the God who heals human beings.

- Exodus 16:4 records that the instructions about the manna were a test; whether they could learn to trust, to gather just enough for each day and each person and to observe the Sabbath (lessons about not hoarding and not resting that were still challenging to some – as they are today).

Like all wilderness experiences, this is a time of mutual testing of this new relationship.

But has Moses failed to communicate that God is testing them – not in order to reject them if they’re found wanting – but because – as real as their hunger and thirst – is God’s hunger and thirst for their trust and their love? Or is it not Moses, but the conditioning of slavery – that despite how God’s deliverance, God’s healing, God’s provision of food and provision of rest – they just can’t imagine a God who – hearing their complaining, knowing their grubby behaviour and stupid choices – would still, if asked the question, “Are you among us or not?” answer, “Yes!”

After all Moses is ready to disown them! In verse 4 he cries out to God, “What shall I do with this people?” (No longer ‘my people’!)

God tells him to go to the rock of Horeb, to take the elders with him, and his staff, a physical reminder of God’s deliverance in the past (perhaps there’s some hints about leadership there). And where will God be? “I will be standing there in front of you.”

At Horeb Moses strikes the rock and water comes out of it. Out of something lifeless – comes water and the vitality it symbolises and sustains. It is a striking (apology intended) object lesson of how God has chosen them and rescued and tested them, not for death, but for life. That God loves them.

It is this life, as Thorwald mentioned last week, that we acknowledge and celebrate in the waters of baptism, symbolising our decision to share in the life of God. There will be actually be an opportunity on the 16^th and 23^rd of October – over lunch - to explore further what baptism and membership of the church mean.

God plays a ‘rock’ in the game – but surprises everyone with a river of life.

This passage, and our reading from Matthew, inform us that God does not penalise us for our human need to question, to test the boundaries of our relationship, to ask, “Is God with us or not?” After all, Moses names the place ‘quarrel and test’ for that reason. But in questioning we will find rivers of life that that both delight and challenge.

“By what authority are you doing these things?” ask the furious Pharisees, and discover instead that their own hypocrisy, their lack of real authority, is exposed.

For us, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, the question of Jesus' authority tests our commitment to God’s mission in the world, to listening to God’s voice (to overcome our fear of the crowd and our fear of unworthiness) and to follow God through the wilderness.

When we ask, “Is God with us?” we find that God asks us the same question, “Will you follow me?”