Sermon for August 4th 11th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon for  August 4, 2024                                                                  11th Sunday after Pentecost

John 6 and Exodus 16 The Lessons of Manna

Do you know what “shrinkflation” is? Have you ever heard of shrinkflation? It’s when companies reduce the size of the product or packaging, but maintain the same price. This is just one of the lovely ways the corporations gouge us for profit. For example, here are pictures of potato chips, chocolate bars, popular drinks and packaging.  The idea is to deliver you less and less all while charging you more and more. We are literally paying for air; which means we will never have enough. It is no wonder that our nature then is to be deeply skeptical, to assume everything is a scam. We are distrustful of any packaging. And it turns us into hoarders because we never have enough.

So when God devises a test in order to see if he can overcome our distrustful nature, what do you think he’ll find? It says so right in our Exodus reading, “I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.” I will test them. And what is God’s test? Manna. The test is “manna.” There are so many lessons for us to learn from the manna; but most important is the lesson to learn to trust. After all the shrinkflation, after all the scams and the corporate profits and CEOs and their bought-and-paid-for politicians...all the ways we have been conditioned NOT to trust, can God ever teach us to truly trust again?

If manna is the test, then what lessons can we learn? What does manna teach us about human nature? And what does manna teach us about God? About human nature…what is the first thing the Israelites do in our story? They complain. The first lesson of manna is we are first and foremost deep in our nature…complainers. They complain that they’re hungry. They grumble that they’re thirsty. And I love that in their complaining they are looking for someone to blame and acutely misrepresent the situation. They blame Moses and Aaron, “Why did you lead us out into this desert to die?!” And then the misrepresentation, “At least in Egypt we had pots filled with meat. Boy, did we ever have it good in Egypt!” Really? Did they? Did they have it good in Egypt? I seem to remember just a few chapters ago it describing how awful they were treated in slavery and forced labor. So, what do we learn about human nature from this story? First, we like to complain. And in our complaining we look for someone else to blame and we tend to have selective and quite damaged memory about how things used to be.

The lessons of manna not only teach us about ourselves and our nature, but more importantly the lessons of manna teach us about God. What does manna teach us about God? First and foremost, God provides. God is our provider and God provides enough. The manna story reminds me of the feeding of the 5000 where everybody had enough. It says everybody was fed and everybody was filled. All had enough. It is such an incredible blessing to be able to say those words, “I have enough. I am satisfied.” Because we are deeply conditioned to believe we don’t have enough; that we would be truly happy if we just had a little bit more. Did you know sheep won’t lie down until they are satisfied. And so when in the 23rd psalm it says, “You lay me down in green pastures,” it is a picture of sheep completely satisfied. They have enough. We are conditioned by things like shrinkflation to believe we never have enough. Someone is always trying to scam us or steal from us. The greedy fat-cats are charging us more and more for less and less. How could we every truly trust? I tell people the only way to earn someone’s trust is to be trustworthy. So what does God do? God proves trustworthy. God provides. And God provides enough. Until each of us can say, “I am satisfied.” This is how God will create trust.

Of course one of the greatest tests of the lesson of the manna comes when God commands them to gather as much as they need for their household, but only enough for one day…today. And human nature being what it is, what do they do? They gather up and hoard as much as they can. But really, what’s the harm in that? No one’s getting hurt! The manna is just laying there on the ground! But the lesson is, “Will you trust?” Are we ever able to overcome our fearful and distrustful nature, and can we ever learn to truly trust? And so all that hoarded manna, what happens to it? It gets filled with maggots and turns rotten. Hoarding literally stinks. And this lesson is a hard one for us because we’re all really good at planning for tomorrow. Chances are every one of you has stuff in the back of your freezers that’s been there since 2003.  I remember a student asking our professor in seminary, “But if God has provided enough, then why are there hungry and poor people in the world?” And my seminary professor dropped the weight of the law on them when they answered, “Because you needed a bigger television.” We might watch shows about hoarders to feel better about ourselves, but the truth is we are all selfish and greedy and our own hoarding likewise stinks. We might pray every week for “daily bread” but we are really bad at actually trusting “daily.” But notice, God promises to send manna, and more than enough. And they are filled and satisfied. But God doesn’t say anything about tomorrow. He promises just enough for today. God is teaching them to trust in daily bread. And in fact, if you gather more than enough for today it turns to rot. Here is probably the greatest lesson of “daily” bread, as Jesus preaches elsewhere in the gospels he says, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Learning to trust God, really truly trusting that today’s daily bread is enough, that God provides and God will provide enough again and again, these are the lessons of manna and these are the most important lessons as well when Jesus says to the crowds, “I am the true bread that comes down from heaven.”

I think one of the most important things here, as Jesus states this amazing promise, “I am the true bread from heaven,” is that Jesus doesn’t offer to give them bread (although Lord knows he certainly can! He just fed over 5000 people!), no he doesn’t promise to give them bread or point out where they can find bread, but he says to them, “I Am the Bread.” When the crowds inquire of him, “What must we do? Give us a sign!” Jesus effectively says to them, “I Am the sign! I’m it! What must you do? Trust in me, that’s what you must do!” How will God finally prove that He is trustworthy? Answer: by sending Christ to be the promise, to be the bread, to be the manna providing for our every need and filling us that we might say, “I have enough.” This is our daily bread. This is how we will finally learn to trust.  And I love this. That Jesus doesn’t point us to the Kingdom of God; but he is the Kingdom of God come among us. Jesus doesn’t show us the way to heaven; but he is the Way. He doesn’t offer us bread if we’re good or religious or holy enough; but he is the bread, the living bread from heaven. All the lessons of manna are here in Jesus our living manna: that God provides and God provides enough; abundance for today; lessons of trust. Do we still grumble and complain and blame? Are we still guilty of hoarding? Of course! But Jesus is our daily bread. Jesus is our faith. In him we finally learn to truly trust. Amen.