Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15, John 6:24-35
Time After Pentecost – Lectionary 18
My husband, who is from Rocky Mount, NC, moved to Philadelphia, where I had been born and raised. Out for breakfast one morning, before I became a vegetarian, I ordered scrapple. Griff asked, “What is it?” He has since determined that scrapple is made from the sweepings from a butcher shop floor. When we took a trip south, he ordered grits and I asked, “What is it?” Grits, well, I suppose they are better for you than floor sweepings, but I never quite acquired a taste for them. They are white flaky things, like manna.
Maybe you have heard the expression, “manna from heaven.” Here is the story behind that. Having been set free from slavery in Egypt, the Israelites traveled in the wilderness. Supplies dwindled as the days and weeks went on. On the fifteenth day of the second month, they had reached their limit. They were hungry and thirsty. All they could think about was cool water and fresh baked bread. “Why didn’t God let us die in comfort in Egypt where we had lamb stew and all the bread we could eat? Moses, you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve us to death!” You can’t blame the people for their complaints. They had lost their means of support, as brutal as it was, and now were in a place where there were no food pantries, no Community of Faith Mission, and no St. Stephen motel ministry. It is interesting to note that the people attribute their being in the wilderness to Moses and not God.
God responded to the people by sending them a fine, flaky substance. We read a few verses later that the Israelites called it “manna.” The name comes from a Hebrew word “man hu.” According to some translators, the word literally means, “What is it?[1]” The Israelites ate manna almost every day for forty years. Baked or boiled. Without cheese or maple syrup. The kids would look at it and say, “What is it?” and the parents would say, “yes.”
God sent this bread from heaven with instructions. Collect one day’s worth, one serving per person, no more. It wouldn’t keep overnight. The exception to this was the day before the Sabbath. God let the people gather enough for two days instead of one. Everyone had enough, but some felt the need to have more than what God had instructed. The leftovers did not keep. Surplus manna got worms and rotted. Enough was enough and more than that was too much. God gave them enough manna for the day. When breakfast was served, the Israelites bowed their heads, folded their hands and prayed, “Thank you, God, for what is it.”
So every morning, they began their day with that question. In the place of shortage and of threat and of death, they asked, “What is it? What is it, God, that we are doing out here in the wilderness? What is it that you, God, want me to leave behind? What do I need you to do so that I will trust you? What is it that will make me feel secure? What is it that you are calling me to do now? What is it God that you want me discover about myself, and about you, and about you and me together in relationship?”
We, too, have questions like these in the midst of our wilderness experiences. Our time in that desert comes when we don’t know what to do with our lives, when our bodies begin to fail us, when we find ourselves dependent on alcohol or an unhealthy relationship, when we don’t know how we will be paying all our bills… You understand there is no limit to what those things are that we see when we look up and discover we are in the wilderness. What are your questions for God when you are in the desert? What is it you hold on to in those times? What is it that God is giving you that you need but may not want? Do you find God sends manna to you when you are struggling? Are you able to trust that God will send more when you need it?
If you have difficulty with any of these questions, you are not alone. Those whom Jesus had fed just the day before hunted him down. The first thing that they say to him is, “When did you come here?” They did not recognize Jesus as their savior. They were looking for him not out of their faith but because they wanted lunch. What follows is an amazing conversation. Listen again closely. Jesus answered them, “You’ve come looking for me not because you saw God in my actions but because I fed you, filled your stomachs—and for free. Don’t waste your energy striving for perishable food like that. Work for the food that sticks with you, food that nourishes your lasting life, food the Son of Man provides. He and what he does are guaranteed by God the Father to last.[2]”
The people don’t get it. They don’t ask, “What is it that God is doing?” or “who is it who gives us this bread?” Their focus is not on the Son of Man and God. Here is their response to Jesus’ grace-filled good news: “What should we do?” What are they thinking? “It’s all up to us,” or “what we do is more important than anything else.” “What works should we be doing,” the people ask Jesus.
Jesus answers them, “The will and the work of God that you want to fulfill is simply to trust me as the One God Sent.[3]” It isn’t works that God wants. The work given to us is to trust in God through Jesus, and it is God who works in us this trust.
Jesus tells us, “It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” Jesus is the bread from heaven. Jesus is the manna. Jesus is the answer to the question “What is it?” Now the question changes from “What is it that we have to do?” to “What is it that Jesus Christ is doing in our lives?”
“What is it?” This is my body given for you. “What is it?” “This is my blood shed for you.” We will gather around the altar to eat the bread of life and drink the cup of salvation. In a tangible way, God will fill our hunger. In Christ’s body and blood, our wilderness is re-created by God to be a place of abundance, promise and life.
Give us this day our daily bread. One day at a time.
~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin
[1] Some translators say “manna” means “what it is,” and some believe it to be derived from other phrases, such as “allotment.”
[2] This translation is from The Message Bible, a translation by Eugene Peterson.
[3] Dale Bruner’s commentary on John, p. 388
[i] I am indebted to M. Craig Barnes for his insights into this Exodus text, which he expressed in a lecture at the Festival of Homiletics years ago.