Manna (Tenth Sunday after Pentecost)

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It’s just bizarre!  It’s outrageous.  In fact, it’s totally crazy.

The people of Israel in today’s first reading are barely 6 weeks out from being freed from bondage to the Egyptians, and already they begin to get nostalgic for the “good old days” of … slavery!  Oh, they say, wasn’t the food great back there!  We had plenty of meat to eat, and the bread was wonderful.

Of course, they were in a tough situation.  They were in the middle of the desert, where there wasn’t much to eat.  They had begun a journey, and they didn’t know how long it would last.  And they were transitioning to a land of “milk and honey”, but they weren’t there yet.

And no matter how bad things were before, it’s often the case that we miss what we’ve lost.  After all, we don’t know for sure what the future holds.  But we know what we’ve lost from the past.

But God hears their complaining, and God gives them “manna.”  Manna – a Hebrew word which literally means “what the heck is this stuff?”  And that’s what they ask Moses when they see it on the ground.  After all, this was neither the good bread they had in Egypt, nor the milk and honey of the promised land.  What is it?

Sometimes, when we describe something as “manna from heaven” we idealize it as something heavenly and wonderful and beyond compare with anything we’ve ever experienced.  But in fact, this actual “manna” in the wilderness is:

• The food that gets them through the journey – it’s God’s sustenance to keep them going through the stress of the transition from one place to another … (absolutely nobody ever eats this stuff and says, “wow!  This is so much better than anything we’ve ever eaten, we’ll just stay here and leave the milk and honey to others); in fact, it’s not too long before they start complaining about how boring the manna is!  I have a high school buddy who spent decades in the Army, and was several times subjected to eating MRE’s… that’s maybe how we should think of biblical manna…

• An invitation to live into a new routine, and a new way of living – at least right now – in order to make it through the journey; There’s a process for this manna – they have to gather it each day, and only enough for each day (except on the sabbath) and learn to keep this up until they reach the land of milk and honey, and this is not always as easy as it sounds …

• A sign of hope that God is intent on accompanying them on this journey and bringing them through the transition – after all, God could have accommodated their complaining by letting them die – but he didn’t, because God did indeed have a new day in store for them; and besides giving them physical strength to continue, the presence of manna each day was intended to give them emotional and spiritual strength to meet the next day…

The manna that God gave the ancient Israelites wasn’t this mystical stuff that gave them some kind of ecstatic experience.  Rather, it was the stuff that helped them through a difficult transition, gave them strength for the journey and served as a sign of hope for the future.

And even so, the “manna” that God is often providing for us is usually not some kind of mystical experience.  Often, the “manna” in our lives isn’t the thing that cures all our woes.  It doesn’t solve all our problems.  But it is the thing that God knows we need to help us through a difficult transition, give us strength for our journey or serve as a sign of hope for the future.

It seems to me that sometimes “manna” is experienced as:

• A person or an opportunity that helps somebody deal with the stress, even if just for today… on vacation, I had a chance to visit with a several old friends I hadn’t seen in a while; and once, I was having lunch with a friend and we were commiserating with each other about the various stresses of life lately; we didn’t solve each other’s problems, but it was good for us to be able to sit and debrief together; sometimes, we’re “manna” for each other; so who’s been manna in your life today?  How have you been manna for somebody else?  Often, “manna” can be as simple as the gift of a friend who helps another friend get through the day…

• An opportunity to live differently, even if it’s not really the way I want to live permanently.  But that different routine or adaptation is what’s needed to get through this part of the journey.  And often, it’s not clear how long that different routine will last… (like my friend being told “this seems to be working, so let’s keep up this treatment for the next three months and we’ll see where we go from there…”); And often, I resist a different routine, because frankly the different routine isn’t a lot of fun; but sometimes, it’s the way God is giving me to get through the transition…

• A sign of hope – recognizing the “manna” in our lives – even when our initial reaction is “what the heck is this stuff!” – is an opportunity to realize that God is with us on our journey, and really is helping us towards a new and better place.  In the Gospel reading today, people ask Jesus what THEY need to do to be doing the works of God; yet Jesus responds that even faith itself is GOD’s work – that is, it’s the result of God working in our lives to give us courage to keep up the journey.  And sometimes, the most important thing that “manna” can do for us is to give us hope and point us to the future, so that we can keep moving through whatever wilderness experience we may be living through…

In the story of the Exodus, God gave the people manna to get them through their wilderness experience.  Eventually, when they reached the promised land, the stuff on the ground ceased to appear.  But God’s help and presence in the midst of trouble never ended.

And that’s true for us, too.  And this story isn’t just a story about stuff on the ground one time for the ancient Israelites.  Instead, it’s a story that reminds God’s people in all times and in all places that God is always working to give us the manna we need to help us through difficult transitions; to give us strength for our wilderness journeys; and to give us signs of hope for the future.

Amen.