Easter Thursday, April 16, 2020
Sharing in the Desert
This is the bread which the Lord has given you.
When we read the Exodus story we know its beginning, middle and end. We linger over the portions that intrigue us and skim through the verses that no longer call us. Believing that we know this story well, we forget to listen to each word. We spend time today with just a few verses in this story of rescue and transformation.
Each one is to be given as much as he needs.
We worry over the details and fuss with constraints. We calculate needs and risks. We measure out, we store up, and we plan ahead. We look back to what we left behind and we look forward to what is to come and we try to predict how much we will need for our journey, just as the Israelites did.
Some gathered a large and some gathered a small amount.
We arise each day to collect the manna of our labor, just as the Israelites did. This work is sometimes arduous. At other times the burden of toil seems lighter. We volunteer our time and talent to ease the lives of those who have less than we do. We receive gifts of time and talent from others when we suffer. We look to see if we have gathered as much as our neighbor. We wonder if others work as hard as we do. Still, we gather, just like the Israelites in the desert.
But when they measured it out by the omer, he who gathered a large amount did not have too much, and he who had gathered a small amount did not have too little.
We gauge pensions and look at payroll deductions. We pay taxes and claim exemptions. We struggle with what we render to authorities and what we render to God, always hoping that the promise of having enough is not false. We trust in the Living God, just like the Israelites in the desert.
They so gathered that everyone had enough to eat.
We have a new measurement today that supersedes the omer yet still we measure. We budget our resources and hope that catastrophe does not wipe us out. We pace ourselves and look over our shoulders to see if the enemy is still behind. We look forward and gauge the strength of any invader. We fiddle with the details of our small economy and try to predict the future, just like the Israelites in the desert.
This is the bread which the Lord has given you.
When we read the Exodus story we know its beginning, middle and end. We linger over the portions that intrigue us and skim through the verses that no longer call us. Believing that we know this story well, we forget to listen to each word. Let us spend time today with just a few verses in this story of rescue and transformation.
And let us give thanks to the Living God who teaches us how to share in the desert.
Tomorrow, I will not be silent . . .
A re-post from Easter 2013.
Image from: http://lamont-uphill.blogspot.com/2010/11/swb-manna-for-desert.html
To convert a measurement to omers, go to: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/volume/bibomer.html
The Noontimes 