For you and me and
for all who are privileged to be called the people of God and enjoy his
blessings and tender mercies--it ought to be gratitude. That we woke up—that we have a bed—that we
have feet to hit the floor with--ought to engender in us profound gratitude to
Almighty God. And yet the truth of the
matter is that it is grumbling, not gratitude, that is natural to our sinful flesh.
The
Israelites came to know the same about themselves during the years of their
sojourn in the wilderness. The Bibles
says, “From Mount Hor they set out by
the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom.
That they were
making this journey at all was of course a miracle of God’s grace. They had been delivered from hard bondage in
Egypt and made the free people of God—carrying with them the wealth of the
nation that had previously enslaved them—all of it by an act of God’s merciful,
powerful redemption.
For
forty years--as they were led by God through a wilderness that should not have
supported them for forty hours—they were given food and water by the Lord—their
clothing and sandals never wore out—they were never alone. They had all they needed for life and what’s
more they possessed what they had no right to have: a relationship with the one true and living
God of the universe whom they could address as Father.
We
can say the same about our lives. That
we are sitting here today, living and breathing, is an unmistakable sign (for
those with the eyes of faith to see it) that we have a God who protects and
provides. For all the years of our lives
we have been fed and clothed and sheltered.
And what is much more important, we are blessed to be able to call God
our Father through faith in Jesus Christ.
We have been baptized into Christ and fed with his true body and
blood. We can talk to God in prayer and
hear his Word. Despite the faithless
worries that afflict us at times—God has been, and will always be,
faithful. People blessed like this ought
to be grateful, right? The Bible says:
The people became
impatient on the way. And the people
spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of
Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and no water! And loathe this
worthless food!"
This wasn’t the
first time that the Israelites showed this kind of grumbling, rather than
grateful, attitude. Almost immediately
after having been delivered from slavery they told themselves that it would
have been better to die in slavery in Egypt
They
grumbled about what they didn’t have and weren’t grateful for what they did
have. What was particularly shameful about
their attitude is that the food they detested—the manna--was not just meant to
nourish their bodies- but was a spiritual food meant to nourish their souls as
they gathered just enough for each day to teach them to trust God’s ongoing
provision and protection.
When
we reflect upon our lives we see that we have some of those same kinds of
spiritual struggles of grumbling rather than gratitude—and it is just as
unwarranted. The bible says,
We brought nothing
into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be
content with that.”
God has provided that to us and much more and
yet we know how often our thoughts are filled not with satisfaction but with
wanting—always wanting more.
What
is particularly shameful is that, like the Israelites, we don’t always hold in
high regard the spiritual gifts and provision of the LORD.
We watch
television many more hours than we read the Bible. We worry about our problems rather than
meditate on God’s promises. We find
ourselves going through the motions as we come to the Lord’s Table rather than
really reflecting on what is present there and resolving to amend our lives in
the strength that we find there. Our prayer
life is filled with many more “please give me’s” than “thank-you’s”.
What we
learn today is that grumbling rather than gratitude demonstrates a lack of
faith--and is deadly to our life with God.
God loves his people too much to let them continue like that. The Bible says,
“Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among
the people and they bit the people and many people of Israel died.”
The
snakes that the LORD sent among the people as a punishment seem to us very
harsh—and it was. But not as harsh as
letting the Israelites continue in the direction they were going—a direction that
would lead to their eternal damnation--more terrible by far than anything that
could happen to them on earth.
God always had their eternal welfare as his first
goal and so he disciplined them—even harshly—so that they would not continue
along the broad and easy road that leads to eternal death. That biblical truth, that God disciplines
those he loves, is important for us to remember as well for it stands to this
day.
Now we
have all kinds of goals and hopes and dreams that we want to accomplish. There are all kinds of things that we want to
possess. But God has just one: that we would possess eternal life today and
forever and he will do whatever it takes—even if it is painful-- to bring us
safely to our heavenly home.
And so
God uses hardship and suffering and loss to break the hold that sin has on our
life—to get our attention—to bring us to our senses-and drive us to our knees
just like happened with the Israelites. The
Bible says that,
“The people came to Moses and said,
"We sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you.”
It is
when we see our marriage on the rocks that we realize we haven’t been following
God’s model for men and women. It is
when we are sick that we realize that we have been living as if this life would
go on forever. It is when we suffer “want”
that we realize that we haven’t been generous with God and with others. It is when we are alone that we realize that
we haven’t been a friend to others. It
is when our faith is weak and God seems far away that we realize we haven’t
made use of God’s gracious gifts of Word and Sacrament-- and that it is us—not
God—that has moved.
But I
want you to know today dear friends in Christ-- that even in the late hour of
the Lord’s discipline—it is not too late.
The bible says, “A bruised reed
he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”
God disciplines
us in love so that we will despair of our own sufficiency—so that we will
call out to him in our need—so that will look to him in faith and live. That’s
what the Israelites discovered that day of the Lord’s hard discipline. They cried out:
“Pray that the LORD that he take away the
serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people.
In the hour of their deepest need, the Israelites
discovered that in Moses they had an intercessor—one who would stand between
their sinful grumbling and God’s wrath-- and plead to God for mercy and healing
on their behalf.
That of
course was not just Israel
Jesus
Christ was sent into the world, not to save us from a desert serpent’s sting,
but to save us from the eternally deadly sting of the satanic serpent who has
been leading people into death every since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
God
promised them that a deliverer would come—one who would indeed be wounded by
Satan but would have the victory by crushing him completely. And that is what God did in his Son Jesus
Christ. Even though he was mortally
wounded on the tree of the cross—suffering the full poison of the sins of the
world which he bore in his own body—Christ was not defeated—his death was
victory and he showed that victory to the world on Easter morning as he rose
from the dead.
The
person and work of Jesus Christ was the Lord’s antidote from the deadly sting
of sin, death, and the devil--the fulfillment of what he showed to the people
of Israel in the desert.
The LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery
serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it,
shall live." So Moses made a bronze
serpent and put it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the
bronze serpent and live.”
The LORD
provided a cure from the sting of the deadly serpents—a cure that was for all
the Israelites—a promise that anyone—young, old, rich, poor, male, female—anyone
who listened to the promise of God and looked to it in faith—would live.
In
exactly the same way, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God-given cure
for the whole world from the Satanic curse of sin and death—it’s blessings and
promise is for all people but just like then, we must look to it in faith if we
are to live.
The faith
which lays hold of the blessings of God that are in the cross and empty tomb comes
to us in exactly the same way as it came for the Israelites—when we, by the powerful
help of the Holy Spirit, believe God’s promises that are conveyed to us in his
Word and Sacraments.
There is
nothing miraculous in water anymore than there is in bronze but when God says
that in Baptism we have died and risen with Christ we really have. There is nothing miraculous in bread and wine
anymore than there is in snakes but when Jesus says take and eat my body and
take and drink my blood for the forgiveness of sins we really have it. There is nothing miraculous in the presence
of a pastor anymore than there is in a pole but when Jesus promises that when
we hear forgiveness spoken by those who are called to speak in his name we can
be sure that we have what they promise.
Today is the
day for us to recognize God’s gracious provision in our lives—to re-commit
ourselves to regular use of Word and Sacraments-- and to let gratefulness for
the gifts of God rather than grumbling always be foremost in our hearts—and to
look to Jesus and live. Amen.
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