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When the Manna Ceases |
Joshua 5: 9-12
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© John Ewing Roberts |
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INTRODUCTION For me there is no greater proof of God's continuing inspiration of the Bible than God's power to tell an old story and turn it into our story. A story from a setting as remote as Gilgal from a time over 3,000 years ago can become powerfully real for us today. What happened to his people then can happen to us now. The text tells in spare, economical language one of those wonderfully true stories. It tells what happens when we come to the end of one set of resources; it tells us that God makes available others to us. This is a story of how "God substitutes for one miracle another, equally marvelous." (Gene M. Tucker, Preaching Through the Christian Year - Year C [Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Trinity Press International] 1994, p. 155) This is a story for people like you and me, people who are out of manna, people who are waiting for God's next move in our lives. THREE PROBLEMS 1. Manna from Sucking Insects When God's people left Egypt and slavery behind for freedom, it was no easy freedom. It was the freedom of the desert, where among other things there was the problem of what to eat. God provided manna from heaven. It was, scholars tell us, "a honeydew substance excreted by various insects that suck the twigs of tamarask bushes. During the day industrious ants carry away the sweet grains but overnight they accumulate and early risers can gather them for food." (Bernard W. Anderson, Proclamation 6, Seres C - Lent [Minneapolis: Fortress Press] 1997, p. 48) When I read something like that, I can only say that it must have tasted better than it sounds. 2. Circumcision for All the Males For that matter, when I read earlier in Joshua 5 (vv. 5ff.) that during the 40 years in the wilderness wandering after the exodus from Egypt none of the men born in that period were circumcised until they got to Gilgal and that they circumcised every last one of them, I can only conclude that this basic rite of circumcising every male from age one to age forty must have made for a more satisfying religious experience than it sounds. Manna and circumcision! And one more difficulty... 3. Foraging for Crops Another problem: "The text does not address the moral question of how the tribes obtained produce sown and raised by other people." (Charles B. Cousar et al, Texts for Preaching - A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C [Louisville: Westminster Press] 1994, p. 221) Palestinians should have considered themselves forewarned! Sucking insects, circumcision and foraging for crops! "Gimme' that ol' time religion!" The author of Joshua is not concerned with our questions on such issues. He has something much better in store for us. He wants us to understand how God works with us in the rites of passage, how God helps us when we are out of manna. God's people were no longer dependent on God as children depend on their parents for food. They were on their own. God would give them their daily bread, but they had a part in securing it. No more the old diet from the past; time now for the produce of the land, still a git from God, but now they had to play a greater part in acquiring their daily bread. They were out of the wilderness and into a new land, an agricultural land. "It's spring - turn the garden - get a shovel - dig in - get with it - get a hoe -take hold - get on with it!" REPROACH, COMMUNITY AND TRANSITION There is a very basic matter at stake here, the issue of God's people knowing where they are, the business of knowing where we are. They were at Gilgal. We are at our Gilgal. Gilgal was a place where the manna ceased, and the reproach of Egypt was rolled away. What is the reproach of Egypt which is rolled away at Gilgal? It may be "that the reproach was the non-covenant status of a mixed multitude of enslaved people who had not yet become a religious community - a status...remedied in the experience at Gilgal." (The Broadman Bible Commentary, John I Durham and Roy E. Honeycutt, Old Testament editors, Vol. 2, "Joshua," William H. Morton, p. 319) [emphasis added] In other words, Gilgal is the place where God's people become a community. Gilgal is a place of transition from dependence to independence, transition because God is transforming his people into a new community. (Myrna Kysar and Robert Kysar, Proclamation 4, Series C - Lent [Philadelphia: Fortress Press] 1988, p. 47) If you are at a transition point in your life - at school, at work, in a relationship - you are at Gilgal. If you feel like you've just run out of manna and are wondering what on earth God and you are going to do next, you are at Gilgal. If you are at your own personal Gilgal, know that God can work more miracles, God has more moves to make. What can be said of us as individuals is also true of us as a community, of us as a church. Woodbrook is at a transition point - for the first time since March 15, 1961, we have adequate educational facilities and outstanding worship facilities. Our Future of the Church Committee is working on ways to include us all in redreaming the dream, in revisioning the vision. We are poised for deeper, richer, more innovative worship, on the threshold of new missionsventures, sensing new energies in evangelism, taking hold of our need to do better, much better in stewardship of money and all other resources. We are at the transition of transformation; we are at Gilgal. GILGAL Gilgal comes from a Hebrew root meaning "roll." Gilgal is where the reproach was rolled away, and the people rolled twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan River to make a circle of stones, a monument to help everyone remember this special time and place. Ancient peoples often erected circles of stones, the most famous being Stonehenge in England. A few years ago Marylynn and I visited a smaller version of Stonehenge in the Cotswalds. A sign warned against nighttime religious rites because New Agers and others interested in alternative if not bizarre worship practices are attracted to such circles of stones. Debates rage between the scholarly, the superstitious and the curious as to the meaning of the British circles of stones, but we know about Gilgal. When the children of Israel ended their exodus from Egypt and emerged from 40 years of wilderness wandering, they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land at Gilgal, near Jericho. There was a nice symmetry - when they left Egyptian bondage, they crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. When they entered the Promised Land, they crossed the Jordan River on dry land. When they left Egypt, they had celebrated Passover (Exodus 12); when they arrived in the Promised Land, they celebrated Passover. Their leader Joshua had them take twelve stones from the Jordan River and erect them in a circle. (Exodus 14: 29; Joshua 4: 18) Joshua said to the Israelites, "When your children ask their parents in time to come, 'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know, 'Israel crossed over the Jordan here on dry ground.'" (Joshua 4: 19-22, NRSV) A SPECIAL PLACE Gilgal is a very special place. Gilgal is a place where deliverance from Egypt is remembered, where freedom is celebrated. Gilgal is a place where the old wanderings in the wilderness of sin and rebellion are left behind. Gilgal is a place where the waters part and miracles take place. Gilgal is a place where fresh starts begin, where promises of deliverance come true. Gilgal is a place where present victories are acclaimed. Gilgal is a place where God's people get a foretaste of coming victories. THEN AND NOW When God's people - then and now - have a "Gilgal experience," it's time to take note. When God's people - then and now - experience the rush of freedom, it's worth celebrating. When God's people - then and now - leave behind sin and rebellion, it's a reason for excitement. When God's people - then and now - know God's miraculous power, we declare it with passion. When God's people - then and now - make a fresh start and when promises of deliverance are kept, it's grounds for enthusiasm. When God's people - then and now - win a victory, we cannot keep from singing. When God's people - then and now - get a glimpse, no, get a vision of future achievements that are so real, so close that we can almost taste it, we have to bear witness. SET UP THE STONES! So dig twelve holes, set the stones and be ready when our children ask, "What mean these stones?" to say, they bear witness to a wonderful time,... - a time when we felt free and ready to soar, - a time when we put behind us old sins, - a time when we were part of a miracle of deliverance, - a time when we made a fresh start, - a time when God's people won some victories, - a time when we caught the vision of what else God had in store for us in worship and education, in fellowship and missions, in evangelism and stewardship, of human, financial and spiritual resources. ENTHUSIASM I like what the gifted preacher Brian Harbour offers about enthusiasm. When Mark Twain was asked the secret of his success, he answered, "I was born excited." A famous statesman once said, "I prefer the folly of passion to the wisdom of indifference." A historian concluded, "Every great thing that has been done in the realm of history has been done with a triumph of enthusiasm." The business consultant Robert Kriegel finds research to show "that enthusiasm is the single most important factor differentiating `outstanding' from `good' performance." "Enthusiasm is what gives the exclamation point to life. It is the icing on the cake, the cherry on the top of a sundae. Whatever you do..., do it with enthusiasm. It will add a whole new dimension to your life." (Brian L. Harbour, Brian's Lines, January-February 1998, Vol. 14, No. 1, p. 27) CONCLUSION "Fifty people over the age of ninety-five were asked one question, "If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently?"...Three answers constantly reemerged. "If I had it to do over again," the respondents said: - "I would reflect more." - "I would risk more." - "I would do more things that would live on after I am dead." (John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader Within You [Nashville: Thomas Nelson] 1993, pp. 24-25, cited by Brian L. Harbour, Brian's Lines, op. cit., p. 21) [emphases added] Enthusiasm, excitement, and passion! Reflecting, risking, living! A final word about the One whose passion brought us life, the One who risked all for us, the One on whom we reflect in these Lenten days. At the heart of the city of London is Trafalgar Square, adorned by the National Gallery on the north and the graceful church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on the east. The signature landmark of the great square is the monument to Lord Nelson, a statue of the British naval hero on a pedestal rising over 160 feet. Given the height, it is impossible to distinguish the features of the man being honored. In their wisdom the English erected a new statue, an exact replica of the original, at eye level to enable everyone to see Lord Nelson. God is so much above us that the eyes of our understanding cannot discern him. But Jesus is the exact image of the invisible God. To know God, look at Jesus. (Donald W. McCullough, The Trivialization of God [Colorado Springs, Colorado: Navpress] 1995, p. 63, cited by Brian L. Harbour, p. 25) Paul says of Jesus the Christ, "He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation..." (Colossians 1: 15) In this time of Lent, during our journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem, on our pilgrimage to Jerusalem, our movement toward the death on the cross on Good Friday and the resurrection from the tomb on Easter Sunday,I invite you to remember the stones of Gilgal where God rolled away the reproach of the people and shaped them into a new community when they completed their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. I invite you to recall a another stone which will be rolled away when we complete our journey and enter into the glory that is before us. I invite you to see God face to face in Jesus the Christ. I invite you to the excitement, the passion, the enthusiasm not of the first Passover in the Promised Land or of the first Easter in a new sanctuary, but to the excitement, the passion, and the enthusiasm of knowing Jesus as Lord of your life. I invite you to reflect more, risk more, and give yourself to someone who lives on after death. I invite you to discover that when the manna ceases, the rest of your life begins. [This sermon is for circulation within the Woodbrook congregation and may not be reproduced without permission.] |