But God...I think I ordered pumpernickel
Exodus 16:2-15 (Click on the scriptures to read them)
WE need something. What is it?
We often get lost in what we want in such a way that we can’t even begin to see what it is that we really need.
YOU need something. What is it?
In the Old Testament lesson today we hear an ancient story about the Israelites and about how they got what they needed,…not necessarily what they wanted, but what they needed.
God heard the cry of the Israelite slaves and God remembered how he had appeared to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… and God remembered the covenant that was put in place with them so many generations before. God responded and sent Moses to reestablish that covenant. God sent this mighty leader to break their bondage and to restore their broken spirits.
Slavery is not something that I have experienced first hand. I personally have only known what life is like to live free. The Israelites in our story had only known slavery; since their birth they had only known what it was like to be someone else’s property.
Receiving what we need is not always easy. As a people bonded in slavery, what the Israelites needed was to be free…but now at this point in today’s reading their needs had changed. It had only been 1 ½ months since Moses had led them out of Egypt. 1 ½ months of no longer being slaves and now the whole congregation of Israelites complained against the one who freed them. They complained and wanted to return to Egypt.
Change is painful. Everything the Israelites had ever known had changed, nothing was the same. The Israelites needed to learn to function and thrive in this new life. They needed to learn to care for themselves, to think for themselves. They needed the ability to experience the world in a new way and they needed hope!… Hope brings with it confidence and with confidence comes strength…and they needed strength in order to see and understand the new direction of freedom that God would have them go.
Not only did they need to know how to live this new life of freedom, they needed their basic needs to be met. They were hungry; they needed something to eat. God gave them what they needed. God gave them Manna. The word Manna is actually a question, Manna means, “What is it?” “When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was.”
What is it? It is the bread of life,… it is what they truly needed.
In the Gospel parable today, Jesus says, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” When we hear Jesus say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like”, what Jesus is saying is, “God is like”. The Kingdom of Heaven was a reference to God. When we hear “The Kingdom of Heaven is like, we are about to hear Jesus teach us about the essence and nature of who God really is.
Today we hear that God is like “a landowner, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, `You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o'clock, he did the same. And about five o'clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, `Why are you standing here idle all day?' They said to him, `Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, `You also go into the vineyard.'” (Matthew 20:1-7)
During the time of Jesus the landowner, or their representive, had to ask someone if they would come to work in the vineyard. The workers themselves could not go and ask for work. They could not stand in the marketplace and plead how desperate they were or how hungry their family might have been. They were at the mercy of the landowner to approach them.
Any honorable landowner at that time was going to pay a days wage for a days worth of work; it was the right thing to do. But Jesus throws us and his listeners for a loop when the landowner pays all the workers the full daily wage. It didn’t matter how long they had worked...what mattered was that the landowner had invited all of them into a contract…a contract for “whatever is right”.
The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who pays his workers “whatever is right”. God is like a landowner who binds us with a covenant and gives us “whatever is right”. In today’s parable, what is right is what is needed… What is right is Manna. In order for these workers to survive, they needed a full daily wage and even a full daily wage would have had them scraping the bottom of the barrel.
In the Old Testament we learned that God gave them what they needed… enough for one day at a time. Each day, God gave them their daily bread.
In the Gospel we have learned that God gives equally to everyone whatever is right and whatever is right was what they needed to survive one day at a time.
You need something. What is it? What is Manna for you?
What is it that sustains you one day at a time?
What is it that lets you look through the dew on the ground to see the nourishment before you? What is it that lets you see beyond what the world might call unfair but what God would say is right?
If we take the time to listen to God and to gather and receive the nourishment of the Bread of Life, we will find what we need… we will find what is right.
We will find our Manna.
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