Meditation on Exodus 17:1-7
First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown
World Communion Sunday
Pastor Karen Crawford
Oct. 1, 2023
Our presbytery gathered for worship and a meeting yesterday at Grace Presbyterian Church in Selden. The church building was small. It needed some paint. The yard was a bit overgrown.
It was pouring rain, and I was glad that Jim and I, Marci and Dulcie arrived early. We found good parking spaces and shared one of the round tables in the room that functions as a worship space, fellowship hall, and community meeting room.
Elders and pastors filled up the seats.
The work of preparing food and drink came down to just a couple of ladies, longtime members of the host congregation. One came to the microphone and told her story and the church’s story. How it was two congregations of differing denominations. They came together and built a new church. They called it, “Grace.”
She had apologized to me for not having everything ready when we arrived. She said, “We couldn’t get in here last night because there was an AA meeting.” The little church hosts AA meetings every night and has its own food pantry! What they have—they want to share.
The moderator of our presbytery opened the meeting and our worship, speaking of the love in that place. Others would come to the microphone to lead us in worship or share a report—and they, too, spoke of the love. When the presbytery recognized the names of elders gone home to be with God over the last year, a woman danced and praised the Lord with her face, her hands, her arms, her feet, her whole body. She danced as Tasha Cobbs Leonard sang,
He knows my name
Yes, he knows my name
He knows my name
Yes, he knows my name.
It was a presbytery meeting like I had never experienced. I am trying to figure out what was different. Was it the people around me? Sometimes our presbytery has seemed cold and unwelcoming. Was it the small church building. The informal worship?
Or was it I? Had I changed since the last presbytery meeting?
Was it the lady who danced, praising God with her face, her hands, her arms, her feet, her whole body, as Tasha Cobbs Leonard sang,
So now
I pour out
My heart to you
Here in
Your presence
I am made new
You know my name
You know my name
You know my name.
Something is different about Moses in chapter 17 of Exodus. Different from 16, when the Lord says to God’s people, starving in the wilderness, “I’m gonna rain bread from heaven for you, each day!”
Moses has changed—not in a good way. The Israelites are still struggling with the transition to a new kind of life—freedom from captivity, freedom to come to know and follow their God. They are still looking to Moses and Aaron for help—and they are still afraid that this wilderness journey will end badly. Now the whole congregation is quarreling with Moses. They “quarrel” and “test” the Lord, so much so that the place formerly known as Rephidim, Hebrew for “place of rest,” is now called Massah, which means “testing,” and Meribah, which means “quarrelling.”
They say to Moses, “Give us water to drink!”
Moses seems to be at the end of his compassion. His store has run out! He asks why they are quarreling with him, while “the people thirsted there for water, asking, ‘Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?’ He cries out to the Lord on their behalf, much like he did when they were hungry in chapter 16. But he asks God, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me!”
He says, “This people,” not MY people or YOUR people. He says, “THEY”—not US. He doesn’t count himself as one of the flock.
I read this week how each person on this desert crossing would require six liters of water per day. Six liters! Per day! The large animals would, of course, need more. We are talking about thousands of people—men, women, children, and infants.
Today, as I study this passage, I am startled that I am seeing so much weakness in Moses, the most revered prophet of Israel, presumed author of the entire Torah—the law or teachings of Judaism. Yes, he is rightly struggling against all odds to help the people of God in unthinkable, dangerous circumstances. But I see a failure in leadership. He seems distant. His heart isn’t in it anymore.
Yet in his weakness is exactly where the Lord God meets Moses, once again. And this is where God meets you and I—as we humbly seek God’s help, knowing that we don’t have all the answers; we don’t know the path ahead. We know that no matter what happens, our loving God will be there with us, too.
Moses will be kinder and more compassionate another day—when he is trying to solve all the people’s problems and acting as a judge in chapter 18. When this crisis ends, his priestly father-in-law, Jethro, will visit him in the wilderness, bringing Moses’ wife and sons. He will tell him that he’s trying to do too much on his own. That he needs to train up elders to help him. He follows his father-in-law’s wise advice.
On this day, when the people are ready to perish of thirst, the Lord will send him out ahead of the people, with some elders to witness the miracle. This is a shared experience that will bind together the community of faith and inspire them to awe and wonder. This story will be carried and retold by the Israelites from generation to generation before it is ever written down. God tells Moses—take your staff in your hand, you know the one that you used to strike the Nile, and the one that you used to part the Red Sea.
Strike the rock, he says. Water will come out. The people will drink. He does. It does. And they do.
Yesterday, at the presbytery meeting, I felt the love all around. My heart was open to the love—and I was willing to share it with others. Yes, I was different. Maybe others were, too.
At one point, a man asked me if Grace were my church. I said, “No, but WELCOME.” He asked for directions. I pointed the way.
When we celebrated Communion—and it was just those tiny, sealed cups of juice with the little wafers wrapped inside—it was emotional for me. We experienced a spiritual oneness, especially with the invitation to the table. Pastor Rachel invited all who had regrets—all who had ever said something they wished they hadn’t said. All who had done something they wished they had never done. All were invited to come to the Lord’s Table.
It’s a temptation for us to see some people in the Body of Christ as separate from us. Not just different, but separate. Not us. They don’t go to our church. They aren’t members of our denomination. They have different views, different ways of worshiping and living out their faith.
On World Communion Sunday, we are reminded of our Oneness in Christ, no matter what we think about Christians who seem so different. To separate ourselves from our neighbors in Christ is not what the Lord desires of us. When Jesus prays for his followers, he prays that we would all be ONE.
It’s also a temptation for us to see the presbytery as something separate from our congregation—but that’s not how it is with Presbyterians. WE are the presbytery. I am the presbytery. YOU are the presbytery. If we want to see change in the presbytery, then we have to BE part of the change. I will say it even more directly. If we see that change is needed, then God is calling us to help with the change.
We can’t be lone Christians, just like Moses couldn’t be everything to the Israelites or be separate from them. We have to be committed to a worshiping community. We are called to have a church home. Be one of a particular flock. We have to allow the SPIRIT to do its work of transformation and that happens when we are living and growing in community. Sometimes, it’s a painful experience. Growth. The work begins in our hearts.
But you and I – we have the living water that Jesus promised the Samaritan woman at the well, the one who was an outcast to her community. Jesus promises his living water to all the Samaritans—people outside Christ’s own faith community! You see, there’s no boundaries on living water. There’s no limit. It’s offered to all people! It’s a well that never runs dry. Jesus says in John 4, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Today, at the Lord’s Table, we will be nourished and strengthened! We will be made ONE, again, with all Christ’s followers—in every time and place. May we be made ready to be sent out to love, serve, and give of ourselves—all that we have and all that we are—without fear that we will somehow run out of resources and not have enough for ourselves.
May we never question, as the Israelites did in times of crisis, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Let us trust in the abundance of a God who can make water gush from a rock in the wilderness.
May we be filled to overflowing with a joyful spirit, so that we rise and dance like the woman at a tiny church called Grace. The one who danced to praise God with her face, her hands, her arms, her feet, her whole body.
So now
I pour out
My heart to you
Here in
Your presence
I am made new
You know my name
You know my name
You know my name.
Let us pray.
Holy One, Thank you for knowing our names and never forgetting us. We invite you now to pour into us your Living Water so that our joy will overflow. Empower us to live abundantly, not holding onto what we have, fearful of not having enough. Thank you for the well that is Jesus the Christ—the well that never runs dry—a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. Break down the walls and barriers that human beings put up to separate ourselves from others. We know that you desire us to be united in faith and are called to do our part to heal and help a broken world. Stir us to a deeper commitment to our church family, a stronger walk with you, and a deeper, more loving relationship with your Son. In His name we pray. Amen.
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