Powerful Memories
Exodus 16
Buddy Summers
1/15/2006
Introduction
Tenacious
memory (of events both real and imagined) preserved
Today I am
reflecting upon both
For forty years, with a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, God led Moses and the former Hebrew slaves through a desolate wilderness. Daily, and this is the part upon which I want to focus, God provided a satisfying ration of manna and quail.
The daily
bread memory emerged to challenge
Today, my sense of what is not only desirable but possible in the twenty-first century is shaped by this same powerful memory that God provided manna in the wilderness.
I want to
notice what the story actually says, acknowledge the difference between the way
Between
Pharaoh’s
pursuing chariots were axle deep in the tidal mud of the
The fleeing Hebrews camped first at Marah (where the water was bitter and they complained, and God provided sweet water) and then at Elim which, comparatively, was a resort (with its twelve springs and seventy palm trees).
Then, God led
them straight into the wilderness.
Fearing starvation, they begin to complain bitterly, again. And this is where we come in. As this story is the first big scene after
the Israelites escape
God begins to provide manna and quail on a daily basis. God does so throughout their forty years in the wilderness. There are strings attached, specific guidelines and boundaries. God has definite ideas about how this new community should operate economically as well as spiritually.
Their life together is expected to reflect their experience of God---
- as Friend of the oppressed (God heard the people’s cries in slavery),
- as Liberator of captives (God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let the people go free),
- as Defender of the vulnerable (God stopped the Egyptian chariots),
- as Guide to the lost (God led them through the wilderness),
- as Provider of sufficient nourishment to all and excess to none (that’s the meaning of daily bread.)
Suppose someone over-collected? Their basket, when measured, weighed out to one omer per person. If anyone under-collected? Again, one omer.
Everybody on board with the definition of omer? The short of it is this: an omer was a reasonable amount for someone to eat and be healthy. Most restaurants today serve omer plus portions---if you get what I’m saying.
What happened when anyone attempted to hoard up extra---say for a rainy day thinking maybe God would forget or have a change of heart? The saved stuff went bad. By morning, it stunk to high heaven. Quite unlike money, you understand---mostly.
Now you get why it’s called the “daily” bread? There was just enough for every one, every day. You’re right. There was one exception: the Sabbath.
On the sixth day, God provided extra. This was so that everyone could enjoy Sabbath rest. It was a day to remember that God had set them free from slavery and that they neither had ever again to enter into involuntary servitude nor had they the right to hold anyone else in bondage in any way.
The Sabbath was a day less for singing and praying about sweet Jehovah and more for the kind of remembering of God’s intentions that has political, social, and economic implications.
Did some people go out looking for manna on the Sabbath? Sure. Did they find any? “What is it that you people don’t get?” God kept asking. “I provide you with exactly enough. All I ask is don’t fret, don’t hoard anything, don’t forget you once were slaves and don’t forget anyone in your tent and camp. Is there anything about this that you don’t understand?”
This just was
not the way it was done in
Israel’s Memory
Nobody knows
what really happened back there in the wilderness or even if anything happened
at all. Somehow “manna” became part of the collective memory of
The unknown writer of Psalm 78 remembered the manna story as part of a disappointment narrative with an angry God in the lead.
“ They spoke against God saying, ‘Can God
spread a table in the wilderness?’ When
the LORD heard, he was full of rage because they had no faith and did not trust
his saving power. He opened the doors of
heaven [and] rained down manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.”
It goes on a bit more and then
“They ate and were well filled, for he gave
them what they craved. But before they had satisfied their craving, while
the food was still in their mouths, the anger
of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them, and laid low the
flower of
This exceeds anything in the Exodus version.
In a similar vein (i.e. connecting the manna story with an angry and disappointed God), the bread of heaven has become (in Psalm 80) the bread of tears.
“How long O God will you be angry with your
people’s prayers? You have fed them with the bread of
tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.”
This story of God’s provision of manna had become for some one more sad instance of a people’s predictable lack of trust in God, a lack which provoked, again, God’s anger.
This sort of remembering led to the image of an angry God and a cringing people rather than a generous God and a people somewhere on the learning curve in response to God’s generosity and desire for a kind of economic life among the people that reflects God’s loving concern and provision for the well being of all.
By the time
Jesus Vision
The Jubilee Vision (energizing and unrealized as it continues to be) was the dynamic and dynamite content of Jesus’ preaching of the realm of God come near. When Jesus taught us to pray saying, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”, he was inviting us to live out the Jubilee Dream.
Similarly, when Jesus taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread” he was/is inviting us back into the wilderness training camp where God is still forming the beloved community comprised of the newly liberated.
Jesus invites us to gather and/or receive our omer of manna confident in the sufficiency of God’s grace, and to gather enough for everyone in the tent---not just for ourselves, and not to hoard.
When Jesus breaks the bread and gives it to his disciples saying, “Do this in remembrance of me” he is invoking the daily bread memory---the invitation to live with just enough, without lack or excess, and a periodic and intentional full stop for reflection and renewal---i.e. for Sabbath rest.
This is “the acceptable year of the Lord” declares Jesus. Dangerous and wonderful it is---daily bread and all.
On
You have no doubt followed it in the media. The subject of City and County property taxes continues in the news. Various proposals are being discussed.
Although I may have missed something, it seems that every plan is called a tax relief plan. This may be useful rhetoric, but I’m not sure it represents the best that Christians can bring to the table.
Does anyone feel called to write public letters calling for a tax system that supports all people in the community---especially the most vulnerable, those who can’t rush out every morning to harvest their own omer of manna? Does anyone feel like calling for an examination of hoarded and rotten manna in contracts, underutilized properties and contingency accounts?
Daily bread, the common good, protection of the most vulnerable, sufficiency, sustainability. As a people of faith we have memories, stories, vocabulary and wisdom that can help us make a contribution in the public discussion.
As we still pray for “our daily bread,” God is still inviting us to collaborate in the forming of a community that reflects a God not like other gods.
Conclusion
Memory
deficit is tragic and costly. "Those
who cannot remember the past are … condemned to repeat it." [Santayana]
But it’s worse than that. Those
who cannot remember---are just lost.
A powerful memory is one that transforms
debates, persons and communities. For
Jesus, “manna in the wilderness” was a powerful story. It pointed to God’s trustworthiness and
desire for a community of grace.
May it become a powerful memory for us.
