Sermon based on Exodus 16:2-15. Preached at CrossRoads on September 6, 2026.
Grumbling. Today’s lesson opens with the people grumbling against God. “The whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. … ‘If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!’” Keep in mind that at this point, they had only been gone from their homes for about six weeks. We know that the Exodus will last forty years, but they don’t. All they know is that six weeks ago, they were enslaved and oppressed, and now they are free because of God’s powerful works against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Yet this is the second time they wished they had just died back in Egypt.
The first time was when they reached the Red Sea. Fighting against Pharaoh’s army seemed impossible, so they were ready to give up. But nothing is impossible for God! They were saved. They escape through the water and their enemies are vanquished. Does that satisfy them? No.
Soon afterwards, they reach an oasis, but the water is no good. They complain, What will we drink? So God, through Moses, purifies the spring and they are saved. Does that satisfy them? No.
Now they need food. Again, they just left home six weeks ago with everything they had, including flocks and herds and probably chickens and stored grain and whatever. But apparently, they’ve run out already, and blame their leaders, Moses and Aaron. Sure, you saved us from Pharaoh, and you purified a bad spring, but what have you done for us lately?
Whenever you read something in the Bible, you have to remember that someone thought it was important enough to write down, and many someones over thousands of years thought it was important enough to copy over and over again. This story doesn’t show the Israelites in a very positive light, does it? In six weeks, they were freed from slavery, and they have complained three times already. But I think it was remembered and written and copied because it’s a story about us. Each of us individually, all of us as a church or a community or a nation. We are always grumbling. What have you done for me lately, God? Oh, woe is me!
It’s in our nature to grumble, to always wish our lives were better. We only remember the good parts of the “good ol’ days” and only see the bad parts of our current lives. The Israelites remembered sitting “around pots of meat and [eating] all the food [they] wanted.” Pure fiction. They were enslaved. Maybe there was a feast day, and they had pots of meat, but in reality, they were suffering for many years under Pharaoh’s tyranny. They only remember the one good day, and now they only see the bad parts of their situation. No matter that they have been freed. No matter that they have plundered the Egyptians on their way out of town. No matter that Pharaoh and his army have all been destroyed. We want food!
The good news is that God can take it. About a third of the Book of Psalms is psalms of lament. We have a God who will listen when we cry out, when we are angry with the world, when we are angry with ourselves, and even when we are angry with God. There is nothing that we can do to turn God’s love away from us.
And so, God hears the Israelites’ cry and responds in love. God doesn’t say, “Moses, you’re on your own. I got you this far, so figure it out.” No, God says, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you.” God also provides meat for them, quail that settle in their camp that they can catch easily.
There’s an important condition, though. God provides enough for each day, no more, no less. God provides what they need, not what they want. Not that God’s provision is skimpy. Elsewhere it says that God provides an omer of manna for each person each day. Nobody knows exactly what an omer is, but we think it’s about two quarts. Maybe four pounds. Imagine collecting a four-pound sack of grain each day. That seems like plenty enough to eat!
Even today, God generally provides what we need. How does the song go? You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need. I have a pretty good life, all things considered. Both kids are out of the house and self-sufficient. I have a good job and good friends. But sometimes I start thinking about the things I don’t have, or the things that I wish I had done differently in the past, or the bad things that might be coming in the future. It’s human nature to focus on the negative, because that’s how we survive. That’s how we learn from our mistakes and how we avoid danger or plan for the future. But while focusing on the negative can protect us from physical harm, it does untold spiritual and emotional damage. Ruminating on our past or fearing the future can both destroy us.
And so, Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” When he said, “daily bread,” he meant something like “reliable bread every day.” He meant something like manna: bread that will be new each day, and yet will never run out. Enough for today. He prayed, God, satisfy our needs, today and every day.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
And then he referred to debts and debtors. We take the Lord’s Prayer from the Gospel of Matthew. In the Gospel of Luke, a similar prayer is translated to say “sins.” But I think “debts and debtors” has a meaning beyond sins. I think Jesus was saying that the past is gone, so God, grant that what happened in the past stays there with no lingering debt in the present. I think Jesus was saying that tomorrow may not come, so God, help us not to worry about what is owed to us. Help us to live in the present. Satisfy our needs so that we can embrace the present, which is the only place where true joy can live.
If you have ever heard me preach, you probably heard something like this. The core message of the Gospel is that the kingdom of God is at hand! And what is God’s kingdom? Universal human flourishing.
The Exodus story is central to the development of the nation of Israel, and therefore it is the context for all of Jesus’s teachings. The Exodus can be seen as a preview of the kingdom of God. Where will we go? Wherever God leads us. Who will protect us from harm? God will. Who will provide for our every need? God will. God will provide enough for today, and then enough for tomorrow, and then enough for the day after that.
Enough. Morgan Housel tells this story, originally related by Jack Bogle:
At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.”
Back in prehistoric times, humans never had enough. And so, we always want more. We may have enough food, or money, or stuff to get through the day, but what about tomorrow? What about next year? We are always anxious about not having enough, and so we accumulate and accumulate. Rare is the house with an empty closet or an empty drawer. The more space we have, the more stuff we fill it with. More more more more more.
And at the extremes, we have cases like Elon Musk, with a net worth of one trillion dollars. Even if he lived a luxurious life spending a million dollars a year, it would take him a million years to spend it all. But is he satisfied? No. He is always hustling to get more.
I have also found that the people I work with who have the most research funding hustle the most for more funding. The people with the biggest salaries are the biggest cheapskates. They always have this gnawing anxiety that tomorrow things might go bad, so they need to accumulate more.
And to be honest, I’m like that, too. I don’t have any empty closets at home, and I’ve been accused of being a hoarder. Yet the message of the Gospel is that God’s kingdom is at hand—it’s here, right here among us. And the Exodus shows us what God’s kingdom is like. We have enough.
Buddhists have come to the same realization. Buddha revealed Four Noble Truths:
- This life is filled with suffering.
- The origin of suffering is craving and attachment.
- Suffering can be eliminated in your life.
- The path to eliminating suffering involves letting go of cravings and attachments.
Ultimately, we must let go of our desire for more more more more more, and instead rely on God’s divine providence. Trust that God will provide what we need for today. Forget about the past, for there is nothing you can do about it now. Don’t worry about the future. Live in the present.
Much easier said than done, right? If we don’t worry at least a little bit, we won’t be able to function in society. We do need to plan and prepare. I couldn’t be up here speaking today if I hadn’t prepared for today specifically, or if I hadn’t studied scripture and theology over the years. So how can we realistically rely on God’s providence?
One of the directives that God gives the ancient Israelites is, “Gather only enough for today and do not store it.” That points us towards those things that we cannot store. You can store food or money or stuff. You cannot store love. You cannot store grace.
My life is filled with loving relationships. Building a relationship is never finished. There is always more to learn about one another, and people are always changing. The surest way to destroy a relationship is through neglect. The second surest way is to take and never give. You cannot simply receive love and store it up somehow. Love only “works” if it flows through you to someone else. Relationships only work if there is mutuality—maybe not equality, but an equal commitment to one another’s flourishing.
The same applies to organizations like a church. CrossRoads works because of the people who are committed to its flourishing. People who give love as they receive love. We all love in different ways—some by making coffee, others by teaching or preaching, others by listening compassionately when someone shares their joys or sorrows. The strength of the church is in the diversity of its gifts. None of what really matters can be stored up and saved for later. Our love must be continually renewed and must continually flow.
We have all been blessed, some materially, some spiritually. Maybe yesterday was good, maybe it was bad. Maybe tomorrow will be good, maybe it will be bad. But I know that right now, we are here together. Right now, we are experiencing a foretaste of God’s kingdom that will come in its fullness at the end of the age. Right now, God’s grace is flowing over us and through us and among us.
We cannot store God’s blessings in our lives. We cannot store God’s grace, God’s love, or peace or joy or any other gift of the Spirit. We have been blessed, and so we bless others.
Grumbling is natural. We all wish that God would bless us more. We all focus on the negative instead of the positive in our lives. God understands. You can grumble to God. But always remember that God gives you what you need. Out of gratitude for all the blessings God has given us, we are called to share those blessings with others. May God’s grace flow through you and fill this church, this community, and the world. Amen.
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