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So, here’s another sermon. I am preaching it tomorrow at my church.
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Title: What is this?
Date: Sept. 18th, 2005
Lectionary texts: Exodus 16:2-16Exodus 16:2-16
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
2 There in the desert they started complaining to Moses and Aaron, ³ “We wish the Lord had killed us in Egypt. When we lived there, we could at least sit down and eat all the bread and meat we wanted. But you have brought us out here into this desert, where we are going to starve.” ⁴ Ws The Lord said to Moses, “I will send bread w bread: This was something like a thin wafer, and it was called “manna,” which in Hebrew means, “What is it?” down from heaven like rain. Each day the people can go out and gather only enough for that day. That's how I will see if they obey me. ⁵ But on the sixth day of each week they must gather and cook twice as much.” ⁶ Moses and Aaron told the people, “This evening you will know that the Lord was the one who rescued you from Egypt. ⁷ And in the morning you will see his glorious power, because he has heard your complaints against him. Why should you grumble to us? Who are we?” ⁸ Then Moses continued, “You will know it is the Lord when he gives you meat each evening and more than enough bread each morning. He is really the one you are complaining about, not us—we are nobodies—but the Lord has heard your complaints.” ⁹ Moses turned to Aaron and said, “Bring the people together, because the Lord has heard their complaints.” ¹⁰ Aaron was speaking to them, when everyone looked out toward the desert and saw the bright glory of the Lord in a cloud. ¹¹ The Lord said to Moses, ¹² “I have heard my people complain. Now tell them that each evening they will have meat and each morning they will have more than enough bread. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.” ¹³ That evening a lot of quails came and landed everywhere in the camp, and the next morning dew covered the ground. ¹⁴ After the dew had gone, the desert was covered with thin flakes that looked like frost. ¹⁵ . The people had never seen anything like this, and they started asking each other, “What is it?” x What is it: See the note at . Moses answered, “This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ And he orders you to gather about two quarts for each person in your family—that should be more than enough.”

; Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
105 The Lord Can Be Trusted ¹ Praise the Lord and pray in his name! Tell everyone what he has done. ² Sing praises to the Lord! Tell about his miracles. ³ Celebrate and worship his holy name with all your heart. ⁴ Trust the Lord and his mighty power. ⁵ Remember his miracles and all his wonders and his fair decisions. ⁶ You belong to the family of Abraham, his servant; you are his chosen ones, the descendants of Jacob. ³⁷ . When God led Israel from Egypt, they took silver and gold, and no one was left behind. ³⁸ The Egyptians were afraid and gladly let them go. ³⁹ God hid them under a cloud and guided them by fire during the night. ⁴⁰ When they asked for food, he sent more birds than they could eat. ⁴¹ God even split open a rock, and streams of water gushed into the desert. ⁴² God never forgot his sacred promise to his servant Abraham. ⁴³ When the Lord rescued his chosen people from Egypt, they celebrated with songs. ⁴⁴ The Lord gave them the land and everything else the nations had worked for. ⁴⁵ He did this so that his people would obey all of his laws. Shout praises to the Lord!

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; Jonah 3:10-4:11Jonah 3:10-4:11
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
10 When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned. ⁴ Jonah Gets Angry at the Lord ¹ Jonah was really upset and angry. ² . So he prayed: Our Lord, I knew from the very beginning that you wouldn't destroy Nineveh. That's why I left my own country and headed for Spain. You are a kind and merciful God, and you are very patient. You always show love, and you don't like to punish anyone, not even foreigners. ³ . Now let me die! I'd be better off dead. ⁴ The Lord replied, “What right do you have to be angry?” ⁵ Jonah then left through the east gate of the city and made a shelter to protect himself from the sun. He sat under the shelter, waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh. ⁶ The Lord made a vine grow up to shade Jonah's head and protect him from the sun. Jonah was very happy to have the vine, ⁷ but early the next morning the Lord sent a worm to chew on the vine, and the vine dried up. ⁸ During the day the Lord sent a scorching wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head, making him feel faint. Jonah was ready to die, and he shouted, “I wish I were dead!” ⁹ But the Lord asked, “Jonah, do you have the right to be angry about the vine?” “Yes, I do,” he answered, “and I'm angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ But the Lord said: You are concerned about a vine that you did not plant or take care of, a vine that grew up in one night and died the next. ¹¹ In that city of Nineveh there are more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot tell right from wrong, and many cattle are also there. Don't you think I should be concerned about that big city?

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; Philippians 1:21-30Philippians 1:21-30
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
21 If I live, it will be for Christ, and if I die, I will gain even more. ²² I don't know what to choose. I could keep on living and doing something useful. ²³ It is a hard choice to make. I want to die and be with Christ, because that would be much better. ²⁴-²⁵ But I know that all of you still need me. That's why I am sure I will stay on to help you grow and be happy in your faith. ²⁶ Then, when I visit you again, you will have good reason to take great pride in Christ Jesus because of me. c take great pride in Christ Jesus because of me: Or “take great pride in me because of Christ Jesus.” ²⁷ Above all else, you must live in a way that brings honor to the good news about Christ. Then, whether I visit you or not, I will hear that all of you think alike. I will know that you are working together and that you are struggling side by side to get others to believe the good news. ²⁸ Be brave when you face your enemies. Your courage will show them that they are going to be destroyed, and it will show you that you will be saved. God will make all of this happen, ²⁹ and he has blessed you. Not only do you have faith in Christ, but you suffer for him. ³⁰ You saw me suffer, and you still hear about my troubles. Now you must suffer in the same way.

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; Matthew 20:1-16Matthew 20:1-16
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Workers in a Vineyard ^{20 1} As Jesus was telling what the kingdom of heaven would be like, he said: Early one morning a man went out to hire some workers for his vineyard. ² After he had agreed to pay them the usual amount for a day's work, he sent them off to his vineyard. ³ About nine that morning, the man saw some other people standing in the market with nothing to do. ⁴ He said he would pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. ⁵ So they went. At noon and again about three in the afternoon he returned to the market. And each time he made the same agreement with others who were loafing around with nothing to do. ⁶ Finally, about five in the afternoon the man went back and found some others standing there. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” ⁷ “Because no one has hired us,” they answered. Then he told them to go work in his vineyard. ⁸ ; . That evening the owner of the vineyard told the man in charge of the workers to call them in and give them their money. He also told the man to begin with the ones who were hired last. ⁹ When the workers arrived, the ones who had been hired at five in the afternoon were given a full day's pay. ¹⁰ The workers who had been hired first thought they would be given more than the others. But when they were given the same, ¹¹ they began complaining to the owner of the vineyard. ¹² They said, “The ones who were hired last worked for only one hour. But you paid them the same that you did us. And we worked in the hot sun all day long!” ¹³ The owner answered one of them, “Friend, I didn't cheat you. I paid you exactly what we agreed on. ¹⁴ Take your money now and go! What business is it of yours if I want to pay them the same that I paid you? ¹⁵ Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Why should you be jealous, if I want to be generous?” ¹⁶ ; ; . Jesus then said, “So it is. Everyone who is now first will be last, and everyone who is last will be first.”

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.

Manna. What is this in the desert? The Israelites fear their death, their annihilation in the wilderness. They fear the undiscovered country, that unrecognizable future, that possibility of dissolving in the desert. So they look back to Egypt, where life was somewhat stable, predictable, controllable. This isn’t the first time their fear turns to grumbling and turns them back towards those warm meals in their Egyptian slave quarters.

Remember back when they found themselves between a rock and a hard place: the Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh’s approaching army on the other? Listen to what they said to Moses then: “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!” (Ex.14:11-12).

At that moment—the moment when death seemed imminent and continued existence impossible—that’s when their lack of trust was exposed. But God saved them anyway. God’s gracious care for his people exceeds our imaginations, reaches beyond our ideas about what is possible and impossible.

Now, again in our Scripture reading, Israel remembers their glorified Egypt and complains in the wilderness. They say to Moses and Aaron, “Why did you take us away from those warm meals and bring us to the desert to starve to death?” (16:3). Despite their lack of trust, this constant grumbling against God’s promised care, God graciously provides. He sends quail and bread from heaven. In the wilderness, in the desert, God sends abundant provision. Heavenly bread…bread of life.

But this is where it gets so interesting. When they see the bread, they somehow don’t recognize it. Even though Moses tells them God will provide bread from heaven in the morning, they ask “what is this?” (v15). It comes, and they don’t know what it is. It’s morning, God promised them a hearty breakfast, and they don’t see how this white stuff on the ground could be it.

Maybe they wanted Oatmeal, not this dew-looking bread that tastes like honey wafers (v31). They expected French Toast, not what appears to be something more like Honey Bunches of Oats. They sound like quite particular people. Anyhow, somehow their expectations blind them from the heavenly bread right before their eyes. “What is this?”, they ask.

What is this?

The shock, the completely foreign, the unimaginable, the unrecognizable. God’s gift arrives so mysteriously that it doesn’t fit into how we think gifts are supposed to be given, what they are supposed to look like. This heavenly gift is so new that it’s unnamable: they call it Manna (v31), which means “what is it”. They name it the same phrase they used as their question when they first saw it. Manna: What is this? They don’t yet know how to name it, but they do the best they can with what they got.

And Peter asks Jesus, “What is this?” What is this kingdom of heaven? What is it? Just before the passage we heard this evening from Matthew, Peter asks Jesus, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” (Matt.19:27). Jesus then tells Peter that he and the rest of the Twelve disciples will “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (19:28).

But then Jesus tells the disciples that the way they will rule from their thrones won’t look like what they expect. He unsettles their images of sitting on heavenly thrones by adding, “But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first” (19:30). And we, along with the wondering disciples ask, “What is this?”

And Jesus says, it’s like this: “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard” (20:1). We just heard how the story goes. In the morning he hires some guys and says he’s going to pay them a denarius. Then he goes out again around lunch time, then afternoon, then evening, and hires new people every time. And at the end of the day he starts with the last people he hired and pays them the same as the first people. And the folks who worked the longest grumble and ask, “What is this?” And we ask, “What is this?”

And Jesus answers by calling it generosity. He names this gift the kingdom of heaven—divine bread of life falling down from the heavens. It’s just like that Manna in the wilderness: it’s hard to name, to conceptualize. We struggle with all the words we got to come up with some description, something to say, some way to tell others this good news—to say, “hey, this is how God’s generosity works. I’ve seen it.”

And when we think we got a grasp on God’s grace, the way God’s generosity flows in the world, in our church, among our friends and enemies, among our co-workers—just as we approach that level of confidence the Word descends from heaven and says, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” And we say to ourselves, “We’ve been here longer, we’ve been working on this discipleship business and know the ins and outs and that one—yeah, her over there—she’s definitely out. That isn’t the way of the cross. We’ve been in the Lord’s army awhile, and that doesn’t belong here.”

And we’re like Jonah. Nineveh does not belong. They shouldn’t get God’s generosity. Bread from heaven shouldn’t fall in that desert.

And the Word in Jonah says, “Have you any right to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4Jonah 4:4
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
4 The Lord replied, “What right do you have to be angry?”

). And the Word in Matthew says, “Are you jealous because I am generous?” (Matt.20:15). And we gasp, and all we can say is “What is this?.... Why do you work this way, Oh Lord?”

Well, if you follow the flow of this sermon as I wander through these passages of Scripture it seems like we run into a lesson. It’s the sort of lesson that seems to sneak its way into all my sermons. So, some suspicion is warranted. I mean, I’m suspicious of my own reading of these texts. I am suspicious because somehow, no matter what texts I get, I come up with a message I sorta like. It’s a lesson that I am growing comfortable with. I can name it.

It goes something like this. Here it is: the way into the eternal life God offers us is found as we extend our conceptions, as we reach with our imaginations, explore undiscovered countries, humble ourselves, and see how God is speaking to us through our neighbor—that stranger sitting next to you right now, and the one tomorrow at work, and the one you thought you knew oh so well so you never let yourself see how God wants to say something new to you through them.

It’s a sermon about how the Father’s gift of the Son, and continuing presence in the Spirit, wants to explode all our jealousies, all our selfish confidence, all the ways we are like Jonah or those folks working in the vineyard since morning. It’s about all the ways we try to control other people, and how little we dare to let other people see who we are—all those ways we pigeon-hole others in ways that prevent us from ever picking up our eyes, catching another in our gaze and risking a question: What is this? Is this one the Manna, the bread of life from heaven that I’m supposed to eat for breakfast? Is this one supposed to sustain me in my travels of faith, this Christian journey of trust?

And that’s how my story goes; that’s the part of the gospel I like to preach. Now, I still think all that is the gospel. I am not about to change my mind. But I also have to admit that it’s easy for me to preach that message. I think it fits my personality pretty well. I have a much easier time trying to listen to others than thinking that I have something to say, that what I have to say is all that important. That’s why it is strange for me to get up here and try to preach. It’s just not me. I’m always nervous and uncomfortable. Always sweating.

And, I think, that’s why Paul makes me so uncomfortable. I mean, listen to him: “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me” (Philippians 1:23-26Philippians 1:23-26
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
23 It is a hard choice to make. I want to die and be with Christ, because that would be much better. ²⁴-²⁵ But I know that all of you still need me. That's why I am sure I will stay on to help you grow and be happy in your faith. ²⁶ Then, when I visit you again, you will have good reason to take great pride in Christ Jesus because of me. c take great pride in Christ Jesus because of me: Or “take great pride in me because of Christ Jesus.”

).

He sounds totally full of himself: “necessary for you… for your progress… that your joy may overflow because of me.” How dare he! What is this?! I don’t know what to do with Paul’s confidence. It’s strange to my eye. I cringe. I have a hard time seeing how this word is bread of life, a heavenly gift. This confidence rubs me the wrong way. I feel threatened.

But Paul has something to say; he has some fruit he wants to share. And nothing will stop him. He must speak. He’s like that Psalmist we heard tonight—the one that can’t keep quiet about all the wonderful ways God has sustained Israel: In Psalm 105 we hear how God delivered Israel from Egypt, how God traveled with Israel in a fiery cloud, how God sustained the people with quail and bread from heaven, and gave his people drink from a rock, how God is forever faithful to his promises to Abraham. The Psalmist must speak. Paul must speak. So, I speak… and so must you.

This speech might be about confidence. But to reduce Paul’s, or the Psalmist’s, or Moses’, or Jesus’ proclamation of the good news to some sort of posturing—an attempt to manipulate an audience, to make me or you feel important—is to miss the point entirely. Sure, most of us have mixed motives. But still we speak the good news, we communicate the wonderful acts of God, because we have to make sense of the bread of heaven. The Christian life is about figuring out how to make sense of what happened when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven and revealed to our eyes the bread of life—the Word made flesh, the Son of God, our crucified savior, this Manna.

Paul speaks because he can’t help but speak. He has to share himself with us. And it’s a risk. It takes vulnerability to say what we think, to risk a moment of confidence, to speak up and let yourself be known—to speak through all our masks, all our posturing, and risk the possibility that someone might see us for who we are. And that’s scary. It’s like that dream when you show up to your first day of school and realizing that you’re naked.

What is this? Maybe that’s what you are saying right now. And all I can say is that I hope this is the bread of life, that somehow the Word from heaven descended in our midst… manna. So, here I am, up here learning to speak about all the ways our Scriptures make me uncomfortable, all the ways I feel exposed up here stammering away trying to say something about what I saw as I cringed and squinted at these texts.

But the good news is that some among us know what it means to suffer with Christ like Paul did, and some among us have something to say about how they are learning to see Manna—that Word made new every morning, just enough for our daily bread.

Discernment of the Word. That’s what follows this sermon. That’s your chance to speak, to risk exposure, to learn from one another how to name God’s grace at work in our midst. Our communication is holy—it’s today’s Manna—because we trust that wherever two or more are gathered, Christ is present with us…in our midst, transfiguring our risky words with the Word. This is good news, the good news of the Kingdom, of Manna.

(If you want to read more of my sermons, look at this page )