“Remember- God Provides”

Exodus 16:1-8; Luke 22:1-23

If you read my Pastor’s Column in the latest Dialogue, you know it is “Financial Stewardship Season” (Not Duck or Rabbit OR Baseball season). Although stewardship is a full-time job for the Christian- how we use our resources for God’s work in the world, October-December is when we focus on financial giving to the work and mission of the church. You’ll soon receive a letter and pledge card from the church, asking you to pledge financially to the work of the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland in 2025.

Over the next few Sundays, as we focus on financial stewardship and giving financially to the church, sermon topics will include remembering God’s provisions, releasing our possessions, reimagining what the world can become, and restoring God’s creation.

As I mentioned in my column in the Dialogue, we’ll use a worship series from Sacred Art, which focuses on “Our Money Story.” Regarding the theme, Rev. Mieke Vandersall writes, "We all have a money story, whether we recognize it or not. Perhaps we are living from a story of fear or shame. Or a story that the church is dying and no longer relevant. Or a story in which our actions won't have an impact. Or a story that we don't have enough. Where might God be speaking a new narrative into the limited stories we have told ourselves? This theme invites us to discover and tell our money stories in light of God's money story of liberation and justice.” In part, Rev Vandersall suggests that whatever our money story is, it affects how we view our relationship with money and our trust in God. Today, you’ll hear a bit about my money story growing up as a child and how it still affects my thoughts about trust in God and money in my life today.

I was born in 1962. The first five years of my life were financially secure. My parents purchased a small three-bedroom home in Fair Oaks, California, with an acre of land in the back, including a barn. We had a horse, a Mustang named Blaze, and two Shetland Ponies. We had a large vegetable garden and a doughboy pool. My Dad worked as an aerospace engineer for Aerojet Corporation, and life was good financially. We had difficulties as a family, and life wasn’t perfect. Dad was often away, flying to places all over, working with other engineers to make the best rocket boosters they could during the space race of the 1960s. So, he was often missing from home, except on weekends. But there were no worries about trying to make ends meet. We didn’t talk about finances, because at the time there was no need to discuss them.

Not long after I turned six, my folks decided it was time to move up in the world and head to the suburbs, just like so many families were doing at the time. Aerojet was on top of the world, helping America land on the moon in 1969. We were given bonus holiday turkeys. There were plenty of presents around the Christmas tree and we were living in a new home in Rancho Cordova, CA.

Within a couple of years, however, the space race slowed considerably. My father and 10,000 other employees were laid off from Aerojet. Things changed for us financially quickly. No more big turkeys or lots of presents at Christmas. When we went shopping for groceries, we went to the discount markets, and my mom had a red plastic clicker that kept track of how much each item cost as she put it into the grocery cart. We never bought expensive soda brands like Coke or Shasta. Once in a while, Mom would let me get a bottle of Harvest Day Strawberry soda while I looked longingly at the Coca-Cola bottles. My father started an auto-wrecking business, and my mother began working as a church secretary, all the while trying to make monthly payments on the new home and keep food on the table. We ate a lot of soy burgers, stew, and hot dogs in those days.

Then, my dad’s business fell apart. One of his friends was caught embezzling money from the company, and Dad had to sell what was left. Things got even tighter for us financially. But we still didn’t talk about finances. That discussion was off-limits for my sister and me. We knew it was tense at home, and Mom and Dad were often worried about money. But we just did not talk about it.

During this time, we attended Rancho Cordova Presbyterian church, where, thanks to the most recent Dialogue newsletter, I just found out Pam Evans may have attended about the same time as we did! (Small Presbyterian world) Church was a place where the stress was gone, and I learned Jesus loved me. I heard and read stories about God providing and people trusting in God’s provision in this morning’s story from Exodus. Every Easter, I remember us watching that story on television at home- Cecile B. D Mille’s “The Ten Commandments”, learning the story of God’s people and Moses.  I marveled at how God kept providing what was needed for the people as they traveled through the wilderness. I wondered why God hadn’t provided more for our family.

In 1974, just as I was getting ready to enter Junior High, we moved again, as my dad found work as a purchasing agent at a hospital in Vallejo, CA. By this time, my money story was well crafted. I lived from a place of scarcity and worry. I wondered if we would be able to make ends meet. Life was tense. But still, we never talked about money. As soon as I was old enough, I began working, possibly because I was living from a place of scarcity.

That money story of scarcity and worry has affected me throughout my life. I still worry if our family will have enough, and I don’t like discussing monthly finances with Paula. Even though I’ve been an ordained pastor since 1994 and a solo pastor since 2003, I still worry if our church will have enough to make a new budget each year. Despite God providing what is needed, both in my family life and church life, I still struggle with trusting God to provide enough, time and time again.

So, that’s my money story, and I think that is why I still sometimes have trust issues with God.  What’s your money story? How does it affect you and the way you approach your finances? How does it affect your understanding of God? As we study God’s word over the next few Sundays, I hope we will learn to approach our finances with faith and trust in God’s provision for our lives, whatever money stories we lived through as children.

Let’s look at this section from Exodus, which has a lot to do with trusting in God and remembering God’s provisions. As a child, since the Ten Commandments movie indoctrinated me, I can’t help but read through this section of scripture and think of Edward G. Robinson leading the murmuring against Charlton Heston and John Carradine as Moses and Aaron. “Hah! Where’s your God now?!?” What led to this moment of murmuring? Had God abandoned the people?

God helped the Hebrew people escape slavery in Egypt through Moses and a host of plagues against the Egyptians. Then they traveled per God’s instruction to the Red Sea, where God parted the waters as Moses raised his staff (Dum dum da dum dum da da da da!), allowing the people to head to the other side while Egypt’s forces were washed away. Once they were safe, the people sang in praise of God’s faithfulness and provision, led by Moses’ sister, Miriam. Life was good! Bonus turkeys for the holidays and presents under the tree!

Moses led them from the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur, and they found no fresh water for three days. They finally came upon a spring of water at Marah. But the water was bitter. The people complained, saying, “Now what will we drink?!?  Where’s your God now, Moses?!?” “Why couldn’t we get the fancy soda? Stew again?

God led Moses to a tree and told him to place it in the water, which removed the bitter taste. God provided water to drink. Eventually, Moses took them to the oasis of Elim, where there were twelve springs of fresh water and seventy palm trees. God provided again, and the murmuring stopped.

After leaving Elim, we come to this morning’s passage. The people have been walking for forty-five days, following Moses through the wilderness and scavenging for food. They began to long for the good old days, even though they were in servitude. “At least in Egypt, there was good barbecue! Now, here we are, about to die in the middle of nowhere!” The murmuring continued, led, of course, by Eugene Robinson.

God then told Moses there would be provision for the people again. Each morning, a substance called Manna, something that tasted like wafers made with honey, would be provided, and the people would have enough. The murmuring stopped… for a while at least.

This passage tries to teach us that God provides what is needed in our lives. Theologian Amy Erickson writes, “In this passage, God acknowledges not only the Israelites' need for assurance but also God’s desire to shape them as a different kind of people, a different kind of community. In the ritual practice of daily gathering food that falls from the sky, they will learn, with their very bodies to come to trust in their God. They will also learn to share their basic human resources equitably.”

This passage is a counter-narrative to my worries about finances and trust in God.  It tells us that the God who governs the wilderness and provides what is needed will do that in our lives as well. We might not get the bonus turkey and endless bottles of Coca-Cola. But we’ll get a soy burger, and an occasional Harvest Day soda, which is enough. Do we trust this story enough to look back on our own lives, through our own murmurings, and realize that God has provided? Do we trust it and other stories like it so that we, too, rather than hoard what we have, will learn to share our basic human resources equitably?

This brings us to this morning’s second passage in Luke’s gospel. The religious leaders were fearful of Jesus’ ideas and plotted to kill him. Judas is led astray by evil and disappointment in his rabbi. He did not destroy the Roman occupiers by sword. So Judas went to the temple leaders and agreed to turn Jesus in at an appointed place and time. Money was destructively used for evil purposes, and the deal was sealed.

Then Jesus introduced a new way, one where God’s economy was introduced around a meal table. Jesus broke and shared bread and poured cups of wine, and there was enough for everyone. Jesus’ act of sharing around the table introduces God’s economy, where there is enough for all. In his act of sharing this meal, as we gather around the table in just a bit, Jesus invites us to share what we have so that everyone has enough.

This morning, as we ponder our own money stories and how they have affected us,

 As we consider what to give financially to the church,

May we remember God’s provision in the wilderness and faithfulness through scripture.

May we remember our own moments of insecurity in the wilderness.

May we remember moments amid our own murmurings when there was manna/enough.

May we remember Jesus’ example of sharing, introducing a new economy, God’s economy- where resources are divided and given freely so that everyone has enough.

May we remember all of these things, so that we can give from a place of trust and abundance.

Alleluia. Amen.