Joshua 5:9-12

Lent 4 - Year C

 

    

Prior to manna there was grumbling. There will be subsequent grumblings after the manna served its purpose and ordinary life sets in again. Apparently, there will be grumbling. Even Jesus grumbled in Gethsemane and on a cross.

 

The Israelites had the equivalent of a 40-year fast. That is now broken. With a variety of food now at their disposal [stolen, mind you, from the Canaanites (Palestinians) whose land they took] they began to settle in to fight with others and among themselves. The disgrace of Egypt may be behind them, but there are future disgraces in the wings, waiting for their cue. Sustained injustice: enter Disgrace and one prophet or another.

 

For Lenten reflection: what is our relationship with ordinary life and with miracle? Are these participants in a zero-sum game? As long as ordinary life is manageable it is on and miracles are off? When miracles are present, ordinary life is absent? What would connect these to see the miracle of ordinary life and honor it with on-going justice?

 

It is relatively easy to see what temptations brought us to another moment of Disgrace. It is not so easy to see a needed miracle/grace before its time. Currently, where are you on the seemingly unending journey from ordinary life to miracle and back to ordinary life and around again? What justice matter do you need to attend to in order for ordinary life to move forward without another round of Disgrace?

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/joshua-59-12.html

 

 

In good times and in bad times the constant expression of a GOD who was present was manna. If the Israelites were extra good, there was no extra manna. If they were extra trying, there was no less manna.

That same process is present with the younger son and with you and me. God is no more present or absent in response to our living well or poorly.

However, when it is possible to care for ourselves, we are to do so. After the constancy of survival food even unleavened bread and parched grain we come to a feast, as tasty as a "fatted calf."

Now for the rest of the story - living together in ordinary lives. This will prove to be difficult. This is still difficult. We interpret experience and divide meaning up into various size parcels. We have trouble waiting for one another. We have trouble rejoicing with one another.

Remembering manna and feasting, let us do what we can to stop lording it over (Canaan) and being lorded over (Egypt). Getting beyond our squabbles may be the hardest work yet for us - harder than slavery for others, harder than pity for self - just plain ordinary living with all its errors and breakthroughs.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/march2004.html

 

 

Here I am working out of ignorance. What is the Passover tradition during the Exodus? Do we go from Egypt to the plains of Jericho without Passover? Can quail, manna, and sand substitute for lamb, unleavened bread, and bitter herbs? Given the importance of Passover in the Jewish tradition are there equivalent periods without Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter in the Christian tradition? What about Coke (r) and Twinkies (r) for bread and wine? Are rituals dependent upon the congregants, if not the priests, so injustice trumps correct kosher, as the prophets claim?

I'm not even sure what to make of the questions? Do they go the heart of something or are they entirely beside any point?

In most other arenas I speculate more freely with a modicum of supposed information. Here, without a base to build from, I am stymied.

Time to ask. Anyone have any info? And, will I believe it if I hear it?

In the meantime a look could be taken at circumcision or the restart of Passover observances. But right now I'm too fixated on the Exodus/Passover question. If we paid attention we may even find that our various fixations on supposedly better known pieces of information leads us to equally stuck places. From a point of either too little or too much information we do not find a fruitful place for midrash.

- - - - - - -

dear g*d help
my unbelief
my disbelief
my ignorance
my surety

and in helping
leave room
for all the above

together
to gather
new life

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

 

 

Given the need for food and water, what would it mean for us to know that we are to eat the crops of the land and drink the water of this locale? Here we have a high environmental ethic.

We dare not waste or pollute the land – for it will show up as famine or poison and we will die. We dare not waste or pollute the water – for it will show up as drought or poison and we will die.

This ethic can also be extended to the old game show featuring questions about animal, vegetable, or mineral. In specific it can reveal to us our prejudices about people. We dare not waste or pollute any of these natural resources – for it will show up as diminished live or poisoned relationships and we will die.

This responsibility to not waste or pollute can be a Lenten/Exodus reminder of how easily community can become dysfunctional. We can turn on a source of transformation and redemption, oh so easily. We can fear and take advantage of others, oh so easily.

How might we stay away from concepts of manifest destiny and entitlement because of our class or tradition?

We may still need to send someone out on a band-aid mission to find a lost sheep or coin, but even more we will be proactive in not losing parts of our lives. We may still need rescue missions for lost souls, but even more we will be proactive in announcing in experiential ways the expansive and expanding love available, no matter what.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/03/joshua-59-12.html