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Alan's
Lenten Reflection...
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LENT 2007...  From the other side of the Pacific, and taking a break from growing grass in a more isolated part of Texas, Alan Simpson, is joining us with a series of gentle reflections on the Sunday readings during Lent... Warning: Death in the Desert.... Let's be honest with ourselves. MOST of us have it pretty good: a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, clean water, enough to eat, an internet connection that usually works. Now and then, troubles show up that seriously threaten to upset the apple cart. Illness, loss of a job, unexpected bills, divorce, death in the family, fire, earthquake, war, legal problems, rebellious teenage children, ailing elderly parents, loss of a home, moving to a new place, a change in familiar cultural norms — these are just a few of the unpleasant surprises that life can toss our way. Any one of these can create a crisis, two or more at the same time can be devastating. Wouldn't it be nice if some knight in shining armor could always ride in and save us! Experience, unfortunately, teaches that such knights are few and far between. The first article in this series carried an optimistic message: "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." A comforting idea, I think, but the Lord is not that knight who makes everything right according to our preferences. The kind of 'saving' here is not the same as would solve the sort of troubles mentioned above. The second article said, "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It is possible to hope for something but when it finally arrives it involves more than we expected. Hope and warning... Today, the mid-point of the Lenten Sundays, the scripture selections bring both hope and a warning.. The Old Testament lesson is the familiar story of Moses and the Burning Bush [Exodus 3]. Moses learns that the LORD has seen the affliction on the people in Egypt, has heard their cry of complaint against slavery, and will lead them out of bondage to a land flowing with milk and honey. The "Hebrew Children" called on the name of the Lord and are about to be saved from bondage. It won't be pretty. I'm not going to re-tell the whole story; it's there in The Book for anyone to read. Time now to get on to what I think is an important lesson for us to learn from that time. This isn't the only lesson by any means, only one of many possible. Here is what today's Epistle says: … I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers [and sisters!], that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. This is scary stuff, folks! Think about it. These people believed they would be saved from slavery. They went with the spiritual rock – Christ – all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, yet "God was not pleased with most of them". Why would that be? Is there something we should learn from this? Something, perhaps, about avoiding evil things? The lectionary selection specifically leave out verses 7 to 9, which list such usual evils as idolatry, pagan revelry, sexual immorality, and testing the Lord. I think the these were omitted because they are so obviously wrong, and so easy to preach against, that a homilist might be tempted to pull an 'old reliable' sermon out of the barrel instead of starting fresh. We might never get to hear about the Grumbling. God doesn't love a fearful grumbler The former slaves did a lot of grumbling — some versions translate it as murmuring — during their journey toward freedom. So much, in fact, that according to the story God got so frustrated a time or two that he almost wiped them all out. The grumbling was about the usual things: safety, food, water, hardship, quality of leadership. It started early, before "they all passed through the sea." It continued all the way to the very border of the Promised Land, where it got so bad that God sent them back to wander in the desert until everyone over age 20 (except Caleb and Joshua) was dead. Except for those two, no adult who began the journey could cross into the Promised Land, because of faithless, fearful grumbling.  Something I find interesting is that there seems to be a difference between complaining for a reason and just to be grumbling. God heard the complaints about slavery and took action. Caught between the chariots and the shore, the people complained about being brought out to die and the waters parted. They complained about hunger and thirst, and these needs were met. At some point it should have become obvious that God was going to take care of them no matter what happened. But the grumbling continued. The rumble of the grumblers The serious grumbles centered around a common theme: The good old days were better than now! "We had jobs, homes, a familiar way of life. We had fish free for the taking in the river, vegetables from our gardens, stability, certainty, a sense of order. We knew what was expected of us. We didn't have to make decisions on our own because our overseers told us what to do. We want to go back to the way things were, when we were happy. We want to go home to what we had. We are afraid to go where God is leading us because it is so different. We were wrong to want change. Let us return to the way things were, back to the way we were!" Sound Familiar? Once God sets us on a path we are supposed to continue in that direction. It is not a two-way road. Looking back risks being turned into a pillar of salt, or worse. Longing for the past risks losing what God has planned for us — which is much better than anything we can imagine, or anything that went before. Too many people, I think, are in love with the past, with their memories or their imaginings of how good things used to be. Does God know what he's doing? Does God still lead us, or did He stop 50 or 150 years ago? That's something we have to decide for ourselves. I suggest we should consider the examples and warnings from the past because... these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! Grumbling about how much better things used to be doesn't lead to the
Promised Land. Ask the generation that died in the desert. Today's scripture readings can be found here: www.usccb.org/nab/031107a.shtml  Alan Simpson
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Alan
Simpson is a leading member of a number of the online communities
from which Catholica Australia evolved. He is semi-retired and
lives on a ranch in the wilds of western north Texas, where he raises
grass for cows, goats and sheep. Alan is a member of the board which
is being established to provide a channel of financial accountability
to the philanthropic supporters of Catholica Australia.