2020.09.20 | This Bread God Gives
“The Bread God Gives”
Rev. Pepper Swanson
When the Israelites escape slavery in Egypt and cross through Red Sea, they find themselves in the wilderness of Sin. Thirsty and hungry, they complain bitterly to their leaders Moses and Aaron. The people are what parents call “hangry” — hungry and angry — angry because they are hungry. In fact, they are so hangry, they can’t help but cast their thoughts back to Egypt and tell Moses and Aaron that though they were slaves, they had bread and pots of meat. They ask: Why? Why have you brought us all the way out here to starve?
Fortunately for them, God overhears their complaints and tells Moses and Aaron: "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you. From today’s scripture reading in Exodus, we learn that the bread from God was a “fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.” This fine, flaky substance must not have been recognizable as bread as they knew it, because when the Israelites first see it, they say to one another: What is it? The word manna is a Hebrew pun: it means both what is it and it is what?
Since I’m a baker as well as a Sunday School teacher, my first reaction to this description of the bread God gives was that I should re-create it so I could show all of you what it looked like. Recipes on the internet were way off base for this project because they simply added coriander to a bread recipe and made bread rolls. Good if you like human bread; not so good for illustrating God’s bread. Scientists on the internet went a completely different direction and offered us a choice between insects that secrete and/or hatch edible white pods or trees that ooze white stuff when cut or injured by insects.
This is what I came up with: using just the description of the bread from Exodus 16:14, it probably looked a lot like this tray of coconut flakes, coconut flour and egg whites. It’s flaky, it’s fine, sort of like frost, and being told it’s bread, you would probably say: What is it?
The Bible tells us a few other facts about the bread God gives. We know that each person is to pick only one omer for their day’s ration. One omer is about two quarts. Something interesting about this allotment was that it was self enforcing. Say you went out at dawn to pick your omer and feeling extra hungry, you picked yourself three or four omers. Here’s what you’d find in your basket: One omer! The same was true if you under-picked only half a omer, you’d find in your basket: One omers! And, it needed to be picked in the morning because when the sun came out it melted away.
The Bible also tells us that this bread was not what we might call shelf-stable. Moses told the Israelities, yeah, don’t keep any of our daily portion overnight, okay? Naturally, some did try to keep it overnight and in the morning, they found it infested with worms and stinky. Let me show you what stinky bread infested with worms looks like ...
(You didn’t really think I was going to show you that, did you?)
But on the sixth day, the day before the Israelites’ day of rest, the bread could be stored. That’s right, the Israelites were told to collect double their ration per person, so two omers, and to bake or boil it as usual and eat the leftover on the seventh day, the Sabbath. And the Israelities found that the bread held over to Sabbath was not wormy or stinky. They also found that there was no bread delivery on the Sabbath, so there was no question of going out to collect more.
The very best thing about this unusual bread was that it was filling and met their need for food. It must have been satisfying because they ate it for forty years, until they came to the land of Canaan.
When I reflect on this passage, I’m struck by three themes:
First, it’s quite evident that the Israelities are in a time of transition from one situation (bad) to another (hopefully good). As with many transitions, there are considerable unknowns, some of which are discouraging and some of which are hopeful. In the middle of a major transition, we live with the uncertainty of whether we should go back to the known (but unsatisfactory) or plough ahead to the unknown. Today’s reading reminds us that it is important to recognize when we are in a time of transition and to put our uncertainty and fear down long enough to remember where we are coming from and where we want to go. Whether we are leaving an unhealthy relationship, changing jobs, immigrating, or moving, we have to give up yearning for the safety of enslavement and embrace that which feeds our needs until we can take care of ourselves in a whole and healthy way.
The second theme that really resonates with me is that God hears and responds to our needs. Over and over in Exodus, I’m struck by how closely God listens to the people, including their leaders. And interestingly, God listens to what they say to each other and to Moses and Aaron. There goes any illusion we have that God hears only what begins with Our Father and ends with Amen. Not being much of a magical thinker, I’m not suggesting that you curb your thoughts to curry favor with God or that you begin expecting frosty bread on the lawn each morning, but the Bible teaches us that it couldn’t hurt if you speak of your concerns as if God is listening and responding to our needs.
Think back to 2019: what you were complaining about last year? The weather, your work, being unable to buy something or being unable to go somewhere. How does that compare to this year: when what we are complaining about boils down as much to survival as it did for the Israelites: will I get sick, will someone I love get sick, will my job last, can I get unemployment benefits, will my house be destroyed by wildfire? As an illustration, I received an email from my sister who lives in Portland, where the air quality index has been around 500 for over a week now due to wildfires nearby. She wrote: I guess there is hope….they just keep moving it. First is was this Monday….then Thursday…then Sunday by noon….My N95 I was wearing to water the garden (ten minutes a day) turned a god awful dirty brown…and all the plants are dying…and the grape crop is ruined….and the raspberry canes are turning black (and in her own self-chastizing words)…whine…whine…whine…I wrote her back to say: “It’s not whining if your situation is bad. Totally legit to feel horrible about being trapped in the house while the outside is toxic.”
Daily, 2020 reminds us that our complaints in 2019 were probably not nearly as real or as important as they are today. And the Bible reminds us that God hears and sees and is present with us, both yesterday and today. Like the Israelites, it may be time for us to make it a practice to be more discerning about what we complain about and where we focus our energies when we are in a time of transition.
The third theme that emerges from Exodus is that even if we are in a miserable situation, in a time of transition, for all intents and purposes, a crisis, there are still expectations that we will honor the basic guidance that God has laid out for us. In today’s passage, those expectations are that we will eat to sustain ourselves, that we will limit ourselves to a healthy portion, that we will not hoard food, and most importantly, that we will rest on the Sabbath. That sounds easy enough — eat right, live so others might live, and take some time off. It must have been as hard for them as it is for us because God made them practice honoring God’s expectations for forty years as they wandered the wilderness.
My friends, God hears us in our need and gives us bread. It may not be the bread we expected, it may not be the bread we wanted. What God gives us is this: a reminder that we aren’t alone, a recipe for evaluating our concerns, a way forward when the doors behind have shut, and a framework for a good but simple life. Amen.