October 1, 2023
A church member from my previous church in Ohio sent me a text message a couple of months ago asking me how retirement is going. I responded by saying, that it’s going great but that I’m still adjusting to a new weekly rhythm. And then he responded with these wise words, “It will take time.”
I was thinking of that little exchange of text messages as I was reading and reflecting on our Old Testament reading for today. It’s a story of how the Israelites were adjusting to a new rhythm in their journey of faith. No longer were they enslaved people doing hard labor in Egypt. God called upon Moses to help them escape from Egypt and they were now wandering in an arid and dry wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.
On the surface, you would think that they would still be celebrating their recent freedom from slavery, but as we just heard in today’s Exodus reading, they are feeling very unsettled, worried, and even angry that they are now in this very challenging and difficult journey. Here in Exodus, chapter 17, they are arguing with Moses and complaining of thirst.
We as readers of this story want to send them a text message to remind them that their newfound freedom will take time. They are experiencing a totally new rhythm of life which has taken them out of their comfort zones.
This new rhythm of life was taking its toll. It was forcing them to adjust to what it means to be God’s people now that they had been freed from slavery. Yes, God parted the Red Sea to help them escape from the Egyptians but what good was that if they were now going to die of thirst in the wilderness.
You can hear the sharp sarcasm in their voices here in verse 3 where they lodge this rhetorical question of Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”
And poor Moses. What is he to do in this situation? It was probably all that he could do to not respond with sarcasm by saying, “Well if you want to head back to Egypt where you were enslaved, be my guest.”
If we’re honest, we probably can identify with the Israelites and their struggle here in this story. We human beings aren’t the best at adjusting to the changes that come our way in life, especially when those changes challenge our faith and our way of living.
And so, we can either throw up our hands and give up or we can as my friend was reminding me, be patient because it takes time to adjust to new rhythms and challenges in our lives.
Pete Enns is a New Testament scholar who has recently written the book, Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming. I read the book and really appreciate his baseball reference because I love baseball.
He uses the image of trying to hit a curveball, because when a batter is expecting that the pitcher is going to throw a fastball, it can be really difficult to hit the curveball, because it’s a slower speed and it will mess with the rhythm of your swing. A good curve ball that you’re not expecting can lead you to miss the pitch altogether or you end up hitting a weak grounder and be easily thrown out at first.
Pete Enns wrote this book because he grew up in a church that discouraged people from ever questioning or doubting their faith. His church had a very black and white understanding of the Bible that didn’t allow for honest questions, doubts, or differing perspectives. They had a “The bible says it. I believe it. And that settles it” approach to faith.
While that might work out fine when things are going well in your life, it doesn’t address those times when life knocks you to your knees. The problem with this either/or approach to faith is that it will only take you so far before unexpected curveballs lead us to rethink our faith.
In his book, Pete Enns shares that the church of his youth did not prepare him for an unexpected curveball that came his way one day as he was in San Francisco and traveling in a taxicab to a church that had invited him to be their keynote speaker. And as he was in that taxicab, he couldn’t help but notice the crowded city streets that included people of so many different nationalities, cultures and backgrounds.
This people watching observation humbled him because in that moment, he realized how limited his perspective on faith really is. Yes, he was a known bible scholar who was in high demand as a keynote speaker, but in that moment in the tax-cab, it dawned on him that he was only one small part of the larger approach to the Christian faith.
That experience led him to become more aware of his own biases and assumptions in his understanding of the Bible and faith. That experience was a turning point for him because it forced him to ask some hard questions about his faith and it led him to a deeper humility to be more open to how other people view the world and faith.
In his own words, here is what Pete shares in his book about that curveball experience:
“I believe without question that God’s Presence was with me in that taxi, pulling the cozy covers off me, pushing me out of my slumber, and throwing me out into a cold, dark 5 a.m. wake-up shower. I knew deep down this jolt was just what I needed, but I was also very uneasy about where all this would go. How much would my understanding of God change? Is this the slippery slope I was always warned about? And what would people think of me if they ever found out? I was staring down into a dark hole. I knew I had to jump down, but with no guarantees of how deep the drop or what I would find once I hit bottom.
I was living another curveball moment. I found myself wrestling with God, or at least with my understanding of God, which would lead me to adjust my view of God from a deity who draws thick lines to one who, in whatever mysterious ways, cares for all of us more deeply than I can fathom and who has all of creation in a relentless, loving embrace. That taxi ride, where my view of God was threatened, was actually a God moment. God upsetting my view of God – isn’t that something? And yet, that’s the way it works. It always has.”
Pete then goes on to share in his book about how that curveball moment led him into a much more deeper and richer faith far beyond what he could have ever imagined. And it was simply because he was now willing to enter into uncharted territory that would lead him to begin a new ministry called, “The Bible for Normal People.”
It’s a podcast that includes interviews with a variety of theologians that address questions about the Bible and the Christian faith in general. This new ministry has helped many people of faith to have a safe space where they can ask questions about their faith that they may have been too afraid to ask and to learn more about differing ways of interpreting it.
Some of you might be familiar with the United Methodist resource, “Disciple Bible Study” which also helps people who may not have a seminary or theological background to look at their faith from a much wider perspective.
I have always found it interesting that the name, “Israel” literally means “to strive with God.” We get this from the story of when Jacob wrestled with the angel all night and in the morning, God changed his name from “Jacob” to “Israel.”
To be God’s people literally means that we are a people who wrestle with God because we are never done growing in our faith and of our understanding of who God is. This is actually a very Methodist thing to do because John Wesley believed that God’s sanctifying grace is always seeking to shape and mold us into the people God has called us to be.
And that often means pushing us out of our comfort zones so that spiritual growth can happen. Wesley referred to this as “moving onto perfection.” To move onto perfection means to wrestle with God, to ask questions about our faith, and to be open to new understandings and perspectives.
And maybe that’s what is going on when we experience life’s curveballs along our faith journey. They force us to adjust and rethink our faith so that it will lead us to have a more well-rounded faith.
The Israelites were facing a curveball during their journey through the wilderness. Even though God had freed them from slavery in Egypt, they now had to adjust to a new reality of what it means to trust and depend on God in a desolate and dry wilderness. And here in chapter 17, they are thirsty. And they are in need of another sign that God was still with them.
This leads Moses to turn to the Lord for help and he is instructed to take the shepherd’s rod that he had used to strike the Red Sea and strike a rock in which water will come out of it for the people to drink.
Our scripture reading today invites us to think about the curveballs that we face in our lives, especially when we are thirsty in the wilderness and wondering if God is present. Even though our faith is being challenged and our view of God is being expanded and taking us out of our comfort zones, the good news is that God is still with us.
God is with you as your face the curveballs of life. God is with you in the taxicab when you are overwhelmed at how much more there is to learn. God is with you when you are feeling unsettled in your faith.
Today is world communion Sunday where we are invited to receive the bread and the cup and where we are reminded that Christians all around the world are receiving this holy meal.
I’ve always appreciated this day on the church calendar which is always on the 1st Sunday of October because it reminds me that there is so much diversity in churches throughout the world. It’s always staggering to me when I am reminded on this day that the United Methodist Church is only one of 45,000 denominations in the world.
And we all don’t think alike, view the Bible in the same way, have the same style of worship, or speak the same language. This always humbles me, because like Pete Enns’ experience in the taxicab looking out at the diversity of people on his way to speak at a church, I kind of see this day as a curveball as well. But in a good way because the church and our faith is so much more diverse than my very limited perspective. Thank God for that!
And yet out of the 2.4 billion Christians around the world, there is still a seat for little old me at this holy table, and there is also seat for you. As diverse as we are, we gather in humility as one church recognizing our many differences but also celebrating that we are one in Christ.
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