STEP BACK, RELAX, TRUST
Exodus 16: 1-5, 13-26
Matthew 6: 25-34

           If someone asked you what you feared most, how would you answer? Every so often there is a new survey that is done that asks people what they fear most. For the most part, those answers remain relatively the same...flying, public speaking, death, etc. If we look at these fears, and our own, it seems there is a common denominator in each one of them. It seems that what is feared most is the UNKNOWN in each circumstance. For example, when we climb aboard an airplane, we trust the pilot knows how to get us from Point A to Point B, but we don't know if there will be a mechanical failure or something else that could be disastrous. If we have to get up in front of people and speak, there is an element of the unknown in how what we say will be received or if we will remember what we want to say, or if we will make a fool of ourselves. To combat this fear of the unknown, human beings try to insulate ourselves with as many things as we can that we can control. This is a quite ironic habit of humans--ironic in that God invites us to do the exact opposite. God invites us to give up that which we crave (security!) and trust that God will provide for us, individually and corporately.

           Let us, for a moment, consider the people of Israel from the reading from Exodus. Remember that for 400 years, these people were enslaved in Egypt. Through mercy, providence, and faithfulness to the covenant made with Abraham, God released Israel from slavery. For the next month and a half, I bet things were great in the camp of Israel--finally free from Egypt and building Pharaoh's cities. But after that first month and a half, things changed; we can infer from the text that provisions were either gone or quickly coming to an end. At this point, once their provisions, their SECURITY, had run out, they are ready to head back to Egypt--they would have rather died in the security of slavery than in the uncertainty of their God-given freedom. In the midst of their complaining, and likely conspiring against Moses and Aaron, God provides for them the food they need. Not a day sooner than they needed it, God provides the provisions they need and promises to continue to provide those provisions, each day enough for that day. And everyone, after being told what was going on, has enough; regardless of how much they gathered in the morning, there was enough for each person for one day. Some though, wanted to gather more than enough, maybe they were afraid God would oversleep, or just forget about tomorrow.

           It was a momentous challenge to their faith--to trust that the manna that was here today will be there tomorrow. Then God throws in another challenge to faith--trust that on the morning of the sixth day of the week, there will be enough for two days' worth, because nothing will come on the Sabbath. God asks them to trust that there will be enough for them to not gather one day a week. Still again, some get up expecting to gather on the Sabbath, but they discover that for that day, God had already provided! So the story goes for the next forty years, six days per week receiving enough from God for that day and one day per week receiving enough for two days.

           As we move to the text from Matthew, a look at the context shows that this passage is from a wider teaching by Jesus about money. Money--in today's economic climate it is perhaps one the biggest fears people have. Regardless of how much or how little we have, there is always the question, "will there be enough?" Jesus asks his disciples point-blank, "why worry about those things? It won't do any good except make you and everyone around you crazy." So Jesus has the disciples pay attention to the world around them for a moment--look at the birds and flowers. See how God has provided for them? Do you think that since you mean more to God than the birds and the flowers that God will provide for you as well? I love what Jesus tells the disciples when he says, "what I'm trying to get you to do is relax." What Jesus is trying to get them, and us, to do is simply a take a step back from things and breath. The more we trust, the more we relax. Think about it, when you are in a room full of persons whom you don't completely trust, the tension is so thick you can feel it. On the other hand, when in a room full of those whom are trusted, things are more laid back and comfortable--relaxed. I want to focus on that word "relax" for a moment. We usually associate relaxation with drowsiness or sleepiness. What is the picture of someone relaxing?--kicked back in the recliner, feet up, maybe with the TV on. This is not the kind of relaxation Jesus is talking about! Instead, Jesus' encouragement to relax is in the form of an invitation--an invitation to pay attention to what God is doing. An invitation to quit being so drive by GETTING so we can see all that God is GIVING, out of love, mercy, and providence. It is an invitation to take things one day at a time. To see what God is doing TODAY, and to let tomorrow be God's gift to us!

           The Good News is this--God provides for us at all times. Sometimes, that providence may come in ways that we do not see or understand. When we can't see or understand that providence, there is the invitation to take a step back from things, to breathe and relax, and to trust in God's providence and to find the freedom to simply live and bask in God's abundant grace and mercy. AMEN.

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