So there is an interesting phenomenon that
I and a bet many of you have; this
phenomenon is known as selective amnesia. Whereas amnesia is the loss of memory
or even identity often caused by some sort of physical or psychological trauma,
selective amnesia is an intentional loss of memory that usually benefits the
person forgetting. It is quite a helpful
little phenomenon to have. It helps
around the house when laundry starts to pile up, and I was asked to do a load,
but for some reason I can’t remember ever being asked. In school, I conveniently forgot that homework
had been assigned. When an email is sent asking for volunteers for this or
that, I seem to forget about it until it is too late. Especially when it comes
to my sport teams this selective amnesia helps me to cope with difficult
realities. For example I remember that Duke played last weekend, but for some
reason I don’t remember anything about the game. ( Take time to “try to remember”) Well
anyways, this phenomenon of selective amnesia is quite interesting since I can
remember so much other random information. I remember my telephone number from
my house growing up, I remember every super bowl winner that I’ve watched, and
I remember that the Battle of Hastings happened in 1066, and yet I can’t
remember to do my homework or to wash my clothes. All kidding aside, while selective amnesia
seems like a good and fun thing to have, the consequences can be quite
damaging. Not doing my homework affected
my grades; not doing laundry leaves me with dirty clothes, and probably an
angry wife, and not remembering who won last weekend, well that’s still
ok. You see in life, we sometimes hold
on to the memories we should ignore and forget things we should cherish. We can become angry at a loved one for
something so minor while forgetting
everything they have done for us. We can allow ourselves to lose hope in
something just because of a minor setback.
This is the case
with the Israelites in the desert; the Israelites had selective amnesia.
Our scripture for today starts looks at the Israelites in the midst of their
travels in the wilderness, however the story for the Israelites starts long
before that. The Israelites were a people who had been enslaved in Egypt,
forced to work long days for the Pharaoh. As a people, this was rock bottom.
They cried out to the Lord for help, and as we see God hears the cry of his
people. God calls Moses, an Israelite
himself, though now living amongst the Pharaoh, to lead the Israelites out of
Egypt. We see many encounters between the Pharaoh and Moses, miracles performed
by God through Moses, and of course the plagues as a punishment for Pharaoh’s
failure to listen. Finally we see the Israelites lead out of Egypt by the power
of God, through fire and storm and through the parting of the Red Sea. God had
lead the Israelites out of captivity, had closed off the Red sea to ensure
their freedom, and on top of it all had promised them a land full of milk and
honey. The Israelite’s history is one of God providing for them, God delivering
them from evil, God abiding with them.
With this history in mind our scripture for this morning
seems a little odd. Today we find the Israelites wandering in the desert, and
quite honestly wandering in misery. It has been quite some time since they had
left Egypt, and they are still not at the promised land of milk and honey. Not only is there no milk or honey, there is
hardly any food or water at all. Our scripture tells us, “They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the
people to drink.” The Isrealites had become fed up with the journey, fed
up with their seemingly aimless wandering, fed up with Moses, and yes even fed
up with the Lord. The Israelites had
come to the end of their ropes and so they cried out, “Why
did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with
thirst? The once joyous moment of
freedom from Egypt, the crossing of the Red sea, now seemed like a cruel twist
of fate. The freedom they had always
longed for now seemed to be leading to their demise. The people began to question whether or not it
was worth it to flee, they even began to look back upon slavery and think about
how good those times were; they thought this about slavery! In their minds
Moses had led them astray, God had disserted them, and that anything would be
better than what they were going through now.
This is the danger of selective amnesia. The pain and uncertainty that they were
enduring now caused the people to forget how bad they really had it. They
forgot about the beatings, the labor, their lack of power or of voice, and now
all they remembered is that they we fed. At the current moment that seemed like
a good deal. What is worse however is not that they forgot about how bad their
situation had been, but they forgot about how faithful God had been. They forgot that their leader Moses had
thrown away all the comfort and wealth he had when he killed the unjust slave
driver. They forgot about the plagues that Egypt endured and how they were
protected from them. They forgot about the meal they shared at Passover,
marking their doors with lambs blood so that in the morning they could hold
their firstborn in their arms, and they forgot the agony of the Pharaoh and the
other Egyptians who were not as fortunate. They
forgot the Lord parted a sea for them
to cross and then closed it so that no one could follow. They had
forgotten all of this, and now cried out to a God they believed had forgotten
them. They cried, “Is the Lord among us or not?” After all that God had done for them they
still ask whether the Lord is with them are not.
It’s amazing how quickly things can turn from looking up
to looking down, and it’s amazing how quickly faith and praise can turn into
doubt and anger. But even as the
Israelites questioned and threated Moses, Moses continued to have faith in the
Lord. Now as I say that let us be clear
in what I mean. There is a common misconception that in order for us to have
faith we are not allowed to doubt at all, that if we have faith we should never
be afraid or angry, but this is not that case. Moses kept his faith, but you
better believe his was scared, and you better believe he was questioning
whether what he had done was the right thing. In our scripture he says, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to
stone me.” Moses is scared for his life, Moses has no idea what to do,
but what makes it true that Moses had faith; Moses goes to the Lord with his
problem. Moses does not forget the ways
in which the Lord had provided for him, Moses does not forget about God’s promise
of a land full of milk and honey. Moses has no idea what is going to happen, he
has no delusion that things will be simple or easy, but Moses trusts that if he
follows the Lord all will be right, whatever right may be.
And from there on we see that Moses was right. The Lord
tells Moses to take some elders and go ahead in the journey to the rock of
Horeb and with the same rod he used to part the Red sea, strike the rock and
water will flow. This moment is
priceless, it is not just some coincidence that the same rod used for freeing
the slaves is now used to quench their thirst, in fact God goes out of the way
to make that point. It’s almost sarcastic how God uses the same instrument that
freed them from slavery in order to quiet their doubts and provide them with
water. As the Israelites cry out is God among us, God cries back, I never
left. Do you not remember this rod, this
rod that I used in order to set you free. This rod will now once again save
you. It is almost as if God is crying out to the Israelites, Moses has in his
hands a sign, a symbol of my faithfulness to you, you see this sign every day,
how could you forget? And yet the
Israelites history is one of selective amnesia, of forgetting God’s
faithfulness and then abandoning the Lord, getting brought back and starting
the circle all over again. In fact this is not just the Israelites history, but
it is also our own. How many times have
we experienced the grace and power of God at work in our lives, and later felt
as though God was nowhere to be found, or that God had abandoned us. How often
do we traverse from a mountain top experience with Christ into a barren
spiritual desert? Like the Israelites
who we tired, thirsty and hungry, sometimes we have some legitimate reasons to
doubt. The loss of a job, the loss of a loved one, some goal we just can’t
achieve, or some debt or addiction that we just can’t get out from under. In
these wilderness times it can make sense for us to have some doubts. It makes
sense for us to thirst for some spiritual water. It makes sense for us to have
selective amnesia, but we cannot let ourselves fall into the same trap as the
Israelites. When we thirst we cannot run away from God, we must not forget
God’s steadfast love for us.
Instead, when we thirst, we should be more like Moses,
whose initial reaction is not to run away from God, but instead is to run
towards God. Yes he was scared, yes he too was tired, and probably a little
angry, but in his times of trouble and doubt, he sought out the Lord.
Many of us today are going through our own spiritual
wilderness. Some of us are facing
external dilemmas such as the ones mentioned earlier. Others of us feel guilty
because our spiritual fervor has waned even though there seems to be no reason
for it. We become spiritually thirsty,
and we begin to forget what ever nourished us in the first place. This however
is not necessarily a sign of your faith diminishing, in fact it can even be a
sign of your own spiritual growth. Just
like I showed the children for the children’s message, as the glasses get larger, it takes more
water to fill them up. Likewise, as we
grow spiritually we become capable and open to letting more of God’s grace into
our lives, and so when we fail to fill the void we can sometimes feel thirsty or
empty. This means that what filled us up
when we first became Christians probably doesn’t fill us up the same way
anymore. I know that for me personally, My formative time was during my teenage
years. Retreats with the same vibe as pep rally used to fill me up, and while I
still enjoy these type of experiences they don’t quite quench my thirst
anymore. As a kid all I needed was worship, as I got older throw in a bible
study and I was good, but as I kept getting older and older I needed more and
more to quench my thirst. I still feel
it now when I have served in outreach or mission in a while. When I fail to
read, or be in prayer as often as I should I feel it. I can tell when I am not
being spiritually fed and do you know how I know? I know because my selective
amnesia comes back. I begin to forget all that the Lord has done for me, the
ways God has carried me through difficult times in my lives, the people who
have touched my life through the power of the Holy Spirit, all of this seems to
fade from memory and all that is left is an aching, longing feeling. This Lent
as we prepare for Easter, let us not miss all the signs around us reminding us
of God’s faithfulness to us. Let us not
be like the Israelites who daily fixed their eyes upon the very rod that freed
them and yet remembered nothing about it. As we focus on that which separates
us from God, as we recognize our own sin, we also recognize that it is we that
separate ourselves from God. That God’s love is steadfast, and yet so often we
fail to see. That sometimes in our spiritual growth we become discouraged
because what used to fill us, doesn’t produce the same results anymore. So whether this morning we face some
difficult situation that makes God seem so distance or if we simply have seemed
to lost the spark in our hearts that once burned, the solution is simple, seek
the Lord. Seeking the Lord doesn’t mean
everything will be better, it doesn’t mean that we will automatically be once
again alive for Christ, but is means that we will have comfort that no matter
what, God is with us. It means that we will be filling ourselves with God’s
grace, it means we will never forget God faithfulness.
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