Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

How often have you heard the words, “Oh, stop complaining!”? How often have you said those words to someone else? How often has someone else said those words to you?

Complaining – or grumbling – is what our First Reading today is all about. Very early on during their 40-year-journey from enslaved captivity in Egypt to freedom in their own Promised Land – in fact maybe even within days of the miraculous exodus – the Children of Israel started complaining. They weren’t very happy with the food being provided them. During their time of complaining, they even went so far as to say that they were even having second thoughts about leaving Egypt. Though enslaved there, at least their needs were being met. There, food was theirs whenever they wanted it.

If you were listening carefully when that First Reading was earlier read, you will remember that those complaints were directed against Moses and Aaron, God’s appointed leaders of the Children of Israel. As is probably the case with any of us, Moses and Aaron were quick to point out that the complaints were misdirected. They were simply the human leaders. The Children of Israel, they reminded them, really had a beef with God Himself. He, after all, was the master orchestrator of that entire exodus, and that only because He was responding to their earlier grumbling – their complaints that they were not pleased with their time of slavery. He heard their complaints then and He broke their slavery in a powerful, memorable way. And there again in the Desert of Sin, the setting of today’s First Reading, God again heard their complaints and came to their rescue. In direct response to their grumbling, that very night God provided them quail to eat and the next morning, manna was provided them. That routine would continue without fail every night and every day (with the exception of the Sabbath) for the next 40 years of their desert sojourn.

And that, I believe, is the real lesson for us to learn from our First Reading today. It’s an important lesson. Even Moses and Aaron had it wrong initially. When they heard the complaining and the grumbling, Moses and Aaron could be paraphrased as saying, “Oh, stop complaining!” They went so far as to warn the Children of Israel about the potential dangers of grumbling against the Lord. But the lesson to be learned is not to not complain to the Lord, but to know with all confidence that the Lord hears the grumbling of His people and that He responds.

That’s also what happened just a day or two after Jesus fed the 5000 [John 6:22-35]. The people again tracked Jesus down. Jesus knew what they were after initially. He knew they were after more miracle food. Jesus engaged them with some mysterious words about Food that lasts to Eternal Life, Food that doesn’t spoil. Feeling as if they were missing out, the people started grumbling: “How do we get that Food? Sir, please give us that Food.” And Jesus responded to that grumbling and gave them that Food. He gave them Himself. He said to them, “I am the Bread of Life. He Who comes to Me will never go hungry and he who believes in Me will never be thirsty.”

Jesus Himself was the gift in direct response to grumbling. After Adam and Eve fell into sin [Genesis 3], they knew immediately that something had changed drastically. When they heard the Lord God walking in the Garden, they hid because they knew they were naked. Once He found them, God made for them coverings made of fig leaves, but that wasn’t enough. God knew that and Adam and Eve knew that. All three of them grumbled about that fact. To completely restore the broken relationship with them, much more than fig leaves were required. Right then and there, God responded to that grumbling, making a promise He would not break – “I will send you a Savior [Genesis 3:15]; He will restore what has here been broken, what has caused your unhappiness, what has caused your grumbling.” When Jesus was born that silent night in Bethlehem, angels filled the skies, singing, “Glory to God in the highest for He has heard the eternal grumbling of His people and has responded” [Luke 2:14] When Jesus died and was buried and was resurrected on the third day, again the angels were there, reminding people again that God has heard their grumbling: “Jesus is not here. He is risen, just as He said” [Matthew 28:6].

“Oh, stop complaining!” Those are not the words of God. Those were the words of Moses and Aaron. They are the words of mortal human beings. Our great God shows just how different He is from you and from me by consistently not saying “Oh, stop complaining!”, but by instead responding to our grumbling, doing what is necessary to stop that complaining, to show His people just how great and awesome and loving and caring He is.

Today, as strange as it seems, I encourage you to grumble because when the people of God grumble, God responds. God acts.

Today I encourage you to grumble:

✔ For peace in our world. Our God is the Prince of peace.
✔ For good health for yourself and for others. Our God is the great Physician.
✔ For numeric and spiritual growth here at Historic First Lutheran. Our God is the One Who gathers huge crowds around Himself and meets not only their physical but their spiritual needs.
✔ For a stabilization of our rocky economy. Our God knows this whole world wide economic mess is a result of human sin introduced into this world by the devil to draw people away from God but our God is more powerful than the devil.
✔ For additional laborers to be sent into the harvest field. Our God uses all kinds of people in special ways, preparing them personally for His work [[Ephesians 4:1-16], giving them what they need to serve Him and His people.
✔ For those who are far away from God at this particular moment, that great loss of ever-dying souls. Because He created them, our God desires all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of Him and to receive His Bread of Life that lasts for eternity.
✔ For all your own needs and cares and concerns, no matter how small or large they are. Our God desires His people to cast upon Him their every care for He cares for them.

Today I encourage you to grumble, not listening to those around you who may try to stifle your grumbling, trying to convince you that God doesn’t want to listen, trying to convince you that God doesn’t care. Today I encourage you to grumble with all confidence that God does care, that God does hear and that God is able and that He will respond to your grumbling.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena