Guest Post: How is God providing for you in 2020?
Pandemic wears on, autumn unfurls,
and the feast day of St Luke stopped in.
Here my friend Paul Rietmann turns us to the archetypal stories that scripture offers for our life and practice during this time.
Ox, Book of Durrow, Library of Trinity College Dublin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?” Psalm 78:19
“Is God among us or not?” Exodus 17:7
For the past couple months I have been reading and meditating upon the Old Testament lessons from the Revised Common Lectionary. These lessons tell the story of Moses and the Hebrew people. How God delivered them from slavery in Egypt through the Exodus and then led them through the wilderness to the Promised Land. This is an ancient story, an archetypal story that has much to teach us today.
A crisis of modern life is that we have lost touch with our guiding stories, myths and legends. We have somehow forgotten the stories which give us guidance on how to make meaning out of our lives. As individuals and as a people we need stories to give us direction and to inspire us to embrace the challenges and hardships of life.
The year 2020 has been a very difficult and challenging time for all of us. It is a year like no other in many of our experiences. The list of challenges and crises is long: the pandemic, economic crisis, awakening to the painful realities of racial injustice, the very divided political situation in our country, climate fires and our own personal difficulties of dealing with anxiety, grief and loss. This year has been a wilderness journey. And that is why I want to uphold the story of the people of Israel in the Book of Exodus. It can help guide and inspire us during these very difficult times.
parlsey gone to seed, photo by Evan Clendenin
One of the things that I can really relate to in the story is the way the Israelites complained to Moses and to God during they journey. The Yiddish word for complaint is “kvetch.” It seems that the people were always kvetching. They were hungry. They were thirsty. They often thought why didn’t we stay back home in Egypt where life was at least familiar and predictable. We often have these same thoughts and feelings during worrisome times of change. Wouldn’t it be better to go back to the way things were!
But what truly amazes me about this ancient story is the way God provides for his people. When they are hungry, God sends daily manna and quail to fill their stomachs with food. When they are thirsty, God commands Moses to strike the rock and a stream gushes out with fresh, clean water for them to drink. When they need protection and guidance, God leads them with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It is truly miraculous how God provided for his people during their long, wilderness journey that lasted some forty years.
parsley sprouts in october, photo by Evan Clendenin
I want to suggest that if we pause and think about it, we will get some insight into how God is providing for us during our 2020 wilderness journey. Reflect on your experience for a moment. How has God been sustaining you during this very difficult, scary and uncertain period of time?
In my case, I would say God has been providing for me by slowing me down, by giving me more time for prayer, reflection and study of spiritual wisdom. I have been feeding upon prayer and God’s word on a daily basis. Like so many people, I have been spending much more time outside enjoying the beauty of nature. And God has sustained our family by bringing us closer together. Not physically closer due to social distancing. But emotionally closer through acts of kindness, love and generosity.
I invite you to reflect upon your wilderness journey this year. How has God accompanied you? How has God fed your hunger and quenched your thirst? What has kept you moving during these challenging days and months? With such reflection we will be moved to gratitude, to thank God for sustaining us.
What then is the answer to those two questions the Israelites asked during their wilderness journey that I quoted at the beginning of this article? Let me repeat their two existential questions:
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?” Psalm 78:19
“Is God among us or not?” Exodus 17:7
The answer for the Israelites was an emphatic YES! God is with us! God does set a table in the wilderness! As we wrestle with these same questions, may we discover that the same is true for us. God can and does set a table in the wilderness.
God is indeed with us. Amen. So be it!
A tradition holds that St Luke painted this image a cedar board.