Manna
You may have heard the story of God supplying the Israelites with bread from heaven called manna, but what is it? Well, that is exactly what the Israelites wondered and why they called it manna. The name manna is said to derive from the Hebrew "question" man hu, seemingly meaning "What is it?" They did not know what this substance was but they knew it was enough to sustain them. The Israelites where happy to have received such a heavenly blessing but they were asked to only gather what they needed and not to store any up for later. Unfortunately, they did not listen and they kept part of it until morning. When they awoke it was full of maggots and began to smell. It had all spoiled. I think it is funny then how we refer to someone who gets more than they need or who has had more than enough, as spoiled.
Spoiled people keep more for themselves than they need. A spoiled person is often accustomed to having too much stuff. They don’t know how to economize or make things equitable for other people. In a time of scarcity they would rather claim all that is left for themselves rather than share. In my opinion, they are often unappreciative of the little things in life because they place a great deal of importance on material possessions. The sad part is that I am describing a growing percentage of people in the world today. The pandemic proved that to us. Just take a look at the toilet paper shortage in the first few months of the pandemic. We saw people scramble to the stores to get more than they needed of toilet paper. If you were needing that much toilet paper to wipe your bum, you may want to see a doctor about that! But seriously, why are we like this? Why is it that when something becomes scarce are we more likely to hoard for ourselves than share?
For the five Sundays in July were are going to begin a new sermon series called, Manna. In this series we will learn nurture a theology of enough. A theology of enough is one that understands that all we have is God’s and that is all we need. Join us this Sunday, July 3rd as we begin this series at the 8:30 and 10:45am worship services.
In God’s grip,
Pastor Chuck Church
