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Grace and peace to you from God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
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Grumblers tend to get what they want.
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I'm not saying I particularly like it.
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I don't really.
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But it seems to be true that if you look around, as they say, that the
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squeaky wheel gets the grease, whoever tends to complain the loudest
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tends to get the best results.
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I think you know what I'm talking about.
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Maybe it's a whining child and you really don't want to cave, but you
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do.
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Or maybe you're out to eat, and there's someone at the table next to
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you, got a hair in their food, and they are letting the server have
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it, and you know, they're probably going to get a fresh plate of food.
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They might even get their meal comp for them, even just to avoid a bad
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review, or maybe just to shut it down to stop the fuss.
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Grumblers tend to get what they want.
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I've noticed that grumbling tends to actually work pretty well around
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here, too.
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I've filled out some course evaluations.
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I know the kinds of things that I have written, and I know that I was
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a lot quicker to click that link and give them a piece of my anonymous
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mind when I wasn't a fan.
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Many times it works.
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You listen, you look around, and you realize that course used to be
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longer. When I took that class, that the book list seemed a little bit
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heavier than what the guys are taking now.
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Somebody is listening.
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Grumblers seem to get what they want.
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And it's clearly not a new phenomenon that grumblers get what they
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want.
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And much to our chagrin, it seems like this is even true of the
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relationship of God and his people.
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Over and over again, we see grumblers get what they want. In our in our
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text for today
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Israel has been traveling in the wilderness
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they've escaped from Egypt.
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They've seen their enemies dead in the water behind them.
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They've been brought safely thus far, but they've grumbled.
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They've grumbled as they looked behind and saw their enemies.
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They've grumbled as they were thirsty, and God turned the bitter water
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sweet.
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They grumbled when they were hungry, and God sent them manna from
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heaven.
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And now here they are again, grumbling.
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They're grumbling to Moses, and I can picture the scene.
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Moses the
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flustered and harried something of the middle manager of God's people
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trapped between these grumbling people and a holy God, I can imagine
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he was thirsty too.
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He's trying to keep a stiff upper lip, to keep everything together, to
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keep everyone in line.
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But they're grumbling, they're quarreling, they're angry, and it's
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starting to get out of hand.
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You can almost hear them saying, I want to speak to your manager.
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It's clearly getting pretty bad
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so Moses finally caves, and he's starting to get a little bit nervous.
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So you can I'll see what I can do.
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And he goes to God, and in desperation, he cries out, Lord, what am I
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supposed to do with these people?
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They're almost ready to stone me.
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Just like that, God gives grumblers what they want.
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Moses passes before them.
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He takes his staff, he strikes the rock and the water pours out and
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they drink.
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The grumblers got what they wanted.
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We may not like it, but God seems to do this time and time again,
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people of God grumble, and he gives them what they want.
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So we might be tempted to say, as we read these stories time and time
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again, the familiar stories of the Old Testament, there they go again.
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There's those Israelites grumbling.
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But maybe we're a little too hard on them.
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I'm not saying there isn't unfaithful grumbling.
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I'm not even saying the Israelites were doing the faithful thing.
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There's certainly plenty of grumbling that turns into self righteous,
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malicious turned inward.
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There was plenty of hard hearted and arrogant grumbling from the
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people of God.
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But I think that grumbling is often a sign of something deeper.
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Have you ever been truly thirsty?
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Have you felt your throat parched?
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Your tongue is heavy in your mouth?
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Your lips are chapped and cracked and bleeding?
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Have you ever seen your child crying out, her voice cracking with
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thirst?
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Or an infant
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at an empty bottle with no way to comfort them?
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What are you supposed to do
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but grumble? Grumbling is a pretty natural response to being trapped in
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the wilderness with no way to go back and no hope to go forward.
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Yes, I think grumbling is often a sign of something deeper, that
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underneath our grumbling is helplessness, a need a need that cannot be satisfied
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on one's own.
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So maybe we should be a little bit easier on the Israelites.
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It doesn't matter how far they've been, how they've been sustained up
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to this point.
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Grumbling is often a sign of helplessness. Under your grumbling too
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I think there's something deeper going on.
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I think even though it doesn't sound very pleasant, those course
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evaluations and those formation lab conversations and those late night
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talks with a couple of beers, just talking about just how much better
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it would be if we were in charge, well, they might not be the faithful
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way to do things.
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They are a pretty natural response to the wilderness.
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We hear the grumbling that the course loads are too heavy and there's
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too much reading, and how the heck am I supposed to get all this done?
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But under the surface, you haven't talked to your wife in a week. Your
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child cries every time you close the door to go work on yet more
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homework.
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Or you have a friend back home who is getting a divorce, or your
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brother is going into rehab again and you're not really sure if your
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seminary education has prepared you for this kind of thing.
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And while the world burns, you feel like your classes sometimes have
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hardly anything to do with pastoral ministry at all.
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You're worried about your first call, or you're nervous for vicarage,
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and there's so many things out of your control.
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And so what do you do?
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You vent.
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You grumble.
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You let your frustration out on whoever will listen.
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You just don't know how to handle it all.
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Underneath grumbling, there's something deeper going on.
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It's often a sign of our helplessness.
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I know that our response to grumbling, our grumbling, our response to
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injustice and suffering and helplessness, it's often sinful.
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It is.
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It's often tainted by our pride and our anger, anger and our self
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righteousness. And
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when our grumbling turns to sin, there's no doubt we need to repent.
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That isn't really what I'm talking about today.
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I'm talking about a deeper reality, the reality that we find in our
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text, which is that God meets grumblers with grace.
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God meets grumblers with grace.
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So maybe we ought to be a little bit kinder to grumblers, to Israel
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and to one another, because God is god helps grumblers time and time
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again, even when they were unfaithful, he was faithful.
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And we know this better than Israel.
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God has sent his Son, the Christ.
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The new Moses walked in our wilderness.
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He was hungry and he was thirsty.
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And wherever he went, he did works of mercy for God's people, even as
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they grumbled against him, as they had against Moses.
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He didn't just go for the symptom.
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He didn't just go for the grumbling.
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He went for the cause.
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He healed the sick.
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He cast out demons.
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He even raised the dead.
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The same Jesus, the ultimate help for the helpless, is risen from the
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dead.
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God has poured him out as a drink offering the water and the blood
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pouring out even for grumblers.
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God meets grumblers with grace.
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God meets your grumbling with grace.
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You are baptized into Christ.
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Jesus has brought you into a family.
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And in this family, we get to call God Father.
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God is a Father, and he listens.
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He listens to those who are willing to take him to tasks, who, as Dr.
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Luther says, to rub his ears with all the promises to hear prayers, we
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are able to recall. Time and time again,God meets the needs of his
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grumbling people.
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What kind of parent, Jesus says, would give their child a serpent when
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they ask for a fish?
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What kind of parent gives their child a scorpion when they ask for an
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egg?
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What kind of parent gives their child a cup of sand when they ask for
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a glass of water?
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Even the unjust judge will listen, will cave to the widow who calls
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out at his door day after day after day. And
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will not God give justice to his elect who cry out to him day and
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night?
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Christ gives us permission, even calls us to cry out to our Father.
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No matter how unpleasant it might sound, God promises to listen to his
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people.
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And because God approaches your grumbling with grace, that same
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grumbling can turn into a cry for mercy.
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Will our heavenly Father, who has raised Jesus from the dead, who has
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marked us with his name, made us his children, who feeds us with his
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word and with the very body and blood of our Lord, will he not hear
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our prayers?
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Our grumblings can be turned into a cry for mercy, can be lifted up
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with the groaning, the grumbling of all creation.
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Our prayers joined with those of the Holy Spirit, who cries out with
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us with groans that are too deep for words.
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We have the ear of the One who answered our cries, who came into our
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wilderness.
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And thanks be to God that in Christ Jesus he does not hold our
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grumbling against us, but meets it with grace. Again
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maybe we ought to be a little kinder to grumblers.
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Many of us in this room are on a path to ministry.
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Many of you already serve God's people.
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Many of you already represent Christ.
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And like Moses, you will hear the grumbling of God's people.
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And we may find ourselves, like Moses, at God's feet.
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What am I supposed to do with these people?
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But may we hear the grumbling of God's people, the grumbling of this
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whole hurting world.
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And may we, like Christ, meet that grumbling with grace.
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May we hear beneath the grumbling the real concerns, the fears, the
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worries and pain of life in this world.
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May we hear the grumblings of the suffering.
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And may we turn that grumbling into a cry for mercy.
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I've heard and done plenty of grumbling here at Concordia Seminary.
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But a few weeks ago saw what it looks like
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when grumbling is met with grace and when it's transformed, it's
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transformed into a cry for mercy.
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There was a few of us, we were in pastoral leadership and we had to do
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a little exercise.
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We had to just do this little practice for future circuit gatherings.
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So we had to get out of our seats and make a circle.
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Not without some grumbling.
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And then our job was to share some prayer requests with each other and
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then pray for one another.
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And it was a little awkward at first, but then we began to just lay it
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all out on the table.
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And there was no anger.
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There was no self righteousness.
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There were just the very real, concrete pains and struggles and
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worries of our lives laid out before one another.
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And then together, one by one by one, we prayed for one another.
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Our grumblings were transformed into a cry for mercy.
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We took it all the way to the boss.
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God heard those prayers.
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God hears your prayers.
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God meets your grumblings with grace.
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So may you hear the grumblings of this hurting world with the same.
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Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us.
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Amen.
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Now may the peace of God which passes understanding keep your hearts
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and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Amen.