Faith Stories - Scarcity and Abundance

Exodus 17:1-7

From the wilderness of Sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages, as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses, and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?"

But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."

The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.

He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"

Water coming from a rock seems like a bit of a far stretch. Then again, so does manna from heaven. And so does the Son of God rising to new life here on Earth. But these are not stories about miracles or magic as much as they are about a God who provides for people thirsty and hungry for something more.

One of my favorite New Testament passages is the feeding of the 5,000. I love how the disciples bicker about where they are going to get enough food to feed 5,000 people. I love how Jesus calmly asks them for their few loaves of bread and few fish. I love that there is abundance where there was one scarcity.

Even more than this, I love the unbelievability of this story. And I love how the unbelievability doesn't matter. A person once told me that they did not believe the bread and fish magically multiplied as it was being passed through the rows and groups of people. He thought that the miracle of this story was that each person added to the basket what little they had, their scraps, their leftovers from their own pockets, and fed each other. The miraculous is not necessarily in the how. It is not hidden in the details. It is the entire story - the fact that Jesus fed a restless crowd of 5,000 a meal of simple bread and fish and all were satisfied.

So when I hear about these people complaining in the desert and thirsting for water, I hear the disciples whining. I even hear our complaining and our groaning. Most especially when we look at our bank accounts, wallets, and budgets. When we look at the world around us and wonder how all these people can be fed. When we see natural disasters and $300 billion dollars in damage from the earthquake and tsunami. We see scarcity everywhere we look.

And if we look back at our own faith stories, we will remember times of scarcity. And we will also remember times of abundance. If you look closely, you will be able to see how this abundance came from scarcity. It came from unexpected places. From impossible places. Money coming through when it was desperately needed and absolutely not expected. Housing when there was none. Food when there was none. Needs being met in strange and extraordinary ways.

In my own story there are small examples and big examples. Small things like needing professional clothing but not having a ton of money to get a new wardrobe... and then a friend who had lost weight do to unexpected surgery and needed someone to take her clothing. Half the things you see me wear are from her wardrobe. Her needs met my needs completely.

The time between graduating and beginning seminary when I needed a place to live that wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg. I also needed a job. And then the parent's of two little girls I babysat for asking me if I'd be interested in moving into their downstairs bedroom and being a nanny. Free rent and a job with a family I adored? Abundance out of scarcity.

Simple things like needing someone to talk to and a friend calling out of the blue. Wondering what I would cook for supper seconds before someone invites me over to eat with them. A unexpected check or refund when my bank account was declining. Grace when I was expecting the worst.

And I choose to see God in all of this. In the story of Moses and the rock, God's presence is very clear. Explicitly. But the simple act of striking a rock and seeing water burst forth is does not appear, on the surface, to be God's act. That's Moses. That's a stick. That's a rock. But I assure you, that's God. Answering the loud prayers and quiet pleas of thirsty people.

Look back at your story and find God there. Find God in the abundance out of scarcity. In water from a rock. In unexpected places. In impossible places. And as you look back and picture the story altogether in all its pieces you will see that our story is not finished. And when we look around at the scarcity that seems to swallow the world, we will begin to see our God of abundance at work. Making impossible things possible. This is the God of our story, at work in every place we see need.

Where has scarcity led to abundance in your story?