Sermon from August 4, 2024: Hungry or Hangry based upon Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’
Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.
Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “Draw near to the Lord, for he has heard your complaining.” ’ And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked towards the wilderness, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. The Lord spoke to Moses and said, ‘I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, “At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” ’
In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, ‘It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.
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     I saw a shirt somewhere that said “please don’t be mad at me for what I said when I was hungry.” As it happens, some people get a little cranky when they haven’t eaten in a while. Some people call it being “hangry,” that is, hungry and angry. There are apparently scientific reasons having to do with blood sugar and cortisol levels that explain why some people get hangry. I think the Israelites in the wilderness are sounding pretty hangry.

     When we encounter the Israelites in the desert, we learn that many of them have grown very worried and possibly hangry out in the wilderness. Despite having experienced the great power of God... the plagues that rained down upon Egypt... the opening of the sea so they could cross unscathed... the destruction of the Pharoah and his army... the miraculous pillar of fire and cloud that led them towards freedom.... they had seen all of that, and still weren’t sure that God would care for them in the desert.  In their fear, they began to complain. The very first thing they complained about is the food... or the fear that they won't have enough of it. What is the use, they say, of escaping Egypt if we are just going to die of starvation here in the desert?

     Several years ago, while researching for another sermon on this scripture, I came across this quote from Margaret Atwood's book, A Handmaid's Tale that expressed a sentiment so similar to what I hear in the fears of the Israelites. This is the third or fourth time I’ve preached on this scripture in the last ten years, and I still think the Atwood quote is worth sharing. It is a few lines spoken to women who have been recently enslaved, who will soon be coerced into carrying children for the people who have enslaved them. This overseer-type character says, “Girls, I know this must feel very strange. But ordinary is just what you're used to. This may not seem ordinary to you right now, but after a time, it will. This will become ordinary.” The quote is from portion of the book that shows the process by which Christian fascists physically and mentally break down these women in the process of enslaving them, a process that very much mirrors tactics of enslavement inflicted on Black women throughout US history.

     I think what I appreciate about the quote in particular, and what reminds me of the Israelites when I read it is that it shows clearly that something that has been made ordinary, that is, what has been made common particularly by coercive measures, is being called good. We’ve seen this process before. Slavery was common in this country, and it was certainly not good. Racism is common, and it is certainly not good. People who are ill are discarded with no social safety nets in place, and it is certainly not good. Just because something happens all the time, that doesn’t make it good.

     And yet, even when people know that just because something is ordinary that does not make it good, it can still be terrifying to do something new. Even though humans are capable of adapting to so many difficult situations, a new, good situation that is different from a familiar, bad situation will stop people short. Sometimes it is just too hard or too scary to be in the unfamiliar place full of potential.  Some would choose the ordinary, even when it is slavery, rather than reach for the extraordinary, even when the extraordinary promises liberation and grace and new life.

     In the midst of the wild and unknown desert, the Israelites crave the ordinariness of their lives of slavery. In Egypt, they least they knew what to expect in their days. As they clung to their former routines, romanticizing an oppression that was stable rather than embracing a liberation that was unpredictable, they complained to Moses and Aaron. It’s like they forgot, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that God could take care of them. Even though God was actively taking care of them in the moment, they were still afraid.

     I appreciate God’s response to the Israelites hangry complaints to Moses and Aaron. God doesn't lash out at them and call them big whiners or say “hey, if you don't like freedom, you can turn around and go back to where you came from.” Instead, God just feeds them. And, in feeding them, teaches them a new way to live guided not by the oppressive stability of Pharaoh’s slavery but by God’s ever-sustaining care.

    God asks the people to harvest their food on a particular schedule. Scholars I have read point out that this schedule is far from arbitrary. When you have lived under government-enforced scarcity, you might develop a habit of storing up more that you need because leaders control access to resources as a means of controlling your behavior. God is going to be different though. God is not be going to be an enslaver who withholds food to punish you. God will always provide enough.

     In a commentary on this text, Scholar Anathea Portier-Young offers a beautiful connection between the rhythm of the first creation story in Genesis and the rhythm of the Israelites' harvest to help show how God is helping the Israelites reorganize their lives around the liberation and interconnectedness God intended for humanity at creation. Portier-Young notes that Genesis repeats the glories of each day's creation and finishes with the statement, "there was evening and there was morning" and then counts the day. Exodus gives us different words to similar beat. There was quail, and there was bread, and then there was another day. Within God’s required harvest rhythm, there is even a reminder of the special nature of the seventh Sabbath Day of holy rest. On the sixth day of Israelite food gathering, there will be extra so that they don't have to gather food at all on the Sabbath.

     I’m not going to tell you that the manna and quail fixed everything for the Israelites. If you keep reading Exodus, you’re going to see them complain a lot more over the next 40 years. And, yet, at this point in the story, we watch them begin to shift their habits away from the habits designed to keep them alive while enslaved into the habits that will reintroduce them to liberation and connection that God had intended for them. The meaning of their labor will shift. Instead of labor that further enriched an already rich man, their work would go to feeding themselves and their people. They would have constant reminders that hoarding was contrary to what God hoped for them. And, time for rest and worship became ordinary for them once again.

     Just like the Pharaoh, there are people who benefit from us being too comfortable in living situations that do us harm. Today’s scripture reminds us that we don’t have to continue those patterns of living simply because we know how to do them. God did not create humanity to toil away for someone else’s gain. God did not create us to ignore our neighbor’s pain. We have been created to live lives marked by meaningful labor and communal care, lives shaped by trust in God’s provision and not by fear of scarcity. My prayer for the day is that we may never mistake comfort for faithfulness and that we may be confident that there is more than enough for humanity to survive without taking from each other. May our hunger for justice always outweigh that hanger that makes us afraid.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
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Why some people get mad when they are hungry: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/is-being-hangry-really-a-thing-or-just-an-excuse

Anathea Portier-Young: http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3433

Thomas Long: https://www.onscripture.com/imagining-economic-justice

Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale (New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 1986)
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