Rest and Remember

The Treehouse: Conversations About God

Rio Grande River, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Hey, hey! The Treehouse flooring is in, so we now have our basic framework.

God, YHWH, or The Exhale, as I think I’ll now say, is our foundation, the floor, the thing we stand on to construct the rest. It’s made of prismatic love and fierce hope and resonant sparks of creative energy. It’s firm enough to stand on, to hold up the whole thing, yet it’s also alive, as if the wooden planks are still the living, growing trees themselves, taking the necessary shape of a container for the Very Big Story we’ve entered into.

Let’s pick up the thread. Moses, yo. Tapped to lead the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt and into the Land of Milk and Honey, wherever that is. “Tell them I AM, YHWH sent you,” is the message that came from the burning bush.

There is a dramatic escape that may or may not have been something like a Charlton Heston epic — most likely not, and some scholars today think in terms of a low tide combined with a full moon providing safe crossing; others conflate the Red Sea with the Reed Sea which may have been a marshy area that would be accessible to those traveling on foot but not by chariot, so if Egyptians were in hot pursuit with that mode of transportation, they would have been out of luck.

(Sidebar question: What constitutes a miracle? Does it have to be a big supernatural “Wowsers” thing that calls up cinematic images of a blockbuster movie, or can it be a convergence of small events that seem to work together and lead toward an unexpected conclusion? One of my pastors used to speak about miracles in his best East Coast accent, saying, “It’s like any great comedian. It’s all in the timing.” (Thanks, John Cairns, wherever you are. I’ve carried it with me a long time.)

So the Israelites are delivered…into the desert wilderness. Where human beings are shown doing what human beings so often do. Whine and complain. “Oh, would that we were back in Egypt where we sat beside the pots of meat and ate bread to the full, but, nooo, you had to bring us out into the wilderness to starve us to death, I guess the graves in Egypt weren’t good enough, thanks for nothin’, Moses!” and so on.

Anyone who has ever has been in a leadership position knows at some point you will hear complaints and grumbling when things get challenging and scary. It’s just how we do. So YHWH sends manna¹ and a flock of quail — “Here’s yer bread and meat, now hush up and be glad you have anything at all to eat, and also you’re welcome.” (Side note to point to a theme — “Some gathered more, some gathered less,” but there was enough and everyone was fed. Hang onto this notion of everyone having enough. It matters.)

I think what comes next is so beautiful (Exodus 16:23 and following). At this dramatic point in the story, where there has been a frightening and desperate escape into the wilderness and where the gravity of their situation is beginning to dawn on the band of hungry and wandering and traumatized people, YHWH establishes the Sabbath (shabat meaning to cease, desist, rest).

In the midst of your out-loud worrying and internal angst, hit pause. Rest and renew your hope. Rest and remember who you are. Rest and remember The Exhale who delivered you.² So shabat is established in response to anxiety and fear, whining and discontent, confusion and resentment, grief and frustration at all the Israelites could not control, which was basically most everything.

Maybe this has always been the antidote, an attitude adjustment for difficult times, or what we call Life. Gratitude and remembrance. Gratitude and remembrance. And while shabat is not a place to stay — trouble doesn’t keep quiet for very long — it is a place to rest.

1. Manna (מה זה) literally means “what is it?” LOL, as I’m imagining the first time the Israelites saw the white stuff all over the ground that they were supposed to gather and eat, whispering to each other, “What TF is this?!”

2. Check out Exodus 14:21 where YHWH caused a strong east wind (ruah) that opened up land sufficient for crossing.