Hunger and Thirst

I. Manna Everywhere 00:02

…acknowledging our hunger and our thirst, we pray that you’d fill us up today with our daily bread, and that we’d find ourselves satisfied only in you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

As we begin to come to the close of summer, I know if I was a student sitting in the pews, I’d be very sad about that. When you’re an adult it’s a little different. But yeah, I know, summer’s great. Phil’s over there like, “No, no, no, no.” I get it. He still gets to enjoy the thrill of summer vacation in a way that is marvelous.

As we head towards the end, there’s just a lot that God is doing in our midst. I guess I’m in a privileged position, because my wife’s about to have a baby, and there’s an anticipation that comes with that, of new life, of the miracle. One author put it this way. He said the two places you’re guaranteed a miracle are in the womb and at the table, every time. It’s like, praise God, there’s a miracle going on in our midst.

And it’s really more than that. I was struck by the Old Testament: when they first saw the manna, they went out there and said, “What is this?” They asked God for food, and he gave them this frost-like substance that came with the dew, and they’re like, “What is this?” And I think that’s something I want you to keep in mind as we talk through the things today. If you open your eyes, if you look, it may not be what you thought you asked for, but there’s manna everywhere. There are miracles everywhere. And you hear stories. My cousin Amber got engaged to my friend Deacon Caleb out of Maryland. We’re celebrating that. We’ve got all these different things happening: weddings and births and new things. God’s just doing a new thing. A friend of ours, Salva, is going to law school. I mean, just crazy stuff. My sister Meline, to Gordon. I just feel like God wants us to open our eyes a little bit when we hear this good news for people we love, and celebrate, and see him work in it.

II. Hunger and Thirst 02:16

I was trying to think how to intro this, because it’s not really the same as what I was thinking, but we just sang that song. The title today is “Hunger and Thirst.” And the idea is that we have all of these longings, and we often go throughout our day feeling unfulfilled or anxious or afraid, because we have all these things we want in our life, all these things we want God to do, all these things we want provided for. And I’m here today to tell you that God wants to show you what he’s already doing: that none of you in this room are in the desert alone with no provision. In fact, every single person here has God currently providing their every breath, their every step, their every need, through his riches and glory.

Now, hunger and thirst is interesting, because they’re actually good things: the desires of your heart, the things you desperately want. I want to be able to feed my children. That is a hunger, a thirst, a need in my life that is God-given. Or, my wife and I just celebrated our ninth anniversary, very exciting, and I want to enjoy my time and my relationship with my wife. That is a good and healthy thing God has put in all of us.

What I want to talk about today, when we talk about hunger and thirst, is twofold. Number one: God’s already providing. If you have a need, God will provide. God is providing. It’s just there. And secondly, I want us to direct our hunger and thirst towards him. Those are kind of the interplays in all of our stories today. It’s about needing something and finding out that God’s already provided it, and it’s about directing our hunger and thirst rightly.

The Gospel is so powerful. As we’ve been walking through John 6 for the past few weeks, we’ve learned about Jesus walking on water, we’ve got the storm being calmed, we’ve got the feeding of the five thousand. All of these stories have led the people to come and find Jesus again in our Gospel passage today. And they say, “Well, how’d you get here?” And he goes, “You didn’t come to find me for the work I did. You came because you’re hungry again, and you think it’s about the food I provided” (John 6.26). That’s the intro to our Gospel. But what Jesus does in that passage: they challenge him and say, “Yeah, but God gave us manna in the wilderness through Moses.” And Jesus goes, “Yeah, you didn’t get it. I am the manna. I am the bread of life” (John 6.31–35).

So that’s the context in the Gospel that I want to bring with us as we go back to our psalm this morning. I want to talk about our psalm, but I want you to keep in mind that what we’re told by Jesus is that this whole story is actually not just about God providing for this captive people whom he’s led into the wilderness, freed from slavery, and provided for. Actually, it’s about Jesus, and how he is our source of life.

III. Give Ear, O My People 05:44

Okay, let’s talk through Psalm 78. We’ll start, as we often do, in verse 1. We’re not going to talk about all of it, but there are some things in here I wanted to talk through. First of all, the first verse:

1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! Ps 78.1

There’s this really amazing symmetry, synergy, this thing where God spoke the world into being, and then he empowers us to speak words of life, that we might continue to create with him. Basically, what I’m trying to say is: I’m standing up here preaching, and by the power of God I’m trusting that the word of life is going forth, not because I have some magic ability, but because God’s in me and in you. And when we speak the words of life, we actually see God continue to create in us that which he has been creating since the beginning. Life is going forth in the word.

And so what the psalmist is saying is, “Listen, pay attention. There’s something here for you.” There’s some, may I say, daily bread. There’s some manna in these teachings for you. “Give ear, my people; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.” And in verse 2 it says:

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. Ps 78.2–3

We are participating, as Saint Michael’s Church today, in generations of wisdom, in thousands of years of life and goodness. And all of this is the psalmist basically saying, “Listen to me, and you don’t have to be stupid like these other people.” We’re going to get there: the stubborn and rebellious generation. So if any of you are here thinking, “Man, I would love to not be stupid like those people,” that’s what the words of life can do. What they can do is allow you to skip over those experiences that somebody else had.

So imagine this scenario. Somebody walks into a glass door. I’ve seen it happen many times. Children are the best. They just run into that door and fall flat on their face. And I love them, and you comfort them, but something in you… it’s the funniest thing. But you know what? You don’t have to walk into that glass, because you just saw it: “Oh, there’s a glass door there.” And yet so often we don’t pay attention to the stories that came before us, and we end up doing the same things we would make fun of somebody else for doing. And so wisdom can be transferred, if you pay attention. You have to pay attention to these stories that are told.

IV. Tell the Coming Generation 08:01

In verse 4 it continues:

4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. Ps 78.4

Now, I was thinking about being a parent, because usually when you’re a parent, what you do is say, “No, no, no, no, no, no.” Seriously, if you just condensed everything I say to my children, that’s a great summary of what I say all day, every day: “No, not that. No, don’t do that. No, don’t do that.” And that’s fine. It’s important. You don’t want them to die, or you don’t want them to hurt each other. It’s important that they hear the word no quite a lot. They need to know the boundaries. But when I was reading this, I thought, “Man, I need to talk to my kids about what God has done more. I need to tell them stories.” How do we learn? We don’t learn by just “no, no, no.” No is fine. It’s good enough for certain applications, let me say that. It’s a very useful word. But we also need to tell our children the stories of what God has done.

And what’s great about it, too, is that when you tell the kids the stories of what God has done for you, what you’re also saying is, “I didn’t do all this. God did it.” Which is really important, because if they grow up thinking you did all of this, then they’re going to miss the point, because they’re going to try to do it all themselves. We are here because we rest and lean on God. How do you teach your kids that if you don’t tell them about the ways you rest and lean on him? So there’s this idea of passing these things forward, and it comes with a bit of vulnerability and humility, because you’re really saying, “I wasn’t good enough, but God was,” or “God is. I will never be good enough, except that God is in me.”

V. The Testimony and the Law 09:54

So let’s keep talking through here. He said:

5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, Ps 78.5

The testimony is the story of faith. So you tell stories, like that time when I was trying to go to Gordon College, which my sister Meline is going to, and my parents sat me down and said, “Guess what? You don’t get to go unless somehow, miraculously, we end up with five thousand dollars.” There was no money. And unlike my industrious sister Meline, I hadn’t worked my butt off during high school to make money. So I was in a position where I was looking at the bill and I had no money, but I was packing and getting ready to get on a plane to go to college. And then my mom called me one day and said, “Hey, somebody just gave us five thousand. You’re going to Gordon.” I had to tell Meline that story, because when she decided she wanted to go to Gordon, she didn’t have any money to go to Gordon.

I mean, it’s the simplest thing, and I don’t want to oversimplify it, but that’s how faith is built. How do you do things that are impossible? You hear about people doing things that are impossible with God. Nobody here is an island, just getting their revelation from God and going forth and making the world. No, no, no. We build each other up in faith. We have stories where you can point and say, “I know when he healed that person of cancer. I know when he gave that person a house. I know when he rescued them from the fiery depths of hell.” You know these stories, and it reminds you that no matter what you encounter, you have a testimony.

He’s talking about the testimony of Jacob. That was thousands of years before the psalmist, but they were passing down this tradition of faith. In the same way, we tell stories about Archbishop Adler, our founding bishop, and how he gave away his house and his car to missionaries and then drove to California with five hundred dollars in his pocket, four children, and a brand-new wife, and said, “We’re just going to do this, because God told us to.” That’s crazy. And yet out of those acts of faith, we’re all here, because he was a part of building this place, because God told him, “Go to Cali. Sell your house and give the money to missionaries.” That’s the testimony.

Then what’s the law? Believe it or not, it’s not the word no. The law is more than that. The law is the pattern of being that we inhabit. Let me break that down a little more. The law is the way we live. It’s what you do. And so the law means that if we cultivate a testimony of trust and faith in God, then we start living like we actually believe what he says. And we start loving people, and we give money to that homeless guy, and somebody goes, “Why’d you give it to that homeless guy?” And you go, “It’s just what we do.” Or you get into a situation where somebody’s like, “Let’s go to this crazy party. We’re going to go hardcore. We’re going to rave. We’re going to do these drugs. We’re going to do all this stuff.” And you go, “I don’t go to parties like that.” “Why not?” “It’s just… we don’t do that.” Or, “You should claim something wrong on your taxes so that you get more money.” You know it’s stealing, but you can get away with it. Well, we don’t do that.

That’s what the law is about. It’s not about a list of rules that you follow. It’s about creating a community of people who live according to the pattern of being we see in Jesus. And then what we can say, when your brother does something, is, “We don’t live like that.” It’s not, “You idiot, you have failed our statutes.” It’s, “No, that’s just not what we do.” And he goes, “Oh, you’re right. We don’t do that.” And you know what the harder part is? When your brother says, “Hey, we don’t live like that,” you say, “I’m sorry. I messed up. You’re right.” That’s the law and the testimony we build here. There’s a way we treat people. There’s a way we speak to people. There are things that we do. That’s the law that inhabits us as we share the testimony of faith, looking to what Jesus has done and is doing in our life and praising him along the way.

And you’ve got to tell your children. But that means you have to talk to them, and you have to tell each other. You have to talk to people. You’ve got to call up and say, “Hey, Thomas, I was so worried about this thing, but this thing happened.” And Thomas goes, “Praise the Lord, hallelujah!” and he gets all prophetic on you, and you’re like, “Okay, great, Thomas, thank you. Now I feel ready for the day.” You develop these relationships with each other where you can launch each other into the purposes of God with the testimony of faith.

VI. Five Generations 14:52

And why do we do that? Verse 6:

6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, Ps 78.6

I stand here today representing five generations of Saint Michael’s faith-filled believers. You think about Grandma Adler, our founding bishop’s mother, who used to sit right over there and worship the Lord with us every Sunday for years. Why do you think Archbishop Adler still believed in Jesus, or came to his revived faith in Jesus? Because his mom, my great-grandmother, believed in Jesus. Then his children, my mom, and their children, me, and then my children, Rowan. This is how it works. This is God’s economy, that we might all build this kingdom together. It’s generational.

And let me just say this: your life is not about you. It never has been. It’s been about your children and their children’s children, and your brother, and that person down the street who needs Jesus, and everybody else. It’s so crazy, because we have this phrase: God would have died just for you. Jesus would have come and saved just you. If you were the only one who needed saving, he would have come and died for you. And that’s so true. But then you have to extrapolate: it means he would have come and died for that guy and that girl. And so, both at the same time, you are the center of the universe, and so is everybody else. Live like it. Live like the person you’re encountering is the center of God’s universe, that he created the world in beauty and goodness and saved them. It’s extremely extrovert, because we like to introvert. We like to just be about us. But C. S. Lewis says that when he came to faith, he became an extrovert, because all of a sudden everybody else mattered. Everybody else matters.

VII. Set Your Hope in God 17:12

Okay, verse 7. Why do we teach our children and their children and their children’s children?

7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; Ps 78.7

That’s the testimony. The keeping of the commandments is how we live the law. And it comes from setting your hope in God and not forgetting the works of God. How do you set your hope in God and not forget the works of God? You tell the stories of what God has done. You raise the testimony among us of how God has shown up. Because it’s very difficult, if not impossible, to believe for something you’ve never even heard of. But you know what? I’ve heard of Jesus being raised from the dead, and that Spirit’s in me. So what is between raising the dead and all of my problems? It’s the Spirit of God. He’s got it.

Okay, so why do we ignore God’s commandments, according to this Scripture? It’s because we don’t hope in him, and we forget what he’s done. Sounds about right. When I do the things I most regret, it’s because I wasn’t thinking about God. I wasn’t remembering how he provided for me, how he gave me this wonderful wife and five children and the place I live and the food I eat, everything. I’m not thinking about that when I’m doing the thing I regret, when I’m being mean to somebody or losing my temper or whatever the case may be. It’s all about being hungry and thirsty for him and his works. Instead, we’re hungry and thirsty for a lot of things that only he can provide.

Okay, let’s keep working. Verse 8:

8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. Ps 78.8

What did I tell you? We’re doing this so that you won’t be stupid like these people. Now, in a way, the psalmist is writing generations later. But it’s just as applicable in the Gospel, which is generations after the psalmist. The people go to Jesus, who just fed them miraculously, and what do they say? “Show us a sign.” It’s like, “I just fed five thousand. You’re literally here because you want more food from my miraculous provision, and you’re challenging me to show you a sign? You missed the point.”

In the same way, we can learn from every generation how stupid and stubborn they were. We cannot be like that, because it’s true every time. Are you mad at Boomers? Okay, Boomer. Well, don’t be like them. They’re stupid and stubborn and rebellious, just like you are, just like your generation, just like Generation X and Generation Alpha. Everybody’s worried about this new one: “Oh, they’re doomed. AI and phones and everything.” They’re going to be stupid and rebellious. For you, in your house, try not to be that, and teach your children not to be that. It’s true all the way down the line. You can choose two different paths: stubborn, rebellious, not faithful; or hungering and thirsting for God and finding your salvation, your satisfaction, and everything in him. I know which one I want to choose.

VIII. The Rock That Was Split 20:46

Okay, verse 10:

10 They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law. Ps 78.10

We’re just going to run through these verses, and I just want you to think about what they’re doing here.

11 They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. Ps 78.11

Forgetting is like the worst thing you can do. It really is. Because God shows you again and again in his love, and then you turn around and act like you’ve never been loved before in your life. You just disconnect from who you are. Who you are is a beloved child of God, and then you go out and act like you’re an orphan with no rights and no privileges, who has to scrap for everything you need. There’s an integration that comes when we remember. That’s why Jesus told us at the table, every time you eat and drink this, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22.19). It’s about being connected to your identity. Okay, they forgot:

12 In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan. 13 He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap. 14 In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a fiery light. 15 He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep. 16 He made streams come out of the rock and caused waters to flow down like rivers. Ps 78.12–16

“But I don’t know if I can make my car payment.” If he can make streams out of rock, water out of rocks, I think he can provide for you. He can do it. The question is: do you remember? Are you putting your hope in God? Or are you putting your hope in your own ability, your own work, your own striving, your own solutions?

And so you look at this, and we’re told even in our New Testament that the rock that was split was Jesus (1 Cor 10.4). That’s why I love this. We’re talking about how to trust God and have a testimony of faith, but at the center of it is a mystery, which is that everything you’re hungry and thirsty for is actually found in him. We can list all the things. “I want to have cereal for dinner tonight. That sounds great.” Or “I want to have my insecurities met with approval by my wife or my friends. I want to just feel so good.” Everything you crave: “I want to feel significant. I want to feel heard. I want to feel seen.” It’s all in him.

And so you look at this, and they’re starving, they’re thirsty in the desert. I mean, none of us have been this thirsty. Maybe one person in this room has been this thirsty, and I’d love to hear that story if that’s true. But they are in the desert with no water, and thousands of people. We don’t understand thirst like that, because there’s a water fountain right there. We don’t get it. They’re thirsty, and they go, “God, can you even do this?” And he opens up a rock, and living water gushes out. And then two days later they’re like, “Yeah, but can he do food? Come on. We saw the water. Can he do food, though?”

And the mystery at the heart of it is that that was Jesus, pouring out life for us. And what it reveals is the nature of reality. Who is God? He is him who pours eternally. Right now you are receiving that same water. It’s coming into you right now, and that’s why you’re able to take another breath. And yet we’re like, “But you know, a bacon cheeseburger sounds pretty good. God, can you do that?” But the point is, you find your satisfaction in him, and then everything else comes alive to you. When you look to him for that living water, then the Arrowhead bottle, which Michael House calls “not even water,” tastes great. He’s not even here, and I’m picking on him. But either way, whatever you drink, you can thank God for, and it becomes sacramental. Everything in your life gets set alight, because you’re living by the grace of God instead of by striving, instead of in the dark place where everything you get is because you had to give something up or you had to fight for it.

IX. Living Stones, Split Open 25:00

Okay, so God is the water that is sustaining the world, the rock that has been split that we might have life. And so are you. One step further is to talk about each of us. We are living stones (1 Pet 2.5), and our job is to be split open and pour out our life for the sustenance of the world. That’s why he brought us: so that we could be like him. He wants us to be like him. What does he do? He splits himself open that the world might live. And that’s what we’re called to do too.

That’s part of the picture of children and children’s children. I split myself and I give my life to my children. That’s why people in the world think children are a bad thing. Over this weekend we heard like five different people be like, “Oh my gosh, you have two children?” Not to us. They didn’t realize… we were going incognito; our kids were with the grandparents. But not to us. They were talking to these other families: “You have two children? You’re so brave. You’re so amazing. I could never do it.” Because what do children demand of you? That you split yourself open and give them life, like Jesus. Maybe I’m getting a little too esoteric or imagistic here, but it’s real. It’s not just a metaphor. You are meant to live your life for others, like Jesus did. And so when somebody comes to you and they’re hungry or they’re thirsty… What did Jesus say? When you clothe one of the least of these, you clothe me. When you feed one of the least of these, you feed me (Matt 25.40). That’s the job.

Well, I was thinking about this one more. I had this image when I was at Bishop Brett’s consecration in New York. They have this cross where Jesus is melting out of the cross. It’s a beautiful image, and it kind of gives this idea of Jesus pouring out his life on the church. And I was like, “Wow, that’s so beautiful.” And I was just thinking about it, and I was struck: yeah, that’s what you do every day. You pour out your life, minute by minute by minute, until there’s no life left, until you die. The question is, where are you pouring out your life? Are you pouring out your life into those around you? Because by the power of God, that’s the multiplication life. That’s the five loaves and two fishes that feed five thousand people: when you give your life. Then give, and it shall be given unto you, pressed down and overflowing, in good measure (Luke 6.38).

Instead, a lot of us are going to all these altars, the altar of money or power or security or whatever it is, and we’re pouring out our life on it, and it’s just empty. It’s literally dumping water into dry sand. It just disappears in the desert. Or self-worship: “It’s all about me.” Yeah, so just pour your life out on the ground and let it evaporate and die. Or you can pour it into those around you, and by the economy of God it turns into eternal life that we share with one another. Because when you’re doing that, when you’re looking to him for your life, it just flows from him through you. You’re not running out.

X. Daily Manna 28:07

Okay, I’m getting down the path here, and I can feel that it’s time to wrap up. So let me just say it this way. When you understand that Jesus is your life, that there is no life apart from him, then you know what you don’t get to do? You don’t get to take Jesus for yourself and just be full. That’s not how you partake of Jesus. When you partake of Jesus, it’s the only food that, when you eat it, doesn’t become you. You become it. When you eat of Jesus, you become like him, and you just become a river. You join in the river, and it’s just flowing from him to you to those around you. And then, five generations after Grandma Adler, my son Rowan is going to Sunday school and learning, because her life was poured out on the altar of Christ. That’s what I want to be.

Let me say one last thing. God is doing something special in this particular church, in these people here. And so pay attention, because there’s manna and water everywhere. It’s everywhere. It’s on the ground. But you know what? Just like the manna in the wilderness, you can’t store up more than a day’s worth. You don’t get to fill up on Sunday and then tomorrow not look for God. You’re going to go hungry that way. Just like the manna in the wilderness, it’s every day. You have to wake up and look for God and his provision. Amen.