“Patience” Exodus 32:1-14 Rev. Beau Brown
What’s the one thing they always say to be careful praying for? Patience, right? The reason they say this is that, when you do pray for patience, you’ll be given plenty of chances to practice it. I’ve heard reports of people having to stand in very long lines at the grocery store, getting behind a very slow driver on the highway, having to wait for over an hour to get their meal at a restaurant. Then, there are the more serious challenges…waiting for the results of a medical test, marking the time as a loved one continues to make poor choices, or something we’re all facing right now…anticipating the end of this pandemic. Patience is certainly a virtue, and it’s one that’s often not easily obtained.
Today, we’re back in the desert with the people of Israel. They haven’t been out here for very long yet, but I’m sure a day in the Sinai might as well have been a year. Even so, God has provided for their needs every step of the way. The pattern has gone like this: the people begin to feel the pain of going without, they complain to Moses about it, then God provides. Moses has been the conduit through which God provides, so naturally, they’ve begun to rely heavily on Moses’ constant presence. While the desert is not an ideal place to be, their needs have been met, which hasn’t required them to develop much patience. But now things are going to be quite different.
Moses has gone up the mountain to receive instructions from God, and, well, a lot of time has passed. He’s been gone for 40 days, and I’m sure many of the people started to think that Moses is never coming back. Maybe he’s been eaten by some wild animal, or perhaps he’s just abandoned them altogether. Now, most “missing person” cases are not closed until seven years have passed, so you can see that this is fairly premature. At any rate, a group of the Israelites decide that it’s time to move on. So, they go to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and say, “This guy is never coming back. We should have known that this mysterious God that Moses proclaimed was fake. We need something we can see and touch, a god who won’t make us wait.”
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob works on a different kind of timetable. God creates a whole universe in seven days, but then waits almost 100 years to give Abraham and Sarah their promised child. God propels Joseph from slave to second-in-command in just over a decade, but then waits 400 years to liberate the Israelites from Egypt. God’s timeline seems very confusing and frustrating. I don’t know about you, but I can at least somewhat relate to the people of Israel. It’s completely understandable that they want to take the reins and guide the horse to their chosen destination. After all, there’s a promised land up ahead, flowing with milk and honey, and God doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get them there.
Right now, in this country, we’re faced with two seemingly opposite visions of what America can and should be. Of course, things are much more complicated than this either/or proposition, but on one hand, there are those of us who want to get back to a bygone day when this country was great. On the other hand, there are those of us who want to push forward to create a new kind of greatness. Whatever the desired outcome may be, I would argue that we have collectively demanded a god of our own creation, a golden calf, a way to mollify our impatience, a means of control: partisan politics.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Political affiliation is not the problem; the issue is when we think a party or a person will get us to the promised land. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say that, if these particular people either stay in power or come into power, the whole world will be doomed. Yet, this is shrinking all of reality down to a single factor that we can manipulate; it’s building a golden calf because, well, life is just too complicated and complex without a method of control, even if it’s completely illusory. I submit to you that,
Especially as Christian, our loyalties belong to something much, much bigger and more complex than a golden calf, or a red elephant or a blue donkey.
Yes, elections have serious consequences, but no matter the outcome, God is still God and we are still the Church. We will still be called to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. We will still be called to bind up the wounds of those who have been broken by life’s circumstances. We’ll still be called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. It’s true that there’s nothing glamorous about any of this. Following the way of Christ above all else is often a slow, frustrating, and painful journey. And when politicians offer shortcuts, it’s easy to get swept up into some other vision of the promised land.
As a preacher, it’s always been my goal to present the good news of God’s grace, so I’ve often shied away from those parts of the Bible that present God in an unflattering manner. However, it’s very difficult to ignore the way God reacts to the impatience and idolatry of the people of Israel. There’s no two ways about it: God is spitting angry, ready to destroy the Israelites. Moses even has to talk him down off the edge by telling him this would be a public relations nightmare. Of course, these stories were transmitted orally and weren’t written down until hundreds of years later, so God’s level of aggravation may have been exaggerated here. Nonetheless, the point remains: The Holy One of Israel does not take this sort of thing lightly.
However exhausted and impatient we may become, it is so important that we remain faithful to God and God alone. In a world where people are forming cults of personality around political figures, we must exercise patience. And lest anyone think otherwise, patience is not doing nothing; it’s not sitting around twiddling our thumbs while we watch the world go to hell in a handbasket. Patience is the refusal to settle for lesser gods. It’s the willingness to say, “I know where our help comes from, and it’s not President Trump, and it’s not Vice President Biden. Our help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth.”
There may or may not be more disastrous days ahead for us as a nation. I’m holding out hope that our best days are ahead of us. I’m hoping that peace and justice will reign on earth, and that the better angels of our nature will finally prevail. But it may not turn out that way in the short run. This critical election may not turn out the way I want it to; it may not turn out the way you want it to; in which case, as Christians, we simply cannot let ourselves be commandeered by a lesser god, a god that turns people against each other for sport, a god who promotes honor without sacrifice, a god who promises to give us everything but delivers nothing. That’s not the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God we’ve come to know through Jesus Christ.
We’ve already tried the idolatry thing before many times, and it never works. It only leaves us bitter and angry, depressed and defeated. It gives us a false sense of power and authority while the world around us crumbles. We can do better. We must do better. So, let us build healthy communities together. Let us use our resources to feed the hungry and house the homeless instead of building golden calves. Let us keep our eyes set on the promised land to which only God can lead us. Let us be hopeful. Let us be patient. Amen.