The Bitch Bunch...

 The Bitch Bunch

 

Exodus 16:2-15
16:2 The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

16:3 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."

16:4 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.

16:5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days."

16:6 So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

16:7 and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?"

16:8 And Moses said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him--what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD."

16:9 Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'"

16:10 And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.

16:11 The LORD spoke to Moses and said,

16:12 "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.'"

16:13 In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.

16:14 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.

16:15 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.

 

 

Jonah 3:10-4:11
3:10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

4:1 But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry.

4:2 He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.

4:3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live."

4:4 And the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

4:5 Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

4:6 The LORD God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush.

4:7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered.

4:8 When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, "It is better for me to die than to live."

4:9 But God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?" And he said, "Yes, angry enough to die." 

4:10 Then the LORD said, "You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night.

4:11 And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?"

 

 

Israel sounds just like modern-day America. Is there anything we won’t bitch about? Americans can find fault with food, roads, government, religion, family, medicine, sports teams, and golf courses, to name a few things. AND we can find great fault with our neighbors, you know, the ones Jesus said we should love? No matter how you slice it, we ultimately find fault with God, even when we don’t BELIEVE in God! We may rename God as “the luck of the draw,” or believe we are just personally snakebit, but it really is about deferring to a believe that SOME “higher power” out of our control guides our destiny, especially when it seems to be working against us! And when things are going GREAT with us? We will often quickly take credit for that—it was our “wisdom,” or our concise decision-making that is responsible. Or maybe even our “luck.” 

 

Why are we so eager to NOT give God credit? Well, that would mean we acknowledge a “higher power’s” influence in our affairs. God is good to blame, but outside of a few good Christians and maybe a few NFL players in the post-win interview spotlight, “praising” God for our good fortune is not our usual impulse.

 

Like ancient Israel, we are the “bitch bunch.” Complaining actually has a positive role in our ability to cope with negative outcomes. Complaining can be quite therapeutic, letting us “blow off steam” rather than kicking the dog or yelling at our spouse. Unfortunately, it can become habitual in a hurry, and “bitch bunch” folk tire on us rapidly. You had better believe Moses got weary with it! When God got “upset” with Israel’s bitching and was threatening to wipe them out and starting over, Moses probably felt like chiming in: “YES, Lord, what a plan! I’d be HAPPY to lead a “new” Israel, without the griping and grumbling!” DO IT, Lord, DO IT! But Moses was such a good leader he instead “argued with God” and won, leading to Israel’s being spared by the Almighty. (From a training standpoint, might it have been possible that God was using God’s “threat” to strengthen Moses as a leader? Of Course. A better bet? This biblical history was written by the “winners,” and even Israel had trouble giving God credit where credit was due. So, Moses, their “great prophet,” had to win an argument with an angry God.)

 

“Bitch bunch” folk are not grumbling because it’s therapeutic, though. They just like to complain when any extra effort is required to make a bad situation better, or at least tolerable. The old adage, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” comes to mind. It’s cute, but SOMEONE has to squeeze the lemons and figure a way to sweeten the punch. It’s a whole lot easier if someone just gives you wonderfully sugary, chilled lemonade! God has probably spoiled us by offering so much forgiveness, grace, and “Jehovah Jireh” provision, requiring so little effort on our part. Not only are we the “bitch bunch” when God (or just life) requires more of us to receive blessings, but we have even refined the ability to bollocks up our own larder to such a degree that we need rescuing. It often seems that “humanity” is Latin for “screw up.”

 

One of my biblical favorites is Jonah, which is why I’ve included the lectionary passage from Jonah here as well. If Job is the “everyman” facing horrible trials in life, Jonah is the Monty Python “runaway” champ, AND he is a charter member of the “bitch bunch.” You know the story. God tries to “call” Jonah to Nineveh to preach repentance to the folk there, but Jonah does NOT want to go. He hates these people, and would rather God judge them and flatten them, ASAP. (How many times do we modern Christians say “I’ll pray for ya,” when we are really hope God drops the hammer on someone, “because they deserve it!”) That was Jonah. While I struggle with Jonah’s “whale ride,” from a purely scientific standpoint, I have to say that the story of Jonah may well be the most believable story in the Bible. Jonah’s honest “bitch bunch” emotions are real, as is his resistance to preaching God’s word of repentance to the Ninevites, as he knows in his heart they WILL repent, sparing their necks in the face of Almighty judgment. Jonah wants the judgment. However God actually gets him to Nineveh (and I LOVE the “big fish” story), he offers a far less than passionate sermon, and yet it provokes immediate and widespread repentance, on the part of the Ninevites. And THEN Jonah is even madder at God. God arranges a little real-life parable for Jonah with the shade bush, trying to show how God is a God who prefers to save and “shield” humanity from its own sin. But when the shade is WITHHELD by God against HIM, he gets really hacked. 

 

God asks Jonah if he is really angry about the withered bush, and Jonah says he is “angry enough to die” over it. This should tell us that Jonah really NEEDS therapy, as does most of our society right now, over the things we are “willing to die for” or might we use the popular expression “go to the mat for”? Think of the modern phenomenon of “road rage.” People have been injured and a few even shot and killed because they cut off someone in traffic! And we think JONAH needed a lesson in misplaced our pathological anger? 

 

God uses the bush story to help Jonah identify with God’s own passion (or should we say COMpassion?) for the 120,000 in Nineveh. To paraphrase, “YOU get so upset over losing a little shade, and you don’t get how I’M concerned over losing 120,000 people?” I don’t know about you, but this biblical exercise hits me right in the gut over the stupid things I get REALLY TORQUED over, when half of the world is going to “hell in a handbasket,” as they say. People are literally DYING in the world, and so many have NOT had ANY of God’s Good News preached to them, and we in the eternal “bitch bunch” are freaking out because gasoline costs a lot or our neighbor just put up a fence we don’t like! A flood happens in Libya that wipes out thousands of people and leaves many thousands homeless, and we want Federal intervention when a big tree falls during a storm and crushes our she/he shed! (We really never liked those Libyans, anyway. Just ask Marty McFly.)

 

Let’s go back to the Exodus passage for a moment. Israel has been led out of slavery in Egypt, having been delivered from the oppressive clutches of the Pharoah. They aren’t gone long and they get hungry, a need with which we can all identify. But rather than compare notes on how they may come together as community to deal with this crisis (anybody remember “stone soup”?), they begin bitching to God, Moses, Aaron—anyone in authority who will listen. This lesson reminds me of the line from Stephen King’s “Shawshank Redemption” about how we “Either get busy living, or we get busy dying.” The choice is ours. 

 

God SENDS the manna, and Israel’s first reaction is “What’s this?” Not exactly the “fleshpots of Egypt” they were willing to chow down on, but God DID deliver something that would provide them nourishment (and, knowing God, was probably beaucoup better for them, nutritionally!). Later, as we know, they will “bitch bunch” again over ONLY having manna, and God will send the quail. AND they still weren’t happy. Why? My guess is, friends, it’s still the same bitch we have today, if we’re honest—we want to BE IN CHARGE and have CONTROL of our own destiny! Anytime we have to depend on someone else, we don’t like it! Americans are so BAD with this, probably because it is so much a part of our DNA—the “pioneer spirit” that kept our forebearers alive and kept driving them West to “new frontiers.” Now, it just makes us selfish, for the most part.

 

The honest truth is that God doesn’t want to “control” us, any more than a loving, emotionally-healthy parent wants to “control” their children, especially as they grow older and more mature, themselves. (I’m setting aside the less emotionally mature “hovering” or “helicoptering” parent cases here.) Loving parents WANT their children to become independent, hoping they have instilled in them positive “family” values and a compassionate, empathetic spirit. When we do this successfully, our children perpetuate our best values, steer clear of our faults, and become worthy, productive citizens, benefitting the wider community. God does the SAME THING WITH US! God’s “rules” are like our parents’ rules—they are designed to move us toward independence, adulthood, and an “abundant” life, both to benefit us and our future, and to “build the kingdom of God,” or a just world and a healthy society. Even as parents are “honored” when their children do this, so is God glorified when WE do! Get it?

 

If you don’t yet, you may still be a charter member of the “bitch bunch.” I still have my card, but am trying to move on from the club. How am I doing? I will say, honestly, that this message is being preached to ME. If you get in the way, that’s your business! 

 

Leaving the “bitch of the month” club is really hard. Even Jesus struggled with his anger over what he saw going on around him, turning over a few tables in the Court of the Gentiles and arguing with religious leaders (“you whitewashed sepulchers” was not a “hey, bitches, how you doin’?” kind of friendly greeting, in case you didn’t know). Jesus even pleads with God over his plight, in the Garden of Gethsemane, but he resolves himself to face his destiny. “Resolve” is a good word for us, too.

 

May we resolve to bitch less, serve more, and be grateful for the “bread from heaven”…or even the occasional “whale Uber” God sends to get us where we need to be! Amen.