August 6, 2021

August 6, 2021

I recently read something on Facebook from a seminary classmate who commented on a sermon he heard last Sunday. In the sermon the preacher likened the pandemic to the Israelites wandering in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. In last Sunday’s Old Testament reading from the Book of Exodus the Israelites were complaining to Moses about their situation, lamenting that God had not killed them in Egypt instead of bringing them into the wilderness to die from starvation and thirst. They reminisced about their situation in Egypt where they sat by the fleshpots and ate their fill of bread. The preacher talked about how after a year and a half of the pandemic and no apparent end in sight we are anxious about the unknown of the future, so we yearn for the familiarity of the past, even if it was not great.

I’ve got to admit, I wish I had preached that sermon, but interestingly I did have a discussion Sunday afternoon with some friends about the word “fleshpots.” A lot of hilarity ensued as we all took our best guesses as to what it meant – most of which I cannot list here, ending with us looking it up. According to various dictionaries, “fleshpots” refers to bodily comfort or luxurious and hedonistic living. Biblically they quite literally meant pots of meat, which I imagine represented the ultimate in self-indulgence for the enslaved Israelites. The Israelites yearned to return to slavery in Egypt because compared with the wilderness it was comfortable and familiar and offered easy living albeit at a cost. We yearn to return to the comfortable and familiar of our pre-pandemic which had its own “fleshpots.” But just as God promised the Israelites a land of milk and honey, God promises us new opportunities and possibilities if we resist the temptation to go back to “the way things were,” and keep moving forward into what might feel like an uncertain future, but one that holds just as much promise as the land flowing with milk and honey.

As the Delta variant continues to grip our nation, and numbers of infections rise, and we are once again required to wear masks inside, we could be forgiven for wondering if it will ever end. Instead of losing hope and becoming discouraged, maybe we could see it as our period in the wilderness, and trust that God will provide for us the way God provided for the Israelites – not fleshpots, not indulgence and extravagance, but quail and manna - enough for our needs and no more, and that if we persevere and do not lose hope and give up we too will find our way to the Promised Land.

Yours in Christ,



Rev. Jane