THE SACRED JOURNEY
2. Provisions
John M. Buchanan

Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
John 4:5-15
Exodus 17:1-7
"Behold, I wj and bef you...and\ you shall strike the-rOsk, and water
shall come it,that the nee nay pe a ~~ —ExoduS™+7:6. (RSV)

Aa was A TT

Bruno Bettelhein eek,
ese OT SE i gl

What an

adventure his life was! In Austrian Jew who grew

By cat
Clice By}
ob on
vt nts

ye . up in the Vienna of Sigmund Freud, Bettelheim did

o Ss a |

pioneering work with disturbed and autistic

chitdren.\ atone with most of the Viennese
—= a. ee

intelligencia he was rounded up by the Nazis, spent
as Se,
a year in Dachau, and was released through the
= es

efforts of Eleanor Roosevelt and others who had

heard of his work with autism.\ He came to this

2A oor a «Where
country, \to the University of Chicago. \ Here he

continued important research and treatment.

PETE IS

FS a 1

Bn We

per YF —
In addition to directing a residential

treatment center in Hyde Partie wrote a number of

teil ————
popular The most widely read by non-profes-
sionals is [he of Enchantment, in which

Bette lheim explored the importance of fairy tales

——

on”
in the personality development of children. It's a is wad

good book ond (rescore ear eret, Le Se ee

thiakaaeelaest that wonderful story in the 17th

theese /
chapter of Exodus when the 1e*are in the

wilderness and they are Dupgry and thirsty and

aoe

scared and they complginvand God provides.

Bettelheim wrote:

See

l If we hope to live not just from

moment to moment, but in true consciousness

| il

of our existence,\then our greatest need
AIT

ee

and most difficult achievement is to find
ee ao

meaning in our lives. |r is well known how

Seer

many of us have lost the will to live,

and have stopped trying because such meaning
———— es

a

has evaded them." [p. 3]
= Ver
Bettelheim wrote a fascinating and sonmnat
Fa iiiitens

controversial account ef his Dachau experience for

the New in which he concluded that the

people wha survived the concentration camps were

those who were able to live for some cultural or
religious goal other than mere survival. |e Bette (Wr -

jnmtho-concentretierecemms: when the total meaning | what Wau

\c
and focus of one's life has been reduced to our il
survival \ food and drink { the battle has been wha We
me

human. When the oppressors, the captors, or when Ps é yucadre
life itself, reduces human existence to survival cauy - of

A ee

<i" yar terms, \humanity has already lost. \ that is not to \Z inp Bw -

a
say that those who survived cane f— super ior

we to those who died. |r is, he said, simply to
mM

abserve that our humanity resides in something
Mest te ae
yp - bigger and better than the physical needs of our

; cuser
\o ya lost. ¥ Human life has become somethi
: ; lost. ng less than | C&P"
Ae —

we

es a

those people complaining about their thirst in the

bodies. \ relevant observation, I thought, about

wilderness.

I continued to skim through the book into the

ee ee

section where he analyzes the familiar fairy tales...

These stories, he taught, often provide children
i. ST.

me,

with a safe way to express and deal with basic
ae

fears and worries and desires. h Hence and Gretel,
whose parents essentially abandon them because they
ae aa
are pgorand can no longep feed them, speaks to
childhood's “dominant anxiety." \the threat of
We

desertion and the loss of security. \ [p. 159]
ee mim Ta

\ , Ceaushl It is a common motif in many of the stgries

mg era we heard as children. \ Bettethein observed: ("in
LC YZ many fairy tales, being pushed out of home stands
L | ly beh rey for having to become onese lr. —Feal ization
i ee eae
-_— PA requires leaving the orbit of home, an
@rA L d| Lak excruciatingly painful experience oo with many 7
c (0 yw esychalagical dangers." [p. 79] Ey, or
\WWe. rv j That process, he taught, is inescapable and
Mie ee tase.

ae aval | not confined to childhood. ( "Separation anxiety -

the fear of being deserted - is not restricted to a

—

a= 4

certain period of development. Such fears occur at

all ages.” Jtp. 15]

And that I CONCTUCEC, \dibebmentene-ryeaeere

eee eet

from.Dr-Rettedaedm, is exactly what happened one
day in the wilderness of Sinai,) when the children
eS,

of Israel assembled in front of Moses and said:

peemmnesen | SR

"Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us
and our children and our cattle with thirst?” \

It's actually the third time it occurred. \tn
i,

fact, it happens so much that the Old Testament

scholars have a name for it... | “The murmuring in
= a Saar
the wilderness motif.” Free of Egyptian slavery.

wander ing through the desert, the people are

murmuring al] the time: [what shal] we drink?"

[15:24] A little ater they are hungry and the

whole congregation murmurs against Moses and Aaron
and this time it's eloquent.
MS oe
"Would that we had died by the hand of the
the Lord in the land of Egypt. when we sat

eee

by the fleshpots and ate bread to the full:

[ail sor.

2 —

for you have brought us out into the
wilderness to kil] this_whole assembly
. with hunger." | [16:3]

~~ wn propose OS saree ny bal “Ab

Sacred Journey, ln adventure to which we are
ae eee

thie Wier ini
called. \ T suggested lémicntieuneiey t that the story of
is Abraham_and Sarah_is_the basic Wil te
Got Bible story. ee that very old saga, (oa calls two yan
vera cave a nn gv sclulays
fy6 é people who are mature, established and settled to Par ts
pant! 1 PI a cane tc - SLT ae
! yee We God en

¢ pick up all their belongings and move. ‘
Peat ae = aL BMS +
\ ‘ promises them a future and when they trust God, the
ae We

ane re a a adventure of faith begins. { suggested that God
?
cg? : ws calls each of us to a similar adventure and
A as 9 ces re
ox \ \ promises to be with us,\that God has been there al] Lad jas

an * a ry
XH along, = us on,}pulling us from the future, | Be ae p lt

your life is a Sacred ‘earaas because of God's

presence.

P ible,
Aa. [Su - The theme | ne throughout the Bible
beginning to end. \ It appears again in the great
eae

Pipher an

saga of the Exodus.\ What a wonderful story it is,
nel cam

with what Seems to me an endless variety of ways to

Thee ee te a . S Aden ¢ Bie
is he gl Secu Pewtre bt. )p B ic

~ Sheena ays fran ws =A
sar Mente verre Shih

oie: ‘. (e —s ae ming oe. Cy hud mM
A 2 tga kur Vw Gormunts fur [DV/Maq

surprise us with its relevance and contemporaneity.
——s_ — ee ey

Remember that Abraham and Sarah end up in

Egypt for a while because there is no food where
Ses, SSS ee
they are.\ Several generations later the Israelites
— . eT a, (tenes.

are back in Egypt again, once again because there

Bese

in =
is famine where they ane \ mis time_there are a

lot of them, \tribes of them, and this time they
mil ee eet are

stay in Egypt, settle in, {and thrive some more:

eed SE ng

thrive so much that the Egyptians become concerned

fee

and gradually turn them into slaves. \" happens
Bard ni

slowly, of course; First one right, then another is
eee er eh, PT we Ta

Fen OT

taken away. \ First they aren't allowed to live in

| mnaal =

certain neighborhoods, {next they have to Vive ina

ghetto and in a few decades they are the slaves,
Mo

Lena ET Sy

making the bricks for Pharon's ambitious
ad EE SE ea

construction projects.

Mima

Moses organizes them: \stirs them up,

Saal

presents their demands to Pharoh: \ argues,

negotiates, threatens - all the while God_is urging

ST

him on. [Arter several false starts, Phargh finally

relents, and one night, uncer the caver of

ee
a 7

darkness, they leave. | They pack up their

—_

belongings, gather their sheep and cattle, set the

children and the elderly organized,\ look around at
es ee

the old neighborhood one last time and walk into

the wilderness.

Seger

Now the_pgint is that even though they

complained a lot, Egypt wasn't all that bad. AS a

Wee TE

matter of fact, Egypt was home: | had been home for
ial eee eel

PAB Soninra

them al] their lives, ‘end their parents before them

and their rerceareits it might look Tike slavery

Fe eee

to a young radical like Moses, but it was also

EM

ee

home. | And so not long after they leave they beain
to have second thoughts. Corat in the world have

a

we done? \Traded our, security, our stable, Saf a

life for what? \This js wilderness.) There's

ae ee

nothing out_here. \Eovet isn't, wonderful but at

least we had a roof over and food to eat
\ =
and water to drink." dena, .
ee

:
And at the same time, Pharoh is having second

ee oa

thoughts toa. \ His economic advisers, in the Clear

Le ell emainemee er

light of day, remind him that he has just allowed

a~ 8

as A leshoots -- _~ XX Was de ppimhd
dW leon As Ab whys decree
work -- refer ® Were ae ra prt “\
lam) sis

the labor force to walk out scot free. \ we SO
——_—_, —

Pharoh changes his mind, mobilizes his forces and

we eee

sends the army out to catch the people of Israel
eel

and bring them home.

One of the best parts of this story happens

Ray

when the people who_have made it to the banks of
the Sea of pe Ehren, shallow swamp — see the

ee

dust of Pharoh's army anproaching.\\ This time it's
SS Se ee

ae

not a murmur but a shout of terror:

"Ts it because there are no graves in

eee

Egypt that you have taken us away to die

in the wilderness/\ What have you done

erribere

to us? \e would have been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than to die in
the wilderness.” {[14:11-12]

What comes next is the unlikely escape at the

Sea of Reeds and then the beginning of forty years
eel

Comefore\

of wandering in the wilderness of Sinai and the

———

murmuring: | "What will we eat? \ what will we drink?

oes | eS

How will we survive, cut off from the security of

It is a universal theme.\ A universally human

ERRATA

question. [It has to do with our development and

a

maturity as persons, Bruno BetteTheim taught. { Tt

Ee,

has to do with living life to its fultest.\ And

this we must not miss, it has to do with faith,

Oe eel

with living in responsible relationship with the

ere

one who has created us, \given us our Tives} and who
wi ”

|

calls us to live them with integrity and

|

intentionality and courage. \n fact, several

|

thousand years before it was deyelopmental

psychology, it was good Biblical religion.

There is a sense in which life always calls
a
us to leave security and comfort behind if we are
a, Ty
to do and be all we can: | a sense in which life is
ea eee ; See og

diminished to the degree that we invest it in the
Seeucclss ie, SET ee

provision of comfort and security only.

The Outward Bound movement began when, Curt

Mitta,

el” 10

Hahn, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany and the

eee

founder of Gordonstown School in Scot land, (observed

ee

that young British sailors were perishing, |after

their ships were
sunk By Nazi_U-boats in the North Atiantic, in

dramatically larger numbers than their older, more

Pee ee

seasoned nates. \The young sailors were not

surviving physical hardship because they didn't

have any experience with — or bebe SUE with the
Whic ts

spiritual toughness for the ait t to live. > The. \ the

whole culture - the whole world - after the First

ae ro Been,

World War, had become comfortable, Hahn concluded.
SE ee

So Outward Bound and a number of popular similar

outdoor education programs structure physical

hardship, challenge and discomfort for people of
eee =o a

all ages. [re is an intentional wilderness

experience and for many people it is life enhancing
pa a Y
and spiritually deepening.

It is also an occasion of no Tittle murmuring
ear te SCT

very much like the wilderness murmuring of the
a,

children of tsraet.\ 1 the Outward

Sa
Bound School, Hurricane Island, Maine, for a five-
= f gacrane ty =

a> 11

cramer pope A ale

day course laStswemner, along with twenty other

ee

adult professional me a \rt was not forty years
———-—=a

i

in the wilderness by any stretch of the imagination
= eee

but I'l] not forget any of it, | including a fe pes '
—— er 4
memorable occasion of murmuring. Rei) =) vyelt s
pr. penn bi »

seoees The Head Master of the Latin School, also a

guest and participant, and I had a few moments to

chat. | ve had just come in from three days ina

thirty-foot open sail poat. | We hadn't slept much;
Se

we were cold, wet, hungry, tired, slishtly queasy

from the ocean swells,} and now nett, and I were

pulling a large cart full of dirty pots and pans to

an open faucet where our job was to scrub them all.
Ce en denns 9 ez:

— =1 We sedob.d
On top of everything it was pagina ai? Ye oe
moment to ask something terribly wreeled 4 ln
; — — A al
incisive: \ "What do you suppose our wives are doing ee
right now?" | And then, in spite of the fact that we
— ‘ailtes ae rrp Ov
both knew better we began an only slightly tongue- bad rj
| ieee) Cea orl”
in-cheek recital of what we would be doins: | how |
warm a Pleasant_and comfortable it would be in elt 26 -
Chicago. (erat in the wilderness is a Scud - wm \
Ay a F a ve K
Cyw 4 \
Yow WwW 1 af - at
q Wet —-
eo
Cvs :: “v

ant — Cale

universally human_ experience."
The stories of Wapriet Tubman and the
underground railroad and slaves running away and
Mia Le |
living in the wilderness for months - traveling at
a - effin =, ieee

Dateien atl

ne Ste during the day, living off the land -

are powerful and inspiring and instructive because

for many runaway slaves, slavery began to look
_ Sea. jay

appealing after a day or so of freecom.\ Plantation

life might be cruel,, inhuman, demeaning, but there

was food and shelter and security. | The wilderness

fei Mii i

is the place where we are able to see with clarity

oe,

how dependent we have become on security, safety
Ss oe
and contort. | Qut, pays this wonderful old story,
‘ weit Nt tetrioED

the wilderness journey is also the place where we
eS Se

find God or God finds us.
Lya®

God comes to Moses in a burning bush in the
—— = se

wilderness. \ In @ Period often in the

wilderness, Jesus encounters subtle temptation but
(Ge dese

the angels also come to him_in the wilderness and
aS

it is in his wilderness experience that his sense
a

of the meaning of his life and therefore his
we ee

o> 0-18

courage and determination is given to nim. | Pap of

the wilderness experience is the solitude in which
alll

mind and heart and spirit turn to God. Part, of

ees

what all the outdoor education programs include is

a period of solitary time: \an extended period for

aloneness, reflection and quiet.\ And for most,

eventually, it is a spiritually significant time.

wpe:

The mystics, the people of deep spirituality.
pee

ee a

know that to experience God you must Setach, back

away Viet go_of everything. \ That is part of what

Farag learns | an the wilderness \, And it is not an

easy lesson for those of us who gpe privileged and
enter
blessed with abundance.
Henri Nouwen has a wonderful Tittle book on
mes ae Perey

prayer which makes the point that you cannot pray

with your fists clenched. \ It's an important
= aS ae

abservation\, Prayer is less than a vital spiritual
———_

PR

exercise for most of us because we feel threatened
by letting go of our securities and standing before
Se eq Fe

God with our hands empty and open. Nouwen talks

——_

about seeing a woman brought into the emergency

ie...

Q- 314

1 An,
— Fi
+ ane
er,

room of a psychiatric hospital with her fists
ees] ess

tightly clenched,\holding on to one small coin, as
Bein ir a te

though she would lose her very self if she let go

iets ny,

of that coin.\ Nouwen writes:

(ite ee

\ “When you are invited to pray you

—

are asked to open your tishtly clenched fists and give

ee .

up your last coin. You hold fast to what is familiar,
Fe ae

even if you aren't proud of it. \ You find yourself

deren te ee

saying: (Tat's just how it is with me. \1 would like to
be different but

it can't be now..." Yonce you talk

Tike that you've
already given up believing that your

life might be

ee

otherwise. \ You fee! oe safer to

le

cling to a sorry past

than to trust_in.a new pune
[With Open Hands, p. 71

The old story suggests that God calls us to

be ona Journey, \ to let go of the securities upon

which we have become dependent \ to trust God for

ep > 15

our security and in the progess to become the free

and whole.people God has created us to be.
The stgry.also makes a very daring promise.

God will provide. \ God will give us the resources

ge

we need for the journey. \ cou will provide, not
See

necessarily what we want, \put what we ni . | God

will provide water for our thirst - living water

for that profound@e thirst deep_inside everyone of

EE

us.
(6) Moses discovers water only when the
woo, mn Se

people are in the dryness of the desert.| Manna is

ee ae

provided only in the wilderness. | The Samaritan WO t
a a -_ “
woman whe encounters Jesus at the wel] is thirsty. Wardurtud

she 7 Tit f lit o> os
Ge IS ah outcast,| not it for polite company in

her own viTlage. \ She's at that well at high noon

because the other women get water in the evening
TT ay em

and she is not welcome. \ she is desperate. | "Give

Se Se —

ee

me living water,” she asks Jesus "sive me food
ek (ini

and drink that will sustain my spirit.”
gece Ses Tae
"The threshold of religion," one commentator
ee i |
proposes, bis at that point when the thirsty soul
— ii a

stands squarely in front of the hopeless, barren
Sah a

a~ 16

desert, the seemingly impossible.”
God's gifts are given only when we know our
hunger and thirst: \onty when we need them.
ee. ati ee
So, for each of us comes a day when we must
ree i

leave security behind,{a day like the one years ago
eee

when we walked down the sidewalk, \away from the
EES ESS rl]

insular safety of home on the way to school and
See Te enn ee

began the adventure of becoming,\a Sacred Journey
| ee |

that is still going on.

~ or the.day years later when our_parents
dropped us off at college and drove “away;
eT aie é

- or the day when we started anew life with

a stranger to whom, standing in the Frowt oF

ea Rasa ran

a chungh| young. immature and terribly UNPREPARED,
we just committed our lives “for better OR worRsé

in sickness and in health, as long as Wé BoTH SHALL

rive"s_)

~ or the day_in middle years when our €6 mp

Le ee
4A~— 17

company down sizes, |reatigns management
——e

and we find ourselves in the wilderness
ee oe

of unemployment or an
ma

unplanned second career:

- or the day when we and our other

decided we could no longer cling to the
ee

=,

old realities and

Prine ce ge

remain alive and we find ourselves alone

potent te, ebnieeeoliekanian

and starting again:

ee

~ or that day when the martsage is paid,

the dog has died, the last youngster has left
for college and instead of the promised Jand
you find yourself in

a new wilderness of loneliness, purposelessness,
Rgisrce Se a

depression and remorse;

- or the day when the reality of aging

becomes unavoidable, \a dear friend dies, or a
oe:
routine task becomes difficutt,\or a life-long
SS a | iT
dream_has to be abandoned
and you know in @ Lonel Way Hae b
you Ore \ot Goma aos \ive epee

a - 18

a final way that you are not going to
live forever.

— Comes a day for all of us — and each of us -

a

- when we Know that our own resources are no longer
—=- a ee hee

adequate: litt if all we_have going for us is our

own strength, vigor, intelligence, or our
ela =: 3

Se ae

professional accom! ishments, | our position in the
| elite |

community, \or our possessions, \bur bank accounts,
epi a |

anil

stock portfotios, {and pension plans, \we really are

‘RET Grameen

rather poor and weak. Comes a day for al! of us

when we are hungry and thirsty and know 7 ti{ when we

are powerless to deal with the realities of our

humanness, particularly our own mortality, our own
eed

death - at the hands of the approaching Egyptians,
ee ™

or the hunger and thirst burning within us\ or
Soe.

simply the inevitable ticking of the clock. And
Bianca LT
on that day the promise is that God will provide.
The mystery of faith is that in Jesus Christ

Le]
we are called to lives of intentional insecurity.

The greater mystery of faith is that when we
TT ey

=e

trust God...] when we open our hands. when we know
faeedaliiaiaiie al

s— 19

our hunger and thirst.../there will be bread and
- Ss,

life and living water.

God calls us to a Sacred Journey. God

(Braman et, | ee ee

provides what we need...
Thanks be to God. Amen

# it #

God of love: you call us into the future,
sometimes away from everything we use to establish
our security. Give us courage to live faithfully;
give us the food and drink we need to live in Jesus

Christ
our Lord. Amen.