The Price of Grumbling

The Third Sunday of Lent
Today’s Readings: [Click here]

In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Exodus, we hear how Pharaoh is subjected to the tenth plague—the slaying of all the first born in the land of Egypt, man and beast alike. Then, at last, he gives in and lets Moses and the children of Israel leave their bondage. According to the Scriptures, the departing Jews numbered 600,000 men, not counting the women and children.

Today, in our first reading, we have a small excerpt from Chapter 17 of the same Book of Exodus. The events described took place a very short time after they left Egypt—perhaps just a few weeks, and certainly no more than just a few months.

The text says that the people were thirsty for water, so they grumbled against Moses. They reviled him by saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt? Was it just to have us die here of thirst with our children and our livestock?”

Moses was a holy man, really trying very hard to do what God had asked of him, despite the personal sacrifice. He realized that the vicious complaining wasn’t really aimed at him, but at God. Despite so many miracles that these people had lived through, now they were doubting that the Lord was going to take care of them and lead them to the land he had promised—the land “flowing with milk and honey.”

The sniping and complaining evidently didn’t sit well with God either. As we all know, the Lord let them wander in the desert for forty years before bringing them to the Promised Land. And not one single person of this generation lived to step foot on that land. No, God really does not like grumbling.

Now, 600,000 men is a pretty big community. When we add back in the women and kids, what size population would you think we’re talking about here—a million and a half, two million people? Certainly a huge group! All wiped out within forty years’ time because of their criticizing and whining.

I have a friend who works at the Hometown Buffet restaurant in Champaign. One Sunday afternoon—last Easter, in fact!—the crowd was big and the waiting line went right out the door. One large table was finally called to be seated, but not all the people in the group had yet arrived—and the restaurant’s policy is not to seat a table until everyone in the party is there. Well, I guess the scene got quite ugly—with tempers and fists flying, name-calling, and every sort of grumbling. On Easter, no less! Maybe you’ve been privileged to see a scene like that in a restaurant, in a crowded store, at the airport, or someplace else.

The point is, given human nature and the lack of patience and consideration that some people feel when life doesn’t go their way, it’s not all that hard to imagine what it was like with Moses and his people in the desert. They were no doubt tired, hot, scared, stressed beyond belief, annoyed at the lack of accommodation, and so on. But then again, I can’t imagine that everybody was complaining. Not even mobs work that way. We’ve all been there. In most cases, it’s just a small handful of people who start making loud comments or begin to get feisty. They’re the agitators of the group. The more they rant and rave, the more the crowd begins to polarize. Some join them. Some are turned off and want to distance themselves. Some remain neutral. And of course, as the situation continues to unfold, some people change their views when they realize that the matter is more or less threatening than they thought.

When all is said and done, it’s actually a relatively small number of folks that gets everything going. And in today’s Scripture, I would confidently bet that it was a small number that got the people griping and murmuring against Moses and God.

But here’s the zinger: because of this small group of troublemakers, the entire lot of them lost out! They suffered for forty long years, one and all—and in the end, they never got their prize… they never reached the Promised Land.

Jesus spoke in one of his famous gospel stories about how a little bit of leaven, or yeast, makes a big bowl of dough rise. We see today that the opposite is also true. A little bit of grumbling can make the whole works collapse.

There’s a great story about a father whose patience was running very thin over his kids who were always whining and bickering. He told them that their bad attitude was annoying and tiresome and was dragging down the whole family. Naturally, they thought he was being overly dramatic and they insisted that a little bad behavior now and then couldn’t possibly make that much difference.

Well, he came up with a clever object lesson. “Say!” he said. “Why don’t we make up a big tray of brownies?” The kids thought this was a great idea.

So he set them to work gathering the ingredients—flour, chocolate, sugar, milk, and so on. They measured and stirred and mixed—all the while talking very excitedly about how wonderful these brownies would be.

When the batter was just about done, the father said, “Now we need to get one more ingredient.” He handed his daughter a spoon and asked her to go out to the dog pen and bring in one teaspoonful of doggie doo. The girl was horrified.

Dad assured them that it wouldn’t hurt anything. After all, they all said that a little bit of whining and bickering wouldn’t hurt a family—so he didn’t think a tiny bit of dog droppings would ruin the brownies.

My friends: how often do we find ourselves in a situation where somebody “loses it” and launches into a tirade? Moaning and complaining, whining, grumbling against a parent, a friend, a teacher, a boss, a fellow worker, the president, a priest or the bishop… you name it! In fact, maybe it’s us who goes off… Try to remember that just like in Moses’ day, grumbling is ultimately aimed at God. It’s a rejection of his blessings. And just like in Moses’ day, grumbling will hurt every single one of us.

If in biblical days the people who first heard the grumbling had spoken up… if they prayed for the grumblers or prevailed upon them to be patient or more faithful—maybe things wouldn’t have gotten out of control. Maybe all those two million or so folks would have reached the Promised Land in just a few weeks or months as they could have. But they kept quiet—or worse yet, they joined in the grumbling themselves… and the rest, as they say, is history.

“Come, let us bow down in worship,” says today’s psalm. “For he is our God, and we are his people. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”