Seeing the gifts God is giving

Here's the reflection I shared in today's Choral Eucharist at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

In today’s Old Testament reading (Exodus 17.1-7), we're with the People of Israel after the Exodus in the midst of the wilderness where there is no water. The sun is beating down and we're dehydrating. We're also complaining - quite understandably, because the situation is dire, and it looks as though we're likely to die. We want to go back to Egypt because, although we were slaves there, ill-treated and exploited, at least we knew where our food and drink was coming from.

But at the point when all seems lost and hope is exhausted, God reveals the hidden spring of water within this wilderness landscape. As a result, it looks as though God was somewhat late in arriving on the scene. The singer songwriter Sam Phillips writes that:

'Help is coming, help is coming
One day late, one day late
After you've given up and all is gone
Help is coming one day late'

She continues:

'Try to understand, you try to fix your broken hands
But remember that there always has been good
Like stars you don't see in the day sky
Wait till night

Life has kept me down
I've been growing under ground
Now I'm coming up and when time opens the earth
You'll see love has been moving all around us, making waves

So help is coming, help is coming
One day late, one day late
After you've given up and all is gone
Help is coming one day late'

In her song, help, goodness, life and hope are all around but hidden or overlooked, as was the vital spring of water in the wilderness. Maybe, the issue is not one of God turning later than we expect but instead that how we perceive things needs to change in order that we start to see what is in fact already there.

As Christians, we don’t have to look far for a mission statement for the church. ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.’ (John 10.10) Living abundant life. That’s what the Father intends, the Son embodies, the Spirit facilitates. God is a God of abundance who is continually giving us all we need even in the midst of scarcity and trouble; perhaps, especially, in the midst of scarcity and trouble.

Our problem is that we don’t always recognise and receive the gifts that God is giving. In order to see what God is giving us, our mindset needs to change from a deficit mindset which sees problems to an asset mindset which looks for resources. The Israelites had a deficit mindset as they were focused on the problems they were experiencing and that was what led them to complain. It meant they weren’t looking around them to see what assets there were where they were. When we develop a habit of looking for assets, we then begin looking at our situation widely and broadly and notice what is ordinarily hidden to us by being on the edge.

I wonder whether the experience of the Israelites in undercovering the hidden spring of water in the wilderness is not somewhat similar to the experience many of us have had in the pandemic; of help, of goodness, of life, of hope being there in plain sight within our local communities but only seen, appreciated and valued when we were forced to stop and look and reflect. Community like never before. Kindness at its proper level. These were some of the discoveries of the first lockdown. Qualities that were always there within our communities but only revived and received in the adversity of the pandemic.

Let’s make that love normal by praying for eyes to see and ears to hear, that we might receive all that God, in his abundance, wishes to give us; receiving those gifts in the form in which they are given to us. Amen.

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Sam Phillips - One Day Late.