Harden not your hearts

Listen to these words, words that are recited in many traditions of our faith almost every day of the year as part of the gathering prayer the gathering psalm of the faithful.

O today that you would harken to God's voice!

Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the wilderness when you forebears tried me and put me to the test though they had seen my works.

Forty years I loathed that generation, and said. They are a people whose hearts are perverse, for they give no heed to my ways. Therefore I swore in my anger that they shall not enter my rest.

For many years I puzzled about this portion of Psalm 95.

I wondered - why is it so harsh? - why does the judgement of God come down so hard upon the people of Israel at Meribah? - what significance did the event there have?

They are difficult passages, these stories of Meribah and Massah, they are passages that deal with God's judgement and that is always hard for people to deal with.

I want us to today to think about the story of Meribah and Massah. And, as we do so, I would like us all to ask ourselves the question: "are the people described in these stories a people like us?" Or, put another way, "Are we like them?"

Let us begin by looking at what happened at Meribah.

The book of Exodus tells us that after miraculously escaping from Egypt and from Pharaoh's army at the Red Sea, the people moved from place to place in the desert of Sin, just as the Lord commanded.

When the people hungered and demanded food, God provided them with food, both quails and manna.

When the people thirsted and demanded water, God provided it - first by showing Moses how to sweeten the bitter waters at Marah and then by leading Moses and the people of Israel to the 12 springs of Elim.

The people had ample experience of the power and the love of God.

One day, as Exodus 17 tells us, the people arrived at a place called Rephidim, and there was no water to be found there.

The people, as they had before, began to quarrel with Moses. They ask him to provide water for them. They question him and God, saying:

"why did you bring us out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst"

Moses is frustrated and he asks the people "why do you put the Lord to the test?" and then he asks God, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me"

And God - as we heard this morning - tells Moses to walk on ahead of the people, taking with him some of the elders of the people & his staff and to stand by a particular rock, and hit it with his staff.

Moses does as he is commanded, he goes to the rock with the elders, he strikes it, and water flows forth; it flows abundantly, and the people are satisfied.

Moses then names the place associated with this event Meribah - which means quarrelling and Massah - which means testing.

A simple tale, yet one that is mentioned several times in the Old Testament.

Now - ask yourselves - what is the great sin committed at Meribah? Ask as well - do we commit that sin? Are we like the people there?

As you think about these questions let me tell you another story, a story that is more contemporary, a story that has happened to many people, perhaps even to you.

A certain child lived off the income of its parents. It is, after all the natural way that children are nurtured. He received food, clothing, shelter and education. He got an allowance, and finally, when he went to university, his parents sent him money each month to pay his room and board. The child used to communicate each week with his parents, but, as his life got busier, he would forget to write or call, and he would not be home when his parents called him. Each month however his cheque arrived in the mail. Over time, as the child need's grew and he spent more money on things he wanted, he found that it was very difficult to meet his payments for books and clothing and food. Finally, desperate and afraid, he wrote his parents and asked for more money.

The parents either couldn't or wouldn't send the desired money and told him so. They soon received a terse reply from their child.

Do you love me or not?

Did the parents love the child?

That is Israel's question to Moses at Meribah and Massah, and through Moses it is their question to God.

Another question, however, can be put to these two tales.

Did the child love the parents?
Did Israel trust God to do the right thing?
Did Israel love God?

This too is a question we need to ask ourselves in relationship to our faith in Christ. Do we love Him. Do we really trust him?

The people of Israel, in their wanderings in the desert, continually sought for new proof of God's love. When things did not go their way, when what they wanted did not appear immediately, or in the fashion that they expected, they began to doubt God and accuse Him of not caring for them.

The great sin of Meribah and Massah is not the sin of asking that their needs be met by God, that is not a sin at all, it something we are encouraged to do, "give us this day our daily bread" rather the sin of Meribah and Massah s the sin of unbelief, the sin of doubt and of grumbling against God within that doubt.

Psalm 95 calls this sin "hardness of heart" which is nothing more than the refusal to believe in God's love and to trust in God's providence despite all the evidence, despite all the good things that God has so clearly done.

Think about what has God done in your life. And thinking about it, ask yourself, do I doubt God's goodness when I am in trouble? Do I complain about God and his intentions towards me when I get into trouble?

The sin of Meribah and Masseh is hardness of heart.

The miracle of Meribah on the other hand is not the fact that Moses got water to flow from a rock. It is that God, despite the attitude of the people, despite their grumbling and complaining provided them with what they needed.

But there is a catch to this tale of grace and love.

God does provides those who test him with what they need, as he provided for his people at Meribah, but God, after a while, can become frustrated with us.

God knows what people need. He knows and he provides.

But in the face of their continuous doubt, in the face of the their continuous refusal to believe in Him despite all the things that he has done for them, God finally allows the people to wander in their errors.

He allows them to wander in the desert of loneliness, fear, and doubt until they finally learn what they should know, what they need to know.

God cares for us. But we - like the people of Israel, cannot enter his rest until we understand that he cares, and embrace him as they have been embraced by him.

People who continually test God, people who continually demand proof of his love, simply will not reach their promised rest. They will not reach it, because they themselves reject it.

As the Scripture says, "They are a people who err in their hearts".

If our hearts stay closed. If we refuse to trust in and believe in God and his goodness we run the risk of missing the goal of our faith, we run the risk of wandering around in the wilderness even though the promised land is so very very close at hand.

That, my friends, is why Psalm 95 has a call in it. That is why it has an invitation, like that of a person asking his or her lover to come back and be loved.

The psalmist cries, because he knows what is at stake

"O today that you would harken to his voice, Harden not your hearts as at Meribah and Massah.

God calls us to trust in him, He calls us to believe in his goodness, so that we might enter into his rest. So that we might not have to wander in the wilderness.

Are we a people like those at Meribah?

Do we quarrel with God and demand from him proof of his love when the going gets a little tough? Is our faith conditional on getting everything we want when we want it?

What kind of people are we?

Are we grumblers and complainers? Or are we a people who truly believe in the Son of The Living God? A people who believe that God is with us in Christ - leading us on the way to the promised land - much as he was with Israel in the cloud by day and the fire by night - leading them on the way from bondage in Egypt to the land of milk and honey that he had promised to them.

Think for a second of the old story about the day that fortune knocked on a fellow's door. The problem is that the man didn't hear it because he was over at a neighbours telling a hard-luck story.

Today harken to His voice - Harden not your hearts as at Meribah and Massah - this is the call of God to us all.

Harden not your hearts, instead believe - for I love you - says the Lord.

And this is where we turn to Peter, the apostle who first believed that Jesus was the Presence of God, and God's salvation to his people Israel, and to the whole world.

Peter saw what Jesus did, and by the miracle of the Holy Spirit who seeks to lead us all to truth, he saw that God was in Jesus.

Peter decided, in an act of faith, that God was acting in and through Jesus, and because he saw, because he was willing to see, he received power from God.

Peter received the power to speak for God, the power to give life to others, and the power to enter into the rest that is promised to all people of faith.

This church today is testimony to Peter's faith. It exists because Peter and others like him, trusted and believed in God despite the circumstances about them, despite the hostility of the religious leaders of their time, despite the persecutions unleashed upon them by the Romans, despite the lions that were unleashed upon them in the Coliseum, and the roadside crucifixions that were practised throughout the
Empire.

We know of course that Peter questioned God, and that at times he feared more for his safety than he trusted the Lord but still, in the end - Peter turned to Christ - and trusted in God - this even when he knew that a cross awaited him because of it.

Faith is a gift of God.

That is part of the meaning of today's new testament reading, where we are told that is the Spirit of God who reveals to Peter that Jesus is the Promised One, the Messiah, the Son, of God.

But it is a gift that is given by God freely to all - to all who desire to be set free from their bondage to all who desire to enter into the promised land, into the rest of God.

But faith, as a gift, needs to be exercised if it is to avail us of those things God has prepared for us.

The story is told of a great university which once built a fine new library. It was a monumental structure with tall white columns and beautiful marble and ornate furnishings. As students and faculty took visitors around the campus they proudly pointed out "that this is our new library". Thousands of people came in fact to admire the fine building - and all spoke well of the designer and the builders.

Finally the librarian could stand it no longer and he posted a sign in front of the building which read,

"This is not the library, the library is inside".

We have to be willing to enter into our faith, into the heart of God if we are to have the rest God has promised to us.

When we do so - when we claim the faith of Peter and allow ourselves to see in Christ, the living God who cares for us and looks after us and is with us to lead us into the kingdom of God then we, like he, receive the power to bind and to loose, to forgive and to curse.

Harden not your hearts rather give praise to our living Lord and to the glorious name of God, for he is with us to lead us - in safety - to an even better place than the place, which we in faith, or in even in doubt, long for.

Praise be His name day by day. Amen