By Parrish W. Jones
©copyright, September 21, 1999
All rights reserved.

Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20:1-16

The title to my sermon this morning is true of a small portion of humanity. Most non-human animals get what they need but many starve. Likewise many of us get what we need but many humans starve or die of hunger related issues every day. The remedy for that is not easily perceived by those of us who live in affluence and partake day in and out of the richness of the earth to overflowing. To remedy the inequity and injustice of the earth will take a superhuman effort. That is why we must turn to scripture and to God to find the power for new life.

Our lessons today are lessons which challenge us. They teach a similar truth.

In the Exodus account we hear once again the voices of the people crying and whining because they are on the desert of Sinai. This time it is not water that stands between them and safety. There is no army behind them with all the armaments of modern technology. This time it is a simple problem. They are hungry, starving, and they do not know from whence comes their next meal.

Yet, these people are like so many people in our world today. They are dispossessed of home, land, means to make a living, and perhaps in some cases, already the journey has taken its toll on the aged and the very young as always happens in forced migration. The people of Israel are not unlike the millions of refugees today whose nationalities have been blazed across our minds: Bosnians, Armenians, Serbians, Timorese, Vietnamese, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Chiapans, Sudanese, Congolese, Tutus, Kurds, and on and on.

There is a difference. In the days of the migration of the people of Israel, it is safe to guess two nationalities and some nomadic peoples of the desert knew that the People of Israel had fled Egypt. That is to say, it was not known throughout the world. Few in Egypt probably knew much about the flight or, if they did, why the Israelites left. Even many Israelites were probably perplexed by the flight from Egypt. Slavery is no boat trip but most Israelites probably never experienced the worst injustices. Slavery was certainly more appealing than wandering hungry in a desert on the way to a home they had only heard about.

Today, nearly the whole world knows about the refugees especially when the flight first occurs. None of us could help but be moved as we watched TV images of Frican mothers throwing their young children over razor wire fences in hopes the UN workers would protect them from the violence of the militias.

We make things too simple when we say that most refugees are the result of tribal battle. Most refugees are the result of economic struggle. Just who will get the pie which is too small for us all? We can only understand this phenomenon of tribal violence from our own experience. This past week at Conemaugh Hospital persons were told of their layoffs. Those who were laid off were, in some cases, in a position to bump others who had less seniority. In some cases friends bumped friends. Will they be friends any longer? When pies get smaller, warfare breaks out because humans always want theirs and are often willing to do whatever they have to to protect their own interests. That may mean doing the unthinkable to your friend. It is one thing to be fired by your corporation and anther for your friend to throw you on the street. How much worse would things get if jobs were more scarce.

Yet, the scriptures teach us that there is a better way. If nothing else the two lessons for today coalesce to teach us that God provides for all of us to have what we need. The people of Israel are provided all that they needed to eat. We did not read the whole story. Following our text, we are told that the people were told to take only enough for themselves for the day and not to hoard. People being people, they did otherwise only to discover the hoard eaten by worms and birds.

Does this tell us anything about God’s plan for us and for the earth?

God’s plan for the earth is that we will all have enough. What then are we to say when a few of the earth have far more than enough while most of the people of the earth have too little? The answer has to be that we are not following God’s plan. You may think, "Well the cost of living here is far higher than in most parts of the world."

That claim is not true when you reduce it to speaking of necessities. It costs no more in the U.S. to have an adequate shelter, adequate clothing, adequate food, adequate protection from disease and sickness, potable water, and so forth than in most other parts of the earth. With the exception of a few variables due to climate the costs are the same. The simple fact is that Americans make up a small fraction of the population of the earth but consume the majority of the earth’s bounty every year.

You might even want to take the Gospel lesson as your out. There were some who walked away that day with more than others for the amount of labor they had done. Thus you could say, "They got more than the others, so God intends for some to have more and some less." But the lesson does not mean that. A days wages was what was needed to survive the day. Without it, some would go hungry. Thus the lesson is that God intends all of us to have a days wages.

We may be baffled about what we can do about this disparity of the earth. One answer is personal. The other is political.

The personal answer is that we give away more of our resources to help balance the disparity. Each month you have opportunity to do so through our hunger offering. Next week you can help by sponsoring a walker or walking in the Crop Walk. There are lots of agencies out there vying for your dollar to help refugees and starving children, but the best place to send your money is through the Presbyterian Church’s hunger fund or sponsored events like the Crop Walk. The programs advertising on TV spend at least half of every dollar on publicity and administration. Some as much as 90 cents of every dollar. The PCUSA and Church World Services spend less that 10 cents of every dollar on publicity and administration because they use the network of churches.

Part of the personal answer is to shop wherever you shop but be aware that every dollar you spend casts a vote for or against social and economic justice. It is hard today to buy anything that is not made in a sweat shop somewhere in the world. However, when you make the purchases from a retailer, use the purchase in a written message to the retailer that you do not approve of their labor practices in the third world.

The political solution is to encourage congress to limit corporations who do business in the U.S. from doing whatever they please to people and the environment. There is enough in the world for all of us, but not when the food sources of millions of people are expropriated by the edicts of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which has created the crisis in places like Chiapas, Mexico.

God has called us to a better way, a way without greed and hoarding, to a way of generosity and security for all. God’s will is that all people of the earth have enough so that at the end of a day’s work, all families may sit at a table with a flower in the middle, a loaf of bread, and a glass of wine and know that the Lord, God of Israel, is their Lord and will provide for us.