Consequences

September 27, 2026 18th Sunday after Pentecost Exodus 17:1-7 Consequences Year A Prelude Greetings Call to Worship Why do you come to this place? We seek the path of righteousness and truth. Do you come ready to hear and learn giving attention to God’s Word? We come with open hearts and minds seeking to learn from the one whose authority is founded on God’s love. Friends, lend your ears and open your hearts because this is God’s house, built by love and sustained by hope, where God seeks to align our work and witness. (Presbyterian Outlook, Robert Lowry) Opening Prayer Most wonderful God, the beauty we see in Jesus is your beauty veiled in human flesh, the love we witness from Bethlehem to Golgotha is your love contracted to a span. If Christ’s life is so holy as to fill us with wonder, how much more would your unveiled beauty leave us overwhelmed and trembling? You are more than the eye could bear, more than the mind can ever fathom. Yet you have so carefully made us that although we cannot fathom you, we can yet love you. Gratefully, we bring our little lives to you, asking that our worship may arise from love and be shaped by love, and be directed towards that larger loving which is our soul’s desire. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! Written by Bruce Prewer, posted on Bruce Prewer’s Homepage. Reposted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2011/09/opening-prayer-philippians-2-6-11.html. Song Come Thou Font of Every Blessing UMH 400 A Sermon for all Ages Exodus 17:1–7 Optional object: a walking stick Hold up the walking stick. What could someone use this for? Let children answer. A stick like this can help someone walk over rough ground. Moses carried a staff as he led God’s people through the wilderness. One day, the people were very thirsty. They had no water, and they were frightened. God told Moses, “I will be there with you.” Then God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff. Water came out, and the people had something to drink! Was the staff magic? No. God was the one who provided the water. Moses listened to God and used what he had to help the people. We don’t need Moses’ staff to help someone know God is near. We can use what we have. If someone is lonely, we can invite them to play. If someone is thirsty, we can offer a drink. If someone is sad, we can sit beside them and listen. When we show kindness, we can be instruments of God’s presence. That means God can use our hands, our words, and our time to help others feel cared for. What is one kind thing you could do for someone this week? Let children answer. Let’s pray: God, thank you for being with us when we are afraid or in need. Help us notice people who need care. Use our hands and our words to share your love. Amen. (ChatGPT6 SOL) The Apostles’ Creed UMH 881 Scripture Exodus 17:1-7 Sermon Consequences Exodus is an important story about freedom and remembering the footprint of God’s presence in our lives. Exodus is the story of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. Each story in Exodus has important images of God’s presence, help and grace. For instance, Exodus has the burning bush, the parting of the red sea, manna or bread from heaven. Our scripture for today uses the image of water, rock, and God’s staff. These are 3 of the most important symbols of God’s staff. We will talk more about them today. God’s staff is an important part of Moses leadership. We are first introduced to God’s staff when God calls Moses with the burning bush. The rod is used by both Moses and Aaron. It is used to inflict plagues on the Egyptians, it is used to part the Red Sea, it is used in battle, it is used to guide along the journey, it is used to heal a snake bite. In Exodus 17 – it is used to get water from a rock. Even today, a bishop carries a shepherd’s staff to represent authority, presence and shepherd leadership. Legend says that God’s staff has been around since the sixth day of creation- it is a long slender black wood stick with God’s names written the sides. Legend says that Adam was the first to use it, it was passed on to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob even Joseph. But that it was lost over time. Eventually it became hidden in Moses Father in Law’s back yard. It was stuck inside a stone, and no one was able to remove it. Until Moses came along with the power to use it. He has it with him, when he encountered God at the burning bush. Aaron and Moses use it. Some people believed that Aaron used a rod and Moses used a staff – for some it was the same, for some it was different. Psalm 23 says thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Eventually the rod and staff was again lost to history – the search continues today. The Quest for the Staff When Graham Phillips arrived at the ancient Nabatean city of Petra in modern-day Jordan, he believed he was on the verge of another monumental discovery. The self-proclaimed finder of the Holy Grail and the tomb of the Virgin Mary now had a lead on the location of the grave of Moses. And Phillips was convinced that inside Moses’ tomb, untouched and undisturbed, lay yet another ancient treasure: Moses’ staff. It isn’t hard to understand why Phillips was excited about the staff of Moses, which he called “the most powerful artifact in history.” In the Torah’s account, staffs belonging to Moses and Aaron were involved in several of the plagues and wonders in Egypt. Moses and Aaron threw their staffs to the ground, and the staffs became snakes. God told Moses to raise his staff at the sea. Moses carried it with him when the Israelites battled the Amalekites. Twice, he hit a rock with it, and water came forth. In short, Moses’ staff was no ordinary staff. It performed miracles. At Petra, Phillips located a rock outcropping that he believed was beit peor—one of the Torah’s hints to the location of Moses’ grave in Deuteronomy 34:6—and saw a cave nearby. But Jordanian authorities refused his request to excavate. Disappointed, he returned to his native Birmingham, England to do archival research. He discovered that the cave had already been excavated by two British explorers in the nineteenth century, and that lo and behold, they claimed to have found there a black wooden rod inscribed with ancient hieroglyphics. Phillips needed no further convincing. This was the staff, and he had to find it. He doggedly pursued his quest for several years, tracing the staff’s ownership from antiquities dealers to private owners to museums. At last, success. The staff was on display—of all places—in the Egyptian gallery of the Birmingham Museum, minutes away from Phillips’ home. It had been under his nose the entire time. He confronted the museum’s curators and others with his findings, but they were unimpressed. There are people today – who believe that the actual wood staff that was talked about in today’s story still exist. Even if it can’t be located – there is definitely a search for God’s presence and grace in our lives. The staff was important because it was used to meet the needs of the people wandering in the desert. A lot of time we criticize them for complaining against God – but can you imagine walking through a dry empty desert in the heat of the day. You are hot, thirsty, hungry. When your basic needs are threatened, you are in no shape to listen to someone telling you that God loves you. Of course you are going to say, if God really loves me, why is God not present. This is known as the third grumbling story of the Exodus. First they complained about water, then they asked for food, and now they are complaining about water again. Water is twice as important as food. You can survive months without food, but only hours without water. Each time they grumble, God hears them and gives them what they ask. This time God tells Moses to use hit the staff against the rock so that water can come forth. God provides for the third time, and for the times after that. That is the whole point of Exodus – is that God hears our cries and takes care of us – again and again. In the midst of our complaining – and I am sure we all have a lot to complain about. In our cries that God does not care, or that God is not listening, God is not around – Exodus challenges us to sit down and think, to take account of our situation. If you think about it – you will realize the ways that God’s grace is present – and how God has provided for you time and time again. Think about your story – God always shows up. There is a special prayer that one woman does every day. When she wakes up in the morning who gets a bowl- and as she pours water in to she starts to pray for all of the things and all of the people in her life. As the bowl fills up she still pour the water. And she is reminded of God’s grace in her life. She remembers all of the needs that God supplies, all that she is grateful for. All that she has for her say. She realizes that her life is just as full as that bowl. And then she leaves the bowl on her kitchen sink for the rest of her day – to remind her of the fullness of God, and that her soul is full. The Exodus story took place at a place called Massah and Meribah – the place where I was tested and questioned. But God showed up anyway. I think we all have those places in our lives. Those are the places where we witnessed God do the impossible. Where what we thought was impossible because possible. Have you noticed that in those places – there is a special person who God uses to turn the situation around? Just as Moses came along and was able to remove the staff from the stone and put it to use. Who are the people that God has sent into our lives – to lead us across the Red Sea? An elderly man by the name of Fred was engaged by the leaders of the city of Custer, South Dakota, some years ago. Fred was a witcher. So, with copper wires bent a certain way and held tightly in his hands, he traversed a designated area and determined, to the chagrin of everyone, a spot where he predicted the precise number of feet needed to dig down for a city well and where he predicted the precise number of gallons per minute the well would produce. When the well was dug, it was over 200-feet deep, just as he said, and it produced the exact gallons per minute that he said it would. A few years ago, 1400 in Chicagoans met in the Grand Ballroom of a large hotel in honor of a person selected as the Chicago mother of the year. She turned out to be a woman no one had ever heard of. She was Mrs. Donomic Salvino, an Italian immigrant, a housewife, and extremely poor. Mrs. Salvino lived on Erie Street. She had many neighbors who were poorer than she. Most families had eight or ten children, she had only four. Her neighbors were old, she was only 49; they were sick, she was healthy; they were tired, she was full of energy; they had problems like alcoholism, and she was steady emotionally and so was her husband. Mrs. Salvino appointed herself an unofficial, untrained social worker and assigned herself to Erie Street. She visited the sick she collected money from the comparatively poor and gave it to the desperately poor. She did the housework for the bedridden, cooked for the motherless and spread smiles the length and breadth of Erie Street. Although she put in a bout 1600 hours a year in her mission, she did it quietly and without fanfare. But in a place of blighted of failure, she inspired dignity and courage; in a place of empty arms and lonely room, she promoted love and caring. Erie Street was a better and more beautiful place because Mrs. Dominic Salvino made a difference. She saw herself as God’s instrument, unique and useful. As we as a congregation mourn the loss of Bettylou Linke, I think that She was an instrument of God’s presence – challenging us to move forward and to look for God’s grace. Jesus Christ came to the world – to make the impossible possible – he became a staff to show us the living water inside of our hearts – and we all are encouraged to do the same. We don’t have to go on a quest to look for God’s staff – it exist inside of us all. The staff lives on in our hearts, our faith and our actions. Free gushing water is grace. It is a sign of the soul of God. This pure, cold liquid, as a gift from God, brings doom and deadness to life, transforms discontent and grumbling into satisfaction, and brings back hope The burning question of the Israelites, "Is the Lord among us or not?" is answered in the gushing, flowing water. "Is the Lord among us or not?" is the contemporary question, too, when we are in dilemmas beyond our power and our control. When sickness, death, forest fires, divorce, floods, and tornadoes invade and disrupt our lives, we wonder where God is in all of this. The theology of the cross assures us that God is wherever there is human suffering and tragedy. God suffers, too, and God cares about our dilemmas. We find consolation and strength in word and sacrament, prayer and praise, community and purpose. Let us pray…… Song Eternal Father Strong to Save TFWS 2191 Pastoral Prayer Lord’s Prayer Stewardship Moment In Philippians, Paul writes to the people of the congregation he began in Philippi, “Make my joy complete….Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” I wonder: Did those early Christians talk with one another about how to build up their minds to emulate the mind of Jesus? One place of similarity might be trying to use our resources (the “three Ts”–our time, our talents, and our treasure) to build up those whose lives are harsh, skimpy, or barren. As we remember how Jesus healed the sick, taught the crowds, and led the disciples, we have a model for our life. When we share our “three Ts,” it becomes a life workout for us–and a lifeboat for others! We grow in mind, body, and spirit when we offer what we have to build up our congregation, our neighbors, and our siblings around the world. Today I invite you to share your financial gifts, but do not stop there. I invite you also to consider how you will share your talent and your time as we move into an active fall season. (There are more chairs in the choir loft! Our food pantry regularly needs volunteer time! Our children’s classes would benefit from additional adult support!) Prayer of Thanksgiving All things come from thee, O God. Of your own have we given you. (1 Chronicles 29:14b) We ask you to accept these gifts, and the meditations of our minds and hearts as we also offer our talent and our time. Help us use all these gifts to provide life more abundant for our neighbors, near and far. AMEN (Disciples of Christ Center for Faith and Giving) Announcements Charge and Closing for YouTube Go into the world, my friends and fellow disciples, to proclaim, in word and deed, the gospel of Christ. May the love of Christ, the faithfulness of God, and the comfort of the Holy Spirit guide, encourage, and keep us today and every day. And in one voice may all God’s children say: Amen! (Presbyterian Outlook, Robert Lowry) Community Time - Joys and Concerns Benediction Beloved, remember: God is at work in you, enabling you to will and to work for God’s pleasure. May God bless you with a spirit of joyful cooperation and Christian love as together we work with God and neighbor for the flourishing of all God’s creation. Amen. Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2026. Additional Illustrations The first positive response given to highlight God’s presence is that God always hears the cries of the people. God is like a loving parent with a small child. Whenever the child cries, the parent hears the cry. When the crying child is in the presence of other small children, that parent can still identify the cry. More than that, a cry becomes a major communication network. The child tells the parent what’s wrong in the cry. Unable to speak a word, yet capable of telling the story in a cry. In other words, there is power in the cry. One cry tells when the baby is hungry, another cry indicates the diaper needs to be changed, still another fights off sleep and there is yet another that communicates pain. The cry of pain is louder and longer than all of the others. There is an urgency that declares come quickly! God hears our cries just like a good parent because God cares. And now God says, “Take in your hand the staff.” Never travel empty handed -- take your stick with you. It has been interesting to observe “walkers,” dressed in sweats or shorts with proper walking shoes and a stick in their hands. Just in case the need arises for the stick, they have it in hand. Just in case an unleashed dog appears with no good intentions -- just in case. God had earlier told Moses to raise his staff and stretch out his hand over the sea and it would divide. The raised, outreached staff is powerful enough, with divine intervention, to cause the sea to divide. Perhaps this is what inspired the hymn writer to say, “Father, I stretch my hand to thee, no other help I know. If thou withdraw thyself from me, O whither shall I go?” There is real power in the staff. God told Moses to take in his hand the staff. Like the commercial for the American Express Card, “never leave home without it.” Take the staff of God with you. In other words, you ought to take the word of God with you, everywhere you go. It is still a light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet. You will neither stumble nor fall when you have the word of God with you. It is your staff. Take it with you everyday. Both the rebellious Israelites and the woman at the well recognized that water was a resource that living things need every day for health and strength. Most of us still don't take in the optimum amount of water for our bodies. It is recommended that we consume at least six to eight eight-ounce glasses of water every day to keep adequately hydrated. Under conditions of great heat, exertion or stress, that amount increases dramatically. Survival-course teachers warn their students that while they can exist for weeks, even a month, without food, unless they find water in four or five days, they are doomed. We are that dependent on the life-giving fluid we call water. Anhydrobiosas, or "life without water," is impossible for human beings. [Note: You may want to demonstrate this. Have some weird-shaped bottles, glasses, etc. to show the fact that water fills every shape imaginable without changing its nature.] The continued vitality of the church is as dependent upon the constant flow of Christ's living water as our bodies are on H2O. We cannot subsist on a sip now and then. Our spiritual health depends on the constant rehydration only this living water can bring to our souls. The only way to increase our supply of living water is to invite others in to take a drink. Living water doesn't have a very long shelf life. In fact, a new shipment must be received for every new generation of Christians the church would welcome in. Just as the human body can exist only a few days without water, so the body of Christ can only exist as long as the next generation of believers is being offered its fill of living water. Not according to the Bible. God's practical help and his spiritual nourishment are inseparably intertwined. In Exodus, God's gift of manna was also a gift of faith, since the manna could not be stored overnight and the people had to trust God would provide it anew each day. Only three chapters after giving water from the rock at Horeb, Yahweh quenches the people's thirst for permanent order and direction: he gives the Ten Commandments. The Promised Land they took over was not only fields and mountains and rivers; it was such intangibles as an identity, a confidence, and a sense of loving community. At the same time, the help most people seek from God today is a spiritual, invisible aid - courage before crisis, comfort in grieving, clarity in decision-making, forgiveness for a battle-scarred conscience. God gives this living water, too. And not only is God's help today both practical and spiritual, but the two natures of that help are still inseparably bound. How can a hungry person be given food without also finding acceptance, love, and hope? What troubled person, calmed and inspired by forgiveness or joy or hope, is not better able to use the resources God has given him? Likewise God's "living waters" can be far more tangible than just a spiritual lift. Get on your knees to ask for a right relationship with him and you may also find him giving healing for an illness, or a sudden job opening when you're unemployed and frantic with the search. God is not so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. One more thing. The inseparableness of God's practical and spiritual involvement in the world should remind us of how we are to act. There's more to living as his people than serving others. Our growth as Christians is stunted without a prayer and study and worship life. At the same time, calloused knees mean little without calloused hands. Don't let your God be too small. And don't let yourself be too small. The waters he offers can quench every type of thirst we dare have. CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, God told Moses to strike the Rock at Horeb. Lo and behold –Living Waters sprung out of the earth, just like at the foundation of creation! But they saw so much more than a flowing fountain of water. They saw that God was with them! In all of their loneliness, and doubt, and weariness of the red earth and the scorching sun, of the never-ending desert of their arduous journey to a place they could not yet see ---thank God, the Lord was still with them! The Lord of Life, who created the world from the waters of The Deep, who brings forth Living Water from the depths of the sin-sick soul, who restores people into relationship with Him through the waters of baptism, who bathes us in the living waters of holy and abundant grace, who quenches the thirst of our despair and makes water to spring from the deserts (Is 41:18; 43: 19, Ps 107:35; 46:4), this Lord is with us. Hallelujah! We are very thirsty creatures. Our thirsts are many and varied. We thirst for true friends; we thirst for success; we thirst for meaning and purpose in our lives. We thirst to be listened to and heard. We thirst for release from addictions and chronic sins; we thirst for God and for that which is eternal. Sinclair Lewis, in one of his books, draws a picture of a respectable businessman who decides to "live it up." He is talking to his old girlfriend. She says to him, "On the surface we seem quite different; but deep down we are fundamentally the same. We are both desperately unhappy about something -- and we don't know what it is." In every one of us, there is this nameless, unsatisfied longing, this vague discontent, this something lacking, and we don't know what it is or why we have it. The Israelites are physically thirsty. Their jugs are dry. What wouldn't they give for a glass of Ted and Dorothy Hustead's free water generously mingled with ice? The Israelites do what they do best. They quarrel. They complain. They direct their complaints to Moses. "Give us water to drink. Why did you bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?" (Exodus 17:2-3). Magic, science, miracle? After Moses petitions Yahweh for his own safety, lest he be assaulted, he uses the staff as the Lord instructs and strikes the rock at Horeb with great force. Water gushes forth and the people of Israel, at last, are able to quench their thirst. Free gushing water is grace. It is a sign of the soul of God. This pure, cold liquid, as a gift from God, brings doom and deadness to life, transforms discontent and grumbling into satisfaction, and brings back hope to a joyless fledgling nation. In another time and in another setting, God's grace is expressed through the prophet Isaiah. "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters: And you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). Surely the soul of humanity does not cry out for new and more laws, rules, and restrictions, but deep down experiences an enduring thirst for grace. God's love and forgiveness through the cross of Christ as an unconditional gift assuages the most desperate thirst. No wonder John Fort Newton, old slave trader that he was, marveled that God's grace could extend even to a "wretch" like himself. "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."