As a pastor I receive a fair number of complaints.  People sometimes complain about the selection of hymns or the content of the sermon.  People sometimes complain about the color of the carpet or whether sweetnlow or splenda is offered at coffee and conversation.  People sometimes complain about other people in the church.  All in all I hear a fair amount of complaining and most of the time I don’t mind because there are enough affirmations to at least balance out if not out-way the complaints.  If it were my job however to take complaints continuously for say a computer help line or something like that, I think I would be miserable.  No one wants to hear complaints all the time especially when the people complaining don’t know what they are talking about.   Here are some gems from computer related technical support.  AST had a customer complain that the mouse was difficult to use with the dust cover on it.  The dust cover wound up being the plastic bag the mouse was packaged in.  A Dell customer called to complain that his computer wouldn’t fax anything.  After 40 minutes of troubleshooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it up to the monitor and pressing the send key.  An IBM customer called to complain about having trouble printing documents.  He told the technician the computer kept displaying a message saying that it “Couldn’t find the printer”.  The customer didn’t understand, he had turned the monitor to fact the printer but the computer still couldn’t see the printer.  Finally my favorite, a woman called to cannon to complain about a problem with her printer.  The Tech asked if she was running it under windows.  The woman replied “No my desk is next to the door.  But that is a good point, the man in the cubicle next to me is under a window and his printer seems to be working just fine.”  Like I said I am happy being a pastor and not one of these.  While we are at it I am glad I am not God either.  I know God gets a lot of complaints and I imagine some of them are difficult to take seriously. 

            Take for example the Israelites in the passage we read this morning from Exodus.  Now before we get into the people’s complaint let’s start with a little bit of the back story here.  Let’s not forget that it was the Israelites that got this ball rolling.  Apparently back in Egypt they did a great deal of complaining also; so much so that God heard their cries and was moved with mercy to deliver them from their suffering and lead them to the Promised Land.  By this point the Israelites have already escaped Egypt leaving behind them their life of slavery and oppression under Pharaoh.  They have also crossed the

Now camping in Rephidim they discover there is no water to drink and quickly they become a complaining, quarreling bunch.  The people’s despair feeds on itself and before long they demand that Moses give them something to drink and presumably demand the same of God because Moses says “why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the Lord?”  It is safe to say the people are not satisfied because they begin to question Moses’ motives and presumably through Moses question God’s motives; “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?”  Now I don’t like being thirsty any more than anyone else but one little bump in the road to the promised land and the people are angry enough with Moses to turn against him and consider stoning him and if they could they would throw rocks at God also.  They seem to have forgotten where they have come from and where they are going and all the amazing things God has done for them in between because all of a sudden

The psalm we read says the people’s hearts were hardened; however you put it, after all God had done for them they complained and turned from God.  Moses turned to God looking for help and I love this line “What shall I do with this people?”  If that isn’t the mark of frustration with fickle people I don’t know what is.  Moses doesn’t say what shall I do with my people or your people but what shall I do with this people or these people; whiny little ungrateful, cry baby bunch that they are?  God works out a plan with Moses and the people get water, enough for everyone, even the livestock and everyone is happy, at least till the next time something doesn’t go their way. 

What I find really interesting about this event in Israel’s history is that often when God does something miraculous like providing water from a rock the people build and alter and give it a name to reflect the good thing God has done for them.  However in this case the name given is Massah and Meribah, quarreling and testing because the people quarreled and tested the Lord saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”  God does a great thing here in providing the people with water from a rock, turning death to life but that doesn’t seem to be the focus of this particular account in Israel’s history.  In this account one could infer God is good and the focus is on highlighting the people’s lack of trust, faith, obedience, what have you. 

Like I said I think it is safe to say God receives a fair amount of complaints and my suspicion is that not all of these complaints are well informed.  But that doesn’t stop us from complaining does it?  How often when confronted with present adversity do we long for the good old days even if those days weren’t all that good.  In these times we tend to focus not on the opportunity for faith and possibility of God’s provision but on our internal voice whose primary concern is self preservation and comfort.  It is a part of our nature to want to bend God’s will to our own rather than to bend to God’s.  God gives us two basic commands love God, and love your neighbor and we routinely mess up and rebel from God because we too are hard of heart and all too often our hearts go astray. 

There is a story about a cowboy out west driving down a dirt road with his dog in the back of the pickup and his horse in the trailer behind.  There was a piece of debris in the road and swerving to miss it the cowboy was involved in a terrible accident.  The state highway patrol officer came up on the scene of the accident and seeing first the horse and the severity of its injuries drew his pistol and put the animal out of its misery.  Next he found the dog that was also hurt badly barely clinging to life.  Unable to endure hearing the dog whine in pain he ended the dog’s suffering as well. Finally the office located the cowboy who had suffered multiple fractures.  The officer said “Hey are you ok?’  The cowboy took one look at the smoking gun in the troopers hand and replied “Never felt better.” 

Obviously there are times in life when it is appropriate to complain.  I recently was reminded that if it weren’t for people complaining or at least offering criticism with the way things are things wouldn’t be perfected and get better.  I don’t think the message we are supposed to get from the passage we read this morning is we should never complain.  We could maybe all stand to complain a little less but God can take it besides God is used to it.  I do think however that we need to be at least as faithful offering our praise for the good things God has done as we are about lodging our complaints.  I think also what we really are to get from this passage is that when we have reason to complain, we will have reason to complain just as the Israelites had a legitimate reason to complain they were thirsty, when we have reason to complain we need to be careful that our complaining does not give way to rebellion.  In the fit of their anger over being thirsty the Israelites not only complained but they were ready to stone Moses and by association were ready to stone God.  The Israelites may have had a legitimate complaint but it was no reason to turn their backs on God; the very God that had been so faithful and so good to them.  When we have a complaint to take up with God we would do well to remember the good things God has done for us so as not to let our complaining lead to rebellion. 

During this season of Lent we are called on to remember two things in our personal history.  First we are called to remember those times when we have rebelled against God, when we have not only complained but we have turned away from God.  Lent provides us with an opportunity to turn back around and head once again in the direction God would have us go.  Second we are called also to remember the good, the great things God has done for us in the past, chief among them being made flesh and living among us in the person of Jesus the Christ, suffering death on a cross, and being raised from the dead so that we might be saved from our rebellion and restored to a right relationship with God.  We may find ourselves with reason to complain from time to time but we must not allow our hearts to be so hardened that we forget this great thing God has done for us.  As we continue on our Lenten journey together may our hearts be softened enough so that even in the present challenges we may see the opportunity for faithfulness and the possibility of God’s provision.  In contemplating those times when we have allowed our grumblings our complaining to lead to rebellion may we be compelled to turn around and instead of trying to bend God’s will to our own allow ourselves to be bent to God’s intended purpose.  Amen.