baby, no one could have ever told me 'bout this

the waiting is the hardest part

A sermon from Exodus 16

A few weeks ago I stumbled on this series, “Last Chance U.”

It’s a Netflix, documentary about a junior college, football program in Mississippi. 

This is the kind of show that would usually hold no interest for me, but Last Chance U is so well done and compelling, that I was pulled in right away. 

It’s centers on the football program at East Mississippi Community College. 

What the coach, Buddy Stephens, has done is, build the team out of players who have been turned down from or kicked out of Division One schools for one reason or another. *Usually because of grades or bad decisions. 

So his team is made up of players who, it really is their last chance to try and make a go of it in football. And, you have full of players who can play way over the heads of most of their completion…

What’s so compelling about “Last Chance U,” is that in the end, the series isn’t about football at all. At it’s heart, the show is about the players and coaches who try and make a go of it in this sport…

As the series progresses you find out about these people. The stress the coach feel. The hard pasts the players have come from. The regret the boys have over their past mistakes. 

You realize not only is this really there last chance, but they haven’t had many chances in the first place. It’s not long before you start pulling for these boys… 

And the rub in the series isn’t just the odds the players are against. It’s also the coach, Buddy Stephens. 

Because while the vision to draft these kids who need a second chance is his; he turns out to be pretty incapable of actually offering them the one they really need… 

Buddy rarely has a kind word for the players. Unless they’re creaming the competition, he’s down their throats. Berating them to play better, harder, faster, stronger. Because he knows talent won’t be enough; they have to outwork their competition, too…

And truth be told; one of the reasons I was so drawn to Last Chance U was because, of all people, the one I related most to was Coach Buddy. Like Buddy, I know what it’s like to measure the odds and get anxious. To think I can hedge my bets with a little more hard work…

Ask anyone. Ask those who are on the council, ask my brother, ask my wife. I get effort. 

At the gym they love me, because I’m in every day. And if I’m not, I let them know and make arrangements to exercise somewhere else. Or seminary, I graduated with honors, but not because I am so bright. Because I put in the hours.

I get effort.

Now, lest you think I’m bragging, know this: while Coach Buddy and I both get effort, what we don’t get, what we fail is the test of faith…

…Well, in today’s scripture the Holy Spirit shows us the documentary, “Faith on the Way.” In this episode, God’s people, recently freed from slavery under the Pharaoh in Egypt, journey to the Promised Land. 

It only takes about two months for the food to run low. 

As their stomachs grumble and all that’s ahead of them is an inhabitable wilderness, God’s people start complaining to their called leaders.

*Which, is really just another way of complaining against God…

“What are we doing out here anyway, Moses?” they grumble. “Couldn’t you have left us back in Egypt. At least we had two square meals a day there.”

As they carp, the Lord overhears them casting aspersions against the divine plan. When that happens, instead of letting them have it, God provides!

God tells Moses each evening their camp is going to be swamped with too many fowl to catch. And each morning their camp is going to be surrounded by bread. 

But there’s also a catch when it comes to these provisions. There’s always a catch. And this one is a doozy!

Because this meal, the bread, it is the rarest kind of all.

It’s free! Absolutely free. No strings attached. Nothing you have to do, or can do, to earn it!

In fact, if you try, it will all go bad!

This bread, if you try and harvest loads of it, you will only end up with as much as the person next to you. Or, if you try and set aside a little extra for tomorrow; it will spoil!

This is bread you can’t earn, you can’t work for! 

No wonder when the Israelites see this bread; they don’t know what it is!

They know plenty about the kind of bread you have to store up. The kind of bread you only get if you put the hours in. But they’ve never seen anything like this bread before! This bread God just freely gives, and each day too! 

…In the end, the thing that’s so unbearable about Coach Buddy in Last Chance U, is the way he can’t see the gift those boys are to him. 

He thinks they can only sit back at the end. Once they’ve won the championship. When the boys get drafted back to a Division One school. When he can begin recruiting for the next season with all the accolades he’s stocked up. 

Until then though, he’s going to work the boys.

In fact, a major plot point of the second season of Last Chance U, is Coach Buddy responding to what he saw in the first season. Responding to the image of this coach who w wasn’t as good to the boys as he thought. 

In the second season, he tries to achieving a change of heart. He tries to lighten up, be kinder. To impart his vision, rather than just working the boys nonstop. 

But the trouble is, he just can’t. 

Because Coach Buddy knows all too well, the boys chances are always just one game away. That if they lose a game they were supposed to win, they’ll drop in the rankings and all their efforts will be for nothing. 

In the end, as much as Coach Buddy would like to, he can’t take a break, he can’t rest. Too much rides on every practice, and every game, and every recruiting meeting. And on, and on, and on. 

It never ends!

And in that way, Coach Buddy is no different than the Israelites who think they need to set aside a little bread. No different than me, who gets a little too anxious if I don’t hit the gym. And no different than you, either…

We’re not that different from each other, are we?

We still worry as we make our way to the Promised Land. We think we have to go out and stock up more than the next person or hold back a little something for a tomorrow that may never come.

And when our Lord and Savior comes along, just giving us the bread of heaven; we don’t know what to do with it!

So here’s the Gospel gut-check: that God won’t let this manna be hoarded is not only a test. It’s also the grace of God hidden in it’s opposite!

It’s not grace that God gives the bread of heaven. As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, that’s just what God does! 

No, what makes this manna the bread of heaven, the grace of God come to earth, is that it can’t be stockpiled, it can’t be stored away! 

If God let us stock up as much manna as we thought we needed, we’d never get to the Promised Land. Would we?

We’d be trapped in the never-ending cycle Coach Buddy couldn’t get out of. The one of never being sure if we have enough. Of always thinking we need to add just a little more. 

So in this bread of heaven, God brings all our efforts to nothing. God even let’s us fail the test of faith. 

God does this so that in our end, our failure; we will finally be made ready to receive the bread of heaven as the pure gift it is. Not as something we’ve earned, but something we’ve been given.

Like Bruno Mars croons, ‘I’ve got to tell you a little something about yourself.’ You who are here, offended by the thought there’s absolutely NOTHING you can do to earn this bread. You who have found out that the treadmill never ends. You who, for all your efforts, only have an image of yourself you want to be freed from; know this: You are just where Jesus wants you. 

You are ready to receive the bread from heaven in it’s purest form, as the free gift God daily gives, as the provisions of God for you.

Here’s your bread for this day: In your failures, in the next thing you can’t stop worrying about—Jesus shows up.

Now, there is plenty more to about this, but let this be enough to tide you over: You don’t journey to the promised land alone. You have a God who looks after you. A God who desires nothing more than to provide for you. To be your God. 

In fact, God is so committed to you, so intent upon your making it to the promised land, God has sent the true bread of heaven down to you; Jesus Christ. He will goes with you. Will sustain you. Will get you through the day. Feed and free you! Bring you through it all, to get you to the Promised Land at last!