“Faith Outside the Box” – Numbers 11:4-23 – October 19, 2008

Bill Marriott, CEO, Marriott International, recently shared this story. It was about an old man who lived alone in the country. He was worried about digging his tomato garden because it was such hard work and the ground was hard. His only son Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent,
I'm really feeling bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me.
Love,
Dad

A few days later, he received a letter from his son:
Dear Dad,
Don't dig up that garden, that's where I buried the bodies.
Love,
Vinny

At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son:

Dear Dad,
Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

To make things happen there are times when you have to think outside the box,

Today we are worshipping in an unusual setting; the Shelby County Fairgrounds. Everyone has dressed casual for the event and food and festivities will follow. This is not a traditional sacred place for worship. It is used for a variety of “secular” events, most often as a place for auctions. For our congregation today this is “faith outside the box.”

It is vastly different from the formal sounds and nuances of the sanctuary on Ohio Avenue. Instead of a pipe organ there is an electronic keyboard. There is no altar or pulpit, nor are there any pews. When you look around the faces are familiar. There is still singing, prayer, preaching and the scripture is being read. We may be away from our traditional sacred space, but that does not inhibit us from being the Church.

After listening to the story of the Israelites in the wilderness we learn that they weren’t happy campers. They didn’t like living in the wilderness. It forced them to be out of their comfort zone. It meant there were uncertainties. It meant they didn’t know what the road ahead would be like. They were also unhappy about the food. They lamented over the good ole days when they had meat to eat. Consequently they complained to Moses. God heard the complaint of the people and intervened by sending them “manna” which gave them nourishment as a substitute for meat. For the Israelites, this was faith outside the box.

Since the new food was so unusual they said, “If only we had meat to eat. Surely, it was better for us in Egypt.” What God gives us is not always what we want. The Israelites wanted meat but received manna instead. They were forced to live with something that was strange and unfamiliar, and yet their livelihood depended on it. This unusual, strange substance required some getting used to. Whenever times change we have to make some adjustments and not be afraid of the strange resources God gives us.

The manna that God provided for them in the wilderness was not good enough. They remembered their time in Egypt when they had great food to eat. They had a roof over their heads. They didn’t have to live in the wilderness with so many uncertainties. They also missed the security they had. They were totally dependent on the Egyptians for their well-being. Generations of slavery had conditioned them to the point that they had no goals, no challenges, and a lack of community. Now that they were in the wilderness life confronted them with new demands, especially the need to live in faith. They were forced to live outside the box and that meant they would have to adapt to new and changing circumstances.

In other words, they were forced to live within a new paradigm. A paradigm is a set of rules and expected norms. To live in a new paradigm means you have to change and adjust to a new life system. To help Moses and the Israelites, God had to establish a new paradigm. First, God provided manna which enabled them to survive. God also constructed a new order, using seventy elders to assist Moses in his leadership.

The Israelites lamented over the “good ole days.” They remembered the days when life seemed simpler. We do the same, especially when times are difficult. We are afraid of the government’s bailout plan. Also, a volatile stock market has everyone on edge. It is hard to see our way clear. Perhaps we are blinded by business as usual.

The Israelites had a blindspot. A blindspot is essentially a failure to see beyond one’s basic assumptions about how things operate in a field. A famous example of an industry that did not recognize a change in its industry’s paradigm and paid the price of this blindspot was the watch industry in the 1970s. Switzerland had long been the world leader in watch production and sales when, in the late 1960s, it invented the first quartz watch prototype. In an astounding failure to recognize the implications of their development, they dismissed the technology, which Japan quickly snapped up. Meanwhile, the Swiss continued to improve upon what they had been doing, further refining the manufacture of watch gears and springs and offering waterproof and self-winding watches.

Soon, the Japanese took over the market. The Swiss share of watchmaking collapsed from 65 percent to less than 10 percent within 10 years, and it took many more years for the Swiss to climb back up. Key to their comeback was the Swatch, an affordable, trend-setting product aimed at a non-traditional market. In this case, clearly, continuous improvement was no match for the consequences of a paradigm shift.

Blindspots also occur in our faith. When we fail to be open to new possibilities and embrace the presence of God in the moment we remain stuck in the past, in slavery rather than be free.

To shift our paradigm we have to have faith outside the box. First, that means breaking our dependence on those things that keep us secure. Second, we have to have the willingness to try new things. We may not like them at first, but they can sustain us through the wildernesses of our lives. Third, we can trust that God is watching over us and gives us leaders to guide us. And fourth, we have to reach out to God for help, since we can’t make the change alone.

Dr. Keith Wagner, St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Sidney, Ohio