200322 Home Worship Service (Lent 4) <--click for audio 200322 Lent 4 Home Worship Order of Service <--click for bulletin/order of service Sermon manuscript: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.Our readings today sound different from the way that they would under normal circumstances. Under normal circumstances we know where our daily bread is going to come from. We’re going to go to the grocery store and buy it. In order to pay for it we are going to go to work and cash our paycheck. Our pay has enough left over that we can go to a restaurant or a movie or take a vacation every now and then. Everybody has abundant provisions.Our second reading from the book of the acts of the apostles is the report of what happened right after Peter preached the Gospel on Pentecost. 3,000 were baptized. They met together and broke bread together. They had all things in common. If there was someone in need, they gave. If they didn’t have the means on hand, they sold. When things are operating normally we have measures and procedures set up for taking care of the less fortunate. Since other people are taking care of these problems we don’t worry about it. With what is going on right now, we might very well be called upon to give away our toilet paper to those who did not hoard it. Giving away our food and supplies, holding thing in common, is much more of a real possibility today and going forward into the future than it was a couple weeks ago.In our Gospel reading Jesus wants the disciples to feed the huge crowd of hungry people. Philip does the math and says that even if they spent 200 denarii, it wouldn’t even be close to enough, and to be sure, none of them had 200 denarii. 200 denarii is about 200 days’ wages. That would be over $20,000 in today’s money. How are these people going to be fed?Today we are beginning to hear people wonder aloud how the economy is going to keep going if everybody is confined to their houses. How are people’s needs going to be met? Where is the money going to come from? Today everybody’s attention is on the virus and on the healthcare system. Tomorrow the news will be focused on the great changes that have taken place in the economy.Perhaps we could sum up all these concerns by saying that we would like to know the future. We want to know where and how we are going to get everything that we need. When we don’t know how things will be in a month, or in a week, we become burdened and heavy laden with stress. There is stress when things are going normally, but that’s nothing compared to when things are uncertain. And if ever the situation should get to the point where we don’t know how we are going to eat tomorrow, then we would be greatly troubled.This was the situation in our first reading from Exodus. Moses and the hundreds of thousands of people had left Egypt. They had crossed through the Red Sea. They are on their way to Mt. Sinai. They had already gone through the first crisis that would take place during a journey like this. They had run out water. Where are you going to find water in a desert? When they finally found some, they couldn’t drink it. But God made the bitter water sweet. He led them to a place that did have good water. What is the thing that runs low after water? It’s food. The provisions that they brought along with them from Egypt had run out. What are they going to eat? They blamed Moses and Aaron for leading them into this terrible predicament. Here are the harsh and bitter words: “I wish we had died in Egypt. At least we had something to eat there. Now we have to watch our children starve in this miserable wilderness.” Reading these words can’t possibly do justice to the sights and sounds that had to have accompanied them. There had to be veins popping and screams and tears. If I said that they were stressed, you would probably say you can say that again. And why were they stressed? They were down to nothing. They didn’t k