The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
Exodus 16:3
When we sit down and consider all of the impacts that our existence has on the world around us, it can get pretty depressing pretty quickly. The food we eat, the cars we drive, the trash we produce, the shoes we wear, everything seems to have a negative environmental impact. How can we honor God's creation when everything we enjoy seems to hurt it!
Moreover, what will really happen if I give up these things but no one else does? Why should I suffer if the net impact is the same?
This is the argument we usually hear when we complain about paper straws or not being able to use plastic bags. "Why do I have to drink water out of a soggy piece of paper while Bono flies his own plane to Davos?!?" (Or something like that).
Expanding our vision more broadly, whenever our circumstances change, we are usually quite quick to compare ourselves to others. Start exercising... but I'm not as fast as they are; change jobs... but everyone in my old job seems happier; Move... the weather here is so much worse; and so on. Maybe the most obvious example is changing lanes in traffic. No matter what you always wish you were back in the other lane! You are always comparing yourself to the place you where when you left.
It is no different for the Israelites in this week's reading. They have just escaped multi-generational enslavement at the hands of the Egyptians and are now free and on their way to a land that God has promised just for them and.... they complain about the food.
They forgot all about the enslavement and imprisonment. About being stuck working for an empire that was not your own, that was hard on the body and soul of you and everyone you love, and they just remembered that they ate pretty good.
It is hard to grasp, but we are similarly bound to a system of imprisonment and subjugation that harms us and everyone we love. An empire built on fossil fuels, trash mountains and single use plastics. An empire of concrete and steel, where trees are an obstacle, flora and fauna a nuisance, and only two kinds of green are worthwhile -- money and easy to roll out sod.
And when we begin to opt out of that empire? When we begin to embrace a life more connected to the land, more responsive to the needs of creation? When we see our role transition from 'Master' of creation to 'Steward' of creation? Well then the complaints start.
This fruit tastes weird. these straws don't work. There are too many bugs out here. What is the point?
Ultimately the small sacrifices most of us make for the sake of the environment are nothing compared to the suffering of the israelites. But this scripture talks to us about how easy it is to slip back into unhealthy patterns, even if those patterns and behaviors are soul sucking and life taking. May we, in our desire to be better stewards of the planet and better stewards of ourselves, not get sucked into the kind of negativity that pulled at the Israelites in the desert, and instead embrace the freedom of something new and the promise of something better in the not too distant future.