After the mad dash from Egypt’s sweatshops and migrant labor camps—and after the Prophet Miriam led the people in songs of liberation—the People of Exodus trudge through the wilderness of privation and discontent, where dreams of the Promised Land of Plenty grow distant and dim. Unrelenting thirst overtakes them. Cotton-mouthed complaints grow louder.
Is the Lord among us or not?
First at the pool at Marrah [bitterness] then the land of Massah [testing] and Meribah [quarrelling], the Beloved responds.
The staff of Moses that parted the drowning waters of the sea first sweetens the pool and now strikes water from the barren rock.
Strike the rock, Brother Moses! Put your back into it! Let the waters of refreshment bathe every sweltering soul.
Strike your tambourine, Sister Miriam. Resolve again the cries of fear into shouts of jubilation.
Strike the rock, Brother Moses, cheating death from its wilderness prey.
Strike your tambourine, Sister Miriam. Sing of water’s baptismal glory.
Strike the rock, Brother Moses. Let the desert run wet with Mercy’s minaret, slake every parched throat with delight.
Strike your tambourine, Sister Miriam. Let songs fill the air of banished despair and the thirst for righteousness incite!
©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Inspired by Exodus 15, 17 & Matthew 5:6.