Exodus 16: 2-4, 9-15; John 6: 24-35
In 1996, a comedian named Bill Engvall created a comedy routine called “Here’s Your Sign.” They were always a commentary on people saying or doing silly things. One example he told is this: “A man pulls into a gas station with a flat tire. The gas station attendant says, ‘Tire go flat?’ The man responds, ‘Nope, the other three just swelled up on me.’ Here’s your sign.” My friend’s grandfather loved it. He watched every single episode. Bill Engvall toured with Jeff Foxworthy, whose routine included, “You Might Be a Redneck If…” and Larry the Cable Guy, who said, “That’s funny, I don’t care who you are.”
Now while my friend’s grandfather loved all three, he particularly loved the “Here’s Your Sign” schtick. So, he ended up having himself a little sign made that said, “Here’s Your Sign,” which he held up to people when they did things that might not be so smart or wise. It was cute and endearing unless you were on the receiving end of the sign being held up at you. But it was a sign, nonetheless.
In Jesus’s day, the masses constantly asked for a sign, and not much has changed in our modern times. I heard a lady on the news the other day talk about her diet plan of prayer. God was giving her a sign by showing her visions of food to eat or giving her a sign on a restaurant menu of what foods would be good for her. We hear a lot of talk thrown around about things being a sign from God. We, just like the people of Jesus’s day, are a people who need and want signs in life. And sometimes that leads us to find signs in everything whether it’s there or not.
Jesus teaches the people in our Gospel story for today. He calls on them to believe in him and follow his teaching—the very standard lesson that seems so hard for them to understand. They ask Jesus in verse 30, “Show us a miraculous sign if you want us to believe in you. What can you do? After all, our ancestors ate manna while they journeyed through the wilderness! The Scriptures say, ‘Moses gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” Now, these people are asking for a sign. Jesus had “heretofore” walked on water, fed over 5,000 miraculously, healed a paralyzed man, healed an official’s son, prophesied to the Samaritan woman, and turned the water into wine. Yet, they want another sign.
The problem is the people were inundated with signs. Every movement of the moon, weather event, trickster, fraud, false prophet, leader, temple priest, and soothsayer gave the people signs. People in Jesus’s day would follow anyone and everyone who showed any hint of an unexplainable sign at all. They wanted the same from Jesus…over, and over, and over. But not everything is a sign. And sometimes we are too trusting.
If we look at every single coincidence, difficulty, every single point by point, moment of each day, or as the hymn says, “in all of life’s ebb and flow,” and find signs in everything, we will be torn apart looking for directions. A pinball bounces off every directional barrier it comes into contact with. Faith is never like a pinball bouncing from sign to sign hoping for the best. Faith is found in a steadfast, dedicated endurance to following Jesus in this often-difficult world.
Sometimes we see every illness, every difficult day, every song on the radio or streaming music as a sign. There are pastors (I won’t say charlatans) who exploit natural disasters calling them signs from God. God doesn’t need a hurricane to make a point. If you recall, God often speaks in a still, small voice. When God wants your attention, you’ll know it within—in the soul. But there are voices around us and sometimes within us which make our dedicated endurance seem impossible, but Jesus said to those who wanted a sign, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” When you follow Christ with dedicated endurance, you will not be lost, hungering, or thirsting, or seeking a way through.
Sometimes, however, we struggle with what we perceive and know in our limited way as humans. Our Hebrew lesson tells how the Jewish people, now free from Egypt, turned on Moses because they believed God would not feed them—they believed the signs and voices that bounced them around from faith to fear to frenzy. Listening to every single difficult and negative voice in life had them convinced that going back to Egypt, to slavery, to oppression, to beatings, suffering, and all of that inhumanity was a good idea because they didn’t believe that the same God who parted the Red Sea in front of them could give them food in the desert. Some folks wander into the wilderness and never come out.
I remember when Simone Biles, the Olympian in gymnastics, pulled out of competition in 2021 for personal and mental health reasons. Many said she was letting her team down, letting the United States down, her career was over, and she should go away. As of this week she has 9 Olympic medals and 30 World Championships making her the most decorated gymnast in history…at the age of 27. You see, she listed to the voice, the sign that she needed rest and to recharge, instead of the voices which condemned her seeing her as only a useful tool and not as a human in need of human things in life.
God will give you signs and directions—a calling, and the wisdom on how to move forward in life, if we listen. Jesus said to the crowd in the gospel that signs from humans and worldly things are a waste of time. Instead, he called on them to focus their attention on him. He told them that Moses did not give signs. Only God gives signs. And the bread received in the wilderness is from God, just like the bread of life, the hope of the world, is also a sign and a gift from God.
Jesus called them to dedicated endurance not following every whimsy they perceived as a sign. He tells them to stop worrying about temporary things and to focus their time, energy, and concern on God. Now hear me when I say that I believe God gives us signs in life. I believe God directs us in this life. But I also believe we spend too much time looking for 100 different answers and not enough time actually following where God leads us. An old mentor of mine used to say, “Look for the open door. God won’t make you climb through a window or break into where you shouldn’t be. Look for the open door.”
Instead, we should approach life with a dedicated endurance to following God. Look for the open door and then set your life and faith to following where God is calling. Faith is not a life of signs and wonders. It’s a life of dedicated endurance to living in a Christ-like way in this world, sharing the good news, helping those in need, and representing the kingdom of God here on earth.
My English teacher in high school had a big poster in the front of room. It read, “Don’t let your mind wander, it’s too little to be left alone.” As a teenager, I found that insulting because teenagers know everything, right? As an adult with moderate anxiety who reads entire scenarios of doom and gloom into every single email, text message, or conversation, I think I get it now. Everything in life is not a sign from God. God gives us the pathway, the open door, and a calling forward in life. We respond with the dedicated endurance to where God is leading in faith.
Let me finish up with this. Maybe everything in life isn’t a sign from God, and maybe God isn’t like the comedian holding up a sarcastic, “Here’s Your Sign” at us. But if you need evidence that God will open the door, consider this. In 2011, Rev. John Carroll said I should consider the ministry. I advised that I was happy at the piano, and unless there was a burning bush, there was no way. Rev. Carroll asked what a burning bush looked like, and I said a unanimous vote at First Christian, believing that would never happen in a Disciples congregation. But sometimes God holds the door open for us, and says, “Alright, let’s go.” May we be ready.
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/1560241597896257