Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "The Devil You Know …"

Text: Exodus 16:2-15

there was a couple I’ll call Jack and Sharon.

Jack was in the military,

so they were only with us for three or four years,

but we really enjoyed them while we had them.

Both were excellent musicians:

Jack had one of the most beautiful tenor voices

I’ve ever heard,

and Sharon played piano and organ,

and also sang in the choir,

But she was never quite happy.

San Antonio was all right, she supposed …

there was lots to do,

and they had met lots of wonderful people.

But back in California,

where Jack had been stationed before;

that’s where she was really happy.

It was the best place they’d ever been.

She missed it a lot,

and hoped they could go back there some day.

Well, that was all right …

We’ve all had favorite places

that we’d like to go back to,

or maybe that we never left!

But an interesting thing happened:

When Jack and Sharon moved away,

to Kansas or Nebraska or wherever his next assignment was,

her letters said something like …

It’s not bad here, Jack’s job is good

and the people are terrific.

But we really miss San Antonio.

It was the best place we ever lived.

I hope we can retire there, maybe.

Now I happen to agree with her

that San Antonio is pretty terrific, but …

Sharon was never happy where she was.

She was only happy in the last place she’d been,

wherever that was,

and even then, only in her memory.

She didn’t have rose-colored glasses;

she had a rose-colored rear-view mirror!

Life was really good only in the past.

And she was able quickly to forget

all the criticisms she had had then.

The "good old days" were always behind her;

she never actually got to live them!

Do you ever catch yourself doing that?

Longing for a specific time in your past

which seems to have been so ideal

compared to the present?

I say, "seems to have been,"

because our memory is always selective.

We retain some impressions, and leave others.

Some of that consciously, and some quite unconsciously.

You want to see a rose-colored rear-view mirror?

Listen to the grumbling of the Hebrews

as Moses heard it:

"Did you bring us out here to die?

We’re starving!

We should never have listened to you!

In Egypt we had plenty to eat!"

In Egypt … we had plenty to eat.

They’ve conveniently forgotten that they were slaves.

That their workload was always being increased.

That Pharaoh did things like

order their children to be killed.

That some of their number had been

beaten and killed by overseers or masters.

All they can recall at the moment is food.

And they haven’t got any.

So they imagine some "good old days,"

and long grumblingly for them.

They still have much to learn

about the benefits, and the risks, of freedom.

But don’t we, also?

Isn’t our first choice nearly always,

when we’re confronted by something new,

to slide back into old ways

of trying to process it and cope with it?

Well, sometimes we go even further than that:

we don’t just slide back,

we very deliberately turn around

and take a giant step back!

Now if we really were on the wrong track,

that’s probably a good thing for us to do!

But so often, we turn from the right track

not because it seems wrong,

but because it seems uncertain,

and unclear, and difficult.

So we’ll say something like,

"The devil you know

is better than the devil you don’t,"

and let that be our excuse for turning back.

It doesn’t always even have to be

on a religious issue.

One of the reasons that so many women

remain with abusive spouses is that

they’ve learned to cope with him and to survive,

whereas leaving, and trying to go it alone,

is too frightening to contemplate.

Something known, however horrible,

seems better than something unknown.

It’s why we’ll sometimes stay in a job we hate

rather than looking seriously for a new one,

or returning to school for more training.

It’s what makes it so hard to change ourselves,

even if we’re seeing a trained counselor,

and at some level, really want to change.

The new is uncertain;

the old is comfortable.

Freedom is risky;

slavery, though degrading, is secure.

The devil we know

can be managed and survived; we’ve proven it.

The devil we don’t

carries no such guarantee.

"Send us back to Egypt.

Okay, we admit we were slaves

and it wasn’t so great.

But at least we knew where

our next meal was coming from."

There’s a certain logic to that thinking.

It is likely true that a devil we know

is better than a devil we don’t.

The problem is, the assumption behind that

isn’t necessarily true.

Our choice is not always between two devils.

When we assume that both options will be unpleasant,

of course we’ll choose one we already know.

But what if that’s not how it is?

What if, by remaining with a devil we know,

we miss out on a blessing we didn’t know?

What if our fear keeps us locked to something bad

when just ahead is something really good?

Imagine, if the Hebrew people had mutinied

and gone back to Egypt.

Would they have survived at all?

Certainly the Bible would read very differently …

if there were a Bible at all.

How would history look different,

if the Hebrews had returned to the devil they knew,

and run away from a blessing they couldn’t yet see?

Obviously, we’ll never know,

because God answered their grumbling

and sent them manna, and quails, to eat.

But we can still wonder

how our own lives would look,

if fear were a less powerful motivator for us,

and God a more powerful one.

If, for example, we could stop worrying about money …

and I don’t mean necessarily that we had more money;

that doesn’t cure the worrying.

If we could quite literally be healed of our worrying

about food and shelter and savings and security,

how might our lives be different?

If we believed with all our hearts

that God has only good in mind for us,

how would we live life differently?

Would we have fewer gray hairs?

Lower blood pressure?

Would we be more open to the future,

and willing to venture into new things?

More willing to take risks? …

not foolish ones,

but risks for the sake of other people?

Would we be more generous? …

not just with our money,

but with our time, and energy, and wisdom?

Would we be more likely to share what we have,

or even to give it away?

Could we appreciate and honor our past,

without feeling the need to repeat or re-create it?

And even if things didn’t always go

according to our plan,

could we see that as a time for growth

instead of a time of God’s absence?

The past is safe.

Living in it and longing for it are comfortable.

But that makes us useless in the present,

and hopeless about the future.

The future, on the other hand,

is open, and therefore risky.

There are possibilities as well as pitfalls.

And the road ahead isn’t always clear,

whereas the road backward is all too well marked!

Nevertheless, ahead is where God is,

calling us forward, ever closer.

No matter what the devils were or are,

in our past or present,

the future holds God’s blessing,

if it’s God’s path that we seek to follow.

Now, the path isn’t always smooth, or straight …

and sometimes the world

makes it hard to stay on the path.

Not every future is blessed!

But a future with God

will always out-bless the past,

even if our past was with God as well.

Forget about devils,

whether you know ‘em or not.

They’ll only confuse you;

it’s their job.

God has something wonderful for you,

and for me, and for us all.

Let’s stop worrying,

and start traveling.

Amen.