The passage begins with the whole community grumbling against Moses and Aaron (verse 2), yet it is God who hears and responds. The exaggerated drama of the complaint “if only we had died…” further heightened in the parallel passage in Numbers 21:5 “there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food” is met with the contrast of God’s generosity – God will ‘rain down bread.” We are reminded of the Hebrews’ call for help in Egypt and God’s response under slavery (Exodus 2:23-25)

In the arid wilderness the promised food is associated with water: rain (verse 4) and dew (verses 13 and 14). In verse 15 the Hebrews ask of the mystery food man-ha, “what is it?” and the answer comes in the form of a word-play in verse 31: manna, the name of the stuff is “what is it.”

Manna is described in down-to-earth, plant-based descriptors “like white coriander seed” “like wafers made with honey.” One modern explanation is that manna might be honeydew, a sugary secretion of sap-eating insects.
The repetition of morning and evening (verses 8, 12, 13) resonates with the creation narrative and with Jesus’ prayer for daily bread.

The Season of Creation theme is Living Waters but the Exodus passage is set in a wilderness landscape where water is scarce. Having come out of the well-watered and well-provisioned slavery in Goshen, through the Sea of Reeds, and into the wilderness, the Hebrews complain, and God responds.

Miriam

As we consider the presence, absence, and value of water we might focus on Miriam, consistently associated with water: as a young girl she saves the savior Moses at the Nile, her victory song at the Reed Sea is one of the oldest parts of scripture, and so revered is she, that in a parallel version of today’s passage, her death is like the absence of water (Numbers 20: 1b-2a).

Miriam is not uncontroversial: she defies Moses in a conflict where both anti-African racism and sexism are at play, and although in scripture her status parallels Moses and Arron and she is described as both priest and prophet, she is largely neglected in the lectionary. Miriam’s association with water connects with the realities of women and children in the clean water crisis. Globally women and children, mostly girls, carry water hauling heavy loads over many hours. Infants and young children die disproportionately from diseases in unclean water. There is a huge gender gap in water governance, where women lack decision-making power with regard to water use.

However, women are also at the forefront of water protection movements: Anishinaabe Water Walkers carrying water in sacred ceremony around lakes and rivers, Lakota women
declaree “Mni Wiconi, Water is Life” defending the Missouri from the Dakota Access Pipline, women in Guatemala and India lead opposition to mega-dam projects, protecting ancestral lands, water sources and traditional livelihoods. Miriam’s last recorded words connect powerfully to women’s water struggles, “Has God not spoken through us as well?” (Numbers 12:2).

Manna, What is it?
Manna, what is it? The Hebrews, reliant in the wilderness on herd animals, may have eaten sugary honeydew, excreted by aphids feeding on tamarisks, and on migratory quail, easy
prey exhausted after their evening landing – this reminds us that there are many wonders of biodiversity that we have yet to discover! Manna, what is it? A lesson in God’s economy of abundance? Manna appeared daily in sufficient quantity for everyone to have enough. People had to work to gather it, it didn’t appear in their plates or in their mouths. If you tried to hoard it, it would rot, grow maggots and smell foul. Abundance is not about having more than you need, but trusting that there will be enough if we share. Manna, what is it? A Climate Crisis parable for the Global North? Many Black, Indigenous, POC, and disabled communities have shared in manna-like economies of mutual aid, solidarity and small-scale resistance to cascading apocalypses of colonialism, racism, ableism for centuries. For the privilege-insulated among us, who are only lately awakened to the consequences of capitalism driven climate crisis, perhaps the miracle of manna is not a magic fix, that God makes bread out of nothing, but that reality that the feared and despised places are a source of nourishment if we don’t take more than we need.

Living the Word -action points
Write to your municipality or National Government Government calling for action to ensure Indigenous peoples’ right to clean drinking water.
https://canadians.org/fn-water/ 

Boycott bottled water, BlueTriton, formerly Nestlé and other big water corporations who are privatizing water access.
Avoid AI and resist the construction of Data Centres which consume vast amounts of water

Liturgical Resources
Water Wonder Box -a multi age curriculum for exploring the theme of water in scripture
https://www.salalandcedar.com/resources/2024-10-bbcnbky3fn1dh1fo7l13n2dtz7v98q

Come All You Green -a baptismal prayer
https://www.salalandcedar.com/resources/come-all-you-green-baptism