First Reading:
4The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the
Israelites also wept again, and said, If only we had meat to eat!
5We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing,
the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the
garlic; 6but now our strength is dried up, and there is
nothing at all but this manna to look at.
10Moses heard
the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of
their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was
displeased. 11So Moses said to the Lord, Why have you
treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your
sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on
me? 12Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to
them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse
carries a sucking child,' to the land that you promised on oath to
their ancestors? 13Where am I to get meat to give to all
this people? For they come weeping to me and say, 'Give us meat to
eat!' 14I am not able to carry all this people alone, for
they are too heavy for me. 15If this is the way you are
going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor
in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.
16So the Lord said to Moses, Gather for me
seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the
people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and
have them take their place there with you.
24So Moses went out and told the people the words of the
Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them
all around the tent. 25Then the Lord came down in the cloud
and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put
it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they
prophesied. But they did not do so again. 26Two men
remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and
the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they
had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the
camp. 27And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad and
Medad are prophesying in the camp.
28And Joshua son of
Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, My lord
Moses, stop them!
29But Moses said to him, Are you
jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets,
and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!
Second Reading:
38John said to him, Teacher, we saw someone casting out
demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not
following us.
39But Jesus said, Do not
stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able
soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40Whoever is not
against us is for us. 41For truly I tell you, whoever gives
you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will
by no means lose the reward.
42If any of you put a stumbling block before
one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you
if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown
into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it
off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands
and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your
foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter
life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into
hell. 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out;
it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to
have two eyes and to be thrown into hell,
48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never
quenched.
49For everyone will be salted with
fire. 50Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness,
how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with
one another.
Now, this text is a little bit scary... first of all, it's one of the
four or five stories, out of the whole bible, that mentions hell by
name. It talks about self mutilation, tying a millstone around
someone's neck and throwing them into the sea, it talks about a worm
that never dies and fire that is never quenched. And it's
tempting...it's tempting to launch into background and information
about each of those things, because there's a wide variety of contexts
they represent, and we just don't know without doing some study and
research. Some are cultural threats, others are sayings of old
testament prophets. The Greek word that's translated hell
refers
to the ravine where garbage and dead animals were dumped just south of
Jerusalem... but I'm not really going to spend a whole lot of time
explaining and working with those images... because in our passage,
all of that vivid imagery serves the same function. It's used to grab
the attention of the disciples and urge them to examine themselves:
their own motivations and their own behavior.
You see once again in this passage the disciples came to Jesus
complaining about someone else... this time it was a maverick
exorcist casting out demons in Jesus name. And the disciples seemed
to be suffering from an us and them
mentality... their main
concern was that the exorcist wasn't one of us, he didn't belong to
the group. Our text tells us that John was the one who said We saw
someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him
because he was not following us.
I wonder what he hoped Jesus' response would be...It seems like he was
after one of two possible options... maintaining the special status of
the disciples, hoping that Jesus would say You're right. This
maverick exorcist has to be stopped. The twelve of you are the only
ones I want casting out demons...
or perhaps they were concerned
with making sure that other people saw that the power came from their
group alone... in which case Jesus might say Go get him, bring him
over here... we need to make sure his theology is correct before we
let him cast out demons. And then he'll be able to be one of us.
Either way, in Mark's gospel, the disciples never did seem to get
it... Jesus isn't an egotist, he's not real concerned with protecting
his reputation or holding onto control. He isn't terribly worried
about who gets the credit or who's the greatest... He knows the
ultimate answers to those questions lie in God's hands. Over and over
we get the picture that what he is concerned with is loving people;
loving them into abundant life and eternal life. As long as people
are being freed from what holds them down, whether that's internal
dynamics or external situations, it's a good thing... Let's affirm
that, let's celebrate that. So regardless of what the disciples may
have hoped for, the answer they got was: Don't stop someone from
doing good works, especially works of power in my name...
No-one
has the market cornered on what God is doing in the world.
The first lesson today takes place in a different time and in a
different place but it runs along a similar thread... The people of
Israel are wandering the desert and they're complaining because they
want meat to eat, not just manna... Moses – who was their
appointed and called leader – was frustrated, he wasn't able to
meet their needs and he felt like he was insufficient to be their
leader... so he prayed, he talked with God and listened for God's
guidance... and God said share the wealth... you are not the only one
who has the gift of my spirit... you don't have to do the work alone.
So Moses did as he was instructed and gathered 70 elders and the
spirit was given to the elders by God. But the story gets interesting
when two people, Eldad and Medad stayed behind... they didn't come out
to the tent that was the sacred meeting place, they weren't there when
God handed out the spirit and yet they were acting like they also had
received the spirit... So Joshua, who was Moses' top assistant, his
right hand man, told Moses to stop them. And, again, I wonder what
his hope was... was he trying to hold onto more status or more power
for himself? Was he trying to punish the two for missing the meeting?
or make sure that their gift from God was verified by the proper
authorities? I don't really know. But Moses effectively dealt with
Joshua's question... Are you jealous for my sake?
You sure
don't need to be...Wouldn't it be great if God gave the spirit to
everyone and everyone used their gifts like those two guys are.
Mark knew the story of Moses and Joshua and Eldad and Medad and when he told the story that is our gospel text... the story of the disciples, Jesus and the maverick exorcist, he drew parallels between the two. In both situations, God was at work outside the usual accepted boundaries. (In the first reading Eldad and Medad prophesied at camp instead of in the sacred meeting place... in the second reading it was the maverick exorcist, and not one of the disciples who cast out demons in Jesus name.) And, don't get me wrong, boundaries exist for a reason... They can serve to protect people, bring a sense of identity and unity to a group, to give a measure of order and understanding to how things work. But the problem with boundaries happens when they become rigid and impermeable. For both the disciples and for Joshua, they started to think that God was only able to work, or perhaps that God only should work within the boundaries of their group or their understanding.
But Moses responded to Joshua, and Jesus responded to the disciples without defensiveness, without being threatened. They didn't act out of anxiety because they trusted God and they were secure in their respective roles in what God was doing in the community. Moses was delighted that God was using others and he was relieved to have the responsibility of the nation of Israel lifted from his shoulders alone, and spread to others whom the community trusted. Likewise Jesus said don't make the maverick exorcist stop. Let him do his thing... anyone who isn't against us is for us.
It is a good thing for people to not only be able to use their gifts
for God's work in the world, but also to be encouraged to do so. In
fact verse 41 gives a promise for those who are encouragers. Jesus
says to his disciples whoever gives you a cup of water to drink
because you bear the name of Christ won't ever lose the reward. To
encourage and to support someone who is doing the work of Christ is
part of doing the work of Christ in the world... it can't be done by
any one person alone. It can't be done by any group alone. And it
shouldn't be. With encouragement and support one for another,
boundaries break down and so does the us and them
mentality.
Anyone who is serving Christ, regardless of denomination or
theological viewpoint, regardless of whether they are across the
world, across the country, across the city or across the sanctuary,
Anyone who is serving Christ is us
, even if it that service takes
a different form than what we're used to. We're in this together.
That message was sorely needed by Christians in the first century as they faced persecution at the hands of Rome and they routinely faced forces that tried to break the church apart. The same message is sorely needed now as Christians in the 21st century face cultural marginalization and many different forces that try to break the church apart, or make it irrelevant to the living of our daily lives. Take heart, we're in this together.
In the span of about three sentences, Jesus told the disciples,
Instead of worrying about whether people are doing ministry right,
reflect on your own style of life and ministry.
All of the vivid
imagery I mentioned earlier, the self mutilation, millstones, hell and
fire, it's there to get the disciples' attention; to make them realize
how important it is to God's work in the world that they, especially
those who would be leaders in the church would choose to support
rather than to hinder people who are using their gifts to serve the
kingdom of God. As one author wrote, the point wasn't to scare the
hell out of them and it wasn't to convince people that they could
avoid torment by their own doing.
The point it seems was to
highlight a choice whether to build up the kingdom of God by building
up the people who work toward it, even if they are different, or to
hinder the kingdom of God by making it difficult for someone to
exercise their God-given gifts.
In at least two senses this is a word of freedom. For people who are in leadership... we can be freed from watching boundaries, we can say yes over and over to new ministry initiatives to a little bit of experimenting, to trying new things ... And for people who haven't yet found their calling or their way of getting involved in the life and ministry of the church, there's freedom to explore, even if what you feel called to do doesn't exist yet at the United Parish... don't let that stand in the way because we're in this together and as a community we want to be encouragers.
Moses said wouldn't it be great if everyone was given the gift of the spirit and everyone used those gifts in ministry where they are... And friends we have been given the gifts of the spirit...Thanks be to God. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on September 27, 2009.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
