A Sermon Based Upon Numbers
11: 16-17; 24-30
Preached by Rev. Dr. Charles
J. Tomlin, DMin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist
Partnership
May 28th, 2017, Pentecost Sunday,
Year A
Two people were walking
together in a hot desert. One person was carrying a rather large container of iced
tea and the other was carrying a car door. The person carrying the iced tea finally asked
the other person, “Why in the world are you carrying a car door in this
sweltering heat? I mean this container of iced tea makes a whole lot more
sense. When I get hot, all I need to do is flip open the cap and take a few
gulps of this nice cold drink and I feel better.” The other person smiled. “Oh that’s nothing! My idea is much better
than yours. When I get hot, all I have to do is roll down the window!”(1)
I.
Maybe it’s never involved a
car door verses iced tea comparison, but we humans tend to be quite competitive. Competition seems hard wired in us, for even
very young we try to out run, out jump, out swim, out think, and out do our
peers. Maybe you remember this song from
the musical Annie Get Your Gun.
“Anything
you can do I can do better. I can do anything better than you.”
And
you say… . No, you can’t!”
“Yes, I can!”
“No, you can’t!”
“Yes, I can! Yes, I can!”
We can be so competitive with
each other that we even compare scars from surgeries and accidents.
“Want
to see my scar?” Someone once asked me while I was visiting them in the
hospital. Before I could answer they
were already pulling up the sheets. Too
much information.
Or just run up on an old
friend from school you haven't seen in a while and tell them how your kids are,
or worse, how your grandkids are, and you’re in for a mighty stiff competition.
Of course, some competition
can be healthy too, can't it? Think
about the challenge of sports or in contests to see who is the best speller,
the best mathematician, the best musician, the best dancer, or even the best
bubble gum bubble blower. Competition is
not just for fun, but In many of these cases, it has a way of bringing out the
best in us.
In fact, sometimes the
stories or movies that endear themselves to us the most are those where the underdog
comes out on top. When they remade the
movie „Karate Kid”’ after all the originals - Karate Kid 1, 2, and 3;
obviously, so many sequels suggests that this story is a very popular one. Even the coldest heart might warm up when,
against all odds, the scrawny, skinny kid competes and finally rises above all
the bullies to win the match!
Even our economic system is
largely dependent on competition. Competition can good for businesses too. Without it a business can become careless, complacent,
dull, and unproductive. Maybe the spirit
of competition I often valuable for us,
but today's text from Numbers on this Pentecost Sunday suggests that there is another spiritual force
loose in the world that might do us even greater good, that is, if we would
make ourselves available to it.
ll.
Our story from the book of
Numbers begins with an age old problem. Competition
or not, Moses is struggling. Even if you
are doing God’s work, you will struggle.
Moses has been called by God to lead a band of Hebrew misfits up and out
of oppressive slavery into the Promised Land.
He is working 24/7, but despite his best efforts, the complaints just
keep on coming. Every morning the murmuring begins as soon as the sun comes
up...there’s not enough water, there’s not enough food, we’re sick of this
manna stuff, we’re sick of wandering around in circles. Somebody suggests maybe
we need to take up an offering and buy you a GPS, Moses. “We want some meat to go with all this bread
God keeps sending us, too.”
Day after day, the complaints
come unceasingly until Moses finally
breaks. No matter how hard he works, there is no pleasing this crowd. Moses makes
an appointment to see God and upon entering God’s office, before God barely gets
a word out, Moses explodes..
“I’ve
had it!” He says. “Why are you doing this to me? You might recall I never
really wanted this job to begin with. I was perfectly happy wandering the
hillside with my sheep. Sheep are pretty dumb but at least they don’t argue. I’ve
worked my fingers to the bone. I’ve spent many a sleepless night nurse-maiding
these misfits through the wilderness but I just can’t take it anymore. If this
is the best you can
do, then just kill me here!”
Moses appears to be all-
stressed out, suffering from severe Clergy burnout. What will God do? After
calming Moses down wit a pat on the shoulder, God promises to resolve the
situation by enlisting the help of seventy elders to be Moses‟ Associate
Pastors. Sounds like a pretty good deal,
at least on paper, right?! So, after coming down from his meeting with
God, Moses holds a town meeting to pick seventy elders from the crowd. Moses
and the seventy then gather together in a tent and wait for God’s next move,
just like the disciples did in the upper room. Then, lo and behold, the Spirit surprisingly
settles on those 70 Elders, like He had settled on Moses, and will do again,
later on Pentecost. These elders all
begin to preach, that is to prophesy. Clearly, the Spirit dramatically
transformed these elders into real leaders.
So off these Associate
Pastors go to tend to their pastoral calls, their youth group retreats, their
Bible Study gatherings, their social ministries, their meetings with the
Property and Grounds Committee and Moses is as happy as a lark. He never could do it alone, and,
finally, he has got some help. End of
story, right?
Not so fast. Turns out there
are some shady dealings going on in their little community. Turns out those
chosen seventy aren’t the only ones the Spirit has landed on.
“It pains me to tell you
this,” One of the Assistant Pastors tells Moses. “But Eldad and Medad think God
has placed the Spirit on them too. They’re out there making fools of themselves.
Clearly, you need to squash this before it gets out of hand!”
Joshua, Moses‟ chosen
assistant, was there at the time and the news infuriated him.
“Yes, yes…” Joshua declares. “This just can’t
stand…these two guys were not among the chosen ones. We just can’t have the Holy Spirit spilling
out all over the place like this. This needs to be contained. After all, Eldad and Medad don’t have the
proper credentials, they weren’t in that tent with us, they didn’t spend hours
learning Greek so that they can read the Gospels when they’re written. They
didn’t take any courses on pastoral care and theology!”
III.
Have you caught what’s going
on here? There it is. That old competitive spirit again.
“Clearly those outsiders can’t
be considered insiders like we are!” That’s the underlying complaint. Poor
Moses. I can just picture him at his desk, his face cupped in his hands, his
head shaking in disbelief. For a scant
moment he actually thought he would find some relief but it was not meant to
be.
Finally Moses speaks. “You just don’t get it!” He says in
frustration. “This is not a competition. This is not about who’s in and who’s
out, who’s right or who’s wrong. In fact, when the Spirit shows up, there’s no
controlling who might be invited in.”
When the Spirit came upon
that tent and lifted some of the Spirit from Moses to place it
on the seventy, the cup
filled up, ran over, and seeped out under the corners of the tent right into the
lives of Medad and Eldad. When the
Spirit showed up, Moses importance was not diminished, but only enhanced as the
Spirit given to him was shared with the seventy.
So, what can we learn from
this classic, ancient story? What does
this story have to do with the life of the church, now, this side of
Pentecost? Let me suggest two things:
First, GOD NEED HELPERS TO GET THE JOB DONE.
In this story, Moses is at
his wits end. God had appointed him as
the spiritual leader for about 2 million people, and that was more than he felt
he could handle. In the first part of our chapter he poured out his soul to God
in prayer: “What have I done to displease
you that you put the burden of all these people on me? … Why do you tell me to carry them in my
arms, as a nurse carries an infant…”
I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for
me.
Can you relate to Moses’
prayer? At some time or other, all of us
have had jobs that are too big for us all alone. The truth is, most all jobs are that way, even
God’s work. In other words, you can’t be
a Christian all by yourself. You can’t
be a good parent, a good spouse, or be good at your job, all by yourself either. Nothing that matters can be done all
alone. Life is not about becoming ‘long
rangers’. God needs us. We need each other. We all need help to keep our lives together
and to do the good work.
Have you ever prayed for help
because the task seemed to be too big? “Lord, I’m in way over my head here!” Help Me!
Moses prayed that prayer. And God
answered Moses’ prayer by giving him some helpers. Moses gathered seventy elders of Israel and God
placed his Spirit upon those seventy men. They responded with inspired words of
encouragement and help.
So, here’s the point: When your task, role, job or responsibility
seems like too much to handle, don’t be afraid to look for some helpers. Don’t be
afraid to lean on other Christians for assistance, advice, or encouragement. In
fact, that’s one of the reasons why we’re here. The Bible says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let
us encourage one another.” We come here to be encouraged by the good news
of salvation, to be encouraged to remain faithful to our Savior, and also, to
encourage one another
by word and with deeds. God will inspire helpers, but we must allow
his Spirit to rest on us. We must answer
his call, and it is never too late.
But there’s something else
here too. IN ORDER RECEIVE HELP, OR TOO
GET THE JOB DONE, We ARE GOING TO HAVE TO BE FLEXIBLE AND HUMBLE with each
other. To do God’s work, we will all
need to have SOME EXTRA HUMILITY when others show up to help.
And this is where Eldad and
Medad come into the story. These two elders, for whatever
reasons, didn’t show up at
the tabernacle for the ceremony with the rest of the seventy men. We don’t know
why they stayed in the camp. Maybe they were
too fearful, too timid, or too humble to come and stand in front of God’s sacred
tabernacle? Maybe they were busy, or
sick, or involved in some responsiblity? We don’t know. What we do know is that Eldad
and Medad came and when they finally came, they also were filled with the
Spirit just like the rest of the seventy.
They also spoke in ways that others heard they were inspired by God.
But when news of their ‘inspiration’
and ‘calling’ reached Moses and his faithful young assistant Joshua, Joshua
immediately spoke up and said, “My lord
Moses, stop them!” Perhaps Joshua was being protective and wanted everyone
to think of Moses as God’s one and only prophet. Maybe he didn’t want newcomers or those with
different ideas like Eldad and Medad, to come along and steal the show!
If you recall, something like
this happened also in Jesus’ life. Jesus’ disciple John reported, “Teacher, we saw a man driving out demons
in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us” (Mk.
9:38). The disciples were proud of
their PRIVILEGED STATUS as the chosen twelve. They didn’t want anyone else TAKING
AWAY FROM THEIR GLORY! Only they should be allowed to do the work of sharing
the powerful Word of God.
Perhaps the greatest lesson
we must learn when it comes to spiritual work, is that we must learn to be ‘flexible’. This was the great lesson I had to learn
before going on the mission field. It
was the main lesson I had to tell others, before preparing them. If you can’t be flexible, you will not be
happy, you will not be helpful, and you will not help others be made whole.
When I worked in Germany, I
had several very good volunteer mission teams that helped us in our work. We needed help. Many of them where young people, and they
reached out in ways we never could. We
were in a partnership with Georgia Baptists.
The first team that came to us from the Georgia Baptist convention was tremendously
successful. We can them great reviews
and they did us. It was so exciting,
that some very elite people in Georgia want to come and work with us. They came.
But guess what. Elite people did
not get to be ‘elite’ because they were flexible. One fellow that came, was unhappy the whole
time, because we would not allow him to do what he wanted to do, even though we
knew it wouldn’t work. He was one of the
children of a noted Georgia Baptist leader.
Needless to say, when he went back, the report was so bad, Georgia did
not want to send us any more help. We
didn’t want it either, so we established a partnership with a specific church,
and had 3 more years of wonderful experiences and mission accomplishment. But because one person would not be flexible,
and had to accomplish only their own agenda, God’s work could not be
accomplished either in them or with us.
I’m am confident that God has
work for all of us to do. I’m also
confident that God gives us the resources to get the job done. BUT, we must be patient, flexible,
understanding, caring and helpful to each other. We cannot be stubborn, demanding, obnoxious,
or obstinate, and get the work done.
Spiritual life and work is very fluid.
In other words, God will fill the cup no matter the shape of the
cup. But all our cups come in different
shapes and sizes. We come to God from
different perspectives and we do about our work in different ways. We can grow to become more alike, and we can
learn from each other, but it takes time, effort, and most of all, it takes patients
and flexibility. For if we do not learn
to be understanding, encouraging, accepting, and patient with each other, the
help will stop coming, we’ll end up doing it all alone, and finally, the ministry of God will die, because we can’t
do it alone, and because we would not accommodate or accept others with
different styles and viewpoints. We
must settle on a few cores things we can’t negotiate, but everything else, must
be negotiated, because we are all so very different, with different gifts,
callings, and perspectives. And we must
learn to allow this difference, this ‘vive la difference’ (Fr. For long life
the difference), to work for us, not against us.
In my office I have framed certificates
that prove that I have been called by God to do some important work for his
kingdom. Currently, it’s my call to
serve as a pastor of Flat Rock and Zion Baptist Churches. Occasionally, I look at these certificates when
I need to be reminded that God wants me to be where I am. But just because you don’t have one of those
pieces of paper on your wall doesn’t mean God doesn’t also want you to be in
the position in life that he has placed you. Just because you aren’t
prophesying like Eldad and Medad doesn’t mean you don’t have the same Holy
Spirit that they did. You are God’s child through the love of Jesus Christ, and
you are an heir to the kingdom that is coming. And God gives you opportunities to find your
purpose in life by serving him in the work of this kingdom. God has a job for you. God needs you. I need you.
This church needs you. And most
of all, we need each other. There is
work for all of us to do, and we must help each other do it, or it won’t get
done.
In some of the churches,
where I have been a pastor, they have had candle-lighting services on Christmas
Eve. You.know how it goes. First there was the single lit candle I held
as the lights were lowered in the Sanctuary - one single flame so small and
inconsequential. Then the light was passed on to the others, who then passed
the light on down the pews from neighbor to neighbor. One by one the candles
were lit and with the passing of the flame, from one person to the next, the
light only grew brighter. The flame was not diminished but strengthened and
made more brilliant. Bit by bit, the darkness was forced to declare its surrender.
Oh, would that God send His Spirit
to make all of God’s people prophets! Maybe
he has already. Maybe the Spirit has
been poured out, and the job that needs to be done, would get done, if only YOU
would answer His call! Amen.
(1)
This joke and the
idea for this sermon, especially the first part, is based upon a sermon found
on the website, ‘www.textweek.com’. The
additional stories are from my own life and ministry.
No comments :
Post a Comment