You, and everyone, are not alone in your faith journey or service to the world as Christ: you have a share of the Spirit to encourage, empower, and help you.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lect. 26 B
Texts: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38-50
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Moses finally cracked under the pressure.
Leading thousands of people through a wilderness, being the focus of all their complaints and expectations, doing a job he didn’t want but God called him to do, all came to a head in today’s reading. The latest complaint is they want meat along with the manna, and Egypt sounds pretty good to them.
And Moses loses it. He accuses God of treating him badly, abandoning him to the burden of these people that Moses didn’t give birth to or decide to drag through a wilderness. Moses says that if God loves him at all, God should just kill him.
And immediately God tells Moses to gather up 70 trusted elders of the people so God can take some of the Spirit on Moses and give a share of God’s Spirit to each one. It’s such an immediate, easy answer, it feels as if God is asking Moses, “who told you that you had to do this all alone?” After all, when Moses protested he was a horrible speaker, God told him to bring Aaron. Here, the second Moses asks for help, God offers it.
“Who told you that you had to do this all alone?” That’s a good question for you and me to ponder.
Like Moses, these days sometimes push us to the brink.
As the election nears, as hateful rhetoric increases, as panicked poll-watching raises anxiety, we can despair. “What on earth can I do?” On top of the election, all the other problems are still there: oppression, racism, sexism, hunger, war, violence and systemic pressure against the weak and vulnerable.
I sometimes think like Moses – these are your children, God! What am I supposed to do about this?
But today God asks, “Who told you that you had to do this all alone?” And look, today Jesus promises that what the 70 got, you and I also get: a share of the Spirit. Jesus promises the women and men following him that they – actually that everyone – will be salted with fire. It’s a mixed metaphor, but he’s referring to Pentecost. The Spirit of God will pour into people and make them salt, seasoning. You get a share of the Spirit, and so do all, so that you, and I, and all, can be salt for the world, bringing the flavor and joy of God’s healing and hope to all. And no one said you had to do this all alone. We’re all helping in this together, all with a share of the Spirit, with millions around the world.
But there is another layer to this gift. To see it, we first have to deal with Jesus’ odd metaphors.
The other layer is your faith life, how you walk Christ’s cross-shaped path.
But Jesus uses challenging metaphors to describe it.
First, he talks about removing things from your life that cause you to sin, to abandon your path of Christ. But he uses a particularly gruesome image, the removal of body parts that get you into trouble. And he does it three times, deepening our discomfort.
Second, he says the path of Christ leads to life, and sin that takes you off that path leads to the valley of Gehenna. This is a ravine outside Jerusalem that was basically the stinking garbage dump of the city. Fires were constantly burning in it. So following Jesus leads to real life, while sinning, breaking away from Jesus, is throwing your life away into a garbage dump that’s always burning. Again, a particularly ugly metaphor.
But remember the end of this teaching: “everyone will be salted by fire.” Now fire isn’t punishment but purification. So the fire of Pentecost is good news: the share of the Spirit you receive will burn away those parts of you that lead you to sin – maybe a more helpful metaphor than dismemberment. And now, hear God’s question again.
This time it’s: “who told you that you had to do your discipleship all alone?”
Sometimes even more strongly than thinking about our life in the world we think our faith journey is all on us. Our failings, our lack of vision, the challenges we deal with, our falling back when we thought we were moving forward, all is our problem to solve.
But who told you that you had to be a disciple all on your own? Jesus asks. I give you a share of my Spirit so that you are never alone. God’s Spirit not only burns away the parts that lead you astray, God’s Spirit empowers you, encourages you, fills you with hope. You are transformed into Christ, and you have God’s Spirit to pray to for help, to lean on for strength. You’re not expected to be faithful all by yourself. You have God’s Spirit.
But there is a warning in both these stories today that we need to hear.
Joshua is enraged at Eldad and Medad and wants Moses to shut them down. They were among the 70 on the authorized list of elders, but they didn’t gather at the tent of meeting. And the Spirit filled them, anyway. This can’t be tolerated, Joshua says. But Moses is so thrilled to have other Spirit-filled people to help, he tells Joshua he wishes that everyone would be so filled. Everyone.
And then this strange person somehow is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John wants this shut down, since he’s not one of them. But Jesus says that anyone who does good in his name is on their side, even if he’s not part of the group. The only way the demons would be cast out is if the Spirit is with this stranger, so Jesus is fine with it, like Moses.
So here’s today’s warning: having a share of God’s Spirit doesn’t give you the authority to try and control who else gets that Spirit or to shut people out. Remember, our last view of Jesus in last week’s Gospel was with a child in his lap, urging that she be welcomed as Christ. No time elapses between these verses, so Jesus still has little Esther in his lap as he warns against shutting people out or causing little ones who trust in him to sin. That’s what’s at stake for Jesus: every child of God. It’s what’s at stake for you and me, too.
No one says you have to do your faith life on your own. No one says you have to heal the world on your own.
That’s your good news. And mine. So you can embrace the hope of Moses and the confidence of Jesus, that the Spirit getting out to everyone is always going to be a gift and blessing, and rejoice.
Because if Moses’ dream becomes reality, that everyone receives this share of the Spirit, can you imagine what this world would become? If Jesus’ promise that all will be salted with the Spirit’s fire becomes reality, can you imagine the spicy joy of the whole creation? All that God dreams for God’s children and the whole creation could come about through you, and me, and, well, Moses hopes, through everyone.
And wouldn’t that be a wonder to see?
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
