Meanwhile, back at the camp...

And Joshua son of Nun… said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them!’ - Numbers 11:28

When we meet Moses and the elders at the start of Numbers 11:24-30, the people had just come through an epic episode of complaining and grumbling in the wilderness, and Moses was getting pretty fed up with them! So God says to Moses: “Gather seventy of the trusted elders. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them; and they shall bear the burden of the people along with you so that you will not bear it all by yourself.” And God does just that. When the elders gathered around the tent of meeting, the place where they would worship, some of the spirit God had put onto Moses was put also onto each of them, so that they were then all able to prophecy, and could then share the leadership of the people with Moses.

But two of the elders, Eldad and Medad, had not come to the tent, and were still back at the camp. Despite them not being with the others, the spirit also on them and they started prophesying back in the camp on their own. Joshua, Moses assistant, was incensed. Hey! Those guys weren’t part of our group. Who do they think they are? My lord Moses, stop them!

But Moses’ response is very generous and grateful. He says: “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!”

A. I think Moses is really grateful for any help he can get with these disgruntled people.

B. Moses trusts God. If God gave Eldad and Medad some of the spirit and didn’t leave them out, that must be a good thing.

I hear a message for the church in all this, because we’re going through nothing short of a major reformation in the wake of the coronavirus crisis in the churches right now. Without having the ability to meet as usual, we’re having to think very deeply about what our priorities are and how we are being called to live into them faithfully. The situation has required us to do things very, very differently, and will require continuing major changes going forward..

Epic change is difficult, and might lead to some epic griping and complaining among the members, as Moses well knew. We’ll all be sorely tempted to be like Joshua, whose first impulse is to resist anything that is outside our usual box. We like the tent of meeting and what we’ve always done there. It is hard to stretch our imaginations as far out as the camp.

But even as our inner Joshuas frequently make themselves known, we also have an inner Moses that trusts in God. Sure, sometimes God’s Spirit roars in like a rushing wind and lights things on fire, but it also leads us to understand things we could never have understood before, and connect with others in new ways.

On Pentecost, I often speak about how over the centuries we’ve tamed the awesomeness of Pentecost. Wild tongues of fire are represented by the tiny flames on the altar candles. The whipping wind of the Spirit is re-enacted with electric fans blowing on red streamers. It’s so nice and its so controllable to commemorate the power of the Spirit way back then at the original Pentecost. My, it must have been quite a day for those disciples.

But the Spirit is still among us, and will not be tamed, and sometimes takes us on wild rides which can be downright frightening. The Spirit confronts us with new languages we don’t understand and visions that are confusing to our familiar understandings. We need to respond like Moses, remembering that God is God and we are not God. If this pandemic has reminded us of anything, it’s that we are not the ones in control.

So I’ll be watching for the Eldads and Medads this year - the prophecies that are out there on the outskirts, speaking words of wisdom, even if their language is strange to my ears and sensibilities. The Spirit is at work in the world, in the church and in us, and our inner Moses is being invited to be attentive to the new thing God is up to in all this.

I pray that in the weeks ahead, we will find help in unexpected places, and will be brought together in faith with our hearts on fire, just as the early disciples were. There are challenges ahead for all churches. Thanks be to God that we never have to carry our burdens alone.

The readings for this Sunday are HERE