SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – 01 October 2006
St Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman
Numbers 11:4-6, 101-6, 24-29; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50
“Speak up!”
Over the past 20 years in my work as a pastor I have learned many important things from others; one of them is how important it is to speak up. There are the people whose ability to hear is failing or impaired – for their sake it is important to speak up. Then there are those situations where the crowd simply won’t quiet down and a well-articulated “The Lord be with you” in the pastor’s familiar voice gets their attention – that comes in handy, too. But there is also the time when a word of hope or correction, a call to accountability or a call to lament, is needed – here too a time to speak is at hand. In many and various ways God’s word for today reminds us that speaking up is indeed part of our heritage, part of our call.
Moses heard the people weeping, grumbling. It wasn’t the first time; wouldn’t be the last. But this time when Moses speaks it isn’t against the grumblers, it’s against the Lord. The LORD got angry, the writer of Numbers tells us, and Moses got angry right back. He speaks up to the LORD, complaining that the leadership load he is carrying is simply too much. He has worked and struggled, listened and cajoled, tried to carry out the role God directed him to, but the load is too heavy ‘—“I cannot carry them alone.” Sound familiar? It’s like those times when we feel if someone asks me to do one more thing I’m going to explode, when we look around and all we see are the same old faces doing the lion’s share of the work at church or at the club or at the school or…you get the idea. Moses was fed up. So he takes it to the Lord – yes! Takes it to the Lord in prayer. And God replies: I’ll help you – go get seventy leaders, bring them to the church, and my spirit will do the rest.” God provided. Yet when a couple of the elders who were blessed in the special ceremony outside the camp see a couple others prophesying inside the camp (who just like them were also blessed with the spirit of prophesy – guess they couldn’t tell by looking), instead of rejoicing that others had shown up to help they criticize them for not doing it their way. I love Moses’ reply: WOULD THAT ALL THE LORD’S PEOPLE WERE PROPHETS – if only you ALL would speak up!
James talks about speaking up in another way, in another context. He’s focused on the need for healing, for restoration, for forgiveness and reconciliation. Call for prayer, confess your sins, sing songs of praise -- speak up! “The prayer of the righteous – the ones who follow Jesus – is powerful and effective. It’ll change things, and it just might save a sinner’s soul. If only you ALL would speak up!
Jesus words make sure we hear the overlay of INCLUSIVENESS on this call to speak up. Remember that Mark has the disciples looking like a pretty clueless lot. Time and again they simply don’t get the Jesus message, even at one point so exasperating Jesus that he calls them a clueless lot. This time we can see it for ourselves: they were casting out demons in your name but they weren’t doing it our way. They weren’t using our liturgy, they weren’t following our doctrine, they weren’t wearing liturgically correct vestments and using the official language and wearing their hair in the correct style and using the music we’re familiar with and … you get the picture. Jesus replies: “Whoever is not against us is for us.” No lines – just guide lines. No rules – just righteousness. Following Jesus means following the path of inclusiveness. Pay attention here: what Jesus says in not the same as the line we often cite in our dichotomous thinking, the concept that whoever isn’t for us is against us. Not at all. Jesus’ way is the way of open embrace, the way of possibility, the way of hope: who knows, THEY could be right! Maybe we can learn something from them. If all they can do is offer a cup of water to a thirsty soul – hey, that’s what we’re about. C’mon in!
A story from the Sufi masters offers insight into being salt, or leaven or light in a troubled world. There was a spiritual elder who asked the disciples to name what was most important in life: wisdom or action? The disciples ere unanimous in their opinions: “It’s action, of course. After all, what use is wisdom that does not show itself in action?” [Those who’ve read the book of James know he might agree.] The master replies,” Well, perhaps, but of what use is action that proceeds from an unenlightened heart?” Openness through prayer enlightens our hearts to God’s way. Openness to the other helps us understand more fully how little we know about life after all, and how much we have to learn about God by actively engaging in relationships with them.
Friday evening along with several other folks from St. Paul I attended the fourth annual Turquoise Chalice award dinner hosted by the NM conference of Churches. J. Paul Taylor, a long-time legislator from Las Cruces, was the award recipient. Active in a Roman Catholic parish, devoted husband who with his wife, Mary, raised seven children, Paul Taylor worked for decades to advocate for the least among us, to pass legislation that would strengthen the families and communities of New Mexico, to witness to the faith that carries him. Yet in his speech what we heard was nothing about his accomplishments, but everything about gratitude – thanking his heritage and his parents, his children and spouse, his church and all those who served with him and supported him by their persistence whether they agreed with him or not. We all laughed when afterward Paul told a small gathering of St. Paul folks that the support and witness of the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry at the Roundhouse was invaluable to him. The only problem, he said, is that years from now when his great grandchildren find the awards LOGM-NM gave him for his years of faithful witness, he is afraid they’ll say, “We never knew great granddad was Lutheran!”
We need to speak up, regardless of our denominational affiliation, regardless of our circumstance in life, speak up for what Jesus stands for: release for the captive, sight for the blind, forgiveness for the burdened, peace in all things. In order to faithfully do this, however, we need to become ever more aware of those things that block us on the path. Jesus words are rather graphic on this: if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. We get the picture – self-awareness is a critical tool for this journey of faithful living. If we are to bear witness in a way credible to those who are watching from the outside, we need to take pains that our actions proceed from our heart. If drinking is killing your relationships, get help to quit. If work is causing you to lose patience with those you love, find another career path. If fear causes you to react defensively to the world around you, stop – listen for the source of that fear – then turn to the source of hope, and live. This may mean taking the risk of talking politics or finances or personal struggles with a sister or brother in faith, or with a complete stranger; it may mean taking the risk of finding professional medical help or spiritual guidance. Accountability is never painless, Jesus reminds us, and yet living a lie will always lead us to hell and to the unquenchable fire. Chose life: give up harming others lest you continue harming yourself.
From the beginning of time we were created to live in community. What we do personally, and corporately, affects the entire community. This first Sunday in October many Protestant churches are celebrating World Communion Sunday. When early church leaders thought about the meaning of the Lord’s Supper they wondered if it meant more than just the forgiveness of sins of individual Christians. In the earliest writings the image of a people gathered is often blended in with the image of gathered grain kneaded and pressed into the bread of Holy Communion. For Augustine the communion loaf was a symbol of the unity of all Christians. He wanted Christians to see that, like the harvested grain, we have been ground by prayer into a fine meal, moistened by the waters of Baptism, then united into one loaf – the body of Christ in the world. In these times when we too readily draw dividing lines between denominations -- even sometimes within denominations -- attempting to define who is RIGHT and who is not, Augustine’s teaching reminds us we are nothing more than a speck in the one loaf, only a small part but indeed a part of the whole loaf, the body of Christ. Saving the world isn’t up to us – God has already taken care of that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. And God formed this “loaf” not to be frozen and stored – we exist to nourish the world with the one heavenly food, the Good News of God’s grace.
What if we believed that God is already at work in the hearts of folks who are “out there” beyond the scope of our experience and our understanding, beyond the walls our fear of rejection and hopelessness have erected – what if we truly believed that saving the world isn’t up to us, only speaking our faith and watching God work the details. Could you find your voice? Will you now? A hurting neighbor and a hurting world are longing to hear from you.