Kingdom Leadership in Numbers 11

Sermon 364 St. Martin’s 120 (Big Church) 9/28/24

The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.”

Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So 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? Did 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? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If 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.”

So 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.”

So 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. Then 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.

Two 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. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But 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!”

Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29

John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But 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. Whoever is not against us is for us. For 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.

Mark 9:38-41

Lewis & Clark

Ever since I was a young boy, I’ve been fascinated by the remarkable journey of Lewis and Clark. Thomas Jefferson had commissioned Merriweather Lewis to search for the mysterious Northwest Passage that would be the key to unlocking trade to the Pacific Ocean.

For three hundred years, it was assumed by European explorers that there was a waterway that bridged the entire continent of North America, and it was up to Lewis and his co-commanding officer, William Clark, to lead a team into the vast western wilderness.

The Corps of Discovery, as they were called, was made up of 40 experienced outdoorsmen who had spent much of their lives in and around rivers. They were all accustomed to boats and navigating rapids, this was a water expedition after all.

With the immense help of Sacagawea, they passed through many different tribal territories with only a little drama here or there.

After 15 long months of going upstream, Lewis and Clark had finally made it to the Continental Divide at a place called Lemhi Pass in present-day Idaho.

As Lewis made the short climb to the top of the Pass, he assumed he would see the Columbia River that would take them directly to the Pacific Ocean. They would simply move their boats from one river to the next; going downstream all the way to the western shore of the Louisiana Purchase.

But as Lewis wrote of the experience at Lemhi Pass he said, “After refreshing ourselves, we proceeded on the top of the dividing ridge from which I discovered immense ranges of high mountains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow.”[i]

Instead of seeing a subtle river meandering west, Lewis saw the Rocky Mountains. Or as one of the other men in the expedition said, they were “the most terrible mountains I ever beheld.”[ii]

When that happened, Lewis and Clark had to significantly adjust their plans based on what was right in front of them. They may have been demoralized by their unexpected discovery, but they quickly adapted.

The mission was still the mission: find the best path to the Pacific. And so, these skilled river navigators ditched their canoes and became mountaineers out of sheer necessity.  

There’s a wonderful book on church leadership that uses this critical moment at Lemhi Pass to help pastors and lay leaders think about what the church faces in the 21st century. The author, Tod Bolsinger, says that what worked for the church for so long is not necessarily going to work in the future.

The situation has changed and those in church leadership need to adjust to the new set of circumstances. Leaders have to find fresh ways to engage with a culture that is becoming less and less interested—not with the gospel—but how the church is communicating it. The book is appropriately entitled Canoeing the Mountains.

Lewis and Clark had to adjust their expectations, and how they were going to lead the expedition going forward. They would need to rely on members of their team in new ways.

They’d have to take on different responsibilities to meet the challenges ahead. They simply could not canoe over the Rockies. This challenge would bring new opportunities to all of them if they were willing to adapt.

Numbers 11 Moses was having his own Lemhi Pass moment in our reading from Numbers Chapter 11 this morning/evening. Instead of seeing a range of mountains blocking his path to the Promised Land, Moses saw a sea of ungrateful people who had quickly forgotten what God had done for them. And what God had done was “the impossible.”

He had somehow gotten them out of Egyptian slavery and brought them to safety in the wilderness where there was no food or water to speak of, and so God had personally nourished them with bread from heaven.

Miracle upon miracle had been lavished on the Israelites, and yet, they were dissatisfied, tired of the same old meal every day. And they were saying among themselves, “Slavery is better than this. At least we had decent produce to eat.”

A remarkable phrase from a people who had been liberated from backbreaking labor, seven days a week, with rest only given due to old age, serious injury, or death.

Oh, how quickly we forget the goodness of God.

Moses is understandably a tired leader by this point. He’s exhausted, has nothing left to give, completely and utterly burned out.

In this very intimate and honest vignette with God, we hear Moses’ frustration of leading a people with such short-term memories. The burden of leadership has gotten too heavy for the man who didn’t want this responsibility to begin with.

He tells God, “This is not what I signed up for, and if I had known this, I would’ve never said yes.” But out of that honest conversation comes a solution. God calls on Moses to gather up the 70 elders of Israel so that they can share in his ministry.

He was never meant to carry it all by himself, he just needed to ask. A first-century rabbi once said, “Ask it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”[iii]

Well, Moses finally learned that he needed to ask, and it was granted to him. Help was on the way.

You may have noticed how quickly Moses’ mood changes. He goes from blaming God to rejoicing in those who have been called to help facilitate this wilderness expedition with him. A weight has been lifted as the gift of leadership and responsibility is shared with others.

This is a new reality for Moses and one that he will have to adjust to, just as it will be a change for those who have been given a greater role in the community. This change is blessed by God with the outpouring of the Spirit on the 70 elders who gathered around the Tent of Meeting, yet even the Spirit’s presence cannot be contained to the 70.

The Spirit spills over to Eldad and Medad who aren’t a part of the chosen 70. It’s as if once that door has been opened for others to take part in leadership and God’s Spirit begins moving, well, that door cannot be shut.

It is a version of Pandora’s box that unleashes blessings rather than curses. Once it begins, it cannot be undone. The Spirit is let loose.

It appears that Moses is being taught a lesson about leadership in the Kingdom of God. It is given in order to be given away; responsibility is meant to be shared and experienced with others. It empowers and then multiplies in ways that are uncontrollable to the one it was first granted to.

It is a hard lesson for Moses to learn; he got to the point of quitting before asking for help, but the journey in front of him did not have to be carried out alone.  

Mark 9 Something eerily similar happens in our gospel passage, and I love it when the themes of our Sunday lectionary line up in this way. It is a New Testament version of Numbers 11 where instead of the top dog being given a lesson about God’s generous leadership style, it’s Jesus’ selected recruits.

The few, the chosen, the apostles themselves, learn the hard way that this gift Jesus has given them is not solely for them. The Kingdom door has been cracked open and the Spirit floods into any willing heart because once that door has been opened it cannot be shut.

The person casting out demons in Jesus’ name may not have been hand-selected by Jesus, but he was doing the work of Jesus (and possibly more effective than the apostles). Were they jealous of him?

You can hear their concern when they tell Jesus that an unauthorized person is using his name, image, and likeness. “Lord, we’ve tried to control the messaging and brand that you’ve created. You’ve got the patent on it. Sure, this guy is using it for good reasons, but he needs to ask your permission before this gets out of control. Soon everyone will be healing in the name of Jesus and then what?”

Jesus had to adjust their expectation of the future. If it is about them and only them being evangelists and ministers of this earth-shattering good news, then the mission is in trouble.

If the disciples planned to hold onto it out of some need to control then they had forgotten the story of Numbers 11, and that once God’s Spirit enters the picture, all bets are off.

When God empowers one, it is best to assume that it will quickly multiply into many. The Spirit of God is not something (or someone) to be contained, concealed, or possessed. The Spirit generously gives in order to be given away.

There is a theme we see in these two readings. Moses reached his limit and asked for help. The disciples didn’t ask for help, but God knew they were gonna need it. In each case, God’s Spirit empowers others to share in the Kingdom leadership.

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For us today, I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that you are a leader by the sheer fact that you are baptized. We are all followers, first and foremost, but in our baptism, we were made vessels of God’s Holy Spirit. And it is in God’s nature to give in an overflowing manner—in a generous, unceasing, never-ending way.

“My cup runneth over,” the psalmist says, with no thought that it will ever run dry.

Our baptismal gift is a gift of identity that we are now in Christ (in a way that we weren’t before), but it is also a gift of empowerment, to be sent out for the life of the world.

It is a gift that is for you but not solely for you. It is to be given away, knowing that there is an endless supply coming directly from the Source.  

We miss the point if we hold onto the gift and don’t share it with others. Part of following Jesus entails taking up the responsibilities laid upon you at your baptism—to continue in the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.

But leadership can be as subtle as pointing out a gift that someone else may have and empowering them to take the next step. It can be as simple as saying, “You know, I’ve noticed this gift that you have, and God may be wanting to utilize it.” Maybe it’s the gift of hospitality, the gift of conversation, listening, consoling, serving, or teaching.

Christian leaders have the courage to see something in someone else and tell them.

That was the hard lesson the disciples had to learn. “That fella over there has a gift—he’s healing people in Jesus’ name—and I need to rejoice in the same way that Moses rejoiced when the Spirit rested on even Eldad and Medad. Because in God’s economy, there is always enough.”

If you would, consider this morning/evening a Lemhi Pass moment in which you reflect on what has gotten you to this point in your life, but also what is it in the distance God is calling you towards—and whose going with you. As Jesus has told us, the harvest is plentiful, but the labors are few. And don’t doubt for a moment that you are needed in the harvest.

The journey from this point on is not always easy. If you’ve been following Jesus for any time at all, then you know that for certain, and adjustments may be needed along the way.

But gosh, the view at the end of this adventure, well, it’ll leave you speechless.  

[i] Canoeing the Mountains p. 26

[ii] Canoeing the Mountains p. 27

[iii] Matthew 7:7, NIV