"The Holy Spirit Revealed, Part Three"
The Spirit calls us to thankfulness and leadership
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Text: Numbers 11:24-30
I am not sure if this is a well-kept secret or whether it is just confined to members of the staff or Dr. Fritz's own family, but if you scratch any depth in Bill Fritz, you will find a great love, knowledge and understanding of Winston Churchill. Anything you want to know about Winston Churchill, just ask Dr. Fritz and he will tell you. And as this is the last Sunday when Bill and I will be worshipping together before he departs our presence at the end of August, I thought it was fitting that I would open with a quote from Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill was appearing before his cabinet at a very dark and desperate day for his country. Britain was standing alone. Not knowing what to do and wondering whether the country should prepare itself for surrender, he made this wonderful statement to the cabinet: “I find it rather inspiring to stand alone. Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.” Now, there was a man who was defiant!
The stories I have read from the Bible this morning are also moments of defiance in the face of national crisis. But, in this case, it is not Winston Churchill, it is Moses! Moses was facing an onslaught of immeasurable proportions. It was not coming from the Egyptians; that has already been dealt with. Neither was it an opposing army that they would have to conquer; Joshua would face those. The problem that Moses was having was with his own people. He was facing tremendous struggle with his own people because they had left Egypt in the Exodus and were in the wilderness.
They were free for the first time in many years. But no sooner had they escaped to the wilderness than they started to complain. A minority group emerged, a rabble that went to Moses and started arguing with him. Now, it is fascinating that they are in a place that became known as Kibroth-hattaavah. This means literally “the grave of craving.” You see, the people of Israel had a craving, and what they wanted in the wilderness was meat. Who would think that a great crisis would arise over whether or not the people had meat? But, it was a crisis, because they were looking back to their days in Egypt.
In the Book of Numbers the writer goes to great lengths to enumerate all the things that the people were missing. Back in Egypt they had fish, they had cucumbers, they had melons, they had garlic, they had leeks and they had onions. They had all these things, but now they are in the wilderness, and all they have to eat is manna. Manna, as explained in the Book of Numbers, was like a coriander seed. It was crushed or ground and then baked, and it took on a bdellium-like finish, which was crusty and pale - and unappetizing! Manna was not a beautiful thing by any stretch of the imagination!
Remember the ad on television years ago that asked: “Where's the beef?” Had the Israelites come all this way only to be given coriander baked in the sun, which takes on a nice quality when the dew lands on it early in the morning? Moses, of course, heard their cries, and so did God. Moses went to God (this is classic Old Testament anthropomorphism, where God seems like a person who arrives on the scene to speak to) and struck up a conversation. You can just see him raising his hands in indignation. He said, “Why, O God, have you afflicted me with these people? Why do I have to put up with them? Did I conceive them? Did I give birth to them? No! Why don't you just kill me right now and get it over with? After all, they have come out of the wilderness, out of the grasp of Pharaoh, and all they are interested in is meat!” Moses had had it!
God listened to Moses, and God recommended that Moses do a strange thing. He said, “I want you to get together 70 elders who have shown leadership, and bring them into a tent. When they come in, I want you to take some of the spirit that you have and share it with them.” In other words, God was saying that he didn't want Moses to bear the burden alone. He wanted him to go into the tent with the designated leaders and share his spirit with them.
Well, once they got in the tent, these 70 leaders started to do a thing that in Hebrew is called “lithpael” which is to have an ecstatic, prophetic word, and they got all excited and started sharing what God had said to them. “But,” says the wonderful line, “it didn't last.” In other words, he got all the leaders together in a tent and shared his spirit and his burden, and they got so caught up in the ecstasy of the moment that they just stopped, and Moses was back to square one again!
Outside the tent he found two men, Eldad and Medad, and shared with them the spirit, and they also began to prophesy and become ecstatic. But rather than just ceasing or ending, these two shared with Moses the burden of the moment. Then, when Moses thought he had everything sorted out, and he had at least a couple of people who by the power of the spirit were going to work with him against this unruly mob, along came Joshua, the son of Nun!
Joshua, this man who was to become a hero in battle, and who would take Israel into the Promised Land of Canaan, this great, great leader-to-be, who would inherit from Moses the challenge of going into the Promised Land, started to complain: “Who are these two? Medad and Eldad? Never heard of them! They may be filled with the Spirit's power, but I don't care! I don't understand why you are allowing them to take a leadership position in the community.”
In verse 29, Moses says “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all of the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them.” Notice the language: “all of the Lord's people were prophets.” Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Moses' great desire was for the people to have the spirit of God and not just be overwhelmed by their own concerns or wrapped up in their own pleasures. He wanted people to look first to what God was doing, rather than to their own appetites and their own pleasures. Interestingly enough, God brought down fire on those who had complained. Medad and Eldad desired the spirit of God, and they were faithful to Moses, the one who had led them out of Egypt.
So, what does all this say to us on Canada Day? This event happened 3,000 years ago. What are we to say about this that has any meaning in our own lives? Well, my friends, I think there is great meaning in all this, both for the quality of leadership that nations need, and for the church and the people of God. I think this is a great statement about the power of the Spirit to work among God's people, and to see the Spirit in the context of the whole of the Scriptures, not just the New Testament.
This passage has tremendous wealth for us, starting with understanding that the Spirit of God really desires us to be thankful. There is no question!
Any Old Testament scholar will tell you that the central motif in the Old Testament is the Exodus. It was the defining moment. It was the point to which Israel looked forward for its liberation, and that it looked back to for deliverance and instruction. Whenever the people forgot, whenever the people got wrapped up in themselves, whenever they loved their kings too much or their leaders became corrupt or the Temple took on too much importance or their appetites had taken them over, there was this constant reminder: Remember the One who set you free and brought you out of the land of Egypt. Remember that moment, and don't forget the God who brought you out.
Moses had that readily on his heart and mind, but the people started to complain. They had forgotten very quickly how they had lived. Oh, some of them had had fairly decent lives: They had had their meat, their melons, their garlic and their leeks. They had had many things, but they didn't have their freedom. They weren't a nation. They weren't going to continue God's plan and destiny if they had stayed in Egypt. Their appetites, their pleasures, had taken precedence over the power of their very being.
Moses was upset with them, and understandably so. My friends, I think this is a strong message to any people in any land, but most especially to our own Canada. So often, we take this great land we have for granted: the virtues that we possess; the freedoms that we experience; the joy and peace that we have. So often we look, just like the rabble and the grumblers in the time of Moses, at what is not happening and forget to be thankful for the land we have.
There was only one time in my life when I was ever really punished and chastised, many years ago, when I was a little boy. I have looked back on my life many times since, and wondered why, with all the things that I did wrong, all the lying, all the bullying, all the cheating, all the lack of doing homework, all the painting on the floor of my father's study, all the breaking the back window of the house by kicking a soccer ball through it, all the things I did wrong, there was only one time when I was sent to my room and really, really given a punishment.
It was not long after we had arrived in Bermuda. On a very warm evening, my mother had been slaving over the stove to make dinner. The meal was fish, with a little salad on the side. My father and I came down to the dinner table, and I said, “Is this all we are having?” Within 36.2 seconds, I was in my bed upstairs! “You will not eat for the next 24 hours,” bellowed my father. “Don't come out and show your face again!” For 24 hours, I knew what hunger was, and I never forgot it. At the end of the evening of the next day, my father let me come downstairs, and we sat down quietly at the dinner table, and I looked at the dinner, and it was worse than the meal that I had been offered the night before! Did I say anything? No!
I asked my father years later, “Why did you became so irritated and angry with me at that time?” He said, “Because Andrew, as far as I am concerned, the greatest sin is to take for granted what has been given us.” When in the years to come I ran into people in Africa who were truly hungry, I remembered what my father had said, and how terrible it was that I was so ungrateful!
In this great land in which we live, a land that has so much, isn't it terrible that we grumble and take it for granted? Isn't it terrible that we get wrapped up in our own appetites and our own pleasures, not noticing whether we are doing the greater good or caring for the people who are truly in need? When we are only worried about whether we have our version of the fish and melons and leeks of the Israelites, we don't remember the many in the world who have so little, and what they would give for one coriander seed of what this country has!
It is a great crime to take for granted your land and your people and your freedom. It is a crime against the Holy Spirit, who is the Giver. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Medad, Eldad and Moses understood that the real response that God requires from his people is that which should have happened in the tent, and should have lasted: a worshipful thankfulness; a declaration of praise; and recognition that God's hands had set them free.
The Spirit not only inculcates a sense of thankfulness, but also gives us a true sense of what constitutes leadership. We live in a fascinating day and age, because so many people in our society worship the cult figure or the charismatic character. Very often, these characters do not have any particular great qualities, except that they are charismatic. I watched the MuchMusic awards, this week, (and please don't misunderstand me, I am not picking on one person), and I watched Paris Hilton, (or as one of my friend calls her, “London's Holiday Inn.”) walk down the red carpet. Everyone was grabbing for her and everyone was ecstatic, just like the people of Israel were in the tent. Oh my, people were drooling over her, wanting her autograph. Well, I imagine she is a nice woman, but really, this is getting ridiculous! Just being a celebrity means you keep being a celebrity - because you are a celebrity!
I think this is one of the great challenges of our day. In a media world that loves the charismatic, loves the smooth talker, loves the good looking, loves those that can put on a good show, we often become hoodwinked. Very often, even our political leaders bow to style over substance and to energy and expedience over truth. It is so easily done! True charismatic leadership is, as Max Vráble said, “those who stand out in a moment of crisis and lead the people in the right direction.” Those are the truly charismatic!
The truly charismatic are those who by the power of God's Holy Spirit, not by force of personality, do what Moses did: share. They do not draw energy to themselves, but give their energy to others. They do not elevate themselves, but elevate the people by the force and the power that the Spirit of God has given them. Moses, Eldad and Medad did just that! Moses was a man of prayer. If anything, he was somebody who wanted to share the power of God's Spirit with others, and wanted others to experience that self-same power themselves. That is why he told Joshua off.
That is the error Joshua made: He wanted to maintain his power. Moses wanted the people to have the power, in order that they could serve God. That was true, charismatic leadership. It was God-based; it was Spirit-inspired.
Now, you are saying to me, “But, Andrew, that was a theocratic state. We now live in a secular state, in a secular world. Can we, and should we, expect leaders to seek the power and the wisdom and the guidance of God's Holy Spirit?” To which, I answer, “Yes. Of course we can and should!” As Canadians, we must never forget the bounty and the splendour that we have been given, because it is not ours by divine right; it is ours by divine gift. We do not expect everyone to subscribe to every single doctrine that we do, but at the very least, we should pray for our leaders that they have the charisma of God's Spirit, as opposed to the charisma of an attractive expediency. We must pray for our leaders.
The Spirit also speaks to the people. Moses wanted the Spirit to descend upon them. Who are the people, but the Church? Canada needs the Church to be the Church. Canada needs the Church to proclaim the Word. Canada needs the Church to exercise the gifts of the Spirit. Canada needs the Church to be a people rooted and grounded in the love of God. It won't always be easy. To have the Spirit was, and is, a great demand as well as a great honour, a challenge as well as a blessing.
I love to go back to Winston Churchill. Speaking at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon in 1942, he said, “I have not become the King's first minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire.” Addressing the House of Commons in 1940, he said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” And to the students of Harrow in 1941, he urged, “Never give in.”
The mission of the Church is like the mission of Moses, Medad and Eldad. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it is a challenge. It is a challenge to go into the world that God loves so much, and to do so with humility, not hoarding the Spirit for ourselves and our own pleasures and our own benefit, but sharing it and giving it and invoking it by God's almighty grace.
There is a wonderful message in Peter I to a church that was struggling and persecuted under the hands of the Romans. The writer of Peter I said: “We should use whatever gift we have received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. Whoever speaks should do it as one speaking the very words of God. Whoever serves should do it with the strength that God provides, so that in all things, God may be praised through Jesus Christ, and to Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
That is what happens when the Spirit of Christ comes upon his people. May it rest upon us and our nation and its leaders, now and always! May God keep our land! Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.