Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29 Mark 9 : 38-50 Sermon There is a story which goes around and appears in various sermons from time to time. It concerns a group of British soldiers who were in France during the war, when one of their colleagues was killed. In the evening they came across a small church with a graveyard and decided to take the risk of approaching the priest to ask if they could bury their colleague in the graveyard. The priest asked if dead man had been a Catholic and they told him that he wasn t. So the priest told them that while he was very sympathetic, he could not allow him to be buried within the consecrated ground. He did however provide a shovel and told the men they were welcome to bury him just outside the fence, and that is indeed what they did. A few days later they were able to return, wanting to pay their respects and to mark the grave in some way, but they were very disturbed to discover that they couldn t find it. Again the knocked on the door of the priest s house to ask for help. The priest was able to explain. He told them that after they left that night he had been very troubled by what he had said. He knew that he could not, under church law, allow the man to buried in his graveyard, so instead he had got up and moved the fence, so that the new grave would be included within the graveyard. Now I ask you to consider this is that a picture of what we are being told to do by the stories we read from the bible this morning? Is that what Joshua had to learn to do? His complaint was that two men, Eldad and Medad, who were not at Moses meeting, received the spirit to equip them for leadership and were prophesying just like those who were there. That is not how it is supposed to work. That is a recipe for chaos. And what is the use of leaders who can t be bothered coming to a meeting as significant as that one. Joshua has perfectly good reasons for believing that they should not be included, but Moses had to teach him that his
reasons were not what really mattered. Eldad and Medad were also to be included in the scope of God's work. And is that what John had to learn to do? He had clear boundaries in their minds about who was qualified to the work of Jesus. It was the twelve he had chosen and called and taken with him. That seemed sensible enough, obvious enough. It was hard enough for them as full time students to understand what Jesus wanted of them. How could anyone who lacked that teaching and experience possible do the work? John has perfectly good reasons for believing that they should not be included, but Jesus had to teach him that his reasons were not what really mattered. The stranger who was doing powerful work in Jesus name was also to be included in the scope of God's work. In both cases people with firm views had to learn to have a broader view of things and to be more generous in drawing up his boundaries. That lesson certainly seems to fit with what we see of the radical inclusiveness which Jesus demonstrated. We can think of lepers, prostitutes, tax collectors, the woman at the well; again and again we see Jesus reaching beyond the limits of the religious folk of his day to draw outsiders into his fold. And so we could conclude that we too need to learn to be more generous in our thinking about those who may not fit neatly into our categories, who may not belong to our organisations, who may not understand things in the way we understand them, or do things the way we do them, but who are also to be included in the scope of God's work. After all we all have our boundaries, our definitions of who is in and who is out, who can be listed as one of us and who must be regarded as one of them. And our scriptures encourage us to expand those boundaries, to do so with a generous spirit, to aim always to include rather than exclude. Is that what we are supposed to learn from these passage? Well I think that is a very good lesson and a very valid lesson for us. Indeed in the context of our very divided world, and what is often a very divided church, this is an important lesson for us to come to terms with. John's complaint was that these people are not following us meaning that they were not part of
his group. Jesus only concern was that they were following him, however they did it. So if you are anxious about Anglicans, or baffled by Baptists, or concerned about Catholics, or dumbfounded by other denominations, I could go on but I m sure you would get bored long before I get to the more challenging letters. If any of that describes your attitude, then I think these texts urge you to relax and learn a bit of humility. If you really believe that the Almighty is bothered by such labels then you must have a very small view God. If you really think that the Almighty if bothered about such distinctions then you must have a very small view of the mission which you have been called to participate in. So I think that message is true and I think it is important for us to hear. My only concern, and you will have gathered that there was a concern coming, is that this message just seems a bit too small to be worthy of what we are reading. Joshua and John were not really being asked to stretch the boundaries of their inclusiveness just a little bit to allow a few well meaning souls to be accepted. They were being asked to accept that their view of the world, and of how God operates in the world, should be set aside, because God has other plans. That is a much bigger message and a much bigger challenge. Because however broadly and generously we might think we are spreading our circle, it is still our circle, and we are still placing ourselves at the centre of it. However much we might be willing to expand our boundaries we are still working with the assumption that we are the ones who are in the right place to begin with. What both Joshua and John had to come to terms with is that they were not at the centre of things. They had imagined that they were, and they had good reasons for coming to conclusion. But they needed to be reminded that it was not about them. God is at the centre, and their place is within his circle, their role is within his story, and if they insist on seeing reality differently then they are always going to struggle. God is at the centre of life: not Joshua, nor John, nor you, nor I. God is the one whose purposes
are being worked out, not the Church of Scotland, or the wider Reformed Church, or any other church. When we remember that truth we can begin to see what incredible arrogance it is for us to imagine that is might be of any consequence if we decide that someone is worthy to be called a Christian, or if someone is fit to do Christ s work in the world. Seeing that God is at the centre of life, that our job is to serve his purposes rather than his job being to serve our purposes, is what faith in him is all about. Recognising that the world does not revolve around me, or indeed around us is the change in perspective which faith brings. And it is a much more accurate and useful way of understanding what is going on. So these stories this morning come as reminders that God will do what he wants, and he will use people he chooses to fulfil his purposes. If we are too blinkered to see what is going on, too narrow minded to appreciate what is happening our opinions may hinder our understanding, but they will not hold back the kingdom of God. Our plans and our opinions are not actually central to what goes on the world, and the almighty is not waiting for our next prayer to learn what he needs to do next. That is OK. In fact that is good. That should not be cause of anxiety, it is a cause for celebration. This means that we can let go of all those opinions which we have so carefully kept and guarded and polished over the years, because the world will not fall into chaos if we lose our grip of them. God will continue his creative presence in the world with or without regard to what we might think he should or shouldn't do. He will continue to call and to bless and inspire all sorts of people, without stopping to ask our opinions, without giving us any power of veto. Our role is simply to trust him, and to rejoice in every sign of his presence, and to be ready to play our part, be it big or small, whenever we are called to do so. Joshua found that hard. John found that hard. We all find that hard. We like to think that we are smart and that we are right. It is not easy loosen our grip on our prejudices and our plans, to trust that God is still in control even if we feel we are not, to see the bigger picture and rest in the bigger
love. These are not things which come naturally. But they are things which come naturally from faith. May we all learn to trust God more than we trust our own opinions, and to rejoice that have been chosen to serve him, when there are so many reasons why we might have been considered outside of the fold.