Building Greatness in Each Person May 11, 2008

Numbers 11:24-30
Acts of the Apostles 2:1-21
This morning is Mother's day as well as the Day of Pentecost.
On such a morning, I am reminded how often Mother's seem invisible.
Knowing that explains everything. Why when family walk into the kitchen, we cannot see you are talking on the phone. Being invisible, we do not see the refrigerator gets cleaned out, the laundry gets done, or even if you are standing on your head in a corner. At times, Mom's are only a pair of hands: Open this. Take this. Fix this. At other times you are transportation: I need to be picked up at 5:30! At others a satellite: What time is it? What channel is Disney?
A woman friend received the gift of a book on the Great Cathedrals of Europe. She thought it a lovely table decoration, until she opened the cover and read the inscription from the donor: "For one who is creating greatness no one but God sees." Beneath this was the Author's dedication, "No one knows the names of the builders of the Great Cathedrals. Their lives, their sacrifices, were dedicated to creating greatness, one labor at a time." Then there was a photo, of the inside corner of a roof beam, where there a a beautiful intricate carving of a bird with the most fragile delicate looking flower. The caption read, "The craftsman carved what no one but God would ever see." Suddenly it occurred to her that his invisibility as a mother was not a disease, the fact that her smelled vaguely of peanut butter was not an affliction. These were the cures to our self-consciousness and isolation. Every sequin sewn on a costume at midnight, every cookie and cupcake had been a gift that God had seen.

Pentecost is a transformation of us, a transformation of the Church, from hiding in an upper room doing what we have always done for our own satisfaction and needs, to having a passion that drives us out into the world, into interaction with others. At times, what we do is so small and insignificant no one will seem to see, at times we do what no one else would imagine doing... but where no one else sees, God sees us building greatness in each other.

There was a time, when you could go into a bookstore and there were two sections: Fiction and NonFiction. Today, there are sections on LEADERSHIP, SPIRITUALITY, COMMUNITY BUILDING, PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT, etc. In truth, the Old Books, this old book, offered great wisdom on Leadership, Faith, Spirituality, Community Building and Personal Development, with two differences. The current books are written by “Personalities” building their power and authority: Steven Covey on Leadership, William Bennett on Virtues, HWGeorge Bush and Bill Clinton on Giving, The Dali Lama & Bill Cosby on Spirituality, Oprah on Community Building, each with the kernel of an idea seeded for the consumption of mass culture. Where the Bible spreads many different seeds for building up greatness, in each individual.

We don't have the opportunity to preach on he Book of Numbers very often, which is a loss, because like that people we Wander in a wilderness searching for faith, for meaning, for fulfillment and promise. The People complained they were tired of eating Manna, they wanted Meat. They possessed Cattle, Sheep, Goats, the Nation could Change with different economic times, could learn to do without and save and SHARE with one another from among what they had, but the people demanded GIVE US MORE, give us an economic stimulus a taste of what we want in excess.

Moses recognized this as a question of leadership.
GOD knew this people had only recently been born anew from hard labor in Egypt, being brought up out of the waters of the Red Sea, if they were to be a new creation they must begin by nursing on Spiritual food, on Manna, every meal every day for forty years. The people longed for something else, for Dinosaur barbeque sauce or garlic powder, something more, they looked to Moses for Change, as the One filled with the Spirit, with Charisma, literally with Gifts (for the word Charisma means Gifts) of Leadership. Moses went to GOD with the Complaints and Needs of the people.
But where the people wanted Change,
where what GOD Heard "Where's the Beef! Demanding Meat, rather than being fed with Spirit, A Desire to kill and consume,
Moses perceived the need to BUILD GREATNESS in EACH person, to lead, to share responsibility.
Moses entreated God NOT to give more Spirit, or different spiritual gifts, but to redistribute to the Elders.

Rather than being at the center of the village, the TENT OF MEETING where Moses brought the needs and complaints of the people to God, and the blessings and curses of God to the people was just outside their encampment, apart from the people. MOSES went into the Tent, while the 70 Elders stood in a circle around the perimeter. AND the Charisma, the Gifts of Leadership and Faith, the SPIRIT OF GOD that had rested upon Moses, was now shared briefly with all the Elders. Not that they would become any challenge to Moses, but that each might have the seeds of GREATNESS in them BUILT UP.

The Biblical Historian went to great lengths to describe that there were 70 ELDERS, and ALL 70 were Gathered together, and the SPIRIT of God that had rested upon Moses was given to each. As much as to say, they took great pains to be ORGANIZED, to PLAN and CONTROL, what took place. The SPIRIT of GOD given to MOSES was shared with the 70 Elders, were they then a threat to Moses' Leadership? Was there a Challenge for POWER? And the Historian wants to say NO Because it was organized and Controlled and all 70 kept each other accountable, and the GIFT of the Spirit given to each did not last. BUT, ELDAD and MEDAD, were counted among the 70, but were not outside the Village, they were with the People when the spirit was given to them.

The Church has always had this fear of the Spirit.
There is God, who creates ORDER, ALPHA and OMEGA, who was COVENANT PROMISE to Abraham and Sarah, who gave the LAW to Moses, and PROPHECY to PROPHETS is scary enough.
Jesus who CALLS and HEALS, TEACHES, SUFFERS and DIES and is RESURRECTED, is enough.
For the last Century human society has been divided over whether we are willing to believe that everything that is, everything we can imagine, all that has been and can ever be is only attributable to the evolutionary development of the accidental combustion of gases, or whether there is a GOD. For the last 2000 years and more, human cultures have gone to war over the reality of the incarnation of God, the Christ, the Messiah, who suffered and died to forgive human sin.
We rarely consider the SPIRIT.

Like the Historian of the Old Testament, we want all those touched with Spirit to be together, BUT over there, out of the center of things. AND YET the SPIRIT cannot remain locked away in an upper room.

Preachers often combine the passage from ACTS about the day of Pentecost with the Tower of Babel. That long generations ago, people settled in the land and God frustrated them by giving them different languages and now humanity was ready, the Apostles came out and taught the people what their ancestors had not been ready to hear. But there is a hollowness to that, a moral superiority that says we know better than those people did, so God has rusted us with the Spirit.

The Old Testament Corollary to Pentecost is not Babel, but the destruction of Israel, the Diaspora, where the Nation was scattered because they had not had faith. They had trusted their own power and authority, their strength and faith in idols of their own hands, rather than faith in God. Now that culture and trade has brought diverse peoples together, from every corner of the world, NOW that God through Christ has redeemed humanity. AND the Apostles were filled with fear but God drove the Apostles out into the world.

We have got to find new ways to trust.
We are a PEOPLE who have been in Diaspora. Each of us broken by some experience, by a wound or brokeness that leaves us feeling less than whole, unwilling and unable to trust. To trust the one who hurt us, to trust anyone, to trust God.

There is a double edged sword within this congregation. Every time we celebrate an ORDINATION, I am overwhelmed and a little giddy to see not just 70, but far and away the majority of the church who have been ordained leaders at one time or another. AND YET, we struggle to have Committees, struggle to have volunteers. I pray, ordained service as Elders as Deacons is not an endurance to survive, but the planting of greatness, the planting of the SPIRITUAL GIFTS.

What we must surpass is our own fears, our own desire for what we get out of the experience, to instead perceive: that was SPIRITUAL NURTURE, that was being in the wilderness fed with Mother's Milk, and NOW afterward, in life, we struggle to feed one another, to care for the community.

WE are retiscent to allow the Spirit Freedom,... a place in our lives,... to trust the Holy Spirit.
In the early 1990s the Presbyterian Church published a new hymnal, the most striking change of which was that we dropped off singing the “Amens”. The Church Historians discovered that saying Amen was an affirmation of acceptance. Prior to the Protestant Reformation, Choirs and Ministers sang the hymns, but because the masses did not read especially not Latin, the congregation did not sing, except when the piece concluded and the congregation sang Amen. From the 1200s until the 1990s, Protestant Churches tacked an Amen onto every hymn, and in Pentecostal churches throughout the sermon. Realizing that this was redundant, the publishers dropped the Amens, and instead Church leaders (fearful of the Spirit getting out of hand) encouraged people “Please be seated”.

The difficulty of the times we live in, is that what we need is not simply CHANGE, but LEADERSHIP. The people in the wilderness cried out for CHANGE, they cried out for Meat, and reading the remainder of the story, GOD CAUSED A GREAT WIND to blow that brought immense quantity of QUAIL to drop from the sky, outside the place God had appointed for the people, and away from the Tent of Meeting. A Great Quantity, they were piled up 32 inches deep. There was a temptation, you can be fed by God in the place God appointed for you, or you can feed your desires, satisfy your self. The quail fell from the sky and lay 32 inches deep, outside where the were supposed to go. People went out to collect them and every one who did gathered 85 BUSHEL BASKETS of MEAT. But having gone out of where God appointed for them, having gone to feed their desires not as SIMON SAYS but seeking CHANGE for the sake of CHANGE, those who ate the meat died.

Moses did not hoard the Spirit of leadership, but at the appropriate time gave it, wishing all the People could pray and preach and prophesy. So allow me to leave you with a question this morning.
Having served the Church as Elders, as Deacons, as the Presbyterian Women, as the Renovation Steering Group, as Choir members, as Committee members, what would you risk to share? DO we sit back in the pew believing “I did my part, now I can sit back and watch,” or do we realize SEEDS were PLANTED in EACH OF US, SEEDS OF GREATNESS for building up the faith and community far beyond what we have ever known. For several years, on the Sunday we celebrated the leadership of Presbyterian Women, differing women of the Church each preached a sermon. Not the kind of preaching done to kids when they stay out late, or break the washing machine, but the preaching of a sermon by leaders of the Church. These have been memorable, probably more so than those of the reacher we hear every week. But the real excitement, the real challenge is not in having one sermon stored up, but n the preaching of your second sermon and your third. I look forward and would encourage these leaders to preach again, and again, developing their faith and building greatness in each of us.

Fifty Days after Passover (the Day of Pentecost, the Apostles were gathered in the Upper Room, caring for themselves, taking no risk, doing nothing to build up the kingdom, and the wind blew, providing for them a new Spirit, new opportunities to build up the greatness of God in each person. The Apostles risked leaving their desire for safety and security, to do a small thing, to share with others the gift that had been given them, a gift of faith in the love of God.

Will we hope for change? Will we go out looking to satisfy our desires where ever we can, or can we nurture our leadership, can we risk to trust in ways we never thought possible?