"If All Had Faith" May 18, 2014

Numbers 11: 1-30 Acts 6:1-8 Having served as your pastor for 17 years and 5 months, this morning represents our 900th Sermon. One might think that after 900 sermons, this people of God would have learned & resolved everything. One might even imagine that after 900 sermons the Preacher would have gotten the message to give up. At the end of September, I will have been ordained for 30 years, which while not a Biblical 40, has been a major era of social change during which the “Church” describing Christianity, faith in God, has changed, from denominations fighting over which is the true religion, to spirituality rejecting religion. But like this morning's Scripture passages, we continually respond to this group's complaint, or planning and responding to the next transition, and we rarely discuss “theology”. We struggle to even remember the language of what theology, that is “our relationship with God is about:” Fidelity, Redemption, Reconciliation, Salvation. Sometimes the best we can say about our theological convictions is, as was said of Andy Warhol paintings, and the marketing campaign for Campbell's soup, “It's In There!” But when we do not name our theology, actively work on our relationship with God, then other convictions take the place of God in our lives. At those times, our faith begins looking like our peers, like our family, and evil becomes anything that does not taste good. Please understand, you have worked tirelessly, we have worked tirelessly, and I am truly thankful. But I guess every preacher who struggles and strives to interpret and apply the Word of God with integrity, knows and believes that they have wandered in the desert and reacted to circumstance of what people crave to hear, rather than listening for God's direction. In both the Old Testament and the New, people complained; also in both the resolution becomes greater delegation, but in both because people were unaware of what else was taking place (instead of faith) this led to new and different problems. The Book of Numbers in the Old Testament records other stories of what took place during the Wilderness Wanderings searching for the Promised Land. How often have families complained about what we have, instead of being thankful to be family? I recall when our children were little, making meat loaf, and because it was different, because the ingredients were touching one another, one of the kids complained that he would not eat. We sat through tantrums and tears, until finally after dinner, when he was hungry enough I offered to make him a hamburger, and slicing the meatloaf placed this on a bun, which he ate as the best burger ever, until he discovered it was actually the same meatloaf. The people in the wilderness complained about eating manna. One of the lessons learned from Mission partnership has been that in developed places, with wealth, come choices. In many parts of the world today, and throughout history, the question of food has not been watermelon versus ice cream, but shall we eat today or not! Day after day for 40 years, they gathered up something like coriander seed from the ground, which they ground with a Mortar and Pestal and fried to the consistency of tortillas, with nothing to fill the taco. They began reminiscing about the taste of fresh fish! Watermelon, onions and celantro, beans and rice, maybe even real meat! But they were not yet ready for substance. What Moses heard was there are 600,000 people who want meat. How many Wendy's Frostys, Big Macs or Taco Bell Breakfast Waffels would it take to satisfy 600,000 people! One of the issues of faith, is that instead of an instantaneous disposable society, we need to slow down and appreciate being. Moses recalls caring for his Father-in-Laws sheep when suddenly he heard the voice of God from a burning bush. The Call to Ministry was promised to be about setting free God's people! The Call was to fight the forces of Pharaoh! How did Moses ever become Nanny to 600,000 complaining people? Feeling overwhelmed and burned-out, Moses recalls that the bush was not consumed, God was in it and the bush never burned-out. What God heard however was the People of God prefer Going Back to Slavery than following God! Ready or not, the people carved digesting the substance of meat to appreciating that they were being fed a miracle. The wonder of God's FIDELITY, is that as often in each of our lives as we have complained and dismissed God, turned away and created something to satisfy us instead of God, God has never gone away. We may not appreciate the lessons of REDEMPTION, but God continues to have fidelity to BE IN COVENANT, no matter what. So God tells Moses, tomorrow they will have meat for 600,000 people, not just meat for one meal, but an abundance of meat greater than for a month. They will have meat until they sicken of eating meat. And not being accustomed to digesting this, the complainers will all get sick. Then we will see if the people of God want to eat meat, or trust what God gives them. But in all wisdom, for what else is going on, in addition to hearing the people's complaint against God, in addition to hearing Moses fears and frustrations, God hears what is true for Moses, that so much more could be done if he were not the only leader, and Delegates not only Authority, but also appropriate Faith to 70 in addition to Moses. God did not create 70 clones of Moses, but whereas Moses was able to Prophesy, they were able to preach. Where Moses could lead the people after God, the 70 could manage and administer and care for the needs of the people. However, the human problem, is that our lives, families, businesses, community are easier to control when there is ONE leader, one to take responsibility, one to blame. Whenever we delegate responsibility we give up control, and in order to do so, we must learn to trust more. The point of trust, is that you usually do not have to DO anything, but to name that this is a demonstration of trust, this is different, so we must trust different. Joshua, the apprentice to Moses raises concern for Control over Eldad and Medad, who were not among the 70 chosen, but were given faith, given ability and begin preaching. Moses responds to Joshua, sometimes we do not have all the answers, the leadership of faith is not about control, not about power. All those things are in there, but shifting from one to delegating to more than one is a demonstration of trust and commitment an exercise of faith in one another & God. After Jesus' Death and Resurrection, the disciples now appointed and Changed to be Apostles lead the community of faith. As we mentioned last week, the early church was an amazing community of faith, because everyone shared openly to care for the needs of others. They prayed for one another, they ministered to each other, the community knew their needs and instead of acting out of craving, they turned to God for help. BUT a new problem arose. The early church was successful, they grew by thousands, and the 12 could not Baptize and Preach and Heal and Teach, as well as waiting Tables to earn money to provide for those in need. Appointing of Deacons, was identification of different responsibilities (Job Descriptions) from Apostles. Invariably, the difficulty with having greater number of people is that they will confuse roles. Stephen filled with Holy Spirit preached. Stephen's sermon was eloquent and insightful, powerful in cutting to the heart of faith, but it was not for Stephen (a Deacon) to Preach. The Deacons were to Wait Tables and to Pray, being cornered by one who was not an Apostle, the people reacted and stoned Stephen to death. If anything, our Scriptures this day are Negative examples, which could instead have been... The people of God were set free from slavery, and wandered in the wilderness being fed and hydrated by miracles! The people craved more, to have substance, greater than the satiation of hunger for a day; and the Spirit of God that had been given Moses was distributed upon all people to act in faith, some as preachers, some as teachers... this is 1st Corinthians 12. But instead, what comes across is the people complained and challenged the leadership of Moses, challenged the authority of God,... for which they became sick. The people in the early church complained of Unfair distribution and Neglect of one group of widows and orphans, for another. Through the laying on of hands, through the appointment of Deacons the resources of the church were increased, prayer was increased. Not so much a theological issue as an issue of the church. Yet instead, we have a bloody awful circumstance that only seems to serve to introduce that one whose name was Saul of Tarsus held the coats of the mob as they took up rocks. If all the people had faith to be one body instead of complaining, what might have become of the human race? God is not done with us yet. But do not imagine the cravings of people or the problems of the church will all be resolved simply because we now have two God-guys. Now the resources and challenges of the community are simply doubled, each with our own job descriptions.