I woke up with the song "Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord" in my heart and on my lips.
I am amazed at how often I am offered the opportunity to humble myself after the oh, so many mistakes I make.
Here is the song, just in case you might need it.
Joshua to Moses: Stop them!
They are doing our job!
Moses to Joshua: Are you
jealous for my sake? If only all God’s people were prophets and God’s spirit
would come upon them!
John to Jesus: Stop them! They
are doing our job!
Jesus to John: Don’t worry
about it! No one who does a deed of power in my name can speak evil of me.
Do not be distracted.
Do not be a distraction.
Our egos cause us to think we
must have an answer. And then, when we believe we have the right answer, we
believe it is THE answer. If we have THE answer, then all answers that differ with
us must be wrong. Right?
One important lesson I have
learned is that I do not know the answer. In truth, I do not need to
know the answer. Most times, we are not even asking the right question.
If we set aside our yearning
to know and our desire to control any situation, the Holy Spirit has
room to move about without knocking our world asunder. Because you know she
will keep on until we finally understand.
When we let go of that desire
to control/know, we stop being that stumbling block, for ourselves and for
others.
Do not be distracted. Do not
be a distraction.
Some may ask the question ‘Why
did Eldad and Medad stay in the camp? Maybe when Moses called 70 elders, these
two were left over. Maybe they weren’t elders. Maybe they were afraid they didn’t
have the gift of prophesy. Who knows? It doesn’t matter why they stayed, only
that they did. It matters that the spirit rested upon them, and when it did, they
prophesied right where they were. And they kept on doing so even as the 70 who
were called did once but not again.
Joshua is distracted by his
desire to be in control. He becomes the distraction when he tries to stop Eldad
and Medad as they are inspired by the spirit to prophesy. Meanwhile, they were
not distracted, and ready or not, they willingly did as the Spirit led them.
John has the same problem in
the Gospel. He gets distracted by his ego. He becomes the distraction when he
tries to stop someone who, he believes, has the audacity to cast out demons in
the name of Jesus yet does not follow Jesus and the disciples.
In the verse before this one,
several of the disciples are arguing about who amongst them is the greatest.
Jesus quickly puts a stop to that by reminding them that “whoever wants to be
first must be last and servant of all.” He tells them that “whoever welcomes
one little child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not
me but the one who sent me.”
Jesus tells them Do not be a
distraction. Pay attention.
If anyone puts a stumbling
block before one of these little ones who believe in him, it would be better
for those if a great millstone were hung around their neck, and they were
thrown into the sea. His warnings get even more dire.
Yet it isn’t about self-mutilation
by cutting off offending body parts or plucking out eyes because we do
something wrong; … it is about letting go of those things that distract us from
following Jesus fully.
How often are we distracted? So
many ways and so many opportunities. Life is a distraction. This world is a
huge distraction. News reports demand that we shatter our focus and pay
attention to all that is wrong with this world. I often hear the quote by the
ancient Chinese general Sun Tzu who said to keep your friends close and your
enemies closer. When we buy into that, we become the distraction. When we follow
this, we are ready to fight. The quote tells us to pay attention to our
enemies. Jesus says pay attention to Jesus.
And what does Jesus say about
our enemies? Love your neighbor, regardless of friend or foe. The authors of
Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus says to love your enemies, do good to them,
and pray for those who do you wrong. Nothing about trying to control them or
stop them or fight them.
Following Jesus is difficult,
and Jesus knows that. It requires a great deal of intention and sacrifice. Jesus
is warning the disciples and us that there is trouble ahead if we do not
understand. He tells us that our culture will distract us from following his
way of peace and love. Theologian Walter Brueggemann has said it often and
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said it recently, we must stop colluding with
the Empire. Curry said that the church cannot be formed in the way of the world
but must be formed in the way of Jesus and his love.
Something important is
happening, both with the Israelites and with the Disciples. Moses and Jesus are
preparing them for something new.
Salt is used to purify just as
is fire. Jesus tells his disciples that they are called to be the salt of the
earth yet, remember, even salt can lose its flavor if there are impurities
mixed with it. If they are to follow Jesus and his way of peace, they must know
the peace is within themselves. To be distracted by the ways of others or of
the Empire is to lose sight of what is most important – Understanding that way
of peace and love IS the way of Jesus.
The Rev. Suzanne Guthrie,
noted author and spiritual guide, in her Edge of Enclosure blog writes,
“There's no room for ego-inflation on the mystical journey.” And surely, we are
all are on a mystical journey. Why else would we be here? We are searching for
a better way, a higher power, that peace which passes all understanding.
We cannot allow our egos, our
need to control, or that lost feeling of trying to “FIX” things, to distract
us. We do not need to know the question or the answer. We have only to know
that Jesus is love. In love, there is no war or hate, jealousy or greed. We
need to know that the Spirit is ready and so should we be.
Moses and Jesus both knew what
Joshua and John did not yet know or had forgotten – That the spirit of God
cannot be controlled. It is always there regardless of what stumbling blocks distract
us. Or what stumbling block we happen to be. What we need is to be in the right
place and ready.
And pay attention.
Something really important is going
on. We have everything we need. Do not be distracted.
Be
Open. Jesus told the deaf man to be opened.
In
2007, Debbie and I sold or gave away most of what we owned. We stuffed the
remainder in a storage unit, the little we could into a 27 ft. old motorhome,
grabbed up the two dogs and the boy and set out. We were following what we perceived to be a
call to go out and speak to those who wanted to know why 2 moms and a boy would
stay in the Episcopal Church with so much disharmony happening.
We
began a cross country pilgrimage, speaking at those places we were invited.
Yet, our friend Pepper Marts (may God bless him forever and always) told us
that we were not on a pilgrimage because we did not know where we were going.
Rather, we were on a peregrination, a search for new understanding and a
radical new beginning.
Although that journey ended with us settling in Saint Louis
(a very radical new beginning for this country girl), now after Tucker’s death,
I find myself nurturing another new thing, a small ember that feels like a pregnant expectation. I have not yet felt the heartbeat but I do feel the flutter.
Something new is growing.
What new understanding and radical new beginning is happening?
In John Philip Newell’s Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, he
writes about the Celtic poet Kenneth White. He states that a pilgrimage becomes
peregrination when the destination is unknown. It is a journey of “seeking one’s
place of resurrection, setting sail into the unknown in search of new
beginnings.” White writes about Brendan the Navigator of Clonfert (6th
CE Celtic Monk and Irish Saint) who did just that:
“When the boat was ready, firm
and true
he gathered men about him saying:
“this will be no pleasure cruise
rather the wildest of wild goose chases
around the rim of the world and farther
a peregrination in the name of God …” (pg 241)
It is a sacred journey.
Be open.
