Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 26 September 2021.
• First Reading: Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29 (Moses’ prayer for meat; weariness at the burden of leading)
• Psalm 19: 7-14
• Epistle: James 5: 13-20 (The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective)
• Gospel: Mark 9: 38-50 (Whoever is not against us is for us)
The variety of subjects in today’s lessons is quite remarkable, ranging from the boredom of the Israelites with their diet and Moses fatigue in leading them, to God’s remedy in easing Moses’ burdens and promising meat.
Then in the gospel we have questions about division and loyalty among the followers of Jesus, and His rebuke of both sectarianism and of causing grief to the ‘little ones’. He went on to warn against over-indulgence of the body and against loss of their distinctiveness as disciples.
Finally James wrote to encourage prayer by those in need and joyful singing by those who were happy.
There is no obvious connection between all these except to note that sin and division can be and are as lethal within the company of faith as beyond it.
But there is one line which so some reason has been left out by the compilers of the lectionary: it is in the Old Testament lesson and says: ‘Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether My word will befall you or not.’ (Numbers 11: 23)
I think that this is the place to begin.
In the Old Testament there was a weariness over all the people – Moses was tiring of the burdens of leading the people and they were getting bored with their diet.
God met the two needs – but was going to meet them differently. For Moses the answer was to delegate and so the elders of the tribes were summoned and the people were all instructed to prepare themselves. God would visibly and openly bestow on the elders some of the authority that Moses had carried. The elders would be commissioned and as a sign of this they would be endowed with the Holy Spirit. Hence their one-time experience of prophesying – of speaking out for God spontaneously but lucidly.
Now they were commissioned and authorised to make decisions among the people.
The next matter was that the people themselves would eat meat – and Moses was horrified: how on earth was he going to provide meat for all the tribes?
Again there was the promise of God: He who had led them out of Egypt was not going to abandon them in the desert. He would provide and provide graciously.
‘Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether My word will befall you or not.’
Then there is the gospel. This time the disciples were jealous of others who were also ministering in the name of Jesus without being part of their own group.
Here Jesus was quite firm: if the others followed Him in His word and teaching then they were His. If they were not opposing Him, arguing with Him, contradicting Him or challenging Him and if they were following His teaching then they were all on the same side.
Jesus was not only puncturing any self-importance that the disciples may have felt, but was warning them against anything that they may do which would discourage or undermine the most recent and the simplest of His followers.
To stand on their status, their learning or their experience so as to discourage or undermine the simplest of Jesus’ followers was to fail in something quite important.
Status and standing in Jesus depended on serving Him and serving others – not in serving oneself. This is an inversion of the world’s priorities in which great learning and great works are rewarded. But here it is the needs of the simplest and most recent of believers that mattered most.
So to undermine their faith or their prayers or their understanding in the name of some kind of superior knowledge which only the most important can aspire to is to deny the worldwide scope of Jesus’ life and teaching. Paul would encounter the sense of special knowledge as he challenged the Gnosticism of his day, but I wonder whether the same principle may not be evident in ours.
To use it to embellish one’s own status at the cost of someone else’s faith is not just criticized but condemned, without hesitation.
And just as one’s own learning can lead to one’s undoing so can an obsession with one’s own body. I do not believe that Jesus was encouraging self-mutilation but was making His point forcefully. He was definitely saying that life is far more than food, drink, personal comfort or sexual satisfaction. The life of the soul will far outlast the demands of these demands of the body.
In all this there is the sense of the saltiness of the salt: if it is lost is cannot be recovered. Hence the need to safeguard the soul in the face of all kinds of assaults.
Then there is James: simple and direct. Let those in trouble pray and if need be seek the counsel and prayers of others in the church; but let those who are happy praise God. Music is central to Christian worship but like anything else can be abused or distorted.
What I find in all these lessons is the words that have been stripped out of them: The Lord who went to the cross for us will not see us lost, even in personal weakness or under personal pressure.
What He will do is to seek and save those who are lost, find and revive those who are wounded, comfort those who are broken and give life to those who are ready to give up.
‘Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether My word will befall you or not.’