Being "Like Moses"

And the Lord heard it.  Numbers 12:2b

Being "Like Moses"
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, back when we lived in Montana, I had one of "those conversations" with a parishoner.

"Pastor," he said over lunch that day.  "My wife and I are going to start attending the church up the street."
"Okay," I said.  "Can I ask you why?"
"Well, pastor... we need a leader like Moses.  You're not Moses, obviously, but we someone like him who will part the Red Sea and lead us out of slavery and that..."
"Okay..."

A leader like Moses... I left that conversation wondering if he really knows who Moses was and what his leadership was like.  Or whether he just wants someone who'll be a Charleton Heston figure in his life...a popular, charismatic person who'll tell him what to do and boldly go forth with hoards of people behind him.

If that's what kind of leader he wants... that's not Moses.  Not at all.

Moses was a murderer...one quality that would have been a disqualifier today if he had pursued the ministry.
Moses was a coward...he ran away.
Moses didn't want the job...he gave excuse after excuse to God.
Moses didn't know how to speak...imagine a sermon where the preacher whispered his sermon in his brother's ear and his brother relayed the message.
And... most of all...
Moses was extremely unpopular!

It's this last quality that really gets me.  Moses was unpopular.

In our day, we rate a leaders ability based on their popularity.  "People really like you, pastor," is a good sign and "people are struggling with your leadership" is a bad one.  In today's world, we decide things based on a vote or consensus of everyone.  No affirmative vote, no decision.  And, in today's world, you can be kicked out of office(any office) if enough people dislike you.

That wasn't the case in Moses' day...and for good reason too.  Moses was extremely unpopular!

Chapter 11 of Numbers talks about the people's complaints against Moses...how terrible the food was and such.  In the twelfth chapter of Numbers, Aaron and Miriam, Moses' siblings, join the people in criticizing Moses.

"Has the Lord spoken only through Moses," they said.  "Has he not spoken through us also?" (Num. 12:2

This time we're told "And the Lord heard it."

Without delay, the three of them are called out...and God speaks in defense of his servant.

"Hear my words:
When there are prophets among you,
I the Lord make myself known to them in visions;
I speak to them in dreams.
Not so with my servant Moses;
he is entrusted with all my house.
With him I speak face to face--clearly, not in riddles;
and he beholds the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" (Num. 12:6-9)

Moses and Aaron both repent...but the fact remains.  Everyone had turned against Moses.  Everyone except God!  God still stood with him even when his entire people were against him.

Moses wasn't great because he was popular....or mighty...or any of the other qualities we ascribe to our leaders today.  Moses was great because the Lord had his back!

This story gives me hope.  I struggle with popularity.  On the one hand, we serve the people and if the people need something, we need to work to fulfill that need.  On the other hand...we work for God and some decisions won't be the most popular and we have to learn to live with them.  And if someone wants us to be "like Moses" then they need to understand that Moses wasn't the best character in the world BUT Moses was loved and cherished and chosen by God.

And that's what made him great!

So the next time you see one of your leaders struggling to work for God in a world ruled by popularity, stop and tell them thanks!  Thanks for standing up for what is right, despite the cost.  Thanks for being who they are.  Thanks for doing what may not be the most popular in order to do what is right.

Lord, you chose Moses and set him apart and loved him and came to his defense.  Do the same for us that we might stand up for what is right in this world, no matter what!  Amen!

O Blessed Spirit!

“I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29

O Blessed Spirit!

By Rev. William Dohle

  

              A few months ago, a woman at my congregation came to me and told me she’d like to work on making our own costumes for our Living Last Supper program in the spring.  “We have the workers and we’re gathering the fabric…”  and I said… Great!  Go for it!

  

              Last year, two members of my congregation came to me asking for my blessing as they sought to further their theological education.  One of them is going into Seminary, after a lifetime of soul searching.  The other is going into a lay minister program run through our larger church.  My response… Great!  Go for it!

This past week, the leader of our band, an amazing musician in his own right, was inspired to write Easter lyrics to a popular Halleluiah song.  He sent them to me, asked for my advice, and asked me what I thought of them performing the song.  A day later he added that they’d like to perform it on Good Friday too.  My response… Great!  Go for it!

I have come to understand that permission and praise are the best gift leaders have been given to share.  Permission and praise.

Permission…to explore where the Spirit is calling them.  Whether it be an inspired piece of music, a vocational change, or just a special project.  Permission is a gift given that says… “Go for it!”

Along with permission comes praise.  An essential piece of ministry!  Praise said, “Great!  Wonderful!  Awesome!”  Praise gives that extra little energy to complete the project.  Without praise, our motivation dies on the vine.  Praise is very VERY important to ministry.

 

Both of these help pastors and religious leaders stave off what is the killer of any ministry…burnout!  When you’ve been doing EVERYTHING and there’s NOTHING that is done that you don’t do…you may come to suffer burnout.

Moses did.  As the people complained about the food God had graciously given them, Moses had had enough.  He was burned out.  And he expressed it rather well too.

"I cannot carry all these people by myself, the burden is too great.  If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.” (11:14-15)            

             I cannot tell you how many times I have prayed these very words or words like it.  Ministry is draining and can sap the life out of you and your family.  I have prayed that God would end it all before.  I have been that burned out. 

          

              But God answers prayer.  And he answers this prayer too.  For Moses…and for me.

                 

              For Moses the answer comes in two ways.  For one, God sends quail upon the camp, giving his people meat and stopping their complaints…at least for a day or two.

                But another way God answers prayer occurs right after this incident.  In two people named Eldad and Medad.  These two had remained in the camp, but was not listed among the elders who received God’s spirit before.  These two were your spontaneous inspired people.  They began to prophecy in the camp and the people got upset.

                Joshua said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

                But Moses knew that this was also an answer to his prayer.  “Are you jealous,” he says.  “For my sake?  I wish that all the people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

                I too wish this was the case.  I wish God would pour out his spirit on everyone!

                And he does!  He truly does.

                God poured out his spirit upon our musicians at St. Paul, inspiring them with lyrics and with the vision to see where that song could take them.

                God poured out his spirit among those called into ministry, both lay and ordained, at our congregation. 

                God poured out his Spirit among those called to sew and create costumes for a production that would spread the news of Jesus to the world!

                God poured out his Spirit!

                As a leader in the church, my job, like Moses’, is to affirm that and encourage that.  I won’t be stopping them anytime soon.  After all, if what they do is from God, I won’t be able to stop it anyhow.  Instead, I’ll be affirming it in love.  I’ll be giving them “permission” and encouraging them at every turn.  And I will be praising, both their work and the God through whom their work is done.

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the Universe, for you have indeed poured out your Spirit on all flesh.  Give us eyes to see you at work in our inspired moments that everything we do may be done to your praise.  Amen. 

The Allure of Complaint

"My God!  My God!  Why have you forsaken me!?"  Psalm 22:1

The Allure of Complaint
By Rev. William Dohle

Yesterday I had a brand new experience.

Our neighborhood association invited five candidates for city council to come and speak.  Sitting together at a table on our stage at church, they answered questions, one at at time, first from the organizers and later from the audience.

It was just like one of those political debates you see on television!

One thing I noticed though throughout the evening.  Most of the questions were complaints in disguise.  One question focused on the road condition, the other on a proposed housing group moving into the area, another on the budget and still another on the medical mariquana situation in our area.  But they weren't asking about what the candidates would do to fix it.  They were complaining about what had been done.

And the candidates joined in on the complaints too!

A question I offered about the future and how we can get people of various faiths and different races together was ignored.

Of course it was.  I wasn't complaining about anything!

(And speaking of complaints...here I am complaining about their complaining! Go figure, huh?)

So why is complaining so appealing to us?  Why do we do it so well?

Place two people in the same room together and get them talking and before you know it, they're complaining!  It might be the weather or the government or their church or their family or how terrible a week it's been or something else.  But they'll be complaining!

So what do you do when the complaining starts?  Let's look to the Bible for answers.

In the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 11, we are told the people start to complain...

Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when he heard them his anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp. When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. So that place was called Taberah,because fire from the Lord had burned among them. (11:1-4)

First reaction... anger!  How dare you complain, we say.  This reaction is strongest when the complaints are against us.  This is called defensiveness and it's the least healthiest reaction to complaints.  Some people live in this reactive-state, deciding to only attack back at people when they complain against them instead of listening to their concerns.

God gets angry and consumes many in the camp.  But the complaints don't stop there...

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!  We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic.  But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”(11:4-6)

Now the complaints get specific.  Where before they were a general complaint "I wish you would do more of..." or "I wish things were different...", now they've become specific in their displeasure.

Last night I heard this from one woman in particular whose question was called out of the group.  Even the candidates knew who asked the question and she stood up and expressed her displeasure with the council members personally.  Her complaints were very specific.  They sounded like attacks and she sat down not pleased with what any of the candidates had said.

What do you do with this kind of complaint?  Well... it still gets you angry, as it got God angry too.  And since it was directed at Moses, it made him upset as well.  It actually wounds him.

So God solves it by forming a committee and spreading the blame around.

“Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. ¹⁷ I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone."(11:16-17)

When they come, God declares the Israelites will have meat and quails are sent among the people.

So... why is this written for us to remember all these years later?  Why are we told about the people's complaints?  Perhaps this passage shows the flow of complaints, not only for the Israelites, but also for us.  Perhaps this can teach us something about the process of complaining.

When complaints come, first we want to lash out.  We want to get angry.  We want fire to come down from heaven and consume them.  We want to get defensive.

If we get past this part, then we feel hurt and betrayed, just as Moses did.  We may even cry out like Moses, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?"  We feel the complaint as bloody wounds.

And then God offers us community.  A family of people to help share the blame.  Seventy of Israel's elders helped Moses out.  In the best of times, this family is the church council in congregations or your friends and family in other times.  This family helps with the burden of complaint.

Then comes the solution from God...only it never looks like much of a solution at all.  Quail came to the Israelite camp to provide them with meat.  These quail didn't squash the complaints.  The people still complained, but they were a mercy from God when everything seemed dark and dreary.

In the end, there's really nothing we can do with complaints and complaining people.  The Bible says they are a "stiff-necked people."  The Bible also says they too are beloved by God.  Perhaps the only thing we can do with them is love them.  We can form our own community around us to help us deal with their affect on our lives.  And then we can pray to God that God would offer some surprising solution to their problem.

It worked for Moses.  Maybe it could work for us too...

Patient God, you sat through the complaints of your people, not just in the wilderness, but throughout the ages.  Give us such patience that we may, with our communities, weather the complaining storm surrounding us.  Amen.