Numbers 11.24-30 The spirit rests on Israel’s leaders

What?!? You can’t do church there! You can’t pray there! You can’t read your Bible there! You can’t preach there!

When did we become obsessed that church should only take place within the walls of a church building? Around… 5000 years ago. Do we have any Biblical examples to support the idea that worship and communion with God should take place within the walls of a building? Maybe a little.

Yes, the Israelites built tents of worship and later tabernacles. However, Abram, Moses, Jacob, and others built altars in nature, out in the open. They worshipped God in fields and forests. Can you believe that? They used dirty rocks and rotting trees to make altars. Crazy talk, I know, but didn’t Jesus also preach in town squares and open fields?

If we limit the places where God can commune with us, it helps us to justify our lack of compliance outside of those places. If God resides in that building over there, then I can sin over here, and he won’t see, right? Wrong. If only those who are especially chosen in the right place and at the right time are called to prophesy, then God couldn’t possibly expect me to be the one to tell this random stranger I have encountered about God, right? Wrong.

We limit our God to try to limit our own personal responsibility for being disciples. Being a disciple isn’t a part-time job. It isn’t even a full-time job. It is a 24/7/365+ days a year obligation of our faith.

There is also no monopoly on who can prophesy. While church and organizational leaders require extensive training, a message from God can be given to anyone, at any time, and delivered to anyone. It is only our egos that get in the way of God’s work. The Spirit moves of its own volition, not ours.

What is it exactly that we fear about Christianity being in places or being practiced by someone we don’t agree with? Are we really shouting “You can’t do that here!” or are we shouting “You can’t do that!” because we don’t like or agree with who is doing the prophesying? Not liking something is our clue that we need to look inside ourselves and analyze our own opinion of what’s going on. Why are we feeling this way? Why do we care so much about who or where something is happening?

Many years back, an individual came into the gas station I worked in. He was dirty. He smelled. His teeth were rotten. His hair unkempt. He was stereotypically pushing a shopping cart full of random objects that he left just outside the door. He told me he had a vision of the end of the world.

Now, I could have shouted at him to stop, but instead, I chose to listen. Turns out, he drew a picture, which he gave to me, of thousands of tiny little people who looked kind of like Weebles, a step above stick figures, all surrounding a massive fire. They surrounded a fire. Maybe it’s the art therapist in me coming out before I was even officially a therapist, but the picture made me feel something. Curiosity. Fear. It had this strange quality of being able to pull you into the frenzy of lines and circles that may have entranced Michelangelo himself.

This was a good twenty years ago, and the world hasn’t ended, but I often wonder about that prophecy he told me that day that I didn’t understand. Was it real? Was it a war on the other side of the earth? Who am I to say?

I think the important thing was not the prophecy he told or that I understood it. I think the important thing was that I let him tell it to me and I truly listened. This man, who felt he had something so very important to say, found someone who would listen to him.

The Spirit moved met hat day through this man because I was willing to let it. I saw something, someone, few people seized the opportunity to see. I did not push him away. I did not question his calling. I did not dispute his prophecy. I listened to a human being who felt God had given him a message to share.

Why are we so apt not to listen to others?

Do you have any idea how many church meetings I have heard about people wanting to bring children into the church, talking about things we needed to do (more specifically, the pastor or someone else in general should do, after all, they just present ideas for others), the way things used to be, and what brought in kids seventy years ago? Want to know what all those meetings had in common? There weren’t any children present. A room full of people trying to tell others how to bring in children, without a single child in the room to ask their opinion. What do we do with kids who come into our churches? We send them to the children’s church; of course, we wouldn’t want them to be bored in the sanctuary. I’m not sure when our idea of being welcoming became sending them away, but here we are.

If the children are bored in the sanctuary, do you know who else is? Almost everyone else.

We don’t invite children to our meetings, or if we do, we don’t value their opinions. After all, what would a ten-year-old know about what interests other ten-year-olds or what they don’t like about church services that they aren’t even allowed to attend?

Did you know the recommended reading level for a sermon is 5^th grade? Church marketing experts tell us that a 5^th grader should be able to understand our sermons. So why are the 10-year-olds not in the room? I’ll tell you why. Because of you.

I had the privilege of being the pastor of a small country church. Average attendance was 22. A fascinating thing because there were different people attending every week but the count was almost always 22. On occasion, a family came with 3 children ages 15, 13, and 8, on a regular basis there was a 12 y/o and on occasion a child under the age of 2. These children were not taken out of the sanctuary. They sat on the floor between the pews and played. Babies were handed around the room.

I tell you this because this church taught me something I would probably not have otherwise thought about. I developed a relationship with the mother of the three children. She would tell me that those kids who were sitting on the floor coloring, doing puzzles, or playing with blocks had been listening. During the week, they would say things that came from the sermon. Sometimes they would ask a question on the car ride home.

As a therapist, I hear a lot of parents say, “We don’t fight in front of the children, so they don’t know what’s going on.” As a pastor and a therapist, I will tell you, yes, they do. They are always listening. Don’t believe me? Ask questions about mommy and daddy during a children’s moment at the front of the sanctuary. Those little ones won’t hesitate to tell the whole congregation what you are fighting about or what you’ve been doing. And, believe me, their teacher knows too. You aren’t hiding anything. From the mouth of babes you will hear truth.

So why then are these little creatures, who understand far more than you are willing to give them credit for, not more involved in church decisions and worship services? Perhaps you are projecting your fears onto them.

At another church I pastored, a mother came up to me and told me her child was not comfortable talking in front of people. Could have fooled me. Their child always had something to say in children’s moments and was very excited to have a role in the children’s play. They didn’t even need prompting for their line. It’s amazing what removing your restrictions on what others should do or can do does for a congregation.

We are so quick to judge others about where they should be and what they are doing there. God though, knows better. Moses gathered all the elders and placed them around the tent where he thought they should be to prophesy together. Then the Lord came down and took some of the spirit that was on him and placed him on ALL the elders. Not just the elders Moses thought should be participating, but the wild and crazy ones who marched to the beat of their own drummers and didn’t come when they were called, too.

Truth, of course, comes from the mouth of a tattling babe who runs into the church to tell everyone what they are up to. We don’t really know the tone of this tattle, by the way. It could have been he was so excited to hear someone prophesying and wanted all those gathered in the tent who were likely bored having a conversation amongst themselves to witness the event also. Most people assume that the young man thinks they are doing something they shouldn’t but that may not be the case. Watch your assumptions. It isn’t the young man who was telling them to stop; it was Moses’ assistant, Nun’s son, Joshua, who thought it was inappropriate.

Do you have one of those in your church? One of those overly zealous rule-abiding fanatics who think only trained and appointed liturgists should speak in church? Only trained adults should serve as communion assistants? Only those who have been specially selected by a committee (or them) should do the role they were assigned to?

Incidentally, yes, the first time I asked the youth to serve communion with me, there was backlash from parents and elders who thought it was inappropriate. And yet, those children served communion with more respect and reverence than I have witnessed in most adults. They memorized their lines, bowed before each person, and very carefully served so as not to spill. They took their job very seriously and never hesitated when I asked them again from time to time.

The wild ones. The ones who aren’t where they’re supposed to be. The ones who leave the sanctity of the church and its building to deliver a message in a gas station, the town square, or a field. Those people whom God’s spirit rests upon and gives a word that are willing to speak it anywhere to anyone. Those people who are so brave they make you jealous.  They are the ones we should listen to.

Sometimes, it’s not the message we hear that’s important. We don’t hear anything about the villages understanding the prophecies that Eldad and Medad prophesied before them. What we hear is that they did and that it affected the villagers so much that one of them ran as fast as he could to go to the church and tell others what was happening. Have you ever heard a sermon so good that you had to run out and tell someone immediately?

When was the last time you had a message from God that you could not keep to yourself? A message that emboldened you to speak it to a stranger?

When was the last time you listened to someone else’s message that they were given and stopped thinking about yourself and your own opinion?

It’s not necessary that you understand that message. It matters more that you were willing to listen. That you made that person feel seen and heard.

Pentecost isn’t about church leaders giving a message. It’s about everyone hearing something that they can understand, listening to someone talk about God that they never thought they’d listen to, understanding that the Spirit can rest upon anyone, anywhere at any time. It’s about not being jealous of others who can do something you are unwilling to do in a place you are afraid to speak. So, this Pentecost season, which is almost 6 months long, just so you know. Stop. Listen. Speak when God gives you words to speak. Instead of fearing the fiery tongue of over someone else’s head, pull out a stick and roast a marshmallow instead.