Numbers 11:4–6, 10–16, 24–29
Psalm 19:7–14
James 5:13–20
Mark 9:38–50
I.N.I.
One of the most popular rock songs of all times is by the British invasion band, the Rolling Stones. First released in 1969, the refrain features a Gospel Choir chanting the refrain which is also the title: “You Can’t Always Get What you Want.” How does it finish up? “But if you try sometimes, you get what you need.”
I have a theological version that starts similarly, but ends differently: “You Can’t Always Get What you Want…But if you get out of the way, God sees to your needs.”
This is not quite the same as the rock anthem by the Rolling Stones. It certainly does not fit the American images of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or the story of Horatio Alger.
My riff, enlightened by today’s readings, instead proposes that:
God provides for us all we need. Bearing the name of Christ is strength enough. We can’t do it all on our own.
That can be tough to digest. It might make you wonder. Some day it’s just easier to go it on your own and not bother with input from others, someone else challenging our viewpoints, somebody doing it the “wrong” way, thank you very much.
Sometimes, I also find it easier just to complain. Look what you’ve done. How come you’re doing it that way? Or I think even if I don’t say,”where did you get that stupid idea?”
And then I see that I’m in good company with the Israelites, with Moses, with Joshua, and Jesus’ disciples. They excelled at complaining.
Some psychologists call this acting out. I mean, the Israelites got what they needed, the manna from heaven to satisfy their hunger after being stuck in the desert. Every day the flaky stuff would appear in the dew, people would gather it and make cakes from it. God provided. But it wasn’t good enough. The Israelites remembered the “good old days” of slavery and whined like the boy who wasn’t getting his ice cream before dinner:
If we only had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.
We didn’t read further today, but God is like every child’s parent when God says in the same chapter something like “you want meat to eat? I’ll give you meat to eat. I give so much that you will have meat coming out of your nose, you big whiners! So God made it rain quails up the wazoo, so they had to spend a whole day and night picking the dang things up. “You can’t always get what you want.”
And then Moses goes off the deep end next. “Why pick on me, Lord? I’m not their mother! I didn’t offer to give them the Promised Land. Tell me God, now that we’re in the desert, where’s the nearest butcher shop, huh? I can’t handle it anymore, I quit. Just shoot me now!” So God huddles with Moses, and says I’ll take your spirit and divide it up, no problem. God provides advisors for Moses, seventy in all; a great biblical number based on seven, meaning perfection, completeness, sufficient. And seventy elders are able to articulate God’s purpose and God’s ways with the people. “If you get out of the way, God sees to your needs.”
Meanwhile the two extras, Eldad and Medad, were also speaking for God. The spirit went on two more. Joshua, heir apparent to Moses, wanted to draw the boundary lines. So he tattled on them to Moses. And Moses, now hit over the head with God’s abundance for his every need, says “Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!”
The Spirit lets loose beyond our expectations and need for control. The Spirit that grounds people in the name and reputation of Jesus continues to spread. Are we seeing it? Or are we inhibiting it?
Jesus’ own closest circle, his twelve, in the middle of Mark’s Gospel, are gathered again and again into his teaching. Jesus demonstrates his own living in the Spirit when he says to man bereft with his sick son “All things can be done for the one who believes.” And the man gets out of the way when he cries, “I believe help my unbelief.” Jesus demonstrates his own living in the Spirit when he huddles with his closest friends, and pulls a child close to him and says. “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” In today’s Gospel, John, clearly muddled the ways of welcome, the kingdom breaking through, finds it easier to complain: “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” So again, Jesus tries to be clear without shaking John or whapping him on the head. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” And (now I’m paraphrasing) don’t let anything get in the way of the ways of God let loose in the world.
You can’t always get what you want. And living with the mind of God, even if it seems ridiculous or unbearable, it’s all right.
Jesus lived for others. Jesus looked at children, at women, at the sick, at the frail, at those not noticed or given status in society, and offered them a way to God. To a world that grabs to get what wants, status and power, still, Jesus loses control by going to the cross, praying that “God’s will be done,” and in his dying breath gives up his Spirit.
Here we are huddled close to Jesus and the gift of the Spirit, with our own opinions and wants and troubles swarming around. Here we are, close to Jesus and the gift of the Spirit. Let’s practice putting aside whatever we cling to and open our hearts and minds and hands to Christ’s welcome, Christ’s forgiveness, Christ’s love, in bread and wine, in one another, let loose wherever we get out of the way. Complaining turns to rejoicing, and together in God’s way we find peace with one another.
What do you think?I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
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