Moses heard the people weeping and complaining. “If only we had meat to eat.” Frustrated, he complains to God: why do you treat me so badly? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them. If this is how you plan to treat me, just kill me now.
So, the Lord said to Moses, gather for me 70 elders of Israel, and the Lord took some of the Spirit that Moses had and put on them, and they prophesied. But two of them, Eldad and Medad, remained in camp, and the spirit was on them as well, and they also prophesied. Joshua Moses’ assistant said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them! Moses said to him,” “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29)
Jesus had a similar experience: John
came to Jesus and told him, “We saw a man casting out demons in your name, and we
tried to stop him, because he is not following us.” Jesus, like Moses, was
confronted by the fact that some of his followers seemed to believe they were
part of an exclusive club, and others were not allowed to share in that
blessing. So, Jesus said to John, “Do not stop him, for anyone who does a deed
of power in my name will not soon say evil about me. Whoever is not against us
is for us.” (Mark 9:38-50)
Jesus and Moses knew God could and would pour the Spirit upon all God’s children.
I believe these two stories are reminders to those of us in our day who would limit the Holy Spirit. It is God, who controls the Spirit, and the Spirit goes where it will. These stories witness the work of the Spirit, and recognize the gifts possessed by other Christians and by people of other faiths.
In 2001 while attending a Conference on Religion and Globalization I met Bishop John Shelby Spong of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. He was a courageous Bishop willing to be honest about the evolution of his faith, accepting that no religion has all the truth and that every religion possesses part of the truth. He became known as the priest to the “Church alumni Association,” able to speak to the thousands of people who left organized religion but still felt a yearning for the presence of God in their lives. He presented a paper entitled “Getting past your own Dogma to experience the Glory of God.” This presentation changed my life and opened my ministry to all of God’s Children. It also got me into a good bit of trouble, but it was worth it.
All
of us are on a journey with God. On my journey I was looking for a simple faith
with all the answers. What I am finding with the help of many mentors:
Christian, people of other faiths, and no faith, is a life-giving faith that
has more questions than answers, and a joy that I want to share with others.
I leave you with the words of Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh from his book, “Living Budda, Living Christ.”
“I do not think there is much difference between Christians and Buddhists. Most of the boundaries we have created between our traditions are artificial. Truth has no boundaries. Our differences may be mostly differences of emphasis.
You are born in your tradition, and naturally you become a Buddhist or a Christian. Buddhism or Christianity is part of your culture and civilization. You are familiar with your culture and appreciate the good things in it. You may not be aware that in other cultures and civilizations that there are values that people are attached to. If you are open enough, you will understand that your tradition does not contain all truths and values…” (Page 155)
No single tradition monopolizes the truth. We must glean the best values of all traditions and work together to remove the tensions between traditions in order to give peace a chance.” (page 113) “Understanding and love are values that transcend all dogma.” (page 198)
Like
Moses, we can proclaim, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the
Lord would put his spirit on them!” (Numbers 11:4-29)
