Eldad, Medad, and You-dad

 9-26-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and savior Jesus the Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

This past Tuesday night, 5 members and staff from this congregation were recognized at the annual Vienna Mayor’s Volunteer Reception, for their tireless work during this summer’s Liberty Amendment’s month. Though it made for a very long night - about one hundred and fifty people were recognized that night - I was so impressed with many of the other volunteers and the community efforts they were being recognized for. Dozens of volunteers raised money for food and supplies for people in need during this pandemic, and I lost track of how much money they raised to help.

I did notice something interesting. Very few congregations were overtly recognized. That could mean a couple things - that congregations in our area are not helping the community (which I don’t think is true). It could mean that the people in the pews are going outside their congregations and finding opportunities to help, which could be very true.

As it might turn out, people of faith don’t have the corner market on caring for our neighbors. Now, we COULD find this as reason to be dismayed, and wonder why so few of these honorees seemed part of organized congregations. Like Joshua, when he saw that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp, even though they were outside of the tent when the spirit of the Lord rested on the other seventy sent to give Moses a hand. 

Instead of being miffed, Moses seems relieved! The more the merrier! He seems very glad for help with this group of people who were SO caught up in nostalgia that they only remembered the food of Egypt, and selectively forgot the fact that they had been ENSLAVED. I wonder how many years, months, or even weeks it took for them to overlook that critical memory in favor of all the cucumbers, leeks, and garlic.  

It’s been over 18 months of our own type of wilderness experience. We’re wandering in this uncharted pandemic maze, hoping that something good will eventually come out of it on the other side, but also longing for what was before. But was everything about the “before times” really “working”? DO we only remember the “cucumbers, melons, and leeks” part, while having selective amnesia about being trapped by endless busy schedules, constant programming, long commutes and bad traffic? 

In the brief moment of normalcy that was the month of July, I heard more than one person lamenting that they no longer knew how they kept up with the pace of life that was in the “before times.” But at the same time, we still long for what used to be familiar, even if it was not life-giving. 

I wonder what Eldad and Medad were saying to the hangry people complaining to Moses in the wilderness. We know that they were prophesying, which does not mean they were telling the future. The job of Both First Testament and modern prophets is point to where God is at work, to say hard truths, and to stand up to where we are actively working against God’s kingdom, whether that means refusing what God provides (like Manna) or by keeping control on who can and who cannot be a prophet of God. 

Every week when we say the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “your kingdom come,” that God’s kingdom would arrive on earth in its fullness. Martin Luther explains the meaning in this way: “in fact, God’s kingdom comes on its own without our prayer, but we ask in this prayer that it may also come to us.” When we pray this, we must ask ourselves, am I hindering or helping the coming of God’s kingdom? 

We say “God’s work, our hands” but still use those hands to harm. Same with feet that cause us to wander us away from the path of the Gospel. The same with eyes that too often look backward to the past, or fixate on a future with only certain people given access to God’s love… Well, Jesus has some harsh and very uncomfortable words to say about these wayward body parts, didn’t he? 

Well… the Body of Christ might in fact BE MORE WHOLE… if we are a little more intolerant of the intolerant, willing to cut them off for the sake of the rest of the body… especially for the sake of those who are vulnerable, for children, for those who are not believed when they seek justice, and those who are disempowered. 

This is a huge task, and not one that one person can do on their own, even if they are Moses. We need as much help as we can get. We need every Moses, Miriam, Joshua, Eldad, and Medad, to renounce and call out everything that tries to pull us away from God’s kingdom. 

As a congregation participating in a baptism, before we get to the Apostle’s creed, we do some “renouncing” together. We renounce the powers that defy God and the ways of the world that draw us from God. Then, we witness where God IS and work - calling a new child of God into the family, and claiming them as both beloved and called to the work of God’s kingdom. Through anointing of oil and the sign of the cross on the baptized child’s forehead. Through a lit candle, to remind us of the light of Christ. And, in one old Catholic tradition, a piece of salt was placed on the lips of the baptized child - the child was to be seasoned with the word of God, to join the ranks of the other prophets in the past and present.

With this salty taste on our lips, we the baptized go out as fellow prophets, to do what salt does - draw out the flavor that is already there. Salt doesn’t stay in the shaker; salt is meant to be shared. It means pouring yourself out for the sake of others. It means telling people about what God has done for us in our lives. 

And while being salt doesn’t make us perfect people, God will work through each and every one of us. In fact, God will even work through people that we wouldn’t have ever dreamed that God would use, those who might be “outside” of our group. It may make us mad, like it did for Joshua and later for the disciples. But whoever is not against Jesus’s message of love and inclusion for all of God’s children, is FOR Jesus and is contributing to the arrival of God’s kingdom.

I like to think that Eldad and Medad were a bit salty in the name of God, to remind the people that God brought them out of bondage in Egypt into freedom. God WAS providing them with food - manna - and leading them to a life that would be full of abundance. I hope you have some Eldads and Medads in your life, who are prophetically pointing out for you where God is at work. I also hope that you can be Eldad and Medad for others, to help bring out the flavor of hope and love. Today, God says: “I’ve called you ALL to be my salty, prophetic people! I’ve called you to be like Eldad and Medad. YOU and YOU and YOU and YOU!” (dad!) Thanks be to God. Amen.