I love the anger at God that is reflected in the Eleventh chapter of the Book of Numbers. The followers of Moses are sick and tired of the years in the desert and are hungry for what they used to have in Egypt. Listen to what they say: If only we 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.
That about says it. All of this stupid manna! That’s all that we have. Why did we come out here in the desert to put up with this ridiculous deprivation? They complain to Moses and he gets tired of listening to them. So Moses goes to God and asks him why God has put all of this on his shoulders. Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child. Moses is disgusted and wants some kind of an answer from God.
Have you ever felt like that? Have you ever been so disgusted with your circumstances that you shook your fist at the skies and asked God to give you what you certainly didn’t have?
I have. I remember visiting a woman in the last stages of cancer. They had moved a hospital bed into her living room where I would see her. She had a daughter who was about six months pregnant. What her mother wanted above all things was to live to see her grandchild born. But it didn’t work out that way. She died when her daughter was eight months pregnant and she didn’t see the child born. When she died, I was furious. I remember after watching her die and spending some time with the family, I went out to my car, shook the steering wheel and yelled at God about what on earth was the problem. “Would it have shaken creation to have her live a couple of months more so that she could have seen her grandchild born?" I shouted at the skies and drove around town in a rage for about an hour.
Several months later, we baptized that new baby in the church. I’ll never forget what happened. When I moved toward the font to scoop up some water for the baptism, all of a sudden there was a warm glow in the church. It seemed to me that a rich light was shining on all of us. I know now that I was the only one who experienced this, but it certainly was not my imagination. I know that it was the presence of that wonderful grandmother there at the baptism. That for me was the answer to my angry prayer after the death.
God treats Moses the same way. He doesn’t yell back at him. He tells him to gather seventy elders and to have them take their place with him. After he gathers them together and they go off by themselves, someone tells Moses that Eldad and Medad, who weren’t with the others were prophesying in the camp. Joshua tells Moses to stop them. Moses refuses to stop them saying to Joshua, would that all of my people were prophets! So he let them go on.
In the Gospel of Mark, John tells Jesus that they saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name and because he wasn’t a follower, they tried to stop him. Jesus was eloquent. He said: Do not stop him; For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
How wonderful it would be if we could learn to live like that. To accept all of those who work in the name of God the same way. To stop fighting among ourselves over who is the greatest and to simply do what God is asking us to do. To love one another as God loves us. God loves us. That has been taught to me so many times. What does it take for me to get the message? What does it take for all of us to get it? That is the essence of the religion that we all profess. To show the light of the love of God into this world, and to do it constantly with gifts of mercy to those around us who need them.
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