When I tried to think of examples of complaining for the introduction, the sermon became very contextual because we had a big city-wide festival over the week-end and somehow the organizers forgot to mention to us that the street to our parking lots was going to be blocked off and that they were going to put garbage dumpsters across our entrance, which also blocked our handicapped parking. Saturday I was complaining about it, and I was hearing complaints from other members. It seemed like a good example of how we have to be careful so that our complaining does not keep us from doing our ministry in downtown Troy. Now the sermon became very contextual.
Sort of interesting response, though. In the Chapel service the introduction was met with laughter and people seemed to interpret the introduction as laughing at ourselves. In the Sanctuary service, there was some laughter, but there also seemed to be a sense that the intro was my pointing out faults in the congregation, rather than all of us collectively acknowledging ourselves as we laugh at ourselves. That, of course, might change how people heard the sermon. For those of you reading it, please note that all the examples of complaining in the introduction are real complaints I have heard (or spoken), but they are lifted up as a fun way of laughing together at ourselves, not my attempt to point the finger and anyone or any group in the church.
"Freed by the Spirit" Number 11: 24-30; Acts 2: 1-12; FPC, Troy, 6/8/14; Easter series;
Introduction: Can you believe they blocked off our street on a Sunday. How are we supposed to be the church downtown if we can't even get to church? They think red stands for Strawberry Festival. Don't they know that red is for Pentecost?
I am so tired of those new hymns they keep making us sing in worship. Why can't we just sing the good old ones that everyone knows? If the Gloria Patri was good enough for my parents, it's good enough for me! (For those reading the sermon, the past two weeks we have used a different choral response instead of the Gloria Patri in our worship).
Great. General Assembly is about to meet again. No telling what crazy things they'll approve this year. Why do they even need to have a General Assembly. Every time they meet it's a problem. I want to pretend I'm not Presbyterian when I read the newspapers.
Do we really cancel communion on the first Sunday of June and July? If they can't get enough elders to serve communion in the summer then maybe our elders are not committed enough.
The way the world is now, are we supposed to the church. Soccer, hockey, softball, baseball, no on respects Sunday mornings anymore.
What complaint do you have? Take those complaints and get in line behind the Israelites, who seem to have won the award for biggest complainers.
Leading up to the story we read in Numbers, the Israelites have complained about how long they have been in the wilderness.....they have complained about the lack of food....they have complained about the lack of water.....they have complained about the leader Moses.....in the passage we read today, they are now complaining about Eldad and Medad who have skipped the meeting and still are filled with the Spirit.
you name it, and the Israelites have probably complained about it.
On this Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit, when we finish the sermon series reflecting on how the resurrection frees us to be the person God calls us to be by looking to the power of the Holy Spirit to shape us and equip us for ministry, maybe the most appropriate title for the sermon should be "Freed from Complaining!"
So let's reflect for a few moments about complaining.
Move 1: When the Israelites complain, they become so focused on the current moment, that they forget what God has done, they lose any sense of what God might be doing in the future, and they drown out God's voice.
a. It's sort of ironic that the Israelites have so many complaints about life in the wilderness since they had begged God to hear them when they were enslaved in Egypt and wanted to be saved.
1. They suddenly have forgotten that God had rescued them from slavery.
2. They have forgotten how Pharaoh refused to let them go until plague after plague had been visited upon the Egyptians.
3. They have forgotten how the angel of death passed over their homes and only visited the Egyptians.
4. They have forgotten that Pharaoh's soldiers chased after them to bring them back.
5. They have forgotten how God parted the Red Sea so they they could escape the clutches of Pharaoh's army.
6. They have forgotten that when they needed food to eat, manna appeared on the ground.
7. They have forgotten that when they were thirsty, Moses could even strike a rock and water would flow.
8. They are so busy complaining about their situation that they have forgotten the God has provided for them and save them again and again in the years leading up to this moment.
9. Do our complaints keep us from remembering what God has done?
b. When the Israelites spend their time complaining, they cannot look forward and envision the future that God has for them.
1. The Promised Land awaits with flowing milk and honey flowing, but the Israelites cannot see that possibility because they are stuck complaining about what they do not like.
2. The Israelites cannot imagine what God might be about to do.
3. They cannot see the day when King David would rule or the riches and power of King Solomon's reign.
4. They cannot imagine a day would God would come in flesh to live among us.
5. They cannot conceive of the possibility that God's own son will die on the cross to save the world.
6. They cannot imagine a community of believers that will spread out across the face of the earth.
7. They are too caught up in their complaints to imagine the possibilities of what God can do.
c. Their complaints drown out God's voice.
1. Remember that prophets were called on to mediate between God and God's people. ("Would That All Were Prophets" By Tracey Mark Stout Copyright © 2003 The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 9-12)
2. These leaders who gather around Moses have a job to do – listen and hear what God has to say and share it with the people.
3. Not much listening going on; or at least not much hearing.
4. They briefly prophesy, and then they are done.
d. Except for Eldad and Medad, who become the primes example of how complaining is keeping most of the Israelites from being a part of what God is doing.
1. we have no evidence of the Spirit being at work among the 68 who went to the meeting.
2. Maybe they were too busy worrying about the rules or complaining about the two who were not there.
3. Eldad and Medad have skipped out on the meeting with all the other elders.
4. And then they have the audacity to show sign of the Spirit, to have God working through them when they didn't even show up for the meeting.
5. As an aside, not how complainers love structure and rules – it gives them something to use for their complaints.
6. “you can't be filled with the Spirit.”
7. “You can't prophesy about what God is doing.”
8. “God can't work through you.”
e. Notice the way the Israelites are thinking – we have a box that we control, and if Eldad and Medad do not fit into the box, then they can't do anything.
1. But Eldad and Medad – they are off doing their job, listening to God, sharing what God is doing with God's people.
2. I love Moses' response the complaints about the two men who did not go to the meeting: "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would be his spirit on them."
3. Maybe that's a veiled way of Moses saying, "Would that all the complainers quit complaining and let God's Spirit be at work through them."
4. I see something of a connection between the complainers in Numbers and the "sneerers" in the Pentecost story -- you know, the people who sneered, "They are filled with new wine,"
5. They miss the work of the Holy Spirit because they are too busy criticizing.
Move 2: The Holy Spirit, however. frees us to look beyond our predicament at the possibilities that God has waiting.
a. The Spirit is about expanding opportunities and the power of God to do a new thing.
Introduction: Can you believe they blocked off our street on a Sunday. How are we supposed to be the church downtown if we can't even get to church? They think red stands for Strawberry Festival. Don't they know that red is for Pentecost?
I am so tired of those new hymns they keep making us sing in worship. Why can't we just sing the good old ones that everyone knows? If the Gloria Patri was good enough for my parents, it's good enough for me! (For those reading the sermon, the past two weeks we have used a different choral response instead of the Gloria Patri in our worship).
Great. General Assembly is about to meet again. No telling what crazy things they'll approve this year. Why do they even need to have a General Assembly. Every time they meet it's a problem. I want to pretend I'm not Presbyterian when I read the newspapers.
Do we really cancel communion on the first Sunday of June and July? If they can't get enough elders to serve communion in the summer then maybe our elders are not committed enough.
The way the world is now, are we supposed to the church. Soccer, hockey, softball, baseball, no on respects Sunday mornings anymore.
What complaint do you have? Take those complaints and get in line behind the Israelites, who seem to have won the award for biggest complainers.
Leading up to the story we read in Numbers, the Israelites have complained about how long they have been in the wilderness.....they have complained about the lack of food....they have complained about the lack of water.....they have complained about the leader Moses.....in the passage we read today, they are now complaining about Eldad and Medad who have skipped the meeting and still are filled with the Spirit.
you name it, and the Israelites have probably complained about it.
On this Pentecost Sunday when we celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit, when we finish the sermon series reflecting on how the resurrection frees us to be the person God calls us to be by looking to the power of the Holy Spirit to shape us and equip us for ministry, maybe the most appropriate title for the sermon should be "Freed from Complaining!"
So let's reflect for a few moments about complaining.
Move 1: When the Israelites complain, they become so focused on the current moment, that they forget what God has done, they lose any sense of what God might be doing in the future, and they drown out God's voice.
a. It's sort of ironic that the Israelites have so many complaints about life in the wilderness since they had begged God to hear them when they were enslaved in Egypt and wanted to be saved.
1. They suddenly have forgotten that God had rescued them from slavery.
2. They have forgotten how Pharaoh refused to let them go until plague after plague had been visited upon the Egyptians.
3. They have forgotten how the angel of death passed over their homes and only visited the Egyptians.
4. They have forgotten that Pharaoh's soldiers chased after them to bring them back.
5. They have forgotten how God parted the Red Sea so they they could escape the clutches of Pharaoh's army.
6. They have forgotten that when they needed food to eat, manna appeared on the ground.
7. They have forgotten that when they were thirsty, Moses could even strike a rock and water would flow.
8. They are so busy complaining about their situation that they have forgotten the God has provided for them and save them again and again in the years leading up to this moment.
9. Do our complaints keep us from remembering what God has done?
b. When the Israelites spend their time complaining, they cannot look forward and envision the future that God has for them.
1. The Promised Land awaits with flowing milk and honey flowing, but the Israelites cannot see that possibility because they are stuck complaining about what they do not like.
2. The Israelites cannot imagine what God might be about to do.
3. They cannot see the day when King David would rule or the riches and power of King Solomon's reign.
4. They cannot imagine a day would God would come in flesh to live among us.
5. They cannot conceive of the possibility that God's own son will die on the cross to save the world.
6. They cannot imagine a community of believers that will spread out across the face of the earth.
7. They are too caught up in their complaints to imagine the possibilities of what God can do.
c. Their complaints drown out God's voice.
1. Remember that prophets were called on to mediate between God and God's people. ("Would That All Were Prophets" By Tracey Mark Stout Copyright © 2003 The Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 9-12)
2. These leaders who gather around Moses have a job to do – listen and hear what God has to say and share it with the people.
3. Not much listening going on; or at least not much hearing.
4. They briefly prophesy, and then they are done.
d. Except for Eldad and Medad, who become the primes example of how complaining is keeping most of the Israelites from being a part of what God is doing.
1. we have no evidence of the Spirit being at work among the 68 who went to the meeting.
2. Maybe they were too busy worrying about the rules or complaining about the two who were not there.
3. Eldad and Medad have skipped out on the meeting with all the other elders.
4. And then they have the audacity to show sign of the Spirit, to have God working through them when they didn't even show up for the meeting.
5. As an aside, not how complainers love structure and rules – it gives them something to use for their complaints.
6. “you can't be filled with the Spirit.”
7. “You can't prophesy about what God is doing.”
8. “God can't work through you.”
e. Notice the way the Israelites are thinking – we have a box that we control, and if Eldad and Medad do not fit into the box, then they can't do anything.
1. But Eldad and Medad – they are off doing their job, listening to God, sharing what God is doing with God's people.
2. I love Moses' response the complaints about the two men who did not go to the meeting: "Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would be his spirit on them."
3. Maybe that's a veiled way of Moses saying, "Would that all the complainers quit complaining and let God's Spirit be at work through them."
4. I see something of a connection between the complainers in Numbers and the "sneerers" in the Pentecost story -- you know, the people who sneered, "They are filled with new wine,"
5. They miss the work of the Holy Spirit because they are too busy criticizing.
Move 2: The Holy Spirit, however. frees us to look beyond our predicament at the possibilities that God has waiting.
a. The Spirit is about expanding opportunities and the power of God to do a new thing.
1. The early church had a lot about which they could have complained.
2. Jesus gone off to heaven and left them behind to do his work.
3. they are still stuck with each other and all their human frailties and inabilities.
4. the Temple authorities and the Roman authorities are upset with them.
5. They have never done this before and it is not easy.
b. But Jesus has promised the holy Spirit would be with them.
1. And on this day the Spirit arrives with tongues of fire and blowing winds.
2. A visible reminder that God has not forsaken them; that God is in their midst; that God has plans for them; God does have a future for them.
3. Others can sneer; God's people see the power of the holy Spirit and imagine the possibilities of preaching the gospel to people who need to hear a word of hope and salvation;
4. of going into new places and starting communities of faith;
5. of reaching out to the widows and orphans sharing God's love and care with them.
6. Who has time to complain when the Spirit is sending them into the world to be the body of Christ?
b. Not just sending, but also equipping.
1. How amazing is it that suddenly the followers of Christ are speaking all the languages of the earth?
2. Not some miracle to show off what God can do (although it is pretty amazing, isn't it?), but the giving of the gift of language so that the followers of Christ can go into the world and share the gospel in the language of those to whom they are sent.
3. The Holy Spirit moves among us, giving us the gifts we need to live into that future God has in store for us.
4. We do not have to settle for complaining about the world around us because we have the Holy Spirit in our midst shaping us and equipping us for the ministry to which God calls us.
c. Right here in the midst of blocked streets and garbage dumpsters, tomorrow we will feed people at breakfast and children at lunch, who would go hungry otherwise.
1. In our world where people seem to be moving away from God, we will have children from the neighborhood and Garden Manor join with out kids for Vacation Bible School to hear the stories of Jesus.
2. We will continue to engage in mission and supporting mission around the world.
3. What else can you imagine that we could be doing?
Conclusion: A final word about complaining. I confess to spending a good part of yesterday complaining about streets being blocked and garbage dumpsters.
In some ways (probably not my complaining yesterday) complaining is good when it expresses our dissatisfaction with the way things are.
Surely as the people of God we cannot be satisfied with the world around us – there is too much violence, too much need, too little focus on what God is doing.
But our dissatisfaction ought to send us back to God to be freed by the Holy Spirit to serve God in new and exciting ways in our world.
2. Jesus gone off to heaven and left them behind to do his work.
3. they are still stuck with each other and all their human frailties and inabilities.
4. the Temple authorities and the Roman authorities are upset with them.
5. They have never done this before and it is not easy.
b. But Jesus has promised the holy Spirit would be with them.
1. And on this day the Spirit arrives with tongues of fire and blowing winds.
2. A visible reminder that God has not forsaken them; that God is in their midst; that God has plans for them; God does have a future for them.
3. Others can sneer; God's people see the power of the holy Spirit and imagine the possibilities of preaching the gospel to people who need to hear a word of hope and salvation;
4. of going into new places and starting communities of faith;
5. of reaching out to the widows and orphans sharing God's love and care with them.
6. Who has time to complain when the Spirit is sending them into the world to be the body of Christ?
b. Not just sending, but also equipping.
1. How amazing is it that suddenly the followers of Christ are speaking all the languages of the earth?
2. Not some miracle to show off what God can do (although it is pretty amazing, isn't it?), but the giving of the gift of language so that the followers of Christ can go into the world and share the gospel in the language of those to whom they are sent.
3. The Holy Spirit moves among us, giving us the gifts we need to live into that future God has in store for us.
4. We do not have to settle for complaining about the world around us because we have the Holy Spirit in our midst shaping us and equipping us for the ministry to which God calls us.
c. Right here in the midst of blocked streets and garbage dumpsters, tomorrow we will feed people at breakfast and children at lunch, who would go hungry otherwise.
1. In our world where people seem to be moving away from God, we will have children from the neighborhood and Garden Manor join with out kids for Vacation Bible School to hear the stories of Jesus.
2. We will continue to engage in mission and supporting mission around the world.
3. What else can you imagine that we could be doing?
Conclusion: A final word about complaining. I confess to spending a good part of yesterday complaining about streets being blocked and garbage dumpsters.
In some ways (probably not my complaining yesterday) complaining is good when it expresses our dissatisfaction with the way things are.
Surely as the people of God we cannot be satisfied with the world around us – there is too much violence, too much need, too little focus on what God is doing.
But our dissatisfaction ought to send us back to God to be freed by the Holy Spirit to serve God in new and exciting ways in our world.
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