For the people in the back

Numbers 11: 24-30 
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
May 31, 2020 – Pentecost Sunday

This isn’t a Pentecost like any I’ve lived through before. I couldn’t sing “Spirit of Gentleness” right now if you paid me. The Spirit sometimes uses language we don’t like, that is not gentle at all, with a message we don’t want to hear. And so I just couldn’t preach again from the book of Acts with a story that right now feels romanticized and domesticated.

The book of Numbers is less than romantic and more than domestic. It’s about the messy process of how we form community. People grumble about leadership, whose voices will be amplified, who can be trusted, and of course there’s lots and lots of pushback. They’re in the desert, so of course food and water are an issue; there are dangers to be faced. And so it all begins with a census in which all the members of the tribes of Israel are counted. Everyone counts; everyone is under God’s eye. Which sounds a lot like “all lives matter”. And yet we must remember that these are oppressed people now liberated from enslavement. No one is counting the Egyptians. All lives won’t matter until marginalized and criminalized lives matter. Which is what it really means to be God’s chosen people: the subjugated and demoralized but also beloved.

Moses has led the people from Mt. Sinai to the land bordering Canaan. He has help from his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron as well as Joshua who will eventually succeed him. He also has a group of seventy men subordinate to him, in effect a large group of elders who have been registered to receive the spirit from God after it comes to Moses and to prophesy—to assist in proclaiming God’s vision for God’s people—but also to help control their rebellious ways. Moses and the elders leave the people in the camp and gather in the tabernacle or tent to commune with God and receive revelation. Above the tent a cloud of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night signify to the people that God is present and power and authority rest with those under the tent. It creates an expectation that this is how things will go down. This is how God will speak.

Moses Electing the Seventy Elders- Jacob de Wit (1695–1754)

Except for one day when two of the elders are still in camp and the others have gone to the tent with Moses. We even have their names: Eldad (el-dawd) and Medad (Meh-dawd)—essentially names that mean no one in particular but beloved by God. Even though they were not with Moses in the tent, they still prophesied. The spirit of God rested upon them without it having rested on Moses first. In the camp, among the people. One rabbinical scholar speculates that these two were not included in the seventy; another interpretation is that God bestowed the spirit upon Eldad and Medad because of their humility, in that they stayed behind because they did not seek leadership.



Rabbi David Frankel offers a third approach: Eldad and Medad were defying Moses and his leadership, that they refused to go with him and the other elders. Rather than be counted as sycophants, as part of the God squad that would in a sense police the crowd, they stayed in the camp with the people and prophesied from there. God rewarded them not for their humility but for their audacity to claim spiritual authority without an intermediary. Others who witnessed this cried foul—speaking out of turn, they don’t have permission, we can’t control the spin—but Moses himself recognized that indeed it would be better if all God’s people were prophets and capable of vision.

God sanctions the minority voice, the outliers, the disenfranchised. But what if that voice is loud, angry, raging? What if the prophets are looting and setting fire to the camp? Martin Luther King Jr. said that riot is the language of the unheard. White men armed to the teeth can walk into a government building and shut it down without penalty. The language of white power, white privilege, white supremacy is not only heard but heeded, enshrined, normalized, weaponized. In the video of Amy Cooper and Christian Cooper, some folks were more upset about her treatment of her dog than they were about what she was going to do to a Black man. And I hope the ironic coincidence of their last names is not lost on you. Backlash against those who are rioting, declaring it is just as bad or worse than the death of George Floyd, reveals that property matters more than Black lives, which is the very definition of racism.

Comedian and political commentator Trevor Noah said, “Black America is looted every day. Black America has a knee on its neck every day.” This is why Colin Kaepernick took a knee and not only would we not listen, we did everything we could to drown and deride his silent, peaceful protest. Martin Luther King preached non-violence and they killed him. Malcolm X wore a suit and they killed him. George Floyd complied with police; what should Black parents tell their children now? What language should they use so their children come home alive?

By no means do I condone looting and burning and yet within the fire I hear the harsh, angry language of the Spirit. I hear her tormented cries for her black and brown and Indigenous children, their genocide, countless deaths as a result of the pandemic of racism. I hear the Spirit in graphic language that is fed up with coerced civility. I hear the Spirit in those who reject institutions that say they need more time to change or that are more concerned with survival than justice. I hear the Spirit in the destabilizing effects of this pandemic, in the dismantling of white privilege, in the de-centering of white power, in the redistribution of wealth.



It’s language we don’t like, harsh and threatening, with a message we’d rather not hear. We yearn for the kingdom of God, the kin-dom of God, for peace and justice, for the birth pangs of a new world but it can only come from the old ways, the world as we know it, coming to an end.

All lives won’t matter until black and brown and Indigenous lives matter. Lip service won’t cut it anymore. White Americans need to take a knee now. White Americans need to show up for Black Lives Matter and learn what it takes to be an anti-racist. White Americans need to enact policies that fill the poor with good things and send the rich away empty. White Christianity needs to leave straight, abled, white, cisgender Jesus behind and follow black, brown, Latinx, gay, bi, trans, queer disabled Jesus. White America needs to center June 19th and give July 4th a rest. White America needs to disarm itself and demilitarize its police and dislodge white supremacy from its ranks. White America needs to institute reparations to non-White America. White America needs to take a back seat and to listen. The more White America resists the cries for justice or tries to control any of this, the more it will burn. White America, we started this fire when we landed on these shores and now the revolution is here.

75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

It’s time that the Spirit was put on all of us, that we follow Eldad and Medad in holy rebellion, that we all become prophets and truth-tellers and change-makers, that we set our hearts on fire, that we say it louder for the people in the back. I don’t know how to end this except to say if you’re uncomfortable, offended, angry, frustrated, listen up. That’s the Spirit trying to get under your skin to get you to do something about it.

Benediction – An excerpt of a non-traditional blessing by Sister Ruth Fox, OSB


“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.”