How open are you to God’s activity in your life?
Moses does not have an easy time of it. In the Book of Numbers, the people of Israel complain vociferously throughout their time in the desert, to the point where Moses is simply fed up. The people are not open to God’s spirit or to God working in them. So, God offers Moses some help: Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, God tells Moses. God will confer some of the spirit that is on Moses on these men, that they may share the burden of the people with Moses. Indeed, God sends the spirit to rest on all seventy men, even Eldad and Medad, two men who did not come to the tent but remained in the camp. In the end, all of the men prophesy in the camp, even Eldad and Medad, giving ecstatic expression to God’s activity in their lives. They are open to God and allow God to work through them, as the psalmist does in Psalm 19, asking the Lord to direct him and guide him and give him wisdom. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart, the psalmist says; like the elders, the psalmist is ecstatic in his awareness of God’s activity in his life.
Where, in Numbers, Joshua objects to the prophesying of Eldad and Medad, in Mark’s Gospel, the disciple John is similarly concerned with potentially inappropriate behavior. Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us. Jesus corrects the disciples, for the man is following his heart, open to allowing God to work through him; he will be rewarded by God in the end. Sin can cause an individual to be thrown into Gehenna, Jesus says, but if all that we do is governed by our heart, if we are open to God, take responsibility for our deeds and are aware of God’s activity in our lives in the present moment, then we will be life-giving to others… unlike the rich who are censured by James for withholding wages from their workers. They are not open to God’s action; they are taking life rather than giving it; they have gone after glamour but not invested in anything that will last. All that remains is for them to wail over their impending miseries, for their failure to be life-giving is testimony against them.
Imagine if, as community we were all conscious that God shifts our being, our very essence to be open to his Word and to his love in our lives! Faith is a gift of the Spirit; our job is to nurture it wherever we find it, recognizing where it is at work and remaining open to it, so that we too might be life-giving, ever aware of God’s activity in us and through us for the world, and giving ecstatic expression to that which faith reveals to us and in us.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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