Pentecost 18B/lectionary 26B
Texts: Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29; Mark 9:38-50
sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski
Faith Lutheran Church, Homewood, IL
September 26, 2021
Off the Bench, and into the Game
When you were young, and the kids in your neighborhood chose up sides for a touch football or a softball game, were you ever the kid who was picked last? I was, often enough.
Or, were you ever the kind of kid who sat in class, watching others with their hands up to answer questions, while you sat there wondering how they caught on to the material so quick, and wishing you had the answers?
You ever watched folks performing music, maybe even one of the singers or the musicians that lead our worship here, and thought to yourself, man, I wish I could sing!? You ever been left behind in some kind of social competition, or maybe a promotion opportunity at work, watching other people move up, while you are left?
Or how about here at church? You ever hear people pray and think, I wish I had the kind of prayer life that I should. Or, I’d go to one of those classes at church, if I knew enough Bible to be able to speak up and say something. Or, I wish I had the kind of relationship with God that other people seem to have.
If any of those situations, if any of those people I just described is you, well then you are a bench player – more about that in a minute – and today is your day! Because in the lessons for today God reaches deep into the reserve squad, God reaches all the way to the end of the bench, and God puts you in the game. You ready? Come on, now; I said that you’re a bench player, and a bench player is always ready!
We start with that first lesson, from the book of Numbers. Moses gets all whiny with God: “I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me.” God doesn’t pay that whining any mind. Instead God replies: all right, pal, gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel; bring them to the tent. And God spreads the Spirit all over these seventy folks and Moses is happy to have gifted teammates in the prophecy game.
But we are told that two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad. They remained in the camp – that means that when the recognized leaders, when the talented folks, when the big kids got called to the tent, nobody called Eldad and Medad. When the list went up on the office door in the gym, the list of who made the varsity team, you ran your finger down the list and you didn’t find the names of Eldad and Medad. Why, from the very day they were born these two guys were so little respected that their own mothers – even their own mamas! – hung these goofy-sounding names on them, Eldad and Medad. Their own mothers did that to them!
They were not the varsity; they were bench players, and they never did make it to that tent, so, the lesson tells us … so they prophesied in the camp. “And a young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!’”
Bench players, this is your day. We get it in the gospel lesson, too. John comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, [teacher!]” That’s when you know somebody is tattling, when they raise their hand and call “teacher, teacher,” right? “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us!” Who is this mysterious “someone” casting out the demons? You know, Eldad and Medad get the funny names, but the guy in the Gospel story doesn’t get a name at all; call him the rogue exorcist. He’s not varsity, he’s not one of Jesus’ known followers. He’s a no-name bench player, but he’s out there casting out demons in the name of Jesus Christ. Bench players, this is your day.
On this day, then, let me tell you some things about bench players. I speak with authority because if there was ever a high school and college basketball guy who was a bench player, it was me. I figured this out a while ago: I played for nine consecutive years, into my early twenties!, on basketball teams on which I was the last player who made the team, the 12th man, the guy on the end of the bench. Nine years! Eldad, Medad, that no-name guy in the gospel lesson, and me.
A bench player has to have a love for the game that is visceral, in your gut. You’re not going to get the same rewards that a talented player or prophet is going to get; nobody’s going to go home talking about what a great game you had, so you’ve got to love the game for its own sake, and love it for your own sake.
A bench player has to believe in herself in a way that is fierce and unapologetic and scrappy. That you belong on this team and you belong in the game – you have to make a ferocious claim on these things. There’s no room for complaining or self-pity for a bench player; complaining and self-pity can only be the luxury of a great talent like Moses – a bench player can’t afford such things. A bench player has to believe that the Spirit of the Lord is upon her.
When in high school I went out for freshman basketball – I remember it! – down at the other end of the gym we could see the varsity. There were two players on that team, a junior and a senior, one who was all-state, and the other who was all-state and a high school all-American. You better believe that everybody knew the names of those two guys. By contrast, on those rare occasions when the team I was on played and I got into a game, wasn’t anybody on the other team even knew who I was. But my job, the job of every bench player – my job was to make sure they would nevertheless never forget me. That’s the job of every bench player.
Now I’m going to guess that where matters of faith are concerned, you don’t think of yourself as anything like a greatly talented or particularly gifted Christian. I know. You don’t pray like you should, can’t articulate and witness to the faith the way you’d like. And you know what else? You’re a sinner; you disappoint yourself and you disappoint God with how far short you fall from the great things that God intends for you. You’re an end-of-the-bench player. So often there are questions at stake of your Christian credentialing – are we really good enough to do what God has called us to do?
But Eldad and Medad – they didn’t pray like they should have, in the tent. And yet they claimed the Spirit of the Lord upon them, out in the camp.
And the no-name guy in the gospel, he wasn’t following Jesus closely enough. He wasn’t following Jesus closely enough for Jesus even to know his name! And yet he knew the name of Jesus, didn’t he?, for he was casting out demons in his name.
Bench players, this is your day! Don’t let any matter of Christian credentialing – are you really good enough? – stand in your way any more than it stood in the way of our bench brothers Eldad and Medad and what’s-his-name. A bench player claims a place in the Kingdom of God, and claims it in a way that is ferocious and without apology. You can pray, you can sing – I can sing! – you can witness to what God has done, you can lead in this Christian community. You can! Because bench players, one and all, the Spirit of the Lord is upon you!