Highland Presbyterian Church Epiphany Sunday - January 6, 2019 “All God’s Critters” A Sermon by Doodle Harris

Matthew 2:1-12 Numbers 12:1-16

I think instead of reading the scripture passage from the 12th chapter of Numbers and then preaching on it, I’d like to do a bit of both at the same time. But first, a little background on the passage. We are in the wilderness with the . We’ve already built the ark and the tabernacle. We’ve already built and torn down the golden calf. We’ve already received the 10 commandments. We’ve already identified 70 elders that are going to help Moses lead the Israelites. We’re trucking along on our way to the Promised Land and here we have the 12th chapter of Numbers which is another hiccup along the way.

Chapter 12, verse 1 says “While they (the Israelites) were at Hazeroth, and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had indeed married a Cushite woman).” So I know you all remember your earlier Israelite history when Moses had married Zipporah, a Midianite, before returning to Egypt to free the Israelites. Well, now he’s married another… Another woman without a name, but a woman with a nationality. A Cushite. Being a Cushite would indicate that the woman was from Ethiopia. A woman who would’ve had dark skin… even darker than the skin of the Israelites who were presumably tan after so many days out in the wilderness. A woman who would look decidedly different from the rest of the Israelites.

And they’re married. And I feel like I’m watching the old movie “Look Who’s Coming To Dinner.” Do you remember this old movie with white parents – played by Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy? Their daughter has been vacationing in Hawaii and she surprises them by coming home with a black fiancé. As she introduces her black fiancé, Dr. John Prentice played by Sidney Poitier, to family members and the house staff, each one in turn has these moments of confusion, and hesitation… and doubt. But no one wants to appear racist. After all this is the 1960s and this family is a “liberal family.” So after getting over the shock, dad calls the public library and asks for background information on Dr. John Prentice. Because I guess that’s how you got information about a person before the internet? Dad is looking for reasons that his daughter shouldn’t marry Dr. John Prentice that aren’t related to his skin color so dad doesn’t appear racist. We can’t appear to be angry about the color of someone’s skin, so we must find some other excuse not to like them.

Same thing in today’s scripture. Moses has married this dark-skinned Cushite woman. Brother and sister are angry that he’s married this Cushite - whatever her name is. But like any good brother and sister, they don’t actually address the issue of the fact that they are displeased that Moses has married a Cushite. They find other reasons to be displeased. They say instead “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. So, Moses’ two biggest allies – his brother and sister - are the leaders of the passive aggressive Israelite movement against Moses. They frame their disappointment about this interracial marriage in a complaint against Moses’ leadership.

But there’s more, the scripture continues, “Now, the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth.” So Moses not only is Moses the favorite, but he is the most humble as well… surely a trait that God appreciates – humility. And why wouldn’t he be? He’s the one who hung out on the top of Sinai with God for a couple of days getting the 10 commandments. Wouldn’t that humble you? Moses is the one who took his shoes off for the burning bush. Wouldn’t that be humbling as well? Maybe being God’s favored one is quite a humbling experience. Maybe repeatedly coming before the face of God will do that to you. After all, when God wants to chat with human beings, it’s Moses that God chooses.

The scripture continues: Suddenly the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” So the three went to the tent of meeting. God sees what’s going on. I can imagine God rolls God’s eyes… and God says, “Alright you three, we’re going to talk about this. We’re going to get to the bottom of why Aaron and Miriam are so irritated with Moses. Circle up you three. It’s a come to Jesus meeting.” May I just mention that I’ve circled up with a few of our youth more than once on a summer trip as we try to figure out drama in the youth group.

So, they’ve circled up and God says “Hear my words. When there are prophets among you, I the Lord make myself known to them in visions; I speak to them in dreams. Not so with my servant Moses; he is entrusted with all my house. With him, I speak face to face – clearly, not in riddles”. And incidentally wouldn’t it be wonderful if God spoke with all of us face-to- face, clearly, and not in riddles?

God continues “Moses beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses.” So God makes the whole situation even worse! He says – “Of courses Moses is my favorite. I speak with him directly. Of course I like him the best. Not you all…you should be afraid. It’s Moses that’s the cool kid on the block.

Scripture continues, “And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed. When the cloud went away from over the tent, Miriam had become leprous, as white as snow. And Aaron turned towards Miriam and saw that she was leprous.” So, recap Miriam and Aaron are being passive aggressive. They are pretending the real problem is that God doesn’t like them as much as God likes Moses. The real problem is that Moses has married a Cushite woman. God sees through the charade and gives Miriam leprosy. God says, “Fine – if we are going to argue about skin color, then I’m going to give you something to argue about. Miriam – your skin is now white. Now you don’t even look like a member of your own race.” And can I say that what I hate about this passage is that Miriam gets all the punishment. Clearly both she and her brother Aaron are in the wrong – the pronouns are plural when it comes to describing the actions of Miriam and Aaron - but Miriam is the only one with leprosy. She’s the one who gets punished. The woman gets punished. Not the man. Not the “high priest Aaron” but the female sidekick. The females in the Bible are always on the wrong side of the male negotiations.

The scripture continues, then Aaron said to Moses, “Oh my Lord, do not punish us for a sin that we have so foolishly committed.” So, now Aaron recognizes the authority of Moses. Aaron calls Moses “my Lord” and Aaron begs for mercy. I think Aaron is worried Moses is about to give him leprosy as well! Aaron continues to beg saying, “Do not let her be like one stillborn, whose flesh is half consumed when it comes out of the mother’s womb.” What a delightful way to describe one’s sister.

But in Aaron’s pleading to Moses for their sister, Moses has a change of heart and in turn pleads to God – the one who actually has the power to do something about Miriam’s leprosy. The scriptures says, “And Moses cried out to the Lord “O God, please heal her.” But the Lord said to Moses “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven says and after that she may be brought in again.” So, God reaches a compromise with Moses. Look, I’m not taking away the leprosy today, but I’ll take it away in seven days. Until then, she’s grounded. She lives outside of the camp, I’m taking the keys to her car and her cell phone away and if her attitude has improved in those 7 days, we’ll talk about letting her back in.

Scripture continues, “So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days. And the people did not set out on the march until Miriam had been brought in again. After that the people set out from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.” This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

All week, I have been asking myself – as I prepared for this sermon – if it really is “thanks be to God” for this bizarre little story in the . I am the pastor at Highland who is either brave enough or stupid enough (and I’ll let you decide which one) to allow the text of one of her sermons per year to be auctioned off at the youth silent auction. Kevin Burns won the auction for a mere $20. And he chose this passage from Numbers with a note saying, “I’ve never heard this scripture read or even preached on in worship before.” And I’m here to tell you that Kevin Burns has heard a lot of sermons.

I suspect the reason we never explore it much in the church is that it has God intentionally favoring one person over another. It intentionally has God saying “why yes – Moses is my chosen.” The rest we see in dreams, but God actually talks to Moses face to face. And we dread to think of the idea that God has favorites. But I also suspect that this is God also knowing the real issue here. It is the idea of two of the best Israelites heroes– Aaron the high priest - and Miriam – the sister of Moses – being outraged that Moses marries a Cushite woman - marries someone of a different skin color, marries someone of a different background, marries someone of a different culture, marries someone who may not even be Jewish, and God saying – yep – that’s my favorite. I favor the one who steps outside of cultural norms, I favor the one who doesn’t see skin color as a barrier, I favor the one who dares to marry a Cushite and not just keep her for a concubine. I favor the one who favors the one that doesn’t quite belong.

It’s almost the same story as the story of the Wise Ones that we read earlier in the worship service today. We know the story so well. Wise Men. Of course they are men. We assume there are three of them because there are three gifts – myrrh, frankincense, and gold, but really – it could’ve been any number of wise men with three gifts. Furthermore, some assume they are kings themselves, but again, no Biblical evidence. Only that they are important enough to get an audience with Harod. They set out from the east because they saw a star. They set out because whether or not they were kings, they know the signs of a king. And how do they know that a king has been born? Not because they are devout Jews. Not because they have read and memorized all of the prophetic text of the , not even because they pray to the right God.

But because they are astrologers. Zoroastrians. Because they read the stars… and they have come to believe and respect that a giant star tells of the birth of a new King. They are the people who write the horoscopes that few of us read or they are the people at the county fair who read palms and tell you what your love line and your future line say. They are people who are so different from and me. They are the people who know whose moon is in which house and when Jupitar aligns with Mars. They don’t believe in our God, but they believe in signs. They believe in stars.

Yet they believe in stars fiercely. They believe in stars so fiercely that they come a long way and put themselves in harm’s way – meeting Harod. They believe in stars so much that they find Jesus. They find the one that will eventually matter to us and our faith. They believe in stars so much that they have become a vital part of our history, of our knowledge around the birth of Christ, of our Christmas pageants and they weren’t even Jewish, much less Christians. They are like the Cushite woman. They are the “other” they are the ones who are not like us. And yet they are a part of who we are because God favors them. God shows them the new baby. God shows them the star. God rewards their belief in something other than God by showing them the Christ. They are the outsiders in the birth story of Jesus and yet they have such an important role. They are the outsiders that God favors.

I want to tell you that God works magic in this sanctuary. And I often think that God does. I often think that in these walls and among us we breathe in the Holy Spirit. We can have our lives changed from the inside out. We can experience healing. We can find hope in prayer and music and scripture and relationships with one another.

And I want to feel this way because I am faithful and because you are faithful. We show up. We believe in this Christ. We believe in this God. We give of our time and money to this place that proclaims the good news of the gospel thanks to the birth of the Christ child. And I want us all to be rewarded with our faithful attendance and faithful practice with that warm fuzzy self-revelation of God in all of our lives.

But what I need to tell you is that God works magic wherever God wants to. God doesn’t need our faithfulness as permission giving for the actions of God. God is not looking for a certain “in crowd” to reveal God’s self. God doesn’t need us – the faithful Christians to be the only ones whose stories are recorded in the sacred pages of God sacred book.

For God’s faithfulness to all humanity isn’t limited to the people who look like me and believe like me and attend church like me. God’s faithfulness is extended to the “others.” God’s favor is extended to the one who marries the Cushite woman. God’s favor is extended to the horoscope writers of the Far East. God favors every creature on this earth and every person regardless of their beliefs, background, and cultural story. And I believe God favors the ones who are outside of what I consider normal because God created them the same as God created you and God created me. God created them and their stories and shaped them for parts in God’s story the same as God shaped us for our parts in God’s story.

I am reminded of the best lecture I have ever heard. Yes it was at Montreat – the Presbyterian Mecca - but it came from a woman who practices the Sikh faith. And I will confess that the only thing I know about the Sikh faith is what she has taught me. Her name is Valarie Kaur (K-A-U-R) and I’m spelling it for you because I want you to look up her Ted Talk on Revolutionary Love. We heard a longer version of that Ted Talk on Stage at Montreat at a College Conference a few years ago.

Kaur is by training a lawyer, but by vocation, a civil rights activist. She calls murders in prison. She reaches out to terrorists. She herself isn’t white and she reaches out to white people to understand their history of racism and prejudice. She is fascinating in her courage and the people she chooses to meet. Shortly after 9/11, the first person killed in a hate crime was not a Muslim, but a man of Sikh faith. She reached out to his wife in an interview that she filmed and she asked how do you feel about America? And the wife answers – surprisingly, “I love America. What happened to my husband was an act of hate, but 3,000 people I’d never met before showed up to his funeral and cried with me. Most of them had no idea what it meant to be of the Sikh faith or what it meant to be Muslim, but they understood what it means to hurt so deeply. I love the America that does that.”

As Kaur explores in her talk why she reached out to the woman, she says it’s because of what her grandfather taught her as a young child. Part of the foundation of the Sikh faith is this: “I see no stranger. I see no enemy.” Kaur interprets this as a choice – to see no stranger and no enemy. She interprets as a choice to see all the faces she meets and to wonder about them. She goes on, “if I wonder, then I listen to their stories. And if I listen to their stories, I cannot hate them. And if I refuse to hate them even if they hate me, I will vow to protect them when they are in harm’s way. That’s what it means to be a Sikh.” And I remember thinking, that’s what it means to be Christian! That’s what it means to follow Christ, not to see others as others! Not to see others as strangers or enemies. What it means to be a part of God’s story is to recognize that others stories are a part of God’s stories too. Being a part of God’s story myself, is recognizing that all who we meet are also a part of God’s story – and therefore they are a part of my story. Of our story. They are a part of our story that we don’t even know yet.

We cannot control who God favors, but can control whether or not we listen, whether or not we know the stories of those whom God favors, whether or not we choose to make their stories apart of our stories. We can control not just who we welcome into these 4 walls but also who we seek out outside of these walls. We can control who we wonder about – who we choose not to hate – whether they are someone of a different race or a different faith. And that sort of choice doesn’t happen here – inside of me – it happens when I reach out. It happens when I learn a new story. It happens when I live in the reality that God is faithful to all people. ALL PEOPLE. And God shows favor to those who are different than I am, those who seem on the outside, who journey a long way, and who dare to love those who are different. God’s favor is for those for whom there is no room in the Inn. Let their stories be our story and may all our stories be God’s story. Thanks be to God. Amen.