Numbers 11:4-6,10-16,24-29

We always must remember that the Torah is a story in reading it, a story that finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the life of the church. Israel functions as a type, a metaphor, of what is to come in our lives. With this in mind, Numbers 11 takes place after the exodus and after the revelation of the Law at Sinai, as Israel is moving towards the land promised to them. God has provided manna and drink for them along the way -- metaphors of the Lord's Supper. Yet the people do not find it adequate. Why not? What is the nostalgia to look back towards slavery? What does Moses say to God? Why?

Does God's response really answer Moses concern in the way that Moses seems to indicate? What is the function of the seventy? How does God stop the grumbling of the seventy amidst Israel?

James 4:7--5:6)

In the middle of the James pasage, we read again about the "grumbling" amidst the people of God, 'speaking evil against one another.' How does what James speak before the passage lead to addressing the struggle of 'speaking evil against one another'? James speaks about the frailty of life after the passage. How does this relate? Notice that economics lies behind the whole dissension in the last story, the same problem of welcoming the rich in the service while neglecting the poor earlier in the passage. The "righteous one" seems to refer to Jesus -- whom the rich killed. What is the economic dynamic behind the whole passage?

Mark 9:38-43,45,47-48

The Gospel reading shows Jesus encouraging those who work in his name in casting out demons even when not formally part of the twelve. Is the intial question merely a report or an accusation against Jesus? The blessing of the cup of cold water is that which comes to the disciples here because of bearing Jesus' name. How does this relate to the stumbling block? Does Jesus try to 'control' or 'program' the in-breaking of the kingdom? These are some of the hardest words of Jesus in taking moral responsibility not to stop the unscheduled, unprogrammed, surprising yet very serious in-breaking of God's kingdom that has begun in Jesus. Blocking this has eternal consequences of judgment and salvation.

Obviously all these passages deal with handling dissension among the people of God, its seriousness, and movement to its calming. The church, including us, are on a journey inbetween the fulfillment of God's promise in Jesus and its completion in the coming of the kingdom in its fulness, and we live in this tension between the "already" and the "not-yet". As a result, the Scriptures indicate that such tensions, though never condoned or good, will constantly be among us. After all, we are Israel, the pilgrim-people of God. What are the dynamics in the passages from which dissension arises? If the group finds themselves in the midst of these passages, what do the passages teach us? What virtues are necessary to sustain such activities? What is the role of the Spirit of God?