Among Your Own People

One of the many tasks and opportunities before the community who are becoming the people of God is discernment. As the community meets together for worship and fellowship and for learning, they are also listening for the call of God who will be working within certain individuals to cultivate gifts and inclinations that will lead them into certain roles within the life of the church. As Paul wrote, “Some are gifted to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). These are roles that the church needs. More than that, they are roles that God has determined are necessary for the church to fulfill its mission.

When our text from Deuteronomy reveals that God promises to raise up a prophet from “among your own people,” how do we envision that will happen? Does a light go off over someone’s head? Is there a special delivery from the angel Amazoniel with robes of office, complete with staff that turns into a snake? How are these prophets or any leaders identified within the body? We know from Jesus’ own experience that taking a leadership role while among the people who know you best is a difficult proposition at best. Cries of “Who does he think he is” would ring out or be whispered in small groups of the disgruntled. Glaring looks might be given to the one who dares to rise to the top. Snorts of derision and “anyone but her” might be mumbled here and there.

At least that is what we fear would happen if we dared to respond to the call that is rising within us. Or perhaps we should say that this is the stereotype of what happens. But the truth is often something quite different. The community of faith can be a supportive incubator for those who discern a call to leadership or ministry of various kinds. Even more, the community can be the means through which some individuals can begin to understand that God is at work within them. When we hear affirmation for speaking out or taking leadership, when we are given encouragement for our attitudes or empathy, when voices tell us that we are good at that or we see your heart in this, we feel a call from God being confirmed in the life of the congregation. God says, “I will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the people;” this is how it happens in the life of the church. We value the work of outside experts or consultants. They often provide a valuable service and a sometimes-overlooked perspective. But when one of our own stands up to lead or proclaim or to follow a call to ministry, we feel pride and connection – as if all of us have been called to cultivate and train this new leader. I remember in the beginning of my pastoral ministry, some of those small churches leaned into the role of helping to prepare me for ministry. I became one of the members of the community who was being shaped and loved into service for the Lord’s work. It is the work of the people of God to cultivate God’s call from within.

Of course, it isn’t easy. There are struggles in both discerning and following that call. The Deuteronomy text warns of the latter. You’ve got to get it right. The message you proclaim needs to be the one that gives life and not death. It needs to represent the God we’ve come to know in Jesus, or there will be hell to pay. Those in leadership positions can cause damage with this power and place in the life of the community. Sometimes a leader might speak of another god – like a god of power or wealth, the god of ego or lust –to advance that leader’s own ends. We see it happen all too frequently. And death and destruction are often the result—sometimes after considerable damage is done to the people of God.

The Gospel text continues this adversarial approach: “What have you to do with us, Jesus?” That demonic question is often behind the reluctance of a community to follow the authority of the Christ who calls us to make disciples. The encounter with the man with the unclean spirit is certainly the most dramatic part of the text. But notice that it begins with amazement about the authority of the teaching of Jesus. “It’s not like the scribes,” the people note. It’s not simply repeating the tradition of the people of God and various teachers throughout history. But there is something new, something immediate. It is a now moment, a responsive moment that Jesus presents. And then he shows them what he means by healing the man who challenges him, the man with an unclean spirit.

We ascribe the title “demonic” to an incomprehensible evil. Sometimes it is used to avoid responsibility; that is why many of us are reluctant to use a word like “demonic” when speaking of human actions. But it also reminds us that there are “powers and principalities” that are beyond our understanding. It reminds us that there is evil in the world greater than the totality of evil that resides in human hearts.

Our response to such a realization is either to live in fear and suspicion of everyone and everything or to stand against such evil with the power of our Savior wrapped up in the community of faith. One of the questions in the baptism ritual asks parents and sponsors, as well as the candidates for baptism when they are able to answer for themselves, “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?” It is a part of the nature of our faith that we stand against the demonic both in our society and in ourselves.

Sometimes our call is to silence those demonic voices. And the best way to do that is to present a better narrative. We are to tell a better story about how the world can work in God’s kingdom, how the church can represent a better way of being the kin-dom of God. Sometimes shouting and pointing fingers just raises everyone’s blood pressure. It might be better to bring healing to a broken world with kindness and gentleness. It’s not avoiding confrontation with evil but refusing to play the same games. We do so by standing in the authority of Jesus.

Like the prophet who comes from within the people of God, sometimes the demonic does as well. We ought to be as quick to call out what is wrong within us and among us as we are to point out how bad things are “out there.” It has been said that the best advantage we have in our task of evangelism is the church, and, at the same time, the biggest handicap we have thwarting our evangelism is the church. We are the kingdom’s greatest asset and worst enemy —at the same time. We are constantly called to But we are also looking outward, caring for our wider community, inviting and including and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.