Tuesday, August 5, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
B.C. TV
Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ siblings, spoke against Moses. “Is it through Moses alone that the Lord speaks? Does he not speak through us also?”
Moses didn’t hear their whispers, but the Lord did.
Now Moses himself was by far the meekest man on the face of the earth.
I imagine me, my sister and my brother going about our business. We are all occupied with the callings we think have come from God. But then, like the brothers of Joseph, two of us are seized with jealousy. Perhaps Mary Kay has been given the part of the mother of Jesus in the church Christmas pageant, while John and I are doomed forever to be lowly, lousy shepherds, manure on the soles of our shoes, each of us holding a staff but unable to use it as a sword or light saber, just leaning on it and waiting for the sheep to bolt. Which they never do.
And Mary Kay, meek and mild, does nothing to justify us being upset. So we can’t trip her with our staffs or giggle out of the corners of our mouths when she muffs a line, or turn away when she carries Jesus, hoping she will drop him. No, we must fawn on her, worship her and her baby, be her most humble brothers, while she hears from God.
At once the Lord said to Moses and Aaron and Miriam,” Come out, you three, to the meeting tent.” And the three of them went.
They were breathlessly scared. Out of their wits, wide-eyed scared. God did not sound pleased. We would also be scared, right? Frightened out of our whisperings and resentments.
The Lord came down in the column of cloud and called Aaron and Miriam. Now listen to the words of the Lord! If you are a prophet, I will reveal myself to you in dreams and visions.
Well, that wasn’t so bad. John and I are relieved.
But not so my servant Moses! Face to face I speak to him, plainly and not in riddles. With his own eyes he sees the presence of the Lord.
Mary Kay’s face is downturned, but she looks up at us, looks up at God with the face of the mother of Jesus, sweet, humble, peaceful.
Why did you not fear to speak against my servant Moses? So angry was the Lord against them that when he departed and the cloud withdrew from the tent, there was Miriam, a snow-white leper!
I imagine the leprous one would be me, because I think I might have started this whole resentment thing. But if I’m leprous, then I’m unclean. I’ll be cast out of the camp to wander in the desert wilderness forever. My life as a human being will be over!
Then Moses cried to the Lord, “Please, not this! Pray, heal her!”
The story continues. God commands Miriam to be confined outside the camp for seven days, after which she can return. Then the Israelites move on to the borders of Canaan, just across the Jordan. But they will not be allowed to enter the Promised Land. Not yet. They must pretend to be busy in their crummy desert motel rooms for a little while  longer, watching B.C. TV …
 Cheap motel            by Steve Garnaas-Holmes
 Maybe your spirit has headphones on,
 or is watching TV, blocking out the noise
 because life is a cheap motel,
the walls are thin, you can hear stuff,
breaking in on the news,
interrupting what you’re trying to think—
and you’ve almost got it all figured out—
so you keep scrolling,
keep paying meticulous inattention,
because if you let it in you hear it:
 trees sighing, maybe, ocean whispering,
or some kind of voices.
You can’t understand the words
but you get the vibe.
A song with your name in it.
Angels partying next door.
Your head gets sick of it.
But your soul has its ear to the wall.
All of us – Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Mary Kay, John and I wait with broken, open hearts for the word of God. And when it comes the Lord is both just and filled with love. He has answered our heartfelt prayer:
Create in me a clean heart, O God
And renew a right spirit within me
Cast me not away from thy presence
And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me, the joy of thy salvation
And uphold me with thy free spirit.
Amen.
(Numbers 12, Psalm 51, John 1, Matthew 14)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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