"The First Wiseass"

Pastor Laura Guy

June 21, 2009

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We heard about Balaam, a professional curser. King Balak of Moab tried to hire him to go curse the Israelites so they would stop growing in number. But Balaam asked God first if he should go. God said "no", but when Balak persisted, God told Balaam, "You may go but say only what I tell you to say." However, for some reason, God gets angry when Balaam actually goes with Balak's men.
We read Numbers 22:21-35 and heard about the strange things that happened on the journey. Maybe the reason God was angry with Balaam is because he only listened to the first part of the conversation. Once God said it was OK to go, Balaam probably thought he could figure out what to say on his own. After all, he was a smart guy. But while the "wise" one in the story was lost in his own thoughts, the "ass" saw clearly that God's angel was blocking the way forward. Every time the donkey tried to avoid the menacing angel, Balaam beat her. When God opened the mouth of the donkey, Balaam was finally able to see the angel, too, and he realized that his donkey had saved his life.
We thought about how God tries to get our attention when we only listen to half of the conversation. For many parents, God often uses our children to speak wisdom to us about what is really important. We read an excerpt from Jim Wallis' blog about how his children are his spiritual anchor. He has realized that, not only is a budget a moral document, but a calendar is as well. How we spend our money and our time speaks about what is truly important to us.
We wondered who God uses to speak to us. Maybe someone we might overlook as being less intelligent than we are, maybe even someone we consider to be a...donkey.
We prayed that we would take the time to listen to the whole conversation, or at least hear God speak through others at times.
We celebrated God's gracious gifts at the communion table.