Happenings in Watering Hole, Montana

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

The rabble among them had a strong craving; and the Israelites also wept again, and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, all at the entrances of their tents. Then the Lord became very angry, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you treated your servant so badly? Why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a sucking child,’ to the land that you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they come weeping to me and say, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I am not able to carry all this people alone, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you are going to treat me, put me to death at once—if I have found favor in your sight—and do not let me see my misery.”

So the Lord said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them; bring them to the tent of meeting, and have them take their place there with you.

So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, “My lord Moses, stop them!” But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”

Drive past a lot of prairie and not much else for an hour on Montana Rt. 254 and you’ll run into the town of Watering Hole.  The sign says there are 305 souls in town, but that was optimistic back in ’53.  More recent additions to the town sign let you know that this is the home to Michelle “Me” Larson, State hurdles champion.  People said she never hit a hurdle because she practiced with barbed wire fences.  Beside that sign was one for Elle Knutson, three time state spelling bee champion.  The town got its name from the muddy spot behind the old Anderson place that fills with an inch or so of water during the thaw.  Downtown consists of the diner, the feed mill, and Frontier Norwegian Lutheran Church founded in 1867.  Frontier Lutheran has never been in danger of being a megachurch and lately, attendance was nearing an all time low.  One Sunday last winter the pastor, who serves Frontier and four other parishes spread over a hundred miles, preached to a congregation made up of only her black lab Lazarus. 

Worries about membership came to a head at the annual meeting when Miss. Esther Tomlinson stood up to speak.  There was a rumor that she had been a member since 1867, but no one dared ask to confirm it.  Founding member or not, Miss. Tomlinson carried a significant amount of weight at Frontier Lutheran, which was evident from the groan the pew gave as she stood up.  

The congregation listened intently.  Not because it was Miss. Esther but because the diner didn’t open until noon.  “What is needed,” Miss. Esther wheezed, “is a couple of good, new, Norwegian members” and she proposed right then and there to give the council and the pastor that very task.  With the diner now open, the vote was quick and without discussion.  It wasn’t that they thought she had a good idea.  They just wanted to get to lunch before the meat loaf special sold out. 

When the council next met, the pastor began with prayer and gave her report.  Three funerals last month and another on Thursday.  Over 800 miles driven, serving the sprawling parish and seeing people in the hospital in Miles City.  She also reported that she had not yet found any new members.  Palmer Knutson, the council president, reminded the pastor they had to be NORWEGIAN members, and besides, they weren’t quite to that item on the agenda.  But once the annual lutefisk and lefsa supper was sorted, attention turned to the next item on the agenda… new “Norwegian” members.  After a painful silence, the pastor prayed, since no one had any other ideas.  “Dear God, we ask that you send us the folks we need to make this place a vital and sustainable church.”  Neils Anderson leaned over and whispered, “Norwegian members” and the pastor added, “And Lord make them Norwegians. Amen” and the meeting adjourned to the diner meetings in Watering Hole always do.  

The last thing the council or the pastor expected that night was that God would be listening to their request, much less giving them exactly what they needed!  But, that night the Spirit moved.  The two men on the receiving end of the Spirit’s movement described the sensation later as something close to getting caught on an electric fence with wet pants.

However it felt.  The Holy Spirit was working and those two set out with a purpose and intensity normally reserved for the opening day of deer season.  One of the guys was “Me’s” dad.  The other one was Elle’s dad.  Neither were on the council and both only showed up to church at the “holly” or “lily” times of the year, but now they were MOVING.  The kindest people called their new drive a work of the Holy Spirit.  Others  suspected a different kind of spirit.  But whatever the spirit they were working on, they were making things happen at Frontier Norwegian Lutheran Church.  A fellowship breakfast shared with the Episcopal church the next town over.  A new food pantry.  Retired folks organized to deliver meals-on-wheels… the church was suddenly alive!  

Elle’s Dad and Me’s Dad were doing ministry!  They were pouring gas on fires lit by the Holy Spirit!  THAT, however, was NOT what Miss. Esther Tomlinson had in mind.  So the very next Sunday at announcement time, she rose from her seat, much to the relief of the pew, and voiced her displeasure.  The young pastor could see the new light in the eyes of her congregation beginning to fade.  Without even thinking, she stood up and told Miss. Esther she really didn’t mind what El’s dad and Me’s dad were doing.  She didn’t care that they weren’t doing things with the council’s blessing.  In fact, she said, I wish God would zap you and all the rest of this congregation in the pants and get the lot of you moving like they are!  They’re not working against us!  They’re working FOR us and for God!  Maybe God didn’t give you exactly what you had in mind, Miss. Esther, but God gave us all just what we needed!  

That very Un-Scandinavian display of emotion pretty much exhausted the pastor and the whole congregation and everyone sat back down in exhausted silence.  Then, after a pause, Miss. Esther sat down too and the groan from her pew ALMOST covered up her final comment…”Well, at least they’re Norwegians!”  Amen.