Monday, August 26, 2013

Death of the Renaissance Man

When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Exodus 18:14

Death of the Renaissance Man
By Rev. William Dohle

When I was growing up, my father tried very very hard to expand my horizons and talents.

It started with cars.  We had a VW bug out back and he tried very hard to teach me how to change a tires and the oil...but that didn't interest me.  He tried and tried...and finally gave up.

He tried with construction... we had a playhouse out back and my father did half the work on it and left the other half for me to finish.  It never got finished.

He tried electronics, and though I did enjoy playing video games and eventually programming and stuff, I never got into the hobby quite like he would have liked.

Sorry, Dad...  Guess your son is just mechanically challenged...:)

Everyone has different gifts, but sometimes we forget this.  Everyone has different interests and different talents, but sometimes we wish not.  Sometimes we wish we(and everyone around us) could do everything!  Every need we can fulfill.  Every problem we can fix.  We can do it!

Our ideal is the Renaissance Man, a modern concept out of the 1600's that imagined a man who was totally self-sufficient.  He needed no one to do anything for him.  He could grow his own food, kill and cook up his own meat, build his own house, tend his own family, and do everything that needed to be doing all by himself.

Such an ideal is still alive and well in the world around us.  I myself have encountered it in many places throughout my travels.

But this ideal is not biblical.  It is, in fact, what Moses was counselled against.

Back when the people of Israel were wandering in the desert... before they received the commandments at Sinai...Moses had the task of judging the people of Israel.  With so many people, you can imagine the job that was, and Moses took it well.  The people would line up outside and Moses would tell them what God had in mind.

At that time, Moses' Father-in-law came with Moses' wife and children in tow to visit his son-in-law and return Moses' family to him.  When Jethro saw what Moses was doing, he saw beside himself!

"What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.” (Exodus 18:17-22)

Moses had good reason.  He saw these people needed help and he wanted to help them, but in helping them, Moses was taking on too much.  He couldn't do it alone!  He needed help!

We too need to realize that we need help.  Even the greatest Renaissance Man cannot operate on himself.  They may have built their own homes, but they do not diagnose their own illnesses.  They may have built their own cars, but they still need someone to make their clothes.  And at the end of their lives, even the most self-sufficient man cannot bury themselves.

We need others to do things that we cannot.  We need them.  We need mechanics to fix our cars and plumbers to fix our pipes.  We need famers to grow our food and truckers to bring the food to the store and store keepers to put it out on the shelves for us.  We need construction workers of all varieties to do their individual jobs that they do so well.  We need them to be specialized, not generalized.  We need each other.

No one would want a construction worker on the street doing brain surgery.  You want a brain surgeon.  Unless that construction worker has hidden talents and has gone to school, we don't place a scalpel in their hands.  But we do trust them to build our roads and our schools and the very hospitals we are in.  We need them to do what they were called to do.

May we remember Jethro's words to Moses and not demand or expect others to have the gifts that we do, but instead may we use the gifts that God has given each of us for the common good and to the glory of His Name.

God you have given me with unique gifts and talents that no one else has.  Help me use them for others.  Humble me too that I may see where I need other people as they need me.  Amen.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

God Against My Enemy

"The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."  Exodus 17:16

God Against My Enemy
By Rev. William Dohle

This past year I had the privilege of studying with a group of God's faithful here at St. Paul Lutheran Church, where I serve.

Our class began last August and finished up this July.  In addition to reading four spiritual books, we each read through the whole Bible, writing in a journal as we read. When we arrived in the middle of our study, when the verses took us back to the Hebrew Bible, we heard a common refrain: "These passages are just so bloody and violent!  How could God allow them to do that?!  Why are these stories in our Bible?"

I've heard it before when people discover how human the Bible truly is.  Passages where God commands the Israelites to slaughter every man, woman, child, and animal surprise many people.  They want God to be loving toward everyone.  They see a difference, as the ancient Marcian did, between the New Testament and the Old and they want to isolate the New Testament from the writings they feel portray God too tribal.

But, what if you were persecuted, struck down, chased from place to place, hated, abandoned, and wandering?  What if you were former slaves facing down a group of slavers?  What would you want God to do?  Love them?  Or would you want God to stand up to them because you can't?

The Amalekites, sworn enemies of God's people Israel, are as ancient as they are.  Abraham himself is said to have fought against them.  Throughout the years, as Israel grew stronger and larger, these two people became hostile toward each other.  Wars against the Amalekites started in Genesis continued to rage for centuries to come.

So...what makes them so different from the Israelites?  Why were they fought against each other?  No one really knows.  What is known is that the Amalekites become the devils and demons of their day.  They are, in the biblical writers view, the enemies of God!  They are remembered to be those who disobeyed God and who hunted down God's people.  In Deuteronomy we read:

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget."

So what do we make of this today?  Well, contrary to what we might think of our "peaceable" New Testament, God is still raging against our enemies even there.  Only difference is that our enemies are not people of flesh and blood, but things of the spirit.  In the New Testament, God rages against... sin!  It is said that God will defeat death!  God will trample down the devil and his minions.  In the New Testament, we are told that nothing can separate us from God.  Not any enemy that we can think of.  Nothing!

This is the same message, I think, we ought to take from this story in Exodus.  God doesn't give up!  He never stops fighting for our cause.  God will never stop fighting cancer or depression.  He will not give up the war against despair and heartache.  God wrestles down to the ground the forces of selfishness.  He wipes away the scars brought about by injustice.

These are our Amalekites.  These are our enemies!

I take great hope in knowing that God doesn't abandon his people.  He didn't abandon them in the desert to the Amalekites who hunted them down.  He didn't abandon them to exile or to the sinfulness of their ways.  And he won't abandon us too.

That's comfort for the ages...right there!

Good God, though we are separated by centuries from your people and their wars against the Amalekites, we struggle with enemies ourselves.  Open our eyes that we might see you fighting beside us on our behalf.  Amen.

About the photo:  "Davidster" (Star of David) by Dick Stins is a World War II memorial in The Hague. The text at the side (in Dutch and Hebrew) is from Deuteronomy 25:17,19 - "Remember what Amalek has done to you...do not forget."

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Held up by others

"Is the Lord among us or not?"  Exodus 17:7b

Held up by others
By Rev. William Dohle

One of the most beloved poems of our time was one written by that author of authors, that poet of poets, anonymous.  It's called "Footprints in the Sand."  Its a poem so loved and cherished that it has been made into quilts and throw rugs, posters and greetings cards.  It's literally everywhere!

The last phrase, though, is usually the most remembered.  After the poet has struggled with seeing just one set of footprints in times of distress in his life, he asks why Christ stopped carrying him then.  Christ answers...

"My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."


Carried by Christ.  Cherished by God.  Such images help us through times of turmoil, pain, stress, and tragedy.  Carried by Christ is a common theme in most Christian circles because we cannot face the tough times alone.

And that is true that Christ carries us.  But there's more.  Much more.

You see, God doesn't work outside of humanity but through it.  Christ has no hands other than ours.

In other words... when Christ was carrying you... he was carrying you through others!

We see God working this way in the book of Exodus.  As the Amalekites come attacking the Israelites at Rephidim, Moses sends Joshua and a few men to fight them while "...tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands."

So... the battle ensues.  Joshua goes to fight.  Moses stands on the hill with the staff of God raised in his hands.

Only he discovers its really hard to do.  Anyone who's ever had to hold up something in the hands has learned that your hands and arms get tired...real fast!  And Moses learns this too.

"As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning."(Ex. 17:11)

Tough thing there, holding up an army by yourself!

But Moses doesn't have to do it all by himself.  Moses has help.  Aaron and Hur come to Moses' aid.

"When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a tone and put it under him and he sat on it.  Aaron and Hur held his hands up--one on one side, one on the other--so that his hands remained steady till sunset."(Ex. 17:12)

And so Moses and the Israelites defeated their enemies...with everyone helping one another.

We find the same thing happens with us too.  When we are faced with tragedy or trials, we find that others tend to rally around us.  Friends come to hold up our hands for a time.  Family too.  Prayers from near and far go to support us in our time of need.  And Christ carries us through.

Christ's work is done when we all rally together.  As it was done when Aaron and Hur came to Moses' aid and held up his hands for the people, so too God's work is done when others come to our aid and we to theirs.  In that way, Christ carries us through.

God as friends held up Moses' hands, may we hold up one another that through our hands, your work is done.  Amen.