Blessed Memories
By Rev. William Dohle
A few years ago, a great-grandmother came to the church I was serving. She was a stranger to church, especially ours. In fact, she had never stepped into one since leaving Germany many decades earlier. As she walked into our church, she looked around. Then she shook her head, disappointed.
"In a real church," she said. "The pulpit is higher. Almost to the roof."
"In a real church," she commented. "There's not this carpet on the floor."
"In a real church," she finished, "The ceiling is much higher."
I tried to show her how things had changed, but she just shook her head.
"This isn't a real church," she concluded.
As she continued on about the differences between our church and the image of the church in her mind, I realized this church would never live up to the picture in her head. Not ever. We couldn't live up to it because the church she had in her mind doesn't exist any more.
We all have this problem. We all compare the church we see with the church in our heads. I've often said, when we come to faith, we take a mental snapshot of the church at the time. "This," we say. "This is the church!"
We remember the pastor who was there and every word that he said.
We remember the color of the carpet and the style of the church.
We remember worship and how it moved us.
We remember all this fondly...and return to our picture again and again. But the church itself changes. It moves and grows and never stays the same. It's the River of God flowing through the world and no river is the same, moment by moment.
Maybe that's why we have such a detailed description of the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus. Those who would read through the Bible, cover to cover, know that once you reach Exodus it is a little harder to continue through your reading. It takes a lot of willpower to get through all the commandments and rules and lists of people.
And in Exodus 25 - 28 you hit another hurtle. Descriptions of the Tabernacle.
Unless you're an engineering major, I don't think you'd be interested in the exact measurements of everything. This piece of Scripture can feel old and antiquated...
Until we read it, not as prescriptive, but rather as descriptive. If we read this passage of Scripture as the picture of where God WAS instead of where God IS. If we read this as a blessed memory of the people of Israel rather than the commandments of God...then we can understand it.
They say these texts were finally set to writing during the exile, thousands of years after Moses. If that is true... imagine the people then, sitting down and asking each other, "What was worship like in the wilderness? What do we remember?"
Some talk about a Tabernacle and an ark...
"And God told them, 'Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold...'"(Ex. 25:10)
And others remember what the tabernacle itself looked like, "...with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubin worked into them by a skilled craftsman."(Ex. 26:1)
Some remember the courtyard. "For the entrance of the courtyard provide a curtain twenty cubits long and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer--with four posts and bases."(Ex. 27:16)
Still others remember what the priests wore, "Make the robe of the ephod entirely of blue cloth, with an opening for the head in its center."(Ex. 28:31-32)
The people's memory is crisp and clear for the stories of this blessed dwelling have been passed down generation to generation. In each reading, they think back and remember the time their ancestors worshiped God in the wilderness and what a marvelous time that was too.
As we join them in remembering what worship was like "when we were young" or "when we came to faith", let us remember that things change. We no longer worship in a Tabernacle or in a Temple. Jesus tells us, in John, "The time will come when you will worship God neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem...the time is coming and has not come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth..."(John 4:21)
Join me in worshiping a God who cannot be contained in any Tabernacle or Temple or even church building, but a God who is constantly on the move.
We remember, God, the places where we met you. Help us trust you in the journey that, no matter how much things change, we know your love will remain the same. Amen.
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