And the excuses get crazy!

"So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"  Exodus 32:24

And the excuses get crazy!
By Rev. William Dohle

Have you noticed that, after a time of making excuses, either for yourself or for someone else, that the excuses we make get a little, shall we say, crazy?

It's true...at least in my experience.

Kids don't usually start with "the dog ate my homework."  They usually start with something closer to the truth.  Something like, "I lost it..." or "Ooops I forgot..." and then move into crazier things.  Not so much about the dog, but often about their parents.  "My dad took my folder to work..." or "My mom forgot to give that to me..."  They never say the obvious truth which is, "I am a forgetful person and didn't ever give them the paper in the first place..." or "I really didn't want to do this assignment in the first place...sorry!"

Adults are just as guilty too.  We adults use every excuse in the book  NOT to do something or other.  From "I just don't have time" to "I forgot...I'm sorry" to the classic "I'm really interested in this if only it was at a better time for me."

As a pastor, I've heard every excuse in the book why someone wasn't in church and can't make it or why someone wants to participate in a small group but can't.  They range from "If only it was at another time.  I have something else!"  to "Oh!  I wish I could go." I've even heard the most famous excuse, that is, silence on the matter.  When a new something is announced in church and people say absolutely nothing...that's an excuse too.

Of course, as we've highlighted before, excuse-making is nothing new.  It's imbedded in our bones from the very beginning.  Adam and Eve both offer wonderful excuses for their disobedience.  So does Cain.  So do Abraham and Sarah.  The list of excuse-makers is endless.

But the best excuse maker of all, in my opinion, was a priest by the name of Aaron.  We know Aaron as the brother of Moses and the head of the priestly order, but Aaron offers the best excuse in the Book!  Literally.

It happens like this.  At the foot of Mt. Sinai, Aaron has heard the cries of the people of a god to worship.  They have become rather tired of standing at the foot of the mountain waiting for Moses to come down so they cry out to Aaron for an idol.

"Make us gods who shall go before us." (Exodus 32:1)

Now Aaron could have done the right thing and refused them.  He could have even punished those who suggested such a thing.  But he doesn't.  Instead, Aaron says:

"Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives...and bring them to me." ... And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. (Ex. 32:2-4)

Pause here.  Who made the golden calf??  Aaron!  Did anyone else make it?  Not from the text.  It says clearly here that Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf!  Now watch what happens when Aaron is confronted with what the did.

And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"  And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot.  You know the people, that they are set on evil.  For they said to me, "Make us gods who shall go before us..."  So I said to them, "Let any who have gold take it off."  So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" (Ex. 32:21-24)

Aaron says he threw the gold into the fire and the calf popped out on it's own!  On it's own!  Like..."I'm going to throw this gold into the fire now..." and "Oh my!  A calf just jumped out!"

That is the most rediculas excuse I have ever heard!

The funny part is... Moses doesn't call Aaron on it!  He doesn't even say it is absurd!  Gold must be fashioned into a particular shape.  It will not suddenly emerge as such!  Even the furniture in God's tabernacle must be fashioned and made by someone.  It doesn't just emerge from the fires all complete!

But that's what Aaron is claiming here!  That's his excuse!

I'm not sure why Moses never calls Aaron out on this one.  I'm not sure why the blame never falls on Aaron's shoulders.  Following this, the people are punished.  Many are put to the sword by the Levites and those who remain have a plague set upon them.  Aaron, though, walks away unscathed!

Why is does the blame never fall to Aaron?  Why does he go away unscathed and everyone else pays for what he did?

Maybe that's just the point.  The price never falls on the excuse-maker's head.  There's always a price to pay...even for our excuses.  If our excuses are swords, their sharpest point isn't directed toward us or even toward those we make the excuse to.  It's directed toward others around us.  Even those we love.  Our excuses affect others around us.

The child's excuse to his or her teacher...hurts the teacher's impression of the child's parents.
The parent's excuse for his or her child's absence...affects the child and those counting on him being there.
The adult's excuse for not participating...affects the community they belong to.

To counter this, we must be clear about what we mean.  We needn't do everything or accept everything that comes our way, but we needn't make excuses either.  Perhaps we should listen to what Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew.

"Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No', anything more than this comes from evil." (Mat. 5:37)

The only way to put an end to things is to stop the excuses!  The simple ones.  The complicated ones.  Even the funny ones.  We must speak the truth in love to one other.  We need not be involved in everything or say yes to every idea that comes our way.  That is never suggested.  But we must speak the truth to one another and give each other an honest, verbal answer.  We needn't say yes to everything, but we needn't make excuses for our no's either.

May God loose your tongue to speak.  May God make us honest with ourselves and honest with those around us that we may say yes and no faithfully, with no excuses to harm anyone else, that the blame and the praise of what we do may fall upon us and not upon them.

God, you see through our excuses as if they were glass.  Clean our tongues from our excuses and help us be open and honest with you and those around us.  Amen.

Standing Up...to God?

"But Moses implored the Lord his God..."  Exodus 32:11

Standing up...to God?
By Rev. William Dohle

It's easy to condemn people.  It really is.  All you need to do is look closely at someone else, compare them to yourselves, throw in what you perceive to be God's law, and {PRESTO} instant condemnation.

It happens all the time.  We see someone who looks a little odd.  Maybe they have a strange piercing or tattoo.  Maybe they smell odd or speak a different language.  Maybe they're dressed not like we feel people should dress.  We think to ourselves... something isn't right about them.  Our red flags go up and our journey on the path to condemnation begins.  First we wonder what they might be like.  We figure they must not go to church.  At least not our church.  Then we look for what is wrong with them.  Maybe they're a shady character.  So we speed up our walk, hoping to God that the hellspawn we discovered doesn't pay any attention to us as we hurry away.

It's easy to condemn others.  In our head and in our heart.  It's hard to stand up for them.

This morning I read an article about a group of students who stood up for someone being condemned.  They formed a wall with their bodies and opposed the condemners. This is what they did...

A group of Missouri students formed a human wall outside Mizzou Arena on Saturday in support of Michael Sam. 

The students were attempting to block from view members of Westboro Baptist who were in town protesting against the outpouring of support for former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, who announced he was gay earlier this month.  Sam and the rest of the Missouri football team were honored during the basketball game against Tennessee. Sam received one of the loudest ovations from fans when the team was acknowledged... Members of the hate group stood outside the arena holding signs that condemned the community's and school's support for Sam. Students who formed the wall tried to counter the protest by turning their backs and singing the Missouri alma mater.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The Westboro Baptist Church isn't reflective of any other Baptist denomination in the country.  In fact, many would consider them a hate group for the hatred they display on their signs.  They have protested funerals and events all over the country, even here in Peoria.  They always come with the same message of hatred, wherever they go.

What they do, condemning people for what they believe usually connected with homosexuality, is easy.  It's easy to condemn others.  Standing up for them...now that's hard.

It's hard to stand up to them...or any human when this group, or anyone, condemns another person.  We'd prefer to just hide away from the fighting.  But imagine if the one who is doing the condemning is God?  Imagine if God was the one wanting to destroy or send others to hell.  Would we have the strength, the courage, and the energy to stand up to God?

Moses did!  In rather dramatic fashion.  Before he descended from the mountain, while the people were making a golden calf, God went into a rage.

"Go down for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.  They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it...Now therefore leave me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you."(Exodus 32:7-10)

God's pretty mad, huh?  Notice how he puts the blame on Moses?  It's Moses' people who Moses' brought up out of the land of Egypt.  Sounds like my wife when my kids do something wrong.  "Your kids who YOU raised!"

And God's so angry that he's going to consume them.  His wrath is burning hot.  Hotter than hellfire we might say today.  He's so mad he's going to wipe out the people of Israel and make Moses into a great nation instead.

Now at this point most of us would step back.  "If God condemns them...who am I that I should stand up to God?!" we would say.  Christians have a way of telling others that they're going to hell at this point.  "God hates fags" the Westboro Baptist signs read.  With no compassion or mercy we step aside and would gladly let God consume them, as long as he's not consuming us too.

But Moses doesn't do that.  Not at all.  Moses stands up to God.

"But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?...Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self..."(Exodus 32:11-14)

Notice what Moses does here?  He turns the tables on God!  He reminds God that Israel is HIS people.  HE rescued them out of Egypt.  HE has given them a law and a covenant.  HE has done this because of HIS promises.  There's no room for burning anger or disaster, for God has promised to rescue his people.  God has promised...and there's no going back on it.

Moses says all this to God.  He stands up to God...and God relents!  God changes his mind.  The Scripture says, "And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people."

All because Moses stood up to God's condemnation and said: NO!

Might we do the same?  Not just to God but also to one another?  Might we stand up to others when they condemn someone else?  Might we stand up and say, "No!  You will not treat them like that!?"  Might we not join our voices with those condemning or join our voices with the silent ones, but rather stand up, like these students did in Missouri, and protect those who are being condemned?

Moses did...generations before us!  Jesus did too!  And we can do the same.

I am proud that so many people have stood up against those who would condemn Michael Sam and others and have said, "No!"  I was touched by a football commentator last week who did this very thing and stood up against those who would condemn with a firm, "No!"  (You can see his story here).

May we do the same, joining the ranks of those who have stood up to oppression no matter what it might cost us.

Give us courage, Lord, that we might stand up to the oppressors wherever they might be.  Amen.

"My Precious..."

"Up, make us gods who shall go before us.  As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."  Exodus 32:1b

"My Precious..."
By Rev. William Dohle

What do you call precious in your life?  What has more value to you than anything else?  What would you kill to protect?

There is a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga that is so enamored with a ring in his possession that he lifts it above everything else.  He kills for the ring.  He hides away for the ring.  The ring twists him and consumes him, turning him from a gentile river folkman to a gollum like creature who lives in the shadows of the world.

All because of a ring he calls "precious."

We might dismiss such stories as works of fantasy and science fiction, but the fact of the matter is these stories describe reality.  We too are tempted to twist and mold the good things that God has given us into an idol that we can bow down and worship.

That's what the people of Israel did after all before Moses came down the mountain.  The Bible tells us: "When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Make us gods who shall go before us!" (Exodus 32:1)

When the people couldn't stand to wait on God anymore, they decided to take matters into their own hands.  Sounds familiar, huh?  Isn't that what we do?  Take matters into our own hands.  We figure, since God is so very slow, we'll just take care of things here on our own.  We've got this under control.

But what do the people use to make their gods?  What goes into the fire?

"So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your duaghters, and bring them to me."...And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.  And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"(Exodus 32:2-4)

What made that golden calf was none other than the gold that had been a gift from God.  The precious things in their lives was fashioned into an idol named "Our Precious" and worshiped there on that mountain.

That, they said, saved them.  That, they claimed, was their god.  That idol was all they ever needed.

Oh how familiar that sounds!

We may not throw our gold and jewels and fashion them into a literal golden calf, but we do twist the good gifts that God has given us into something profane.  We fashion our own "Rings of Doom" and call them "Precious", just like the characters in the Lord of the Rings do all the time.

Think of all the good gifts that God has given us.  Each one can be twisted into something profane and wrong.

Our families... can be mutually caring and compassionate entities or harbors of conflict and abuse.
Our Churches... can be places of outreach into the neighborhood and community...or can turn into a fancy country club that shuns outsiders and those different than itself.
Our sports... can unite us in friendly competition or consume us with the lull of victory
Our nation...can be an ambassador of peace in the world, or can become a social idol where nationalism reigns supreme.
Our food...can feed us or be horded by us.
Our world...can be protected or exploited.

In fact, there is no good gift that God has given that hasn't been melted down and fashioned into a golden calf at sometime or another.  There is nothing that we have held back from those fires.

And so we pray for forgiveness and a forgiving God.  We pray for mercy and the sight to see.  We pray that God wouldn't so much remove those gifts as be present for us, taking us from the temptation to twist what he has given.

The people did this when they saw that Moses was delayed.  When they couldn't stand in faith any longer, then they turned to idols for answers.  May we be confident in God's presence among us in Jesus Christ so that we never have to turn to anything but him, even when our faith is short.

God, forgive me for taking your good gifts and melting them down into something else and calling it my god.  Redeem me from myself and help me worship only you.  Amen.