Ancient and Modern Reminders

"So you shall remember and do all my commands..." Numbers 15:38

Ancient and Modern Reminders
By Rev. William Dohle

Ask my wife and she will tell you I am terrible at remembering things.

Someone can tell me a date, a time, an event and if I don't rush out and write it down I will forget it. I write it down multiple places too. I have a traditional calendar(complete with pictures of my family so I remember why I AM so busy). Then I have my calendar on my phone. Just recently I found an app called "Wanderlist" that helps me list out everything I have to do throughout the week.

If I don't have it written in any of these places, I will forget. Guaranteed. Maybe you have a better memory than I do, but I need reminders.

Even as I sit here tonight writing this, my youngest son is reminding me to pay attention to him. With his book in his hand, he is calling me to read to him, to pay attention to him. He's pulling my face to the book to look at him and demanding I take seriously my calling as a father.

I am grateful that God in his mercy has understood that we need reminders too. We are a very distractable, forgetful people. One of the most used words in all of scripture is the simple word: "Remember." God says it. Christ says it. Paul says it. Everyone knows we need help remembering.

One of the first physical reminders for us is given in the book of Numbers. Here we Gentiles can understand why Jews have blue cord on the frindges of their prayer cloak. Here's what is written...

The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the Israelites, and tell them to make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and to put a blue cord on the fringe at each corner. You have the fringe so that, when you see it, you will remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and not follow the lust of your own heart and your own eyes. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and you shall be holy to your God.  I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord your God. (Numbers 15:37-41)

God instructs that blue cord be sewn into the prayer shawl to remind the people. But there is more. When you see it you WILL remember and DO THEM. The reminder actually aids in the action. God does not remind us once and then expect us to remember. God reminds us and then helps us obey so that we "shall be holy to the Lord your God."

What an awesome God we have! He understands that we are a forgetful people! Left to our own devices, we would fail and fall and forget. When left on our own, we quickly follow the lust of our own hearts and our own eyes. We care more about us and our family than we care about the rest of the world. But God gives us reminders of his love that help us, so that, through His Spirit, we may become holy.

Communion is done in rememberance of Christ. We wash one another's feet to remember our Teacher's words. And God has surrounded us with other reminders too. Creation itself. Signs of his love all around us.

So...what reminders have you seen? How have those reminders helped you follow his way and his commands? How have they turned you from the lust of your own heart and eyes to God?

Surround us with reminders, O God. Whether it be in the body and blood of your Son or in the people we have surrounded ourselves with, bring us to obedience, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Standing Between

Father Damien - 1873

"Aaron stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stopped." Numbers 16:48


Standing Between
By Rev. William Dohle

Did you know... there are superheroes all around us! Men and women willing to stand between the dead and the living, the stop the plague from killing more than it should. These people are God's great super-heroes of faith!

One of these superheroes was a man by the name of Fr. Damien. A website dedicated to him describes him this way: "Damien was born in 1840 in Tremeloo, Belgium. He joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts volunteering for the mission to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1873 he went to work as a priest in a leper colony on the island of Molokai. He died from leprosy in 1889 aged 49. The testimony of the life he lived among the lepers of Molokai led to an intensive study of Hansens disease, eventually leading to a cure. Pope John Paul II beatified Damien in 1995. He was named a saint on Oct 11th 2009."

Damien was a superhero of the faith...why? Because he stood between the dead and the living. Because he was willing to put himself between the plague and the Hawaiian people. Because he was willing to make himself an atoning sacrifice for them in their condition.

Damien's work is nothing new. It began long before he was born. Long before even Jesus walked the earth. It began with a man named Aaron and a plague brought upon by God.

In the book of Number we read of such a plague. Here the whole congregation is rebelling against Moses for "killing the people of the Lord." They've assembled against Moses, ready to stone him, when a cloud covers the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord appears. And Moses says: "Get away from this congregation and make atonement for them. For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun."

Now what does Moses and Aaron do in a time like this? Do they retreat from the congregation? Do they leave?

No... instead Aaron makes atonement for the people and stands "between the dead and the living." And, we are told, the plague stopped.

Now... what happened here? Why is this story of atonement in the book of Numbers? What could this mean anyway?

We might recognize this story, not as the story of Aaron, but as the story of Christ. Christ is the one now who stands between the living and the dead. Christ is our high priest who "is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."(Hebrews 7:25). Christ is the one who calms the wrath of God, who takes the plague on himself. Christ is our mediator.

Because we are followers of this one. Because we are followers of this Christ, we too stand beside him as he stands between life and death. We too can stand between the bully and those bullied, between the haters and those being hated. We too can stand up for those in need, giving ourselves and our own life to save them temporarily for we know that we have a savior who saves them eternally. We too can stand with Aaron against the wrath of God and say, "No! We love them! We claim them! And we won't condemn them to hell!"

We too can be like Jesus!

Thanks be to God, for his super-heroes who have followed in the footsteps of his Son, who have given of their own lives and their own hearts to save this world in need.

Almighty God, pour your Spirit upon us today that we may love and serve and care for others as you have. Give us the courage to stand between the living and the dead and join your Son there. Amen.

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf

the church is in "an urgent situation" in which "the ELCA's leadership is overweight, inactive, depressed and, therefore, prone to diseases such as heart disease."  It placed the leaders' physical and emotional conditions in the context of declining church membership and fewer young leaders preparing to relieve them. - See more at: http://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/4542#sthash.cEgQw21f.oO52g7wt.dpuf