Let me see it!

Whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, then the Israelites would set out; and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the Israelites would camp.  Numbers 9:17

Let me see it!
By Rev. William Dohle

"There are signs everywhere!" Matthew Perry's character declares in the classic 1990's film, "Fools Rush In!"  After declaring his disbelief in signs, he is bombarded with things that point him in the direction he needs to be going.

Sometimes I wish God spoke so clearly to me.  Sometimes I wish there really were signs that told me things like what school should I send my kids to or how should we spend our summer.  Or even more complex things like where God was and what God was doing in my life.

Sometimes I wish God were that clear.

Like how clear he was for the Israelites as they wandered the wilderness.  For all the hardship they must have faced, one thing they never had to wonder about... Where is God?

God appeared in a cloud over the tabernacle during the day and in a pillar of fire at night.

God would instruct them when to move and when to stay.  If the cloud moved...they moved.  If the cloud stayed...they stayed.

Such a simple, easy way of living.  All you needed to do was what God told you to.  And everyone knew what God wanted based on where the cloud was!

It's not that simple today.  Today we wander around aimlessly sometimes, searching for where to go and what to do.

After high school... do I go to college or a trade school?  Should I join the military?  A band?  Should I live at home or find my own place?

After college... should I get married or not?  How desperate am I for a relationship?  Should I date?  And who?  Where will I live?  Where would I work?  What would I like to do with my life?

In life... how many kids should we have?  Where should they go to school?  Should I take this new job opportunity or not?

After retirement...do I find another job?  Stay home?  Where do I volunteer at or do I volunteer anywhere?

These are all questions of direction!  Questions of purpose and place.

How easy would it be if God's direction was as simple as a cloud over your head.  Move and follow.  That's all you'd have to do is move and follow.

There is a process of determining where God might be calling us.  That process is called discernment.  Here we think about our options and then pray about them.  After a time of prayer and scripture reading, we make our decision, praying that it's the right one.

There are no voices heard in discernment.  No clouds over our heads or over our churches.  But a decision is made and then put in the hands of God.

We always say we've followed God's call after we've gone through discernment...but have we?  We say after we've discerned a decision that God lead us there.  We say we're following God.  But we have no cloud to follow, no pillar of fire before us.  Our discernment could very well be our own subconscious yearnings manifesting themselves.  We think we're following God when we're following ourselves.

How do we know for certain?

Maybe we should ask ourselves this question: If left on my own, would I have made this decision?  Of all these options, which of them if God actually physically chose it for me would I be adverse to?  Which of them is serving me?  And which of them is serving God and my neighbor?

That would be one way to follow after God's cloud and fire.  After consulting with Scripture and through prayer ask ourselves, "Is this God calling me out of my comfort zone or me driving me back into it?"

The Holy Spirit still leads us, I believe, into the wilderness and places we otherwise wouldn't go.  God still goes ahead of us guiding the way.  We just have to look up and pay attention to where he is or where he's gone.

Holy Spirit, guide me, direct me, and lead me into your pathways, for Jesus sake.  Amen.

Let's Party...everyone!

"...you shall have one statue for both the resident alien and the native."  Numbers 9:14b

**The image to the side is because the writer is an unashamed Doctor Who fan.  Apologies to those who are not.**

Let's party...everyone!
By Rev. William Dohle

Suppose you had a party to attend...only you didn't really want to attend it.

Everything had been made ready for you.  The food had been catered.  The venue had been reserved and ready.  Maybe they even bought a DJ for the event, to liven the night up with music.

Everything was ready...save one thing.

You really didn't want to go.

You knew you SHOULD.   You knew you should make an appearance at least.  People would be missing you if you weren't there.  But you really truly did not want to go to the party.

What would you do??  (**Tell me in the comments or via email...what WOULD you do?**)

Would you go to the party, even for appearance sake?  Or would you make some excuse as to why you couldn't go?  And what kind of excuse would you make?  You got sick the night before?  You have some pressing engagement?

Or maybe you could say that you just touched a dead body and that you were unclean and unable to celebrate.

Oh wait.  That's what some people said the night the whole of Israel is commanded to celebrate Passover.

"Now there were certain people who were unclean through touching a corpse, so that they could not keep the passover on that day.  They came before Moses and Aaron on that day, and said to him, "Although we are unclean through touching a corpse, why must we be kept from presenting the Lord's offering at its appointed time among the Israelites?"(Num 9:6-8)

Now pause there a moment.  True, it does sound like these people honestly WANT to celebrate the Passover with everyone else.  After all, they say, "Why must we be kept..."  But keep in mind too that they KNEW they might be kept from celebrating that night BEFORE they touched the corpse.  And they didn't consult with Moses before they did it, but after.  It's like saying, "Why must we miss the party just because we have a prior engagement?"

Moses goes to God with the question and God says:

"Speak to the Israelites saying: Anyone of you or your descendants who is unclean through touching a corpse, or is away on a journey, shall still keep the passover to the Lord.  In the second month on the fourteenth day, at twilight, they shall keep it."(9:9-11a)

Notice what God says.  God is saying, "It doesn't matter!  Come to the party!"

"It doesn't matter what rules you broke before you come.  It doesn't matter if you're clean or unclean.  It doesn't even matter if you're away on a journey or whatever.  Come and celebrate with me!  Come to the party!"

And for those who decide not to party with God??

"But anyone who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet refrains from keeping the passover, shall be cut off from the people for not presenting the Lord's offering at its appointed time; such a one shall bear the consequences for the sin."

In other words... there is no excuse not to attend!  No excuse at all.

Unclean??  No problem!  Come and celebrate!
On a journey??  No problem!  The celebration awaits!
Even resident aliens residing with the Israelites are invited to the party!

Why??  Because it's God's party!  It's a feast celebrating God's deliverance of God's people from slavery.  And its rolls are wide open!

It's interesting how Jesus connects up with this image.  Parties run all over the Gospels.  And most interesting is how the failure of the excuse is held up too.  For Jesus, it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, slave or free, male or female, tax collector or zealot, Jew or Greek, black or white, Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal.  It doesn't matter who you are or what or have or haven't done.  You haven't an excuse NOT to attend this party!  For the doors have been burst wide open.  The banquet is set and ready.  All has been made ready.  And everyone(and I do mean everyone) is invited to attend!

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the Universe, for setting such a large and wide banquet and including all creation on the guest list.  Give us wisdom that we might accept your invitation and then bring all our friends to your feast of life.  Amen.

The Need for the Young

"...from the age of fifty years they shall retire from the duty of the service and serve no more."  Numbers 8:24

The Need for the Young
By Rev. William Dohle

The church I serve has a problem.  A rather big problem if you take statistics seriously.

In the November 2014 issue of The Lutheran, the problem is described as the "aging clergy wave."  Basically as the Baby Boomer generation nears the retirement age, more and more clergy and passing beyond.

"In the Northeastern Iowa Synod, for example, 60 of the 138 pastors under call to a congregation are age 60 or older..."(p. 19, The Lutheran, November 2014)

Other synods report the same numbers.  By and large, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which I serve is an aging church.  Soon, most of the pastors will be at the age of retirement or beyond.  Soon we will struggle with finding clergy to serve all the parts of our denomination.

The Synod I serve, the Central/Southern Illinois Synod has faced the same issue.  Recently, they have taken a utilitarian approach the retired ministry, offering retired ministers interim positions and part-time calls.  The three Assistants to the Bishop, for example, are all retired pastors.  Not a single pastor not retired, besides the bishop, is employed by this synod.

In other synods, the same thing is going on.  Retirement is being postponed or replaced in favor of  continued ministry.

"We are seeing sort of a rehabilitation of age, and 70 is the new 60." says Bishop Kirby Unti of the Northwest Washington Synod.

While this may seem to have solved the problem of "what do you do with all these retired guys and gals" the issue still remains.  Our clergy are an aging population.  And while it's nice to have people or experience to turn to, the fact of the matter is we rely too heavily upon those who are older in ministry.

And I wonder...why?

Perhaps it's a number thing.  There are more older clergy than younger.  Perhaps we rely on our retired people because we have to.

Perhaps it is a matter of trust.  After all, the younger generation brings with it a whole host of new and different ideas.  Raised in the digital generation, they are more apt to use multi-media in their sermons.  Their creeds might not be as polished or neat as that of their older collegues.  And, if statistics are right, they tend to be more tolerant on issues of sexuality and community than the older generation is.

Perhaps we don't really want things to change, at least in our lifetimes, so we've entrusted it to those who won't change.  Maybe the thought of the church becoming something different is frightening and we'd rather have the pastors who've been schooled in the old instead of those trained in the new.

Or perhaps they young bring with them a host of costs and obligations that the older generation does not.  Younger pastors are more likely to have young families.  Sometimes that involves giving them parental leave or providing for expenses you would not have to provide with a retired person.  Sometimes it involves mobility.  Younger pastors are more likely to be "geographically restricted" than older pastors may be.

Whatever the reason, we are very much going against a tradition of retirement dating all the way to the book of Numbers.  A tradition of retirement that emerges out of commands God gives to Moses for the Levites.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying: "This applies to the Levites: from twenty-five years old and upward they shall begin to do duty in the tent of meeting; and from the age of fifty years they shall returne from the duty of the service and serve no more.  They may assist their brothers in the tent of meeting in carrying out their duties, but they shall perform no service." (Numbers 8:23-25)

Why would God have instructed Moses this way?  It seems rather odd to put limits and restrictions on the ages of the people who serve in God's temple.  It seems like God is micro-managing things or something.  Why would God care what the ages of his servants were, so long as they served?

Maybe God is setting a limit for their own good.  In the same way that God sets the boundries of heaven and earth.  In the same way that he sets apart the Sabbath day as a holy day.  God is setting up an age boundary here, separating the age of work from the age of retirement.  Why?  Well... God knows that we'll work ourselves to death if given the chance.  If left to our own devices, we will run ourselves out dead with no rest, even for the aging.

God is saying, "Enough!  There has to be a time for rest and retirement!  You can't keep doing what your younger collegues do.  You have to give yourself a break!"

How I wish our church would learn that lesson!  The lesson that comes from retirement.  I'm not sure if we can right now.  It might require a rethinking of the way we do synod and church.  It might require a change.  But I think we rely too much on those who are retired and eventually the time for rest will come for them, willingly or not.

Wouldn't it be grand if the older our clergy became, the more we learned from them what it means to rest in the Lord?!  Wouldn't it be great if the lesson our retired clergy were teaching us was: "This is what it means to rest in the Lord.  This is what it means to get older and retire from work.  This is what it means to give the reigns over the younger generation, for good or ill."  Instead of "this is what it means to work until you die!"

God gives us rest, not just to us each week, but also to us when we reach the age of Sabbath.  God still gives the gift of rest.  Are we willing to let go and let others enjoy that gift too?

Blessed are you, Lord God, King of the Universe, for you have set the limits between rest and work.  Teach us those limits that we might embrace both.  And when the time for rest comes in our lives, give us the grace to let go and trust the work to the next generation.  Amen.