Connecting to the Past

"This is the account of Esau(that is Edom)."  Genesis 36:1

Connecting to the Past
By Rev. William Dohle

Who are your ancestors and who are YOU related to??

It's funny when you look back on your family who you're related to...

My grandfather on my father's side came over to America during World War I, settled first in Illinois and then in Colorado, and then in New Mexico traveling with the nuns of St. Francis.  As part of a large family, he left relatives scattered throughout the states.  Wherever you find a "Dohle", you'll likely find one of our relatives.

My great-uncle, his brother, stayed in Germany during World War II and was an S.S. Officer.

My great grandmother on my mother's side came to Oklahoma and then to Kansas in a covered wagon after her family lost everything in the South following the Civil War.

Her brother was one of Roosevelt's Rough Riders and did some time in Cuba with President Roosevelt.

Oh the stories we could tell of our family!  Oh the things they have done!

Family history is fascinating to me.  To read the names of the people who literally brought you into being.  To hear their stories told and recount their lives.  And to wonder sometimes: What would they think of their descendant now?

The Bible is full of family stories.  From the time of Adam, Israel has kept record of who's in the family and who did what.  Some of those stories are fascinating!


But before we read these genealogies we have to understand: Genealogies can be VERY boring!  Some people, when reading through the Bible, will skip over the genealogies all together.  Name after name of people you don't know from Adam.  They can all be overwhelming!

We must remember two very important things:  #1: There are important points to glean from the geneologies.  And #2: These are YOUR descendants too!

#1:  There are important points to glean.  Most of the time we read the text word for word...but here that's a little hard.  Instead look for two things: women and important events.  Whenever a woman is named, underline her.  She's important.  Only important women get mentioned in the Bible.  If someone has a daughter, and she's listed in the genealogy, you know she was important somehow.  Look for women...and look for important things.  You can find important things, like, in verse 24 of chapter 36.  "Aiah and Anah.  This is the Anah who discovered the hot springs in the desert while he was grazing the donkeys of his father Zibeon."  Now you have something else to tie Anah to.  It's like a miniature story.  These snippets are everywhere in the genealogies.  Seek them out!  They will bring the text to life.

#2:  These are YOUR descendants too!  Have you ever noticed how excited WE get about reading about our family and how disinterested we are in hearing about anyone else's?  It's true.  Sometimes I think it comes from our competitive nature.  "My ancestor is better than your ancestor..." and there is a little of that, for sure.  But when you hear about YOUR ancestor doing something, you are much more likely to pay attention, to listen, and perhaps even to remember and understand.

These characters mentioned in Scripture are YOUR relatives!  They are part of YOUR family.  Their actions, or in-actions, however remembered or not remembered, helped shape your world too.  Your faith is descended from their faith.

There is a reason why the Bible is so specific about who descended from whom.  It's to bring us all together.  To connect all people together into one great family of God.  When Israel was fighting the Edomites, they were fighting distant relatives!  When they were at war with the Ishmaelites, they were fighting family.

Scientists have told us that all people are somehow related to a single female they found in Africa.  The Bible has told us that long time ago.  We are all related.  These are all of our family members!  Descended from Noah's sons, way back in Genesis, through the sons of Abraham, Issac, and soon, Jacob.  We are all connected up into one family.  The family of God.

So... praise God!   Praise God for Esau and Oholibamah, for Eliphaz and Reuel.  Praise God for Seir, the Horite and Lotan and Zibean.  Praise God for Uz and Aran, for Hadad and Shaul, for Timna and Iram, and Mibzar, and Pinon, and for the countless others, both named and unnamed.  Without them, without all of them, we would not be the people of God we are today!

God of Remembrance, as these our ancestors touched us with their lives, help us touch other people with ours, that we may be remembered by you as workers in your kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Making A Difference

"Now Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel.  So it was named Allon Bacuth(or oak of weeping)."  Genesis 35:8

Making A Difference
By Rev. William Dohle

I've probably told this story before...but it still strikes me.  It is the best definition of making a difference through your WHOLE life that I have...

She was 99 years old.  Blind and mostly deaf.  Every morning she was moved from her bed to a chair that sat across from that bed.  There she stared out the window, talked with the staff, waited for vistors, and waited to die.

Every week her pastor, a vicar at the time, would come and visit her.  And each week he would hear the same.

"Pastor, pray that I die this week!"

I smiled at her, leaned close to her good ear, and screamed, "Alright, but you want communion first?"

"That would be good," she'd say.

After communion, she would talk again about death.  At first when I visited her, she would tell me: "My family isn't letting me die yet.  They say I have to reach 100!"

"That would be nice," I told her.

Later that year she did turn 100 and I walked with her and the staff around her home 100 steps!

Later that week I went to visit her again.

"My family says I have to stay alive," she said.  "At least until the new millenium! (it was 1999)."

"That would be nice," I told her.

She did stay alive that year and three more years.  At the age of 103 Bertha Ryder went home to her Lord in heaven.

There we have it.  A woman who was blind and deaf and couldn't even stand without help.  Did she make a difference??

Yes!  She did!

She made a difference to the staff, to her family, and to the young pastor who came to visit her.  Countless stories have been told of her.  Her memory endures.  Even blind and deaf, she was able to make a difference and a lasting impression.  And it counted!

Today's verse speaks of a woman no one remembers.  A nurse named Deborah.  We are told she was Rebekah's nurse.  And we can only assume that she took care of both Esau and Jacob when they were young.  She died.  And the place they buried her in Beth-el, the house of God, is said to be under the oak of weeping.  This woman, never spoken of before this reference or after.  This woman affected the lives of both Jacob and Esau, and in turn affected the lives of all of God's children.

We too make more of a difference than we think.  You!  That's right.  You!  You make a difference in the lives of people around you.  You affect more people than you can count?  More lives are changed because of YOU than you will ever know about here and now!  Your memory and the impact you have on another's life will live on after you.  They will live because of how you lived.  And because of how you lived, others' lives will be changed.

All this happens because of the Holy Spirit.  God's Spirit carries our actions beyond us.  Our words echo in other people's minds.  Our deeds resonated and help them through their days.  Not because they were profound or important in themselves, but because the Spirit, working through us, changes the lives for the good of all those around us.

The Holy Spirit calls people to faith.  Today you will be that microphone.  The Holy Spirit enlightens people.  Today you will echo His teachings.  The Holy Spirit makes us holy.  Today you will forgive others on God's behalf.  The Holy Spirit keeps us in the true faith.  And you will encourage others, through your words and deeds, to consider that faith for themselves.

May God make each of us Deborahs in the world, nurse maids for his children, as our words and deeds transform this world, through the Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit, equip us with the vision to see beyond ourselves and to realize and know the profound affect we have on others and on this world, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Named by the Promise

"The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you."  Genesis 35:12


Named by the Promise
By Rev. William Dohle

I often wonder, looking at my children as they sleep in their beds, what in their lives will define them.  What events, conversations, and situations will be self-defining for them?  What will name them and shape them in their adult lives?

Will it be the trip we took to St. Louis as they gazed down from the arch?  Or the book on astronomy that we just read together?  Will it be the time we went kite flying or the game they played?  Will it be a word misspoken in anger or one quietly whispered at bedtime?  What will shape them and name them as people in adulthood?


There are self-defining moments in everyone's life.  One of them occurred, for me, when I was confirmed when an old, retired pastor whispered in my mother's ear: "He's gonna be a pastor someday."  That word, passed on jokingly by my mother, worked to shape my life into what it is today.

Another self-defining moment came at high school graduation.  One of the churches I attended was a Nazarene church at the time and the pastor had both of its high school graduates(one other girl and I) kneel and be prayed over.  The pastor prayed that each of us would find a spouse in college that would complete us and help us on our journey.  God answered that prayer in my wife whom I met in college.

If Jacob was here among us, he would describe the defining moment that happened to him at Bethel with God.  There God called him... HIM!  The loser son of Isaac who stole his brother's inheritance and ripped off his blessing.  There God called HIM!  He claimed Jacob as his very own.  No longer will he be the deceiver.  That life is behind him.  For, on that mountain God gives Jacob a new name.  A reminder of the night he wrestled with God, here the name change is made official: "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel."(Gen. 35:10)

Jacob would no longer be the same person.  Now he would be Israel.  The one who wrestled with God.  His sons would be the surnames of the twelve tribes of Israel.  From his family and from his issue, all the world would be blessed.  In the end, out of him would come the savior of the world!

But something else happened on that mountain too.  Something even more significant than a name change.  A promise was reaffirmed.  A promise given to Jacob's grandfather years and years before was made into Jacob's promise:  "I am God Almighty...The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you and I will give this land to your descendants after you."

Jacob might have heard of this promise.  Might have been told by his father and grandfather of what God had said and done for them, but Jacob didn't know it for himself.  Only in the stories of others.  But now, here at Bethel, Jacob finds out that God was serious about what he promised.  And that those promises are HIS too!

Jacob's defining moments are our defining moments too for we have been claimed by a promise.  The promise of baptism.  Baptism does to us what God did for Jacob.

Baptism NAMES us!  In older days, children use to receive their names when they were baptized.  Now they receive them at birth.  But at baptism, God names us child of God.  Before baptism we are different people.  After baptism we are called child of God.  So... young Mary comes to baptism as just Mary, she leaves as Mary, child of God.  A whole new identity is given to her in those simple waters.

But baptism doesn't just name us.  It makes us heirs of a promise.  Like Jacob was reaffirmed to be heir of the promises of Abraham, so we too are reminded of God's promise to us in baptism.  That in those waters, God reminds us that He will never let us go.  That He's always with us.  And, most of all, that nothing in all creation will separate us from His love in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Those are promises worth keeping.

So, whatever else happens in our lives, may we me shaped by our baptism.  May we be shaped and reshaped by the waters which continue to flow over us.  May we remember the name we receive there.  And may we know the promises we have in baptism, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

God of Promises, mold me and shape me into our image by the promises you have given me and all believers, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

A New Calling

Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." Genesis 35:1

A New Calling
By Rev. William Dohle

I knew a woman whose name was Juanita.  She was 84 years old.  She was in my Clinical Pastoral Education class.  And she was remarkable.

She was going to school to be a priest.  At 84 years of age!  She told me once had it worked out.  "I've been running away from God all these years," she said.  "84 years to be exact!  I always knew what I needed to be doing, but I was too stubborn to do it!  Now... I'm getting around to following God's calling for my life!"

At 84 years old she was to be ordained an Episcopal Priest and sent to work with the Native Americans in New Mexico.

Talk about a time to follow a new calling!

Just when she thought that her life should be nearing its end, God intervened and took her into a whole new direction.  A direction she was meant to go in all along!

That's what happened, I think, to Jacob after greeting his brother, Esau.  God comes to Jacob here and tells him to go an live in the place called the "House of God.", Beth-El in Hebrew.  There he's to settle and build an altar to God.

Jacob doesn't argue.  He doesn't ask any questions.  He doesn't give any excuses why he can't go, or what he has to do.  He clears his schedule and starts packing for Beth-El, deciding also to take this opportunity to set his life and the lives of his family right.

"Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you and purify yourselves and change your clothes," Jacob says.

His family obeys.  A whole new life opens up for them with all new horizons, directions, and goals.  No longer will they worship other gods.  No longer will they be wandering about aimlessly.  God has set them on the path to his house, to Beth-El.  There they will worship!

God calls each of us, in much the same way that he called Jacob.  Each of us have a calling.  A vocation.  In this place, this "house", God promises to meet us.  As we do his work in the world, God blesses our work.  When we are in tune with our vocation, our work in the Lord comes naturally as we use the gifts that God has given us.

I know what you'll say:  "But wait a minute, pastor.  Aren't vocations just for pastors?  I'm just a lowly mechanic?  Or farmer?  Or engineer?  Do I have a vocation, or calling, from God?"

Absolutely!  Vocations aren't just for clergy.  They're for everyone.  Everyone has been called into their individual roles.  And everyone is needed.  God has called some to be engineers, others to be mechanics, some to be stay-at-home mothers, and others to be clerks, some to be tellers and some to be executives.  Some to be mothers and fathers, and some just to be good sons and daughters.  God has called everyone into their vocations.  For he has made his home here amongst us.

When we choose to set aside the gods that distract us from our vocations.  When we, like Jacob, bury our gods under the tree which is the cross, then we will find new joy in our vocations, as we do the work that God has set before us to do.  We will find ourselves more focused at work.  More renewed at rest.  We will find that our calling is not a burden to us as it once was.  We will find God's voice whispering, calling, prodding and poking us to follow after him, to trust him, wherever he might lead.

So...what is God calling you to do?  What will you have to set aside to fulfill that calling?

God of Jacob, you called your servant to Beth-El to do your work in the world.  Call us to be blessings to others, even as we are blessed by you, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The Unmentionable Mentioned

Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me obnoxious to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people living in this land. We are few in number, and if they join forces against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.”  But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute? ”  Genesis 34:30-31

The Unmentionable Mentioned
By Rev. William Dohle

"Shame on you!"

How many times have you heard these words?  How many times have you said them to others?

Though I remember hearing them from my mother growing up, I know now how very serious shame can be.  Shame isolates people from each other.  It rips families and even churches apart.  Shame can lead to depression.  And shame can even kill.

Shame can come on so suddenly too.

Suppose a Mr. and Mrs. Smith has been attending church regularly.  They have a daughter in college and a son in high school.  They are each gainfully employed, go on vacation each summer, and seem perfectly happy.

But then the unthinkable happens.

Their daughter is raped at a party in college.  The police are unsure about what exactly happened.  Though they resist doing so, blame is placed upon the daughter for being at the party where the event happened.

Their son, reacting to his sister, starts hanging out with the wrong crowd, gets messed up with drugs, and winds up in jail.

Will these two, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, ever come to church again?

The answer is... probably not.  The reason is because of shame.  For one reason or another, they feel shamed for having all of this happen to them.  They worry about what the church will think.  They worry about their own impression.  Even if nobody at church ever mentions it, they will stay away because of the power of shame.

Shame, though, should have no place at church because we've been there.  Our ancestors have had everything happen to them...including rape, murder, revenge, and the like.

The story of Dinah in Genesis is a story of shame.  Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, the blessed one, heir of the promise, is raped by a local king.  Though he falls in love with her, he has already defiled her.  But Jacob doesn't do anything about it, his children do.  His sons, taking the initiative, enacts their own vengeance upon, not only the king, but also his people, killing all the men of their town and shaming Jacob with their actions.

This is not our favorite story in the Bible.  Nor is it one most people know.

But we should.  We should know of it.  Not because we condone their actions, but because it helps us talk about it.  It releases the ones bound by shame.  It helps us know that these things have happened before, even to God's chosen people, and life went on.  God still loved them, claimed them, protected them, and called them his chosen people.  Even after Dinah was raped.  Even after vengence was had.  Even when everything went wrong.  God was still there.

It's interesting to note that in this entire chapter of Genesis there is no mention of God at all.  God doesn't talk to them, help them, or appear anywhere near them.  God seems strangely absent here.  Maybe there's a reason for that.

When shame rears its ugly head, God feels absent for us too.  When we have been shamed, either by our own actions or the actions of others, God feels so far away.  "I just can't talk to him," some have told me.  "He seems so distant."

But God isn't distant.  In fact, the very next verse after this event features God calling Jacob elsewhere.  "Go to Bethany," God tells him.  God hasn't abandoned Jacob or his family, despite the feelings of shame they may be feeling.  God is still there for them.

And He's still there for us!

If you or someone you know suffers from shame.  If they have isolated themselves from church, from family, from society, because of the actions of others.  Listen to them.  Hug them.  Tell them God is still there for them.  And maybe show them this story from our past.  Here the unmentionable is mentioned.  But look further too at the verse that comes after it, reminding us that God is still here with plans in hand!


Loving God, your love casts our all fear and breaks the hold shame has upon us.  Forgive us, strengthen us, and send us out into the world as shame-breakers.  Amen.