Of First Concern

These are the laws you are to set before them... Exodus 21:1

Of First Concern
By Rev. William Dohle

I love to laugh and am always looking for something that makes me chuckle.

Of the things that make me laugh, David Letterman's Top Ten takes the cake.  Something in his lists always makes me chuckle.  Here's one I can relate with having children(and an infant that will soon be crawling...).

Top Ten Unsafe Toys
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10. Junior Electrician Outlet Patrol
 9. Hasbro's Slippery Steps
 8. Black & Decker's
 7. Roof Ranger Paratrooper Outfit
 6. Ramco's Pocket Hive
 5. Traffic Tag
 4. Will it Burn? from Parker Brothers
 3. Chimney Explorer
 2. My First Ferret Farm
 1. The Hold Your Breath Game by Milton Bradley

Of course with any Top Ten list, the most important one isn't the first one listed.  It's the last one.  The #1 is usually the funniest and the most appropriate answer to the question.  Usually we start with #1...but they push you through 10 through 2 so that the most important one gets the most laughs.

The book of Exodus in its list of the laws of Israel and describing God's concern for God's people, does not start with the least important one and work to the most important.  It starts with the group that is most important to God and works the other way.

And the group that is most important to God?  The ones who are #1 on God's list.?  Are they the rich?  The wealthy ones?  Are they those who have the power?  Maybe the priests at the time?  Well... the group that takes the cake as far as God's concern are...

(Drum roll please...)

The slaves!

What?  No reaction?  Did you hear me right?  Let's try this again.  The first ones that God is concerned about are...

(Drum roll again...)

The slaves!

That's right.  Those who are at the bottom of the chain of command.  Those without the power.  Those who are, in many cases, property of someone else.  That's who's God got on his mind.

Here's what God has to say about them...

"If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve you for six years.  But in the seventh year, he shall go free..."(Exodus 21:2)
"If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she is not to go free as menservants do.  If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself he must let her be redeemed.  He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her.  If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter.  If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing, and marital rights.  If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money."(Exodus 21:7-11)

Now perhaps you've tuned out by now...or skipped ahead.  Perhaps you think this has nothing to do with you and why should you care how slaves were treated back then.  Maybe you don't have much of a reaction to this passage because it's not the most important thing to you.  Or maybe you see the seeds of slavery in our own world here and wonder why God didn't take a stronger stand against slavery instead of working through the institution.

Despite all this the fact remains: slaves are important to God.  Very important!  The lowest ones among us and their welfare is first on God's mind.  Make sure they are treated well.

Today, according to the New York Times, there are 24 million slaves across the globe, more than there were in 1860.  To purchase a slave, all you need is $140.00!  Slaves work in a variety of areas, for textile mills to brothel houses.  And, what's more, most slaves are not bonded willingly but either kidnapped or because of debt.  Most slaves will never see freedom in their lifetimes.

The book of Exodus does more than illustrate God's concern for the slave.  It actually demonstrates compassion as well.  True, it does not condemn the practice, what many abolitionists in the 1800's wished it would do, but it does talk about respect and compassion and the ability to be freed at some point.

And more than all of this, it illustrates God's concern for the slave.  They are the first ones to be named specifically for laws concerning their condition.  Before the role of the priests are described.  Before we the book of Leviticus with its rules and regulations.  Before all of this.  The first concern of God is...how we treat the lowest ones among us.

Maybe that should be our concern too.  Looking out at the world, perhaps we should put on our "God glasses" and look for the lowest, the least, the little, the lost, and the dead.  For, in finding them, we will find God standing beside them in solidarity, inviting us to join the cause of peace and justice in the world.

We are blind at times, Heavenly Father, to the lowest who are all around us.  Open our eyes that we might see them, embrace them in love, and work for justice and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Nothing Even Beside Me!

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver of gods of gold.'" Exodus 20:22-23


Nothing Even Beside Me!
By Rev. William Dohle

One of the best experiences of my life was the 4 months I spent in India.  There I had the chance to truly experience another culture, to walk into the homes of another people, and to learn things that no book could truly teach.

It was there that I learned about other gods.

Hinduism has a whole pantheon of different gods.  From Vishnu to Brahman to Siva and all their many wives and children.  There is literally a god for everything.  Ganesh, the elephant headed god, is the remover of obsticles while Lakshmi, wife of Vishnu, is the goddess of wealth.  Each god has their own realm of influence, their own temple.  And because you pray to each god for their individual blessing, you are likely to see the images of many gods all standing side by side from each other.  Often even the same temple will have different shrines to different gods.

This is the context to which God speaks.  After the opening commandments, God starts to separate his people out from the rest of their neighbors with one opening difference.  No gold gods for them.  Their God, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, has spoken to them out of heaven.  He cannot be found in an idol on earth.  No gold image can contain him.

And no image can come beside him either.  God is not one God of many.  He is the only God, King of the Universe, creator of all that exists.  God alone gives life and love and meaning.  God alone does all these things and nothing should come beside him.

God's words here are law.  Nothing shall be set beside God.

It would have been great to say that that actually happened, but Scripture itself is full of people who set something beside God, Old Testament and New.  Even the Kings of Israel were known to place a host of idols alongside God "just in case" they needed something specific they couldn't get from God.

In a way, you could say, we too set up images beside God as if they mattered more than the King of the Universe.  How so?  Well consider these questions...

Is the flag an idol?  Or can it be?  We stand for it and salute it.  We rush to its aid and treat it with honor and respect.  If it is defiled we burn it.  And often it is set it up front of our own houses of worship, along side the cross.  Could we have made it an image we set alongside God?

Or our sports teams.  Sometimes I think the commercial is right.  The sporting arena IS our modern-day church.  It is our religion.  We sacrifice our time and money to its altar.  We drag our kids so they can play one more game.  We sacrifice time to worship for time to play.  We even dress in the color of our faith.  Have we set up a ball alongside God?

Or social media?  Or our i-phones?  Or our families?  Or...the list goes on and on.

We may as well admit that, at some level, we all break this command.  We set up shiny things beside God.  We make them just as important(if not more important) than God is.  We claim to worship one God...while serving a host of others ones.

We are slaves of many masters!

But there is hope.  For the God who sent Jesus Christ to suffer and die for us.  The God who saved us while we were still sinners and idolaters.  The God who loved us no matter what.

Is also the God who gives the command that immediately follows this one.

"Make an altar of earth for me...Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you.  If you make an altar of stones, do not build it with dressed stones...And do not go up to my altar on steps, or your private parts may be exposed."(Exodus 20:24-26)

Our God is a humble God, not demanding an altar of polished stones.  Not demanding gold or silver.  But a God who invites us forward in humility.  Our God is a God concerned for us, even when we're at our worst.  A God whose altar isn't up on some high place, but down below where no one will be shamed and all may come.

That's not something any of the other gods can deliver.  Unconditional acceptance.  It's only promised...and delivered...by the Lord God Almighty whose altar has come to earth and who has come to live along side us now and forever.

Clear away the altar of my heart, Lord, and make it your throne so that only you will be praised and honored and worshiped now and forever.  Amen. 

The Story Unknown

"'I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.'" Exodus 20:2

The Story Unknown
By Rev. William Dohle

It's nearly October and the time has come once again to crack open a scary book in honor of my favorite holiday, Halloween.

I usually start here in September and read as many as I can before the clock strikes 12 on Halloween night.

This year I chose "The Shining" by Stephen King with the sequel "Doctor Sleep" coming out in September.  I figure I can finish the first so I can crack open and finish the second the day it arrives.

Now, I have seen the old move, "The Shining", with Jack Nicholson, but I had never read the book.  And now, nearly finished with the book, I must say...

They are NOTHING alike!!

There's no scary children in the book.  Just in the movie.  No rivers of blood flowing down the stairs.  That's only in the movie too.  The book and the movie share the scariest scene, but all the things that I thought were SOO freaky...aren't in the book.  Figures huh?  You think you know a thing...until you actually read it.

That principle applies also to one hallmark of faith.  Something courts and judges have argued over.  Something we teach our children and hang up on our walls.  We're talking the one...the only...Ten Commandments!

This list of laws dating back thousands of years most people think they understand...but they really don't.  And only when looking at the text itself and what comes before and after this list can we see how terribly we have misunderstood this text.

Take their numbering for instance.  Everyone knows that there are just ten of them...right??  The ten commandments are made up of ten.  Sounds like a trick question or something...

But if you actually read the text and start counting...there's actually eleven commandments.  That's right.  There's eleven directives!

So we ignore one, big deal.  We all ignore the same one...right?  Not quite.  Luther's Small Catechism has two covet commandments.  "You shall not covet your neighbor's house" and "You shall not covet your neighbors wife...or anything that belongs to your neighbor" and skips "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything...".

Other ten commandment lists combine the covet commandments leaving room for the "no graven image" commandment.

Ten or eleven, you say.  Big deal.  It's close enough...

Not really... Because there aren't just ten commandments from God.  There are hundreds!  These are just the ones that God chose to begin with!  God doesn't give the ten or eleven and then quit.  He continues commanding his people throughout the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

But these ten, or eleven, or whatever are enough.  They're the commands God gave to the world.

Again... not quite.  These commandments are at the center of the covenant God forged with his people, Israel.  He didn't give these commands to the rest of the world or to any other nation.  These are his commands TO THE JEWS.

Furthermore, they aren't really commands at all.  This section is written as the start of a promise, a covenant, between God and his people.  God begins by saying...

"Here's who I am and what I did for you..." I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of Egypt out of the land of slavery.

"And here's what you'll do for me..."  You shall have no other gods before me... You shall not make for yourself an idol...etc.

This is the beginning of the covenant-relationship with Israel.  Here God binds Israel to himself.  Here God establishes what His people will look like, and act like, and be like in the world.

It's marvelous how God did this!

I am thankful that, as a Christian, I too am caught up in this covenant.  Having been grafted to God's people through Jesus the Christ, I too am caught up with God's people as God makes his covenant with them.  As an adopted child through Jesus, I share in the responsibilities that God lays upon God's people.  I too am struck by his voice from the mountain.

And I respond as Israel did, when they say to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen.  But do not have God speak to us or we will die."(20:19)

And I too hear Moses' words of comfort: "Do not be afraid.  God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning."(20:20)

Let us lay aside the images we have of this event and read it for ourselves.  For in it we see our gracious God keeping us from sinning, forgiving us when we do, and strengthening us to walk in His Way that he set before us both at Mt. Sinai and in his Son, Jesus Christ.

How much, O Lord, do I not understand of You and Your Word.  Teach me to follow after you, to learn, and to be open to what you have to teach me.  Amen.

God of the Dust Speck

The LORD said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you."  Exodus 19:9

God of the Dust Speck
By Rev. William Dohle

Have you ever gone away from the city lights, way out in the countryside someplace, late at night at watched the stars?  Aren't they amazing!

I have this app I bought awhile ago called the Night Sky.  In it, you can peer in at the objects that you can't usually see with your naked eye.  Galaxies, star clusters, nebula.  The list goes on and on!

I like to stare at those pictures sometime and imagine.  If there are billions of stars in our own galaxy and of them a billion or so have planets and of them a half million of them have life.  If that is true of our galaxy, as they say it might be, just imagine how many trillions upon trillions of stars there are in the sky from all the trillions of galaxies.  Life could be more than abundant.  It could be overflowing.

And all of them stem from just one God!  All those galaxies and stars, all those planets and planetoids.  The countless forms of life just waiting to be discovered.  They are all created by God!  Wow!

That's some God!

That's the vision that comes to us at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  As Moses climbs up the mountain to talk with God, the people are told...

Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live. (Exodus 19:12-13)

Why would God sequester himself off like this?  Why would this God who chose the people of Israel as His people out of all the nations be so inaccessible to them?

Because that's what God is!  God is bigger and stronger and wiser and incomprehesible.  God evades our limited way of thinking about him.

Is he with the ants as they nest in the earth?  Yes!  After all, he oversaw their creation!
But is he also over the supernova that exploded some 40 million years ago in some far off galaxy?  Yes!  For the same reason!


God is so big and holy and awesome that we might think: Why does God care?  Why does God bother with us?  If we are, as Calvin in the cartoon rightly suggests, a mere dust spec in the universe, why does God give us any mind?  Why does he bother with us?

Because, in his heart, God is love!  God is a compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

In short, God is a God of the details.  He thrives on the details of existence.  True, God is also a God of the galaxies and far flung solar systems of the world, but God is also a God of the details.  A God of the winds of Saturn and the winds of Central Illinois, a God of the cicadas chirping in the trees and a God of the largest star clusters in the universe.

Our God is small and large at the same time.  A God of the details and the big picture.  Busy with the details but knowing the whole.  Loving his creation and tending to even our petty needs.

How can he do it?  How can God be so much and still be here?  I don't know!  It's something we can't even comprehend.  Should we even begin to wrap our brains around it, it would kill us.

Maybe that's why God is inaccessible, even on Mt. Sinai.  For, as much as the Lord tells Moses, "...be ready for the third day because on that day the Lord will come down."

God can't come down as God.  He never does come to the people.

As much as God tells Moses, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you..."

Moses himself knows, "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.'"  And Aaron never comes either.

As much as we'd like to experience God as God...we cannot!

Maybe that's where we see our need for Jesus.  For, in Jesus, we see God.  We see and experience God as Father.  We see what matters most to God in the end is grace, hope, and steadfast love.  In Jesus...we see what God looks like in our flesh and through that flesh we experience the Lord God, king of all the universe.

Take a look up and the night sky.  God is out there...and also right here!

Touch us with your grace, Lord, that the boxes we build for you might crumble and that we might see what you truly look like, face to face, in the faces and lives around us.  Amen.

Chosen by God!

"Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."  Exodus 19:6

Chosen By God!
By Rev. William Dohle

13 years ago, August 22, 2000, God touched my life.  With the hands of friends, my head was touched with his Hand.  In the voice of the presider, I was called by God.  With the grace of my wife, God placed the stoll symbolizing the office of pastor upon me.  In that moment I was called into ordained ministry.  God touched my life.  It's been 13 years but I can still remember it like it was yesterday.  Ordained ministry for me began that day when I stood before Bishop Egertson from Southern California, heard my name called out, and answered timidly the call I believed was from God.

It's been 13 years since I was ordained a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...but I'm just starting to understand what it means.  Being a pastor I am learning isn't a destination.  It's not something you became, but rather something you are becoming.  It's not a place you go, but rather the call to a journey beyond where you are.  Ministry is a journey into learning how to be a servant to others, learning how to put aside one's own interest for the sake of others.  It's a journey into listening and knowing when is the right time to speak and act.  It's walking the way of the cross.  It's grappling with death and life, depair and hope, with a community of faith.  And it's a journey in understanding and describing how the grand Story of God affects the tiny story of our lives.

Ministry is a journey into understanding what it means to be set apart and chosen...for service to God and to others.

The people of Israel began on this journey back at the foot of Mount Sinai.  After seeing God's wonders in Egypt and traveling through the wilderness to this place, God makes a covanent with the people of Israel.

"Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.  Alghouth the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."(Exodus 19:5-6)

This moment sets Israel apart from the rest of the world.  They are no longer like their Gentile neighbors.  Nobody can claim they are chosen quite like they can.  In that moment, God called them out of all the nations to be His nation!

This moment marks their choosing, it ordains them as God's chosen people, but ordains them as something else.  Notice what God makes Israel to be...

"...a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."

God doesn't make them into kings and princes to rule over the surrounding people.  God doesn't choose them to have a special place in heaven nor do they get to lord it over.  God doesn't make them masters of others.

God makes them priests!  A kingdom of priests!

And anyone who knows what priests SHOULD be like, knows that priests should be like servants.  They should serve the people around them.  They should pray for others, nurturing them in their faith.  They should teach others what God has given them to teach, to pass on the words of God for others.  They are to encourage others, support others, and finally (hopefully) lead others to God as well.

They are not suppose to lord it over others, make others their slaves, or demand with the sword that others agree with them.  They are suppose to minister and love and cherish others and be the arms of God to a world desperate for God's love.

Christians too have been invited into this chosen priesthood.  It is no accident that Peter, taking the words found in Exodus, applies them, not just to Jews but to all Christians.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."(1 Peter 2:9)

These words are straight from Sinai.  Peter declares these promises spoken to Israel back at the foot of Mt. Sinai to all believers.  In Christ Jesus, Gentiles also have been brought into this covenant.  We too are God's chosen people.  Chosen, by the way, not to insist on the world conforming to us or just becoming like us, but chosen to bring God's transforming light to the world, that the world may be transformed and changed by God.

WE are called and chosen for this task, not just ME.  I may be chosen and called by God and this community of faith, but you too share this calling.  For together, as the people of God, we are all called to be priests to each other.  We are called to be God's people, though we once were not.

"Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."(1 Peter 2:10)

I believe our call and the call God spoke to the Jewish people long ago are the same.  We are all to be ministers of God, witnesses to his love, faithful servants and priests to him, until the day when we stand together with the whole world under God's great glory on that New Day, clothed as the kingdom of priests that we are called to be.

O God, as you called the people of Israel long ago and renewed their covenant through the ages, so we pray you would call us and renew our covenant that we might join them in declaring your love.  Amen.