"They're Gonna Need Help..."

After that, the Levites came to do their work at the tent of meeting under the supervision of Aaron and his sons. They did with the Levites just as the Lord commanded Moses.  Numbers 8:22

"They're Gonna Need Help..."
By Rev. William Dohle
Last Sunday was awesome at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Peoria!

It began with a tremendous service, with carols played by Debbie.  Then the sermon itself led right into the band's song where seven musicians each walked forward, one by one, to sing a Christmas version of "Halleluiah!" by Coen.  Talk about spine chilling!  Wow!

Then came the Christmas program itself.  The treats were already made and set out by our talented Ms. Amie, our youth director.  The kids all arrived via their parents and, an hour later, a cast of more than twenty, directed by three ladies (Ms. Amie and the two Jennifers), led us to the manger via posted signs.  The band sang again, this time recorded over the sound system.

It was awesome!

What was even better was how many people there were involved in the whole thing.  I can't even count the number of talented individuals it took to put it all together on Sunday.  From the band to the ushers to the organist to the kids to their parents to our youth director to the director ladies to the costume makers to all of those who attended.  The work

That's amazing!

It's something that couldn't have happened with just one or two of us.  It took a whole village of people to make it all work!

That's the insight this passage from Numbers gives us.  God sets apart an entire tribe of people, the Levites, to assist Aaron in tending worship.  Aaron from the beginning was always THE man.  He was THE mouthpiece of Moses, relaying everything that Moses tell him to the people and to Pharaoh.  When the tabernacle was set up, Aaron was THE MAN who tended the tabernacle and made sure that sacrifices were made properly.  Aaron seemed to be the ONLY person who could do the job too.  Even Aaron's own sons didn't do it right.  And they ended up dead!

So can you imagine the pressure that Aaron had riding on his shoulders.  He needed help!

And God answered him.  God set aside an entire tribe of people, the Levites, whose sole purpose was to help Aaron and become priests in his stead.

After you have purified the Levites and presented them as a wave offering, they are to come to do their work at the tent of meeting. ¹⁶ They are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to me. I have taken them as my own in place of the firstborn, the first male offspring from every Israelite woman. (Num. 8:15-16)

And they are given to the people and to Aaron.  As a gift and a helper!

From among all the Israelites, I have given the Levites as gifts to Aaron and his sons to do the work at the tent of meeting on behalf of the Israelites and to make atonement for them so that no plague will strike the Israelites when they go near the sanctuary. (Num. 8:19)

Can you imagine how relieved Aaron must have felt, knowing that the work of God was being done by others, not just him?  Can you see the smile on his face when he finally gets to sit down and relax after a hard day, knowing that others are caring for the people in his stead?

I am so blessed to have so many able-bodied people sent by God to do the ministry of God at St. Paul with me.  I'm not alone!  I have an excellent praise team!  An amazing two organists.  An astounding pianist.  A secretary who does an amazing job.  A youth director who continues to surprise me with her many gifts.  A council who takes their role as leaders of the congregation seriously.  Parents of our students who understand they have a part to play in their kids' faith development.

Not to mention all the people who assist with various tasks.  The greeters.  The ushers.  The acolytes.  The Assisting Ministers.  The women's groups who all lead their own studies without me.  The men's group who know how to run a kitchen.  And even some talented substitute preachers and teachers who can fill in when I can't be in two places at once.

There are more, of course.  The list goes on and on.  I am not alone.

I know what it's like to feel totally responsible for services.  It's not a good feeling.

But thankfully, we don't have to feel totally responsible for anything.  We have a community.  Paul describes the church as a body and just as the body has many members, so the body of Christ does too.  We cannot do everything by ourselves.  We need help.  And God has answered our prayer.

Praise God that God has not put the whole world on our shoulders, but has given us a community that can shoulder the responsibility along side us so that, together, we might welcome God's kingdom and the finishing of all creation!

Thank you, God, that you have consecrated your community.  Send us forth as leaders and support staff to do your work.  Amen.

God's True Seat

The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Psalm 103:8

God's True Seat

By Rev. William Dohle

It's Christmas time and the radio is filled with Christmas favorites.  There are so many.  White Christmas.  Rudolph.  Frosty the Snowman.  Not to mention all the religious ones.

One of the songs sung this season really makes me cringe.  Its a popular song too, so many people know it.  It goes something like this...

You better watch out.
You better not cry.
You better not pout. I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
He's making a list and checking it twice.
Gonna find out whos naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping.
He knows when you're awake.
He knows if you've been bad or good.
So be good for goodness sake!

Have you ever listened to the lyrics to that song?  The man described in that popular Christmas song is insane.  He's a stalker.  He keeps a record of what you do right or wrong.  And he punishes you accordingly.  He's right too because he watches you when you're sleeping and when you're awake.  And he's going to be right too because he's checked his list...twice!

Talk about a scary guy!

Maybe that's why my youngest is so afraid of sitting on Santa's lap.  He knows who this guy is.

Most of the time we don't pay much attention to the lyrics we sing here.  Santa is seen as a jolly happy soul in other songs.  A dear old man.  An elf bringing gifts to the young girls and boys.

But occasionally we let our theology into our Santa songs and then...disaster strikes!

You see, this vision of Santa Claus is the way many people view God.  An old man in the sky keeping record of our wrongs, to punish us when we do bad and to reward us when we do good. 

Many people(and I put myself in this category at one time) view God as a Being eternally angry with humanity.  With his eye on us from his judgment seat in the sky, he sets out to record the rights and wrongs we do.  The rights he might reward(if he feels like it).  But the wrongs he will surely punish!

And so must repent. We must come groveling back to God.  We have sinned against him.  God is angry with us.  And, even if we believe that Jesus somehow deals with this anger, we're still left with a God who, like the Santa in the song, is eternally upset and on the watch for what could possibly anger him.

So what do we do with this?  Is this biblical? Is this the God we find there?  Or not?

Perhaps a better question to ask would be...where does God sit?  If mercy is in one seat and condemnation in another, does God sit in the seat of condemnation, to destroy us?  Or does he sit in the mercy seat, to show us mercy?

The book of Numbers tells us plainly where God sat in the tabernacle.  And, I would argue, where God still sits.

"When Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak to the Lord, he would hear the voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat..."(Num. 7:89)

The "mercy seat'.  That's what they called the place between the two cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.  The MERCY seat.  Not the judgment seat.  Not the seat of condemnation.  Not the place where God sits when he's REALLY mad at you.  No.  God's voice comes out from the place where mercy sits.

What if we saw God sitting here instead of in the place of condemnation?  What if God was seen as being first and foremost merciful(as he is described all over the Scriptures), instead of first and foremost condemning?  What if this was our view of God?  How would we live our lives?  And, better still, how would we treat our neighbors?

This is where God resides...in mercy.  His mercy is given first, even before we come to repent of our wrongs.  God forgives and loves and gives of himself before we can even respond.  "While we were still sinners..." Paul tells us.  And that mercy doesn't stop either. God's mercy, his steadfast love, endures forever and ever!  It never ends.  Even when we don't respond to it.  Even when we turn away.  Even if we stop repenting, God's love remains.

That's just who God is.  God is gracious and merciful.  He sits in a better seat than the Santa in the song does.  God sits there instilling, not fear, but love and trust into our hearts.

So, as you sing this carol with your friends, keep in mind.  Someone more good and righteous and giving and compassionate and loving is coming.  Someone greater than even Santa Claus himself is already here.  He is here to show us mercy, not judgment.  To give to the good and the bad alike his greatest gift, eternal life, not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done for us!

Merciful God, shower us with your mercy.  Give us grace to see you smiling down upon us.  And help us to be merciful to others, as you are to us.  Amen.

Golden Memory

"...and the chiefs offered offerings of dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed; and the chiefs offered their offering before the altar."  Numbers 7:10

Golden Memory
By Rev. William Dohle

I have a challenge for you...

Next time you're in church, count how many "Memorial plaques" you can see.  Memorial plaques are usually rectangular in shape.  Gold in color.  They have engraved on them a name(or many names) and above them it usually says, "Given in Memory Of..."

Every church has them.  Sometimes in the strangest of places.

The altar may have one.  The piano may have one too.  The baptismal font is often given in memory of someone.  And the stained glass windows may have one next to them too.  Occasionally, especially in older churches, you'll find one on the back of the pews too.

In our church they can be found on the benches outside, on a rack that holds prayer shawls, on the podium, the player piano downstairs, and on a candle set used in lent.  (And I'm probably missing a number of them too!)

So...why do we have these things scattered around our churches today?  Why are memorial plaques important to us?  Why should they matter?  Especially when, often, the family doesn't attend church much anymore and, sometimes, the people mentioned on the plaque have long been forgotten.  Why are these little metal pieces important?

Perhaps the answer to this can be found in the book of Numbers, chapter 7.  Here we read about some ancient offerings and how they were recorded.

"And the Lord said to Moses, "They shall offer their offerings, one chief every day, for the dedication of the altar."(7:11)

Now, the text could have just stopped there.  God commanded every chief to bring their offering to the Lord.

But...no... the text continues.

"He who offered his offering the first day was Nihshon, the son of Amminadab of the tribe of Judah.  And his offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering; one golden dish of 10 shekels, full of incense, pone bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering; one male goat for a sin offering; and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old."(7:12-17)

So...why does Numbers insist on listing every single one of the things they were commanded to bring?  And why does it insist on doing this, not just for Nihshon, but for every other chief of every tribe of Israel.  All 12 of them!?  Why?

Perhaps the reason for this mention is the same reason we place golden plaques on things we give as memorials.  Because we want to be remembered!  No one may know any of the tribal chiefs, but their names and what they gave are recorded for all time in the text.  We may not remember who they were, but we carry their names around with us in our Bibles.

In the same way, we may not remember those we memorialize on our little golden plaques, but their impact to our community can still be felt.  We still use the pieces their family donated.  We still read their names occasionally and wonder about their lives.  We still remember them.

As much as we speak about heaven and sing about our glory after we die, truth be told, every one of us wants to be remembered in this life as well.  We want others to think about us and remember us.  We want to have an impact here.

These plaques tell the world that THESE people aren't forgotten.  Somehow they live on.  In the piano that is played in church.  In the benches that sit out front.  In the candles that sit upon the altar.  These people are still apart of us.  We remember them.  They made an impact on this place.  And they still impact our lives.

That remembrance and memory is a little piece of eternal life.  It's tangible eternal life and claimable.  It's something we can see and touch.  It's not based on faith as much as on sight.  We can see it.  We can touch it.  Though others may not remember who we are, at least they can read our names and wonder what impact we made here and why this community remembers us so.

So, here's the questions I'll leave you with.  Why do we desire this little piece of eternal life for our loved ones as we do?  What does that say about our faith in God's memory?

God of Memory, you remember us in our low estate, both in this life and in the world to come.  Be our memory when we have forgotten, that the world might one day be remembered in you.  Amen.

The Dream of Shalom

"So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them."  Numbers 6:27

The Dream of Shalom
By Rev. William Dohle

"I have a dream..." Dr. King said.  And a nation listened.

Reading Dr. Martin Luther King's speech this morning made me think of dreams and how we think about the future together.

If someone asked you, "What are your dreams?" you would probably respond in a personal way.

You would tell them about your hopes for your family or your vision of the future.  If you were a younger person, you might mention what you want to become "when you grow up" and the career you'd like to pursue.  If you're older, your dreams would surely include your family, your hopes and wishes for them as they grow into their future.

But all of those "dreams" would be personal.  They would be YOUR dreams.  And they probably wouldn't take into account or reflect the dreams and hopes of anyone else but you.  They are YOUR(singular) dream, YOUR(singular) hope, and YOUR (singular) vision for the future.

But what about the others around you?  What about them?  Are they included in your dream?  Is there a dream that we can truly say we share with others?  Or are our dreams just for us?

The words from Numbers today carry with it a dream.  The dream of Shalom.  These words are said in Christian churches and in Jewish synagogues to this very day.  They carry with them a dream for the future...God's dream!  In English they read this...

The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.     (Num. 6:24-26)

It's that last word...peace...that is the key here!

The word for peace in Hebrew is Shalom and it carries with it more than we think.

Shalom doesn't just mean "the end to violence" or "quiet" or even "rest" as we might think with our English word "peace."  Literally the word means...

...to "restore" in the sense of replacing or providing what is needed in order to make someone or something whole and complete. 

To restore... not just to stop fighting.  Providing what is needed to make something whole and complete again.

It's not rest.  It's not "peace and quiet."  It's certainly not only the end of violence.

Shalom has the sense of wholeness and completeness.  Shalom comes after you place the last piece on a puzzle and you say, with a sigh, "It's finished!"  It is the feeling a painter has when he's finished his masterpiece and after a writer has after she has submitted her manuscript.  Shalom is the completeness that comes after one has graduated from high school.  Shalom is the finished product.

Shalom is the dream of God shared with humanity.  As such Shalom is our dream, our dream together!

It is not like other dreams which are ours, singular.  This dream we share with all of humanity.  This dream, passed down through the ages from our ancestors, is truly OUR dream TOGETHER!  Our dream, shared by God, for a completeness and wholeness.

We shall never achieve Shalom in this lifetime they say.  There are always more things to complete and more projects to finish and more "last pieces" to lay.  Creation itself will never be finished.  Not in our lifetime.  Possibly not ever.

But we pray for that shalom.  We pray for that completeness.  And as we hear the words of the Aaronic blessing said to us in worship, we join in a dream that is larger than we are.  A dream that Dr. King, Gandi, Jeremiah, St. Francis of Assisi and countless others have shared.  A dream that we shall see the fulfillment of Jesus words, "It is finished..." and experience true shalom.

Blessed are you, O God, King of the Universe, for you empower us with your Holy Spirit and call us into your dream of Shalom.  Complete us that we might experience the wholeness that you have promised.  Amen.

The Special Question

The Lord spoke to Moses saying: "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When either men or women make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate themselves to the Lord..." Numbers 6:2

The Special Question:  Are some people more special than others?
By Rev. William Dohle

What does it mean to be "special?"

The dictionary defines special as being "better, greater, or otherwise different than the usual."  But is that it?  Is that what it means to be special?  And who falls into this category?

I've wondered that as I look at my kids.  My kids are special kids...at least that's what I believe.  Each of them are unique with their own talents and gifts.  They are all special, I believe.  They are "better, greater, or otherwise different than the usual."

But no one child is more special than any another child.  They are each special.  They are each unique.  They are each different from the usual.  They are each special, right?  Just like your kids and your kids and the kids next door to you?

I grew up thinking and believing that everyone is special.  Nobody is more or less special than anyone else is.  Everyone is different from the usual, special in their own right.

But is that what special means?  And by making everyone special, aren't we saying that no one is special?  Aren't we taking that distinction away?

The book of Numbers talks about setting one group of people apart from the rest.  That group being the "Nazarites."  Most Christians probably dismiss or avoid these passages, but they are relevant, especially with the old familiar story of Samson from the book of Judges and Samuel from the book of 1 Samuel.

Nazarites were set apart in a very simple way.  They made a special vow to the Lord.  After taking such a vow, they were instructed to do the following...

• They must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. (Num. 6:3)
•  No razor may be used on their head.(6:4)
• The Nazirite must not go near a dead body. ⁷ Even if their own father or mother or brother or sister dies, they must not make themselves ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head. (6:6-7)

Thus the Nazarite became "special" to the Lord, set apart from all the others, and different from the usual Jew.  This role or designation wasn't often a lifetime one.  They became this way because of a vow taken, either by them or by their parents.  The chapter goes on to talk about how this vow can be broken and what must happen should it even accidentally be violated.

Though this vow offers us some insight into Sampson(this is why he couldn't drink wine or cut his hair...it had nothing to do with his strength!).  I think this passage leads us into another question: Can some people become "more special" than others?  And what do they do with that specialty?

I struggle with that because, as you know, I am an ordained pastor.  Some clergy(not me) claim that these vows set you apart from the rest of the world.  That, like the vows taken by the Nazarites, ordination vows make the ordained different from the ordinary, everyday Christian.  Some Christians, Catholics particularly, make ordination a sacrament, a rite ordained by God to change Creation.  Thus you could say priests and deacons and the like are special in the eyes of God, set apart from the usual and the ordinary believer.

So is that true?  Are pastors and priests more special than other Christians?  Can anyone be set apart as more special than anyone else?  Or are we all just usual, everyday people with nothing to separate us from each other?

Perhaps we can answer this question by looking at what those who are special are to do with their specialty.  Special people are set apart to serve others!  Look at the Nazarites in Scripture.  Samson is sent to be a judge for his people, serving them and rescuing them from the Philistines.  Samuel did the same thing as both prophet and judge for his nation.  They were not set apart for their own glory or so they could feel special.  They were set apart to serve.

In fact, if you look closely, you'll see that those we consider and deem to be special are those who are our greatest servants!  Martin Luther King, the Pope, Mother Theresa, Gandi.  These people are special.  They are set apart from the usual and the ordinary person.  And their specialty is a call for service, for sacrificial service in most cases, serving the needs of the world for the betterment of humanity!

That's what it means to be special.  To be called to serve.  No one shows this more clearly than Jesus Christ himself who, special as he was, was the greatest servant of all time!

Maybe that's how we should measure specialness too.  "How special are you?  How much have you served your fellow human today?"

Electing God, you have set up apart to serve and love and care for our neighbor.  Break us out of our shell that we might be your special servants, through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The Book of Confusion?

"Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness."  1 Timothy 6:11

The Book of Confusion?
By Rev. William Dohle

It happens sometimes.  Confusion!  We open our Bible, thinking that God is going to magically speak to us from its pages, and we read something that throws us into more of a tizzy that we were before.

Take today's reading...from the book of Numbers.  Numbers 4 to be exact.  This reading talks about what to do should a husband suspect his wife has been cheating.  Let me share with you some of the verses behind this incident.

‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— then he is to take his wife to the priest...The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water...The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”
“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”
‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her.
If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

So... do you understand it?  It's talking about what to do with a woman suspected in adultery and it talks about mixing up a magical potion, making her drink it under oath, and watching what the potion does to her.  Does it cause her stomach to explode?  Or is she alright?

What do you do with a text like this?  How would you write a blog about THAT?

I've been working at this all morning and this is what I've discovered...

• Some people who believe that the Bible is inerrant just ignore this passage... A conversation with a friend of mine confirmed this.  He said that in order to keep the Bible inerrant and infallible, such verses need to be dismissed as merely ritual descriptions rather than actual commands from God...of course that doesn't account for the fact that "the Lord told Moses" is written before this passage.  Nor does it really address who gives us the power to decide which commands we follow and which ones we don't.
• A look online didn't help much.  Nor did the notes at the bottom of The Lutheran Study Bible which said, "Some commentators point to this verse and the ordeal as examples of unfair of demeaning treatment of women in the Bible.  Such an interpretation fails to appreciate the seriousness of adultery and its consequences."  So much for a critical look at this text.
• A message to another friend, Rabbi Daniel Bogard, proved more helpful.  He pointed out that this text was probably never put into practice in the first place and that the idea of making a woman drink a magical potion to determine her guilt was actually written in favor of the woman and not the man.  Whose stomach would explode like this?  And what would it say about a man who would drag his wife up for public humiliation simply on a hunch?  If this were true, this passage was written as a hyperbole, something so exaggerated that it was meant to keep the peace in the home rather than be followed literally.

I appreciate these sources.  They help me understand.  They also help me see how hard it is just to read the Bible and to get anything out of it.  There's a reason why we have interpreters and sources, saints and sages throughout the ages to help us understand it.  There's a reason why Scripture is read in the community...because if left by ourselves we will surely misinterpret and misread what was written to help us all.

Imagine a man reading this passage, growing jealous and suspicious, and forcing his wife today to drink something like this!  How terribly abusive that would be!  How wrong that would become!  He may claim he was "following the Bible" and doing what it said to do, but he would be violating the spirit of the Law while following the letter of it.

Perhaps a chapter like this should call us back to our faith community.  There we can read Scripture together.  There we can study and know and search it for meaning.  There we can hear the sages and saints of old tell us their interpretation.  There we can seek God's guidance and God's voice which is still speaking even now.

There we can know what to do with the sinner in all of us!

Almighty God, you speak to us through your Word, alive and testified to in Scripture.  Lead us into community that together we might search out and know you more.  Amen.

For Everyone's Safety

Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.  Mark 7:15

For Everyone's Safety
By Rev. William Dohle

It's amazing what we'll do to keep "safe."

At the writing of this devotion, the Ebola crisis has hit.  All around the world, people are being quarantined and set apart, thrust outside the tent as it were, for the safety of others.  So far 4000 people have died of it in West Africa and many more than that have come down with the virus.

For the safety of others, those who come home from these areas are being set apart.  The separation begins right from the start.  When Ebola is suspected, suits are worn by others around them.  The individuals go into seclusion while the rest of the world watches and waits on their condition.  Many to most of those quarantined never contract the virus.  A few do.  And those that do are isolated away even more with doctors and nurses now in full haz suits to protect them as they work on the one being treated.  Those that survive all of this(and the virus) are released back into the public.

But the few that contract and die from the disease die a very lonely death, separated from their loved ones by fear and strong plastic.

As much as I feel this is necessary...I wonder.  I wonder if can see the similarity between what we do to others for public safety and what the ancient people did for the same reasons.  Do we fail to understand the reasons why people from the dawn of time through today were isolated from their communities?  Do we see that it was for the good of the many.

The directive to isolate others with disease comes from God himself in the book of Numbers.

The Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone who has a defiling skin disease or a discharge of any kind, or who is ceremonially unclean because of a dead body. Send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” The Israelites did so; they sent them outside the camp. They did just as the Lord had instructed Moses.(Num. 5:1-4)

This seems rather harsh and cruel at the first read.  After all, if my wife is one with a defiling skin disease or a discharge(which often happens when a woman is hemorrhaging), she would be sent outside the camp?!  What's up with that?!

And yet I know too that if this were "modernized" and the defiling skin disease was, say, Ebola, I know that I would support isolating them outside the camp.  It's only logical to isolate those who can pollute(and possibly kill) the community!

But just because it's logical and practical doesn't mean it's right.  And Jesus himself shows this to be true.  Jesus, on multiple occasions, steps outside the norm and embraces the unclean.  In each and every case he does, not only does he make himself ritually unclean(and unfit to worship in the Temple of God), but he also takes on their uncleanliness as his own.  He does this...

To the woman afflicted with a bleeding disorder.
To the corpse of a young girl
To the lepers who cry for mercy.
To the demon possessed who live in the cemetery.

Each and every time, Jesus crosses over those boundaries.  He takes off his Haz-mat suit that protects him from the uncleanliness of others and he embraces them in love.  That love is so transformative that it can actually heal them of their ailment.  Their problems are not merely physical but also communal.  By welcoming them and embracing them in love, Jesus is bringing them back into the community who drove them away.  He is welcoming the outcast!

And Jesus calls us to do the same!

There is fear surrounding Ebola and every deadly disease.  People want to isolate themselves and their loved ones from possible infection.  Haz mat suits and other protections help doctors and nurses do their jobs without fear of infection.

But even as we isolate those who are sick, we must at the same time wrap them in love and remember them in our prayers.  We must consciously remind ourselves that they are not outside of our community.  No matter how sick they become.  No matter how infected.  They are still loved and cherished by Christ, and by us.

Christ crossed boundaries.  Christ dared to go against these verses in Numbers, to step outside the camp and welcome the others.  And Christ can empower us to do the same.

God you set boundaries around us for our own protection and the protection of others.  Give us strength the know the time to cross those boundaries and follow after your Son.  Be near all those who are infected with Ebola and those tending to their needs.  Keep our community open to them.  Amen.

Everyone has a job...even at church!

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." 1 Corinthians 12:7

Everyone Has A Job...Even at Church!
By Rev. William Dohle

It amazes me how many people it takes to put something good together.

At the movies...it takes thousands of people to create one flick.  From the producers and directors and the actors to the bus boys and the caterers to the ones working behind the scenes in special effects and design.  Costumers, sound technicians, makeup design.  The list goes on and on.  Try staying after the movie is over to count how many names you find in your average movie.  You will be amazed!

It truly takes a village to create such a masterpiece!

It takes that many people to do just about anything worth doing in this world.  From the ordinary work of building a house to the entertaining work of television and theater, more than one person is always behind everything you see!

Even worship!  It takes a tribe to make worship happen!

It takes a tribe of people literally in the book of Numbers to attend to God's tabernacle.  The tribe of people are called the Levites.  And they received this assignment because, lets face it...

No one can do it alone!

I think that's what happened to Aaron's sons.  The Bible won't say.  The Bible says that Aaron's son, Nadab and Abihu, fell dead before the Lord "when they made an offering with unauthorized fire before him in the Desert of Sinai."(Num 3:4)

Now what that means we are never told.  But I think I know what "unauthorized fire" was.  Aaron's sons were acting alone, trying to worship God without the community behind them.

I have no proof of this... But following this tragedy, God gives a command.

Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him.  They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle.  They are to take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle.  Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to him.(Num 3:5-9)

Following this command, for two chapters in the book of Numbers, we are told what each section of Levites does to prepare for the community's worship.

Reading this, images of the movie production come to mind.  Just as it takes a village to make a movie as great as Star Wars, it takes a village to worship God too!  No one can do it all by him or her self.  It takes people willing to step up and make it happen!

In ancient Israel those people were the Levites.  In the Christian church today, they are you and me!

We are those people tasked with making worship happen.  Each of us have been given different gifts to be used in the body of Christ.  Some of us are extraverts...and do well introducing one person to another.  Some of us are introverts...and can assist in more of the behind the scenes of worship.  Some of us are artistic.  Some not.

At our church, the obvious tasks we need help in are worship assistants, communion setup people,  acolytes, ushers, greeters, sound technicians.  But there are other jobs that need fulfilling like bulletin copiers, quilt makers, decorators, Bible study leaders, computer repair people, web site designers.  The list goes on and on.

And participants!  For, even when you just "show up" you are doing the work of God!  You are bringing the best gift of all...your presence!

At our church, we have been blessed with new  people working in worship.  New communion and worship assistants.  New ushers and greeters.  New people trying out their gifts and doing the work of God.  Together with those who've been doing it for years, these people demonstrate, in so many ways, that the work of the people is never just the work of the pastor.  The pastor alone offers "unauthroized fire" and could very well burn him or herself out by doing everything!

But the pastor with the congregation assisting in every way, can worship God and carry the people of God forward, just as the Levites did for the Israelites.

The people of Israel needed a tribe to worship God.  So do we.  May God use our talents for the betterment of our faith communities that, in the end, the love of God is proclaimed throughout the world in word and deed.

Uniting God, bring us together with all our differences that we might serve you and the world in love, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Number Matters

The length of our days is seventy years--or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.  Psalm 90:10

Number Matters
By Rev. William Dohle

Numbers matter in our world...and they especially matter today.

Today is my 40th birthday.  To be honest, it's a really scary number to be at.  I remember when my dad turned 40.  I thought he was so old!  I thought, "Over the hill!?  You bet!"

Now I've reached that number too!

Numbers matter in our world today!  And they're everywhere!

The number of children you have(or don't have).  Your Social security number.  The figure that is your annual household income.  Your age.  Polling numbers to help politicians determine their stances.  Accounting numbers to make sure you're not going broke.  Tax numbers to determine how much of your income goes to the government.

All these numbers matter.

Even at church...numbers count!
This blog has seen 120,000 views in its five year life.  I have zero subscribers, but 250 "friends" on Facebook.  It's emailed out to a number of people throughout the country.
We look at the number of people giving at church to determine the number we will use in our budget to determine the number of programs we will have to cut to arrive at a certain number.
At pastor gatherings, collegues will ask each other, "So, how many people do you have in worship?"
(A number we always round up on!)
Each year ELCA Churchwide asks its congregations for numbers...how many people baptized, confirmed, died, or removed from the membership list.
People even say that the church is dying... based on the number of worshiping people in the pews.

Numbers matter in our world today.

Problem is, though, that numbers don't matter as much as we think they do.  In the end, it doesn't matter how many people attend if just one person changes their life because of it.  In the end, our numbers only aid the living.  They cannot help the dead.  Nobody writes on a tombstone, "He Kept His Numbers Up!" or "What great financial figures he had!"

Instead what is spoken of are things that can't be counted!  Things that can't be numbered.

Maybe that's why few people actually read, follow, or remember the first few chapters of Numbers because it is, honestly, all one big number came.

"Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one.  You and Aaron are to number by their divisions all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army."

Anyone who's worked "The Census" knows how incredibly difficult (and sometime tedeaous) it is counting people...but the Bible does just that.

The number form the tribe of Reuben was 46,500.
The number from the tribe of Simeon was 59,300.
The number from the tribe of Gad was 45,650.
(Feeling sleepy yet??)

And, if that wasn't enough, in the following chapter, the number of soldiers are explained.

The leader of the people of Judah is Nahshaon son of Amminadab.  His division numbers 74,600.
The leader of the people of Issachar is Nethanel son of Zuar.  His division numbers 54,400.

And so on... eleven divisions are counted all around the Tent of Meeting.  And at the end...

These are the Israelites, counted according to their families.  All those in the camps, by their divisions, number 603,550.

Now that you know these numbers, is your life different?  Is it changed?  Do you have a new drive to love your neighbor and do good even to those who despise you?  Will you think about these numbers day and night, meditating on their meaning?

No... you probably won't.  (Or at least I hope you don't.)  Why?  Beacuse these numbers mean NOTHING!  That's right... NOTHING!   Oh sure, they meant something to the people at the time.  Moses and the Israelites benefited from knowing these numbers.  And I'm sure that people since Moses have looked at this first census of the people as a model of how to do their own census.

But... the numbers themselves don't mean anything to us today.

And neither will our numbers!

As much as we fight and argue about how many people are in worship or what our financial figures are.  As much as we debate how to draw more people in and get our numbers looking better.  As much as we concentrate our efforts on the numbers, truth be told, they don't really matter.

As much as I stress over being 40 years old, truth be told, it's just another year.  Another number to add to all the other numbers.  As one woman told me after worship, "Just think!  If you live as old as my dad did, you'll have another 63 birthdays just like this one!"

Numbers don't mean anything.  Life does.  Life is what happens in between the numbers.  The dash between our birth date and our death date that marks everything that we've ever done in our lives.

How will our dash be?  How will others be helped by what they saw in our dash?  How will our days be lived so that others might see us and know the love of God within us?

How will we live between the numbers?

The people of Israel were more than a number that was counted and recorded and kept for us to read.  They were a people with individual names and different lives.  They were distinct and unique and original.

And so are we!

Let's live our lives counting the days in wisdom but letting that number help us live life outside of our numbers!

Teach us to count our days, we pray O Lord, that we might live life to the fullest, taking advantage of every day you have set out for us.  Amen.

p.s.  Speaking of numbers...this is the second devotion written this week to catch up for the last weeks I haven't had one!  :)

The Price of Redemption

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you--I, whom you have redeemed.  Psalm 71:23

The Price of Redemption
By Rev. William Dohle

We have a certain cycle in my family.  A way things usually go...

It's starts like every day begins... with my children, content with playing with their toys and video games, enjoying their leisure time.
Then comes the interruption... we ask them to do their chores.
Then the response... my children decide to disobey and ignore what we ask them to do.
Then...the consequence!  Their toys are taken away.

After this, there is usually a time of reaction by my children.
Followed by their promises... "Please, daddy!  I won't do that again!  Please!!"

At this point in time, their toys are up for ransom.  They have not done what they were suppose to.  They are paying for it with the time they could have spent with their toys and gadgets.

How do they get them back?  How do they redeem them from their father??

There is a price to pay.  A price for redemption.

I usually am pretty gracious.  I set the price at a day's worth of chores with NO complaints!  Sometimes the price is higher, depending upon the cost of their disobedience, but usually the price is paid when everything that we ask them to do is done to our satisfaction.

Then...and only then... are their toys redeemed.  Then they can have back what was theirs.

This is the pattern, not only for the redemption of toys in the Dohle household, but also the redemption of people, property, animals, homes, and the like in ancient Israel.

In this final chapter of Leviticus the rules for redemption are described.  And the price is set.

If it is a person between the ages of five and twenty, set the value of a male at twenty shekels and of a female at ten shekels. (27:5)
If the owner wishes to redeem the animal, he must add a fifth of its value. (27:13)
If the man dedicates his house as something holy to the Lord, the priest will judge its quality good or bad.(27:14)
If the man who dedicates a field wishes to redeem it, he must add a fifth to its value and the field will again become his. (27:19)

These things are redeemed from the Lord, not because they belong primarily to God(God claims the firstborn and the tithe as his in Leviticus, not everything in this case), but rather because they were vowed to be given to God.  From this vow, a price is paid to "get back" what was vowed before.  These are those prices.

And though we do not work that way in our world today, we find it a window into ourselves and into our ancestors.

We find that life was marked with inequality back in that day.  Men were worth more than women, hands down.  The young more than the old.  The genders and the age groups are divided out based on their worth.  And though we might disagree with the Bible on this account and want to make all genders and ages equal in worth, it just worked that way back then.

We discover this inequality...but we also discover something that draws us into our own faith.  This idea of redemption, as payment for something, to take back from another.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus applies this to us too.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45)

The theology of redemption, first established in Leviticus, is brought forward in the New Testament in a new way.  Here Jesus redeems us from "sin, death, and the devil" rescuing us to become children and heirs of God.  God redeems through Jesus his precious possession, namely us, so that, through Jesus redemption, we can truly live for God!

We are God's treasured possession.  And God stopped at nothing to take us back from even death itself!

Thanks be to God!

Blessed are you, Lord God, king of the Universe, for you do not abandon us to the grave but rescue us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.  Amen!

God's Consequence Sheet

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high." Leviticus 26:13

God's Consequence Sheet
By Rev. William Dohle

I had the best 2nd grade teacher, I think, a kid could ever have.

Her name was Ms. Fossom and she was great!  She taught me how to be creative, how to take risks, how to write little stories.  She taught me science and a love of nature.

But the biggest thing she taught me was this: There are always consequences.

She had the best idea for discipline.  At the back of the room there was a wipe-off board with everyone's name on it.  To the right of our names there were boxes that were empty at the start of the day.  If one of us needed a warning, one of the boxes was checked off.  If we did it again, another box was checked off followed by the consequence for that box.

Being a "good" child, I always tried to keep by board as clean as possible.

And there were rewards for being good too!  Good rewards like pizza parties and movies and all the things that kids love to enjoy when they're enjoying school.

Consequences, good and bad, followed our behavior.

At the end of Leviticus, in the next-to-the-last chapter of the book, God lists some consequences for following the law and being "good".

• I will send rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops...and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.(26:4-5)
• I will grant peace in the land and you will lie down...You will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword before you.(26:6-8)
• I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers.(26:9)

And the best of God's good consequences...

• I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people.(26:12)

That's what happens if the people follow God's decrees and laws and commandments.

But we know that they don't.  They don't always follow God's commandments anymore than I always kept my consequence board clean in 2nd grade.  Sin has come upon us all and we stumble.  And the consequences for disobedience are described too.

• ...if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws...then I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life.(26:16)
• You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.  I will set my face against you so that yo will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you...(26:17)

And if that doesn't work?  If even these consequences fail to turn Israel back?

• I will punish you for your sins seven times over.  I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze.(26:18)
• I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve.  I will send wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and make you so few in number that your roads will be deserted.(26:22)
• I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant.  I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.(26:25)
• You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.  I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars and pile your dead bodies on the lifeless forms of your idols and I will abhor you.(26:29)
• You will perish among the nations; the land of your enemies will devour you.(26:37)

Wow!  Talk about consequences!  God sure is serious about this whole covenant thing, isn't he?

At the end of all of these consequences, both good and bad, God has a promise.  The promise that started his relationship with Israel to begin with.  God says: "I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham and I will remember the land...I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them.  I am the Lord their God.  But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God.  I am the Lord."(26:42-44)

God's funny that way.  He always ends it with a promise.  Consequences come and consequences go.  Sometimes we do the right thing and enjoy the fruit of our labor.  Sometimes we do the wrong thing and suffer the consequences.  Sometimes we do the right thing and suffer the same consequences. Sometimes it doesn't always end up as cleanly as we think it should.

But whatever consequence, or lack of consequence, we suffer the fact remains.  We are God's.  God will not abandon us.  Even when we fail and fall as so often we do.  Even when the consequences of this life weigh us down.  Even when it's all really our own fault, God doesn't let up.  He doesn't abandon us or neglect us.  He has promised himself to us and for us and his promises last forever!

Help me, God, for us often neglect your ways and follow my own path.  Forgive me when I stumble and lead me to live a better life in You, through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

One of God's Great Ideas!

"Count off seven sabbaths of years--seven times seven years--so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years.  Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month...Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants."  Leviticus 25:8-10

One of God's Great Ideas!
By Rev. William Dohle

Good ideas are hard to come by.  Just ask any writer.  As a writer myself I struggle sometimes coming up with something original and unique.  Something that will make my reader go, "Wow!  I never thought of it like that!"  Because, by and large, most ideas are recycled from one source or another.

For example... I read Fantasy books, those are books that feature swords and sorcery, men in distress and maidens in armor, and vice-versa.  Every book I read, or probably ever will read, is somehow related to the original classic "The Lord of the Rings" which is itself based on the mythology stories of countless cultures.  Tolkien and every writer after him have arranged and rearranged the material, bringing a new story out of the old.

So they say... there is no such thing as an original idea.

But occasionally, whether original or not, an idea comes that is so outrageous, so incredibly unbelievably crazy, that it is received with a mixture of laughter and scorn.  When faced with an idea that wild, one must either dismiss it or embrace it.  There is no in-between.  That idea, for God, is the Year of the Jubilee.

Most people are unfamiliar with this biblical concept.  Rooted in the 25th chapter of Leviticus, it takes place on the 7th year of the 7th year.  Basically, every 49 years.  This year is a time of grace, hope, freedom, and celebration.  What must take place this year??

• "...everyone is to return to his own property." Because "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.  Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide fo rhte redemption of the land."(25:23-24)
• Houses in the country, if purchased or acquired by someone, are to be returned.  "...houses in villages without walls around them are to be considered as open country.  They can be redeemed and they are to be returned in the Jubilee."(25:31)
• Slaves sold into servitude are to be freed and released.  "...he and his children are to be released in the Year of Jubilee, for the Israelites belong to me as servants."(23:54-55)

In other words... debts are to be forgiven!  Stored crops are to be eaten.  No work is to be done on this year. For this year, which would have come but once in a lifetime, is a Jubilee, a gift of grace and freedom and liberty from God!

Can you imagine the celebration?!

Of course some scholars say it was just a dream...nothing more.  They say that the Year of Jubilee wasn't something that Israel ever did.  It was a good idea...but not practical.

We too have abandoned this notion. No matter how much we claim to be a "Christian nation" and want to "live by the Bible", few people have ever raised this issue up in our world today.  Perhaps it's because its just so radical, this grace given freely and without cost.  Perhaps it's because its so not-capitalist...this idea that everything belongs to God and we are just tenants and caretakers of it.

But what if this actually happened?  Can you imagine it...

• The World Bank announces a year of Jubilee...and forgives the debts of the poorest countries in this world who suffer with paying just the interest on the massive loans they have.
• Banks announce that student debt acquired up to this year is forgiven...no strings attached!
• Pawn shops are required to return the property that was sold to them from the many who sold it.
• Homes acquired in foreclosure are returned by the banks to their rightful owners...debt free!  The interest and all the fees on it forgiven.

Of course there'd be questions on how to do it and for whom?  But they could be answered.  How much debt should we forgive?  All of it!  Who would receive the grace?  Everyone!  How would we know if someone deserved it?  We wouldn't!  And it wouldn't matter!  Grace would be given to all.  Grace that comes from economics turned on its head.  For a year, the world would bask in the glow of grace for a single year, reveling in what it was like to live debt-free, unbound to anyone except God.

Not practical?  Maybe.  But, practical or not, I think the Year of Jubilee is what the Kingdom of God looks like here on earth.  If God were to bring that kingdom here on earth so we could see it, it would look like this!  Freedom from debt-collectors and their chains.  Freedom from the mistakes of the past.  Freedom for all!!

Maybe that's why Jesus, when speaking about his ministry says...

The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

In other words... God has sent Jesus(and us) to proclaim the promised Year of Jubilee!!  Our part?  Let's start by forgiving the debts owed to us... and then move on to the rest of the world!

God of Jubilee, God of dancing, your kingdom whispers to us, calling us to freedom and grace and hope and life.  Lead us that truly your kingdom may come, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

Jesus: The Law breaker?

"The Israelites did as the Lord commanded Moses."  Leviticus 24:23

Jesus: The Law Breaker!?
By Rev. William Dohle

What makes someone a criminal??

Does speeding make you a criminal?  It is a law you're breaking after all...
Or jaywalking?  Is that a criminal act?
Is someone a criminal if they accidently kill someone?
Or make a mistake on their taxes and steal money from the government?
Are you a criminal if you've been arrested for driving under the influence?
Or for smoking in the non-smoking section?

What makes someone a criminal today?

Background checks may reveal the hidden lives of our neighbors, but what makes them a criminal?

That's not so easy to answer today because we have varying levels and degrees of wrongdoing.  Intention is taken into account.  Motivation is key.  And the severity of what you do matters to our society.

In the Bible, the biggest penalty is reserved for something that isn't criminal at all today.  Blasphemy.  Blasphemy is defined on dictionary.com as "an act of cursing or reviling God."  And its consequences are described in a story from Leviticus.

Now the son of an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father went out among the Israelites, and a fight broke out in the camp between him and an Israelite.  The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse; so they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri the Danite.)  They put him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.
 Then the Lord said to Moses:  “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death. (Leviticus 24:10-16)

 And, here's the kicker, the man was put to death!  They actually stoned him!

This is just one example of this law that has its roots in Leviticus and continues through even the New Testament where, we are told, Jesus breaks it!  In many places, actually, but especially at the end of his life.

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
  “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”They all condemned him as worthy of death. Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, “Prophesy!” And the guards took him and beat him. (Mark 14:62-64)

Does this sound familiar?  Look closely at the story from Leviticus.  And then look at the story from Mark.  They're almost the same!  Jesus' story doesn't begin with a fight, but the high priest pronounces him guilty of the same thing!  They both have offended God's Name.

We forget this tiny piece of Jesus' story.  Maybe because we discount blasphemy nowadays.  Maybe because some of us believe Jesus wasn't blaspheming, that he was the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One.

Either way, Jesus' act of blasphemy reminds us to slow down in our own condemnation. Slow down condemning others to death.  Not because they deserve our mercy but because they stand with Jesus, condemned to the same sentence of death.

Today we reserve this sentence for the worst criminals.  The murderers.  They receive the death penalty.  They are treated to this sentence for what they did to others.  The book of Leviticus couples blasphemy and its sentence of death with murder and its sentence of death.

"Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death." (Leviticus 24:17)

This occurs just after the story of blasphemy.

Where today we may condemn the murderer to the death penalty, we certainly don't condemn the blasphemer to the same fate.  Perhaps, before we condemn either of the murderer or the blasphemer to such a fate, we should look at where Jesus is standing.  Jesus stands, not with the offended, but with the offender here.  He stands with the one condemned to death.  He too suffered such a condemnation for the biblical crime of blasphemy.  He was not stoned for that crime, as Stephen would later be.  He would be crucified by the Romans.  But in his crucifixion and in this condemnation by the high priest, Jesus calls into question the law and its punishment.  In his death, he would question who we judge and why we judge.  By standing with the offenders, Jesus would challenge his followers to stop judging and start loving.

As easy as it is to judge another for what they say or who they are or who they love or what they believe or do, perhaps, if we are a follower of Jesus, we may set aside that judgment.  There's been enough judgment for now.  Instead, let's practice loving people, no matter their reaction.

Forgive us, Lord, for taking on the role of judge and blaspheming your name.  Help us to love and trust enough to care even for the offender.  Amen.

Their Holidays? Or Ours?

"These are the Lord's appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies..."
Leviticus 23:37

Their Holidays?  Or Ours?
By Rev. William Dohle

Have you ever been to another country during a holiday??

When I was in college, I had the opportunity to travel to India for a semester abroad.  The whole experience changed my perspective on everything.  Religion.  Faith.  Life.  What is clean and what is dirty.

But most of all it changed my view of holidays.

It may come as a shock, but the rest of the world does not celebrate the same holidays we do.  Next Monday is Labor Day in the United States...but the rest of the world doesn't care.  At the end of October is Halloween(my favorite holiday)...but that isn't celebrated everywhere.  And even the sacred Christmas is just another working day in some parts of the world.

But just as they don't celebrate our holidays.  We don't celebrate theirs either.

In India, we were present for their holiday of Diwali.  This Hindu holiday is a feast day to celebrate the coming of light.  In many ways, it mirrors the Winter Solstice event and even Christmas itself.  Indians celebrate it by decorating their homes in bright colors.  They float candle-lit boats down the river.  And they send each other gifts and cards.

"Happy Diwali!"  They say!

As an outsider with a group of outsiders, we tried to fit in.  But you could tell that this wasn't our holiday.  This was theirs.  As much as we tried to celebrate with them.  As many Diwali cards I sent out from India to my relatives back home, it still wasn't my holiday and I haven't celebrated it again since.

This foreign feeling is the same feeling I get when I read the 23rd and the beginning of the 24th chapter of Leviticus.  This is a strange land...with strange holidays.

The Hebrews here are instructed to celebrate seven feasts to the Lord.

• The first is celebrated weekly.  The Sabbath or Shabbat.  The day of rest from creative work and a day to dedicate to God.
• The second is Passover...the celebration of the people of Israel's release from bondage.
• The third... First fruits.  A sort of Harvest festival if I'm not mistaken.
• The fourth...the feast of weeks.  A day to remember the poor.  "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field...Leave them for the poor and the alien."
• The fifth...The Feast of trumpets.  "Do no regular work on this day."
• The sixth...The Day of Atonement.  A day to atone for the sins of the people
• The seventh...the Feast of Tabernacles...a time to remember how the people lived in tents so many years.

Many of these feasts are spoken of in the Gospels because all of these feasts were celebrated by Jesus himself!  Look for yourself throughout the Gospels and see how they follow these ancient holidays.

I've always wondered... why don't Christians celebrate these holidays too too?  If so many take the Bible as the "inerrant Word of God" and "divinely inspired"...then what about these verses here?  Shouldn't we be joining our Jewish brothers and sisters in a few weeks as they celebrate the Day of Atonement?  And then shouldn't we be crafting our tents outside for the Feast of Booths?  When did God tell the church, "Forget the Jewish holidays.  Make up your own instead!"?

Most Christians set aside these verses in the Law.  They just don't apply to them.  Instead, we have other holidays that we celebrate.  Christmas.  Easter.  Fourth of July.  Halloween.  Civic holidays and religious ones combine together for us and we fall out of step from what Leviticus instructs.

Are we disobeying God here?  Does God care?  Does it bother him that we are not following these commandments?

Personally, I not sure God really cares WHAT holidays we celebrate.  I think he calls us to celebrate!  To lay aside what we normally do for a time and to do something different is important to God.  I think God calls us to celebrate...and to remember.  And we Christians can do the same in our own ways too.  In fact, we can use the same outline of holidays to fashion our own...

• The first...we too can celebrate a Sabbath and put God first one day a week, laying aside our own cares.
• The second...there's nothing to say we can't join our Jewish neighbors in celebrating Passover with their Sedars.  The Jews I've met are more than happy to invite us into their celebration.
•  The third...First fruits.  I think Thanksgiving fits perfectly into that category, so long as we remember that we need to give thanks more than we need to shop.
• The fourth...the feast of weeks.  What if Christmas day was a day to remember the poor and to stop in the middle of all our gift unwrapping to pray and to help and to give to those who are in need.  Whoa!  That sounds...radical!  But isn't that what we say Christ did for us?
• The fifth...the Feast of Trumpets...I've always liked the idea of Marti Grau.  What if we made it a point to celebrate life...even before the lenten fast.
• The sixth...the Day of Atonement... Many Christians celebrate the whole season of lent, 40 days, as a time to repent and that is good.  But the Day of Atonement for us should be Good Friday when we remember that atonement was made once and for all.
• The seventh...the feast of Tabernacles.  Did you know that the Holy Spirit came one year on this very feast to "tent" among us?  What if we took this time to think on the ways that God is already here.

I think this list is a start.  A start to a pattern for all of our lives.  May we know the grace and mercy of God that we may walk confidently through all that life brings.  Happy Holidays!  And happy ordinary days too!

God of the holiday and the ordinary, give us reasons to celebrate and worship you.  Open our eyes to your holy presence, both in and out of our holiday celebration.  Amen.

To Make...or Break...a Job Description

Consider them holy, because I the Lord am Holy--I who make you holy.  Leviticus 21:8

To Make...or Break...a Job Description
By Rev. William Dohle

I have learned one thing in my 26 years of being a working person... job descriptions are important!

It's important to know what you are responsible for doing...and what you're not.  It's important, not only for your benefit, but also for the benefit of others.

Suppose your doctor believes that his or her job is to do everything their nurse would have done.  Would that be a good use of her time?  Or your dentist who can't find time for your aching tooth...because he has to sweep the sidewalks outside of his office.  Or the teacher...who abandons your child to prepare lunch in the cafeteria.

Job descriptions are important.  It's important to know where you are suppose to be and what you are suppose to be doing.  And if someone growls at you about not doing something, you can just point back to your job descriptions and say, "See...THIS is what I'm suppose to do."

Job descriptions date back even to biblical times.  Even to the book of Leviticus.  Here we have an entire chapter and a half on what the job of a priest is and what they're suppose to do.  Here's what the Bible says about a priest...

• Must not make himself ceremonially unclean. (Lev. 21:1)
• Must not shave their heads or shave off the edges of their breads or cut their bodies. (Lev. 21:5)
• Must not marry prostitutes or those who've been divorced. (Lev. 21:7)
• The high priest must... not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes.  The woman he marries must be a virgin.(Lev. 21:13
• Must not have any defects.  Must be perfectly healthy with no skin diseases. (Lev. 21:16-23)

There are others...and reasons for these...given in Leviticus.  The overall reasoning behind why a priest must be this way is...

The priests are to keep my requirements so that they do not become guilty and die for treating them with contempt.  I am the Lord who makes them holy.(Lev. 22:9)

Now, we might look back on these and think they are ancient garbage.  Why should we care how the priests were required to be?  That was thousands of years ago!  Or we might think of them as sacred Scripture...but still not know what to do with them.

Either way, these job descriptions help us understand other parts of Scripture.

Like the story of the Good Samaritan!  Jesus tells a story about a priest and a levi who pass a man robbed by thieves on the other side.  Why didn't they stop?  Because it wasn't in their job description!  Because they were both commanded to not make themselves ceremonially unclean and stopping to help someone who might die on them would defile them  and prevent them from doing their job.  Of course they passed by the man!  They would be breaking God's commandment if they had stopped!

These ancient job descriptions too can help us see our own job descriptions in a better light.  They can help us ask ourselves: "Are the jobs we doing for the glory of God and for the work of his kingdom?  Or are we being required to do something that is immoral or unloving toward someone?"

Job descriptions are not unbreakable laws.  In fact, they can and should be broken when love dictates another way.  When certain German pastors in World War II did not believe their job description imposed on them by the Nazis was life-giving to their Jewish brothers and sisters, they rebelled and acted against it.  Many of them, including Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor, lost their lives fighting against what the Reich considered their job description.

So, how should we take these job descriptions here?  As suggestions?  As an outline?  Perhaps we should keep these in the back of our minds as we read through the rest of Scripture, for every priest from this time through the time of Jesus, knew Leviticus 21 by heart.  Every priest knew how they were suppose to act, according to God's law.  Perhaps we should take this as background knowledge as we explore the ways God's people followed and broke this ancient job description.  Because God's word doesn't end with job descriptions.  This is only the beginning.

God of all, you direct our lives through the Scriptures and in life.  Give us boldness that we might question and discern and so enter into the conversation you have with all of humanity.  Amen.