Randomed by God

"You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives." Exodus 30:16

Ransomed by God
By Rev. William Dohle


Children age backwards, beginning at age 12.

I've always known this.  A 13 year old will often act 3, a 14 year old 4 and so on throughout their teenage years.  I've often joked to myself that, after 11, you take their age and subtract 10 and THAT'S how how they act.

But I've never had to experience it... until now.

My oldest has crossed into this arena.  A 12-year old now, he has begun asking questions he hasn't asked in 10 years!  Questions like "Why!?"  Only when he asks them, they come out like whining, crying, screaming "Whys" instead of the cute 2-year old "Why?"  Still... same question.

Take this morning for example.  I walked downstairs and found the office door was closed.  We have told him countless times not to close the door because with the door closed he can't hear us.  Well... he closed the door and when I opened it and instructed him to keep it open he responded: "Why!?"  No matter how many times I tried to explain it to him, he said the same thing again and again.

Talk about frustrating!

Of course we don't ever really grow up out of that question.  It gets more sophisticated, sure, but after age 11 we struggle with the "Why" question for the rest of our lives.

Take the highly political question: "Why do we pay taxes?"  Adults of all ages still struggle with this question.  Some say we pay too many taxes.  Others say too little.  And with all the question "Why?!" hovers behind the scene.

The book of Exodus, though, takes up the taxes question in the 30th chapter.  Here the Lord says,

"When you take a census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them...Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old an upward, shall given the Lord's offering.  The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than a half shekel, when you give the Lord's offering to make atonement for your lives." (Exodus 30:11-16)

Do you hear the "Why?" question being answered here?  Why should we pay taxes at the census?  "To make atonement for your lives...to give a ransom for his life to the Lord."  And the consequences of NOT paying for your life?  A plague at the time of the census.

Talk about the "Why?!" question being answered.

In America with the division of church and state being what it is, that "Why!?" question for taxes isn't answered still.  We still struggle with paying taxes to the state as we struggle with where we see that money we think is still ours going.  We would have a hard time convincing a red-blooded American that the reason we pay our taxes is because everything belongs to the Lord.  Our bodies.  Our possessions.  Try convincing many Americans that our lives are on loan from God and that loan must be paid to God and the state.

That reason wouldn't fly as a reason to pay our taxes now.  "A ransom for his life..." that seems absurd in our secular culture.

So, instead of looking at this as a reason to pay our taxes to the state, why not look at it as a reason to give back to God? How should we give back to God?  And why?

Today, this pattern of giving found in Exodus is followed by Jews the world around.  After the "Day of Atonement" in September, their religious dues are due.  Jews do not take offerings like Christians do at their services.  They are forbidden to touch money on the Sabbath.  They pay dues once a year to the synagogue of their choice.  They do so for the reasons described in this passage.  To "give a ransom for his life to the Lord."

Christians of all varieties take offering each Sunday and struggle paying for the ministry we provide.  We struggle sometimes, I think, because at the heart of the Christian faith is the belief that God has ransomed us by grace and that grace is free.  In Christ, we are ransomed from sin and death.  We are Christ's forever.  God has paid the price for us.  He has ransomed us for himself.  We know in our hearts we should give.  It is proper to give God a portion of what we have been given, but it is hard to give back to someone who has showered us so freely with every good thing.

Though we may not always have this "Why?!" question answered fully, we need to trust.  We need to have faith that God's work will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.  We need to not be like our 12-year olds who challenge everything with a "Why!?" but we need to put our faith in God who has ransomed us from sin and death and given us far more than we can ever return to him through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 

God Above, in Jesus Christ we are ransomed and bought.  By his blood, we are yours forever.  Teach us to be generous with ourselves and our possessions as you are with yours.  Amen.  

What to pray for...

Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. 
Exodus 29:45-46

What to Pray for...
By Rev. William Dohle

Ever have a moment where you wonder: what do I pray for?  Ever have that moment where you don't know what to say?

To be honest, those moments happen frequently for me.  Usually in moments of crisis, but they can happen when all is going well too.

It starts like this... You sit down to pray and you begin great and then you stop.  In your head you cry out, "What should I pray FOR?  I've been given so much!"  You ramble on about this or that, giving thanks for your blessings, raising needs that you see others need more than yourself.  And then you close your prayer and hope you said it right.  That's what happens in the GOOD times.

In bad times... well... You're sitting to pray at the bedside of someone whose life is ebbing away and you realize that to pray for healing might prolong the person's suffering and pain.  To pray for strength might do the same.  But to pray for them to pass quickly doesn't sound right either.  So you mumble something about peace and leave it all in God's hands.

Either way you really don't know what to say or to pray for.

Thankfully God gives us reason to pray and reason to call upon him and what God promises to deliver.  Plus, as an added bonus, God tells us exactly why he messes with us in the first place.

God does this often in Scripture but especially in the later part of Exodus, after all the descriptions of the tabernacle and the priests and after Aaron and his sons have been consecretated to the Lord.  There God tells Israel, "I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God...I am the one who brought them out of Egypt SO THAT I might dwell among them."

Do you hear the reason God gives for saving Israel?  It's not so that he will be given some fancy tabernacle to stay in complete with gold stands.  It's not so that the priests may minister to the people.  God doesn't save so that heaven will be filled with believers either.  God saves because God wishes to dwell with them!

That's it.  Presence and dwelling.  That's what God promises to bring.  He promises to bring himself.  His reasons are simple.  To be with us.  God saves us from sin and death, not to have some super-people that are immune to pain and suffering, but to be able to dwell with us.  To be here for us.  To be our God and we to be his people.  And for God to be present among us.

God offers and promises nothing more...and nothing less than his presence here...

We may pray for healing and sometimes receive it...but God offers presence always.
We may pray for some physical change and see it happen...God offers himself spiritually even when it doesn't.
We may pray for circumstances to be different and they may be...God offers support for when they aren't.

God dwells with us.  He is here for us.  Though we may and should pray for all manner of things, this is what he has promised to give us.  He has done all of this so that he might dwell with us.  He has saved us to be here with us.  And one day we will see his dwelling for ourselves.

“Look!(we will say) God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."  (Revelation 21:3)

Until that day comes, until the day when our eyes are opened and we see God dwelling among us, let all our prayers be prayers for God's presence that, somehow, we might see and know that the Comforter, the Creator, the Mighty God is standing, and sitting, and living right next to us.

Open my eyes, Lord, that I might see your presence, for that is what you have promised to give.  Amen.

Blessed Memories

"Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain." Exodus 26:30

Blessed Memories
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, a great-grandmother came to the church I was serving.  She was a stranger to church, especially ours.  In fact, she had never stepped into one since leaving Germany many decades earlier.  As she walked into our church, she looked around.  Then she shook her head, disappointed.

"In a real church," she said. "The pulpit is higher.  Almost to the roof."
"In a real church," she commented.  "There's not this carpet on the floor."
"In a real church," she finished, "The ceiling is much higher."

I tried to show her how things had changed, but she just shook her head. 
"This isn't a real church," she concluded.

As she continued on about the differences between our church and the image of the church in her mind, I realized this church would never live up to the picture in her head.  Not ever.  We couldn't live up to it because the church she had in her mind doesn't exist any more.

We all have this problem.  We all compare the church we see with the church in our heads.  I've often said, when we come to faith, we take a mental snapshot of the church at the time.  "This," we say.  "This is the church!"

We remember the pastor who was there and every word that he said.
We remember the color of the carpet and the style of the church.
We remember worship and how it moved us.

We remember all this fondly...and return to our picture again and again.  But the church itself changes.  It moves and grows and never stays the same.  It's the River of God flowing through the world and no river is the same, moment by moment.

Maybe that's why we have such a detailed description of the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus.  Those who would read through the Bible, cover to cover, know that once you reach Exodus it is a little harder to continue through your reading.  It takes a lot of willpower to get through all the commandments and rules and lists of people.

And in Exodus 25 - 28 you hit another hurtle.  Descriptions of the Tabernacle.

Unless you're an engineering major, I don't think you'd be interested in the exact measurements of everything.  This piece of Scripture can feel old and antiquated...

Until we read it, not as prescriptive, but rather as descriptive.  If we read this passage of Scripture as the picture of where God WAS instead of where God IS.  If we read this as a blessed memory of the people of Israel rather than the commandments of God...then we can understand it.

They say these texts were finally set to writing during the exile, thousands of years after Moses.  If that is true... imagine the people then, sitting down and asking each other, "What was worship like in the wilderness?  What do we remember?"

Some talk about a Tabernacle and an ark...
"And God told them, 'Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits wide, and a cubit and a half high.  Overlay it with pure gold...'"(Ex. 25:10)

And others remember what the tabernacle itself looked like, "...with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubin worked into them by a skilled craftsman."(Ex. 26:1)

Some remember the courtyard.  "For the entrance of the courtyard provide a curtain twenty cubits long and blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen--the work of an embroiderer--with four posts and bases."(Ex. 27:16)

Still others remember what the priests wore, "Make the robe of the ephod entirely of blue cloth, with an opening for the head in its center."(Ex. 28:31-32)

The people's memory is crisp and clear for the stories of this blessed dwelling have been passed down generation to generation.  In each reading, they think back and remember the time their ancestors worshiped God in the wilderness and what a marvelous time that was too.

As we join them in remembering what worship was like "when we were young" or "when we came to faith", let us remember that things change.  We no longer worship in a Tabernacle or in a Temple.  Jesus tells us, in John, "The time will come when you will worship God neither on this mountain or in Jerusalem...the time is coming and has not come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth..."(John 4:21)

Join me in worshiping a God who cannot be contained in any Tabernacle or Temple or even church building, but a God who is constantly on the move.

We remember, God, the places where we met you.  Help us trust you in the journey that, no matter how much things change, we know your love will remain the same.  Amen.

The Look and Feel of Home

“Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.  Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you."  Exodus 25:8-9

The Look and Feel of Home
By Rev. William Dohle

It has been 22 years since I left home...but I can still see it in my mind.  I can still hear the creek of the floor beneath my feet and the pounding of the stairs as a visitor comes down to my room.  I can still smell the damp basement and see the Star Wars wallpaper hanging in my room.

If I concentrate, I can still see home.  Every detail as it was when I grew up.

I wonder if you thought back on your life, on the first place you called "home", I wonder what you would see.  What smells might you remember smelling?  What sounds were all around you?  Was it a modest dwelling, a small place?  Or did you live in a stately mansion?  What does "home" feel like to you?

That is the question, I think, behind the descriptions we read in the later half of the book of Exodus.  These are pictures of home, at least to the ancient Israelites.  Written as a prescription for building the tabernacle of God in the wilderness, they are used later as well as the people move God from a tabernacle to a temple.

But how are they used today?  There is no temple or tablernacle anymore.  Jews worship in their homes or at their synagogue.  What do we make of these words now?  How can we, Gentile Christians that we are, read them for today?  Are they just nice descriptions of an ancient place or worship?  Or do these words have meaning for us in our lives?

It seems that behind these descriptions there is a longing for home.  A longing for a particular place with its particular smells and sounds and flavors.  If you read the 25th - 27th chapters of Exodus, you'll find many descriptions. I think behind them we might read some longing for home.  Some memories of what the first home with God was like.

"Over here is the ark of the covenant.  A box covered in gold in which the covenant we have with God is kept..."
"Over here you can see a table about this high on which the bread of the Presence of God was kept.  I can still smell what it smelt like!"
"And over here you can see a lampstand of pure gold with flowerlike cups and seven lamps to light the room."

As you see, these descriptions help us see what the Israelites first home looked like and how it was constructed.  Through these words, God helps us re-enter the world of ancient Israel and see for ourselves what their first home with God was like.

But a home is more than just the experience of a place.  A home is about people.  It's about presence.  What makes our homes what they are isn't the furniture we have or the smells we fill our air with or the sounds of our electronic devices.  It's our presence.  Home is home because we are there.  Because it's where we've chosen to dwell.

In my lifetime so far I've had many homes.  Every place I've lived I've considered home at the time.  Each place holds a special place in my heart.

But my home is now where my family is.  Where my wife and children are.  That's home.  Home in that case can be in a house or an apartment or even in our moving van, going from place to place.  It can be in the wilds of Montana or in the middle of the midwest.  Home isn't kept to where I grew up.  It's found where the presence of my loved ones are.

With God it is the same.  The tabernacle was once home for us and God because, as Exodus says, "...I will dwell with them."(Ex. 25:8).  God dwelt in the tabernacle with us.  So the tabernacle was home.

But since then, God's home has moved on.  Once he dwelt in the tabernacle and then in a temple.  And now, in these last days, God has poured his spirit into our hearts, as Jeremiah says.  And someday, God will truly dwell with us.  Here will be God's home.  Not in a tabernacle or a temple or hidden away inside our hearts.  But here.

“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."  Revelation 21:3

This verse from Revelation is the fulfillment of the tabernacle we read about in Exodus.  Where home was just a memory there, now Home is with us.  Where Home was sequestered away someplace where no one could reach it or locked inside where no one can see, now Home lives with us in plain sight.

That's a Home to look forward to living in and with.  That's Home is a place and a person worth remembering and longing for.
  
God, you have dwelt in many places at many times.  In these last days, you have poured out your spirit into our hearts.  Give us faith to look forward to the time when you will live together with us in plain sight.  Amen.