Take heart...and trust!

"Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night."  Numbers 14:1

Take heart...and trust!
By Rev. William Dohle

If you had a magical watch that could turn back time, would you use it?  Would you change anything about your past?  What happened to you?  Or perhaps what you made happen to another?

Changing the past is a frequent theme in science fiction literature.  There's something appealing about going back in time and fixing something that went wrong.

But there's one problem.

The past makes us who we are today.  Without the past we wouldn't be the person we are right now.  We'd be someone different, in a different place, a different time, with different people, and with different problems.

Fix any one of those problems and the cycle continues.

We can never go back to the past.  What's done is done.  And we must press forward into whatever the future holds.

That's hard to do.  Especially when the past seems so appealing!

The people of Israel faced this very problem just outside the Promised Land.  From across the Jordan River, they had sent their spies into the land.  Only most of their spies had returned disheartened.  Most said there was no way they could move forward.  Only Joshua and Caleb disagreed and believed that God would do what God had promised.

Disheartened, the people rebel against Moses, crying out to God:

"Would that we had died in the land of Egypt!  Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword?  Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"  So they said to one another, "Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt." (Num. 14:2-3)

You can hardly blame them.  Here they had traveled across the desert, been chased by Pharaoh's army, eaten strange things like manna and quail, and then are told by their spies that there was no way for them to succeed?  Of course they'd be disheartened!  Of course they'd complain!

Going back to Egypt seemed to be the best idea to them!  After all, they had three meals a day there!  They may have had to work for their supper, but it was better than starving...right?

We too may feel like the people of Israel at times.  Thinking about our lives, we may long for the days gone past.  The "days in Egypt", be they good or bad, always seem better than they were in retrospect.   We remember, not the slavery that we suffered under, but the few good meals that we shared.

Like the people of Israel, we must press on into the future.  No spies have been on before us.  Nobody has scouted out the land we will walk.  We may face giants and all sorts of dangers.  We may even be killed.

But, thanks be to God, we do not travel alone.  We have a God with us who walks us through the past into the future.  As a wise pastor I know says, "We do not know what the future holds.  But we know who holds the future."

So, heartened by this, we press on to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has called us heavenward.  Let us put aside our fears of the future.  Instead, with hope and faith in our hearts, we press on into the future.  There is no other way.

God of Hope, inspire us that we may look, not to the past, but always to the future for the promised land lies ahead of us even now.  Amen.

The Bright Side of Life

"Always look on the bright side of life..." Monty Python, The Life of Brian
"We came to the land you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.  Yet the people who live in the land are strong..."  Numbers 13:27

The Bright Side of Life
By Rev. William Dohle

A few weeks ago I was speaking to someone at church.  They were sharing their experience of the past...

"You know, pastor, we use to have so many kids in Sunday school and church.  The place was packed.  Now there's not that many.  We need to get them back, but I'm afraid we're not going to do it..."

Have you heard something like that said?  A statement that appears to be a positive turned into a negative?

In my neck of the woods, those statements usually start in the past...

We use to...

And then they move into the present...only not in a good way.

But now we can't...

And finally they follow into the dark future.

And I don't think we'll...

I've heard them so many times before I can usually point them out...in others and in myself.  I too have pined after the days gone by, in hopes that God will bring back the past into the present.

What do we do with negativity?  When our view goes from good to bad?  What do we do with ourselves and our lives?  How do we face the day when every day is darker?

The people of Israel faced the same thing after they sent into Canaan their spies.  Twelves spies went, one from each of the tribes of Israel, to check out the land.  The text says...

Moses sent them to spy out the land...and see what the land is like and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land they live in is good or bad, and whether the towns that they live in are unwalled or fortified, and whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees or not. (Num. 13:17-20)

So twelve go out...and what do they find?  They find a land inhabited already by the Canaanites, a diverse group of people from various tribes.  They find grapes which they bring back on a pole and pomegranates and figs.  They find everything just as the Lord had told them it would be.

Good report...right?

Only this report gets a little askew, for when Moses asks them what they thought of it, they replied:

"We came to this land to which you sent us...Yet the people who live int he land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large, and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there...We are not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we are."

Talk about a downer report.  Yes it's exactly what God had promised them...but they're unable to take it.  Oh well...time to go back to Egypt, I guess.

Only Caleb and Joshua stood against them and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."

Only two out of twelve remained positive in God's faithfulness!

The ELCA, of which I'm a part of, has experienced declining church membership and worship numbers.  Many point our liberal point of view.  Others point to generational trends.  And still others to the schism that split many of our congregations, forcing us into decline.

The numbers look bleak.  There's only giants and dragons in the land, we say.  We will never survive!

Many people still pine after the days gone by, when our Sunday schools were jam packed, our services needed more services, and everyone was looking for a second pastor and couldn't find one.  They, like the people of Israel, look back at Egypt and think, "At least there I had something to eat.  It may not have been perfect...but I'll take it back still!"

Sadly, those days are gone forever.  And though many still wish we could have what we had then, it's time to look ahead.  It's time to stop dreaming about the days when things were bigger and better than they are now and focus instead on what God has in store for us today!

What does our Promised Land look like?  What challenges will await us there?  What possibilities will open up?  What will the church look like when we cross the Jordan and enter into God's country?

That imagineering, it's hard!  It's really hard work!  The people of Israel complained about their living conditions in the wilderness and imagined the worse because they couldn't imagine anything else.  It is said too that, of those who went with Moses into the wilderness, there were even more who stayed back in Egypt.  Why?  Why wouldn't they go with Moses and with God?  Maybe because the past is so comfortable and quiet and not as scary as facing an uncertain future.

What will we do in the church?  I think that remains to be seen.  God isn't done with us yet, that's for sure.  Our churches may start looking more eccumenical.  We may find ourselves combining buildings or abandoning the church building model all together.  We may find ourselves in the homes of the faithful, around bread and wine.  Or we may find that our church has become the home of other churches too, a community of communities all in the same place.

Whatever happens know this.  His kingdom will come, with or without our help. Even as we decline, thousands of Christians are made every day in places like Africa, South America, and Asia.

So let us not worry ourselves over the reports too much.  Let's focus on the future and what opportunities God may have for us there.  After all, even a walled city can be brought down by the voice of God.

God of possibilities, give us the vision you gave to Joshua and Caleb who saw potential and possibilities when others saw failure.  Amen.