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.

Sealed with Glitter

"Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit..." Ephesians 1:13b

Sealed with Glitter
By Rev. William Dohle

It's Christmas time, that time of year that we celebrate with items made by little hands by little children.  It's a time to celebrate the little letters that spell "I love you"...and it's a time for my least favorite part of Christmas...glitter!

Of all the inventions we have, glitter I think is my least favorite one of them all.  Even how we apply it freaks me out.  First you take some glue and smear it all over your paper.  Then you take the glitter and dump it on the glue.  And then you take the paper and dump the glitter off of it.  If you do this right, the excess glitter will go back in the container while pieces of it remain on your paper.

That's how it's suppose to work in theory.  In practice?  Well, first the glitter gets all over the place right from the start.  Then you dump a little too much on and get it on the table.  Then the excess stuff never magically lands back in its container.  In the end, even the glitter that lands on the glue itself doesn't stay for long and will soon land up somplace in your house where you don't really want it to be.

That's glitter for you.  It's not good sealing material.

And yet... our kids spend their time and energy and, most of all, their love glittering their "I love you's" to us, as if their cards and hearts are bound by glitter.  And we, loving parents that we are, see past the potential mess to see the love they have in their hearts.

Glitter may not be good binding material.  But we have something more binding than anything.  Something that, in the end, binds us to God.  It's not so glittery or even nice to look at, but it does last forever.  In the end, what binds us to God is the blood of Jesus Christ.

Blood has always been used as a sealer of covenants.  We speak of something being "written in blood" or "signed in blood" as somehow being binding regardless of circumstances.  Well... that's the way it's always been!

The first covenant to be bound this way was with Abraham who, in circumcision, wore the mark and scar of the bound covenant on him.  The second covenant to be bound by blood is this one from Exodus.

"Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls , and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.  Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people.  They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey."(Ex. 24:6-7)

This is no glittery binding.  By the blood, the people are bound to obey the Lord and the Lord is bound to care for his people.  That's the way covenants work.  Each side promises to fulfill their part of the contract.

In Jesus, we are brought into a new covenant.  By HIS blood, we are sealed to God.  As the writer of Hebrews says:

"The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.  FOR THIS REASON Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance."(Hebrews 9:13-15 emphasis added)

Christ's blood is stronger than glitter.  It's stronger even than the blood of the old covenant, for through him our consciences are cleansed so we can serve the living God.

This is the new covenant we Christians celebrate.  This covenant isn't dependent upon us.  We cannot seal it ourselves.  It is given to us by God.  A gift given in Jesus Christ.  By his blood, the covenant between us and God is sealed and we are God's, able now to "serve the living God" as the writer of Hebrew's declares.

This isn't a covenant that changes or falls away.  It isn't as fragile as glitter which flakes away the moment you touch it.  This covenant, given to us by God in Jesus Christ, lasts forever.

Remember that this Christmas as you open glittery gifts that will fade away.  Glitter may not seal well.  But the blood of Jesus Christ seals us to God forever.

Help me see, Lord, through this transient life, the eternal love and bond you have with us.  Help me see, through Jesus' blood, our relationship is secure.  Amen.

Doing What He Said

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  James 1:22

Doing What He Said
By Rev. William Dohle

I have a confession.  I didn't really realize what having a 12 year old meant and what this gate into the teenage years would look like. Not really...

For years I have counseled and led kids through this gate in Confirmation.  I've met kids in their tween years and walked through the gates until they were teenagers.  I've seen kids grow up and become able adults.  I've watched them change from their childish ways into the ways of being an adult.  I always saw a difference come to life within them, but I never really realized what it was.  Until now.

My oldest son, William, is in the middle of his 13th year of life(he's 12) and it's scary.  It's scary how grown up he looks...but how vulnerable he is.  It's scary how far into the future he must look...preparing in school for college and beyond.  It's scary how he hears and understands everything you say now.

But what's really scary is how he really doesn't take us, his parents, seriously.  Not anymore...

For instance... we tell him to do something.  Say... take out the garbage.  That is one of his many chores at home.  He responds: "Yes, of course..." and then goes into the other room and does something else.  We follow him in the other room to remind him and he says,"Oh you wanted me to do it now?" We respond yes... and he still doesn't do it.  Finally comes the time of consequence, where groundings occur in our home and phones get taken away.  THEN he does it(sometimes in a mad huff), storming out of the house.

Is that what all teenagers are like?  Am I going to be seriously scared when the younger ones get to be this age?

I've always dreamed my kids would be different.  They, more than anyone else, would know what gentle obedience looks like.  My dream was for them to be like the people of Israel were, back on Mount Sinai.

The people of Israel then, after they heard the law spoken and after Moses relayed what God had told them to do, had the chance to respond.  And the people of Israel responded with one voice:

"Everything the Lord has said we will do."(Exodus 24:3)

 Now that's significant in and of itself...but what's more significant is that they responded like that twice, as if to confirm what they had already said...

"We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey." (Exodus 24:7)

Wow!  What would that be like!?  To ask for something to be done and hear, not complaints or excuses or cries or even silence, but to hear: "Yes, Dad!" And to see it done!  Wouldn't that be great!

Of course the follow through isn't there for my son and wasn't there for the people of Israel.  Following this, the people of Israel strayed and disobeyed, one time after another.  The first disobedience was with a golden calf...but that we will look at later.  For now we see their heads are in the game.  Their hearts were not.
 
The same could be said of us too.  Even the most religious of us stray and fail.  We claim to be people of grace...but find judgement to be so easy.  We claim to love one another...but there's a few people we'd rather have nothing to do with.  We claim to want what God wants...but really we want God to want what we want.  Not the other way around.

We are a flawed, messed up group of people.  We are, in our hearts, just teenagers in older bodies.

Forgiveness is what we need, for our motivation is lacking and our vision blurred.  We fail to see why God would want us to do what he has commanded.  We sit on our couches, daring God to come make us change and make us grow.  We know what we should do, but we just don't do it.

For this we cry: Lord forgive us!  Motivate us to get off our rumps and follow, doing what you have commanded us to do, loving who you have commanded us to love, and following after you, not just because you say so, but because we love you!
 
I am too quick, Lord, to say I will when I really don't mean it.  Help me to bring my words and thoughts and actions in line with you.  Amen. 

Lengthening the Holy Days

"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."  Exodus 23:14

Lengthening the Holy Days
By Rev. William Dohle

Well, the Christmas season is upon us.

As much as I've wanted to crawl in a hole and hide from the holiday season, it's here!  Again!  And it's early this year I think.  This year I saw my first Christmas commercial at the beginning of October and already my dear wife has begun watching The Hallmark Channel's Christmas specials.  (12 specials for 6 weeks!)  Already tears have been shed over one sweet story or another.  And already(and I do mean already) the Christmas gifts have been bought for the children and all is prepared.  (Yes, you read that right).

For all the fuss we make over Christmas, it's amazing how fast the holiday truly goes.  We spend two to three months getting everything ready.  The presents get bought.  The tree comes out.  The lights go up.  The candy and cookies are bought.  All is prepared for a holiday that lasts...

Just...  One... Day.

That's right.  Just one day.  For most of us anyway.  Most of us will spend the our time on the front end of the holiday, getting everything ready for the big December 25th day.  And then, once everything is unwrapped and eaten, we'll be as quick as can be to get it all taken down and boxed away for another year.

It's sad how long our holidays last.  They usually only last a day.  No more.

Even the 4th of July lasts longer than Christmas sometimes I think, with parades in the morning, barbeque in the afternoons, and fireworks in the evening.

But where does this all come from?  Where do our holidays originate from?

The first mention of a holiday, or Holy Day if you want to parse it out, comes from the book of Exodus.  Here the people of Israel are instructed to have three festivals.

"Three times a year you are to celebrate a festival to me."  And how long are they to be?  Well, in the center of Exodus we only have details of one.  "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread; for seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you."  This festival, known as the Passover or Seder, lasts seven days.

The Bible here doesn't go into detail of the rest, but I can say from watching my Jewish friends, that their holidays last a whole lot longer than ours.

Hanaukkah, the festival of lights coming about at the end of the month, lasts 8 days.
The Season of Rosh Hashanna lasts 8 days.
The Festival of Tabernacles lasts another 8 days.

There are others...but these are the most well known ones.

And notice how long they last!?  8 days!  These people of God do not just celebrate for a single hour or even a single day, but an entire week!  8 days is the usual time they spend in holiday dedicated to God!  That's some celebration!

The Christian church tries to extend the celebrating some.  Christmas doesn't last just one day, but twelve.  The season of lent, a time of personal reflection leading up to Holy Week, lasts 40 days.  And the celebration of Easter resurrection takes the cake at a whopping 50 day celebration!

Imagine if we actually celebrated this long.  Imagine if we paced ourselves and instead of using all of our good will on one day(or even on the days leading up to that one day) we used it instead on a whole season from that day on.  What would our lives be if the holidays weren't just one day...but many?

God invites us here to do just that.  To make the celebration last.  God invites us here to extend our festivals whenever and wherever we can, to pause before we take down our Christmas tree after the holiday and just enjoy the season for what it is, and to realize, ultimately, the only thing we have with each other is time.  That time will never come again.

This Christmas stop.  Just stop.  Treasure the moments between each of the gifts opened.  Look deeply in the eyes of your loved ones.  Cherish the smiles and the laughter and the life you see reflected back at you.  Christmas 2013 will never come again.  All you will have to remember it is your memories and the pictures you take.  So cherish it, extend it, and enjoy it, for that is what God would have you do.

May God bless your preparations for Christmas.  May God help you get all ready for the first day.  And may God help you extend your celebrations to the whole Christmas season.

God, you invite us to celebrate and party like no other god can.  Give us grace that we may relax and enjoy the season as we celebrate the birth of your Son.  Amen.