And the excuses get crazy!

"So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"  Exodus 32:24

And the excuses get crazy!
By Rev. William Dohle

Have you noticed that, after a time of making excuses, either for yourself or for someone else, that the excuses we make get a little, shall we say, crazy?

It's true...at least in my experience.

Kids don't usually start with "the dog ate my homework."  They usually start with something closer to the truth.  Something like, "I lost it..." or "Ooops I forgot..." and then move into crazier things.  Not so much about the dog, but often about their parents.  "My dad took my folder to work..." or "My mom forgot to give that to me..."  They never say the obvious truth which is, "I am a forgetful person and didn't ever give them the paper in the first place..." or "I really didn't want to do this assignment in the first place...sorry!"

Adults are just as guilty too.  We adults use every excuse in the book  NOT to do something or other.  From "I just don't have time" to "I forgot...I'm sorry" to the classic "I'm really interested in this if only it was at a better time for me."

As a pastor, I've heard every excuse in the book why someone wasn't in church and can't make it or why someone wants to participate in a small group but can't.  They range from "If only it was at another time.  I have something else!"  to "Oh!  I wish I could go." I've even heard the most famous excuse, that is, silence on the matter.  When a new something is announced in church and people say absolutely nothing...that's an excuse too.

Of course, as we've highlighted before, excuse-making is nothing new.  It's imbedded in our bones from the very beginning.  Adam and Eve both offer wonderful excuses for their disobedience.  So does Cain.  So do Abraham and Sarah.  The list of excuse-makers is endless.

But the best excuse maker of all, in my opinion, was a priest by the name of Aaron.  We know Aaron as the brother of Moses and the head of the priestly order, but Aaron offers the best excuse in the Book!  Literally.

It happens like this.  At the foot of Mt. Sinai, Aaron has heard the cries of the people of a god to worship.  They have become rather tired of standing at the foot of the mountain waiting for Moses to come down so they cry out to Aaron for an idol.

"Make us gods who shall go before us." (Exodus 32:1)

Now Aaron could have done the right thing and refused them.  He could have even punished those who suggested such a thing.  But he doesn't.  Instead, Aaron says:

"Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives...and bring them to me." ... And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. (Ex. 32:2-4)

Pause here.  Who made the golden calf??  Aaron!  Did anyone else make it?  Not from the text.  It says clearly here that Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf!  Now watch what happens when Aaron is confronted with what the did.

And Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"  And Aaron said, "Let not the anger of my lord burn hot.  You know the people, that they are set on evil.  For they said to me, "Make us gods who shall go before us..."  So I said to them, "Let any who have gold take it off."  So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!" (Ex. 32:21-24)

Aaron says he threw the gold into the fire and the calf popped out on it's own!  On it's own!  Like..."I'm going to throw this gold into the fire now..." and "Oh my!  A calf just jumped out!"

That is the most rediculas excuse I have ever heard!

The funny part is... Moses doesn't call Aaron on it!  He doesn't even say it is absurd!  Gold must be fashioned into a particular shape.  It will not suddenly emerge as such!  Even the furniture in God's tabernacle must be fashioned and made by someone.  It doesn't just emerge from the fires all complete!

But that's what Aaron is claiming here!  That's his excuse!

I'm not sure why Moses never calls Aaron out on this one.  I'm not sure why the blame never falls on Aaron's shoulders.  Following this, the people are punished.  Many are put to the sword by the Levites and those who remain have a plague set upon them.  Aaron, though, walks away unscathed!

Why is does the blame never fall to Aaron?  Why does he go away unscathed and everyone else pays for what he did?

Maybe that's just the point.  The price never falls on the excuse-maker's head.  There's always a price to pay...even for our excuses.  If our excuses are swords, their sharpest point isn't directed toward us or even toward those we make the excuse to.  It's directed toward others around us.  Even those we love.  Our excuses affect others around us.

The child's excuse to his or her teacher...hurts the teacher's impression of the child's parents.
The parent's excuse for his or her child's absence...affects the child and those counting on him being there.
The adult's excuse for not participating...affects the community they belong to.

To counter this, we must be clear about what we mean.  We needn't do everything or accept everything that comes our way, but we needn't make excuses either.  Perhaps we should listen to what Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew.

"Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No', anything more than this comes from evil." (Mat. 5:37)

The only way to put an end to things is to stop the excuses!  The simple ones.  The complicated ones.  Even the funny ones.  We must speak the truth in love to one other.  We need not be involved in everything or say yes to every idea that comes our way.  That is never suggested.  But we must speak the truth to one another and give each other an honest, verbal answer.  We needn't say yes to everything, but we needn't make excuses for our no's either.

May God loose your tongue to speak.  May God make us honest with ourselves and honest with those around us that we may say yes and no faithfully, with no excuses to harm anyone else, that the blame and the praise of what we do may fall upon us and not upon them.

God, you see through our excuses as if they were glass.  Clean our tongues from our excuses and help us be open and honest with you and those around us.  Amen.

Standing Up...to God?

"But Moses implored the Lord his God..."  Exodus 32:11

Standing up...to God?
By Rev. William Dohle

It's easy to condemn people.  It really is.  All you need to do is look closely at someone else, compare them to yourselves, throw in what you perceive to be God's law, and {PRESTO} instant condemnation.

It happens all the time.  We see someone who looks a little odd.  Maybe they have a strange piercing or tattoo.  Maybe they smell odd or speak a different language.  Maybe they're dressed not like we feel people should dress.  We think to ourselves... something isn't right about them.  Our red flags go up and our journey on the path to condemnation begins.  First we wonder what they might be like.  We figure they must not go to church.  At least not our church.  Then we look for what is wrong with them.  Maybe they're a shady character.  So we speed up our walk, hoping to God that the hellspawn we discovered doesn't pay any attention to us as we hurry away.

It's easy to condemn others.  In our head and in our heart.  It's hard to stand up for them.

This morning I read an article about a group of students who stood up for someone being condemned.  They formed a wall with their bodies and opposed the condemners. This is what they did...

A group of Missouri students formed a human wall outside Mizzou Arena on Saturday in support of Michael Sam. 

The students were attempting to block from view members of Westboro Baptist who were in town protesting against the outpouring of support for former Missouri defensive end Michael Sam, who announced he was gay earlier this month.  Sam and the rest of the Missouri football team were honored during the basketball game against Tennessee. Sam received one of the loudest ovations from fans when the team was acknowledged... Members of the hate group stood outside the arena holding signs that condemned the community's and school's support for Sam. Students who formed the wall tried to counter the protest by turning their backs and singing the Missouri alma mater.

You can read the rest of the article here.

The Westboro Baptist Church isn't reflective of any other Baptist denomination in the country.  In fact, many would consider them a hate group for the hatred they display on their signs.  They have protested funerals and events all over the country, even here in Peoria.  They always come with the same message of hatred, wherever they go.

What they do, condemning people for what they believe usually connected with homosexuality, is easy.  It's easy to condemn others.  Standing up for them...now that's hard.

It's hard to stand up to them...or any human when this group, or anyone, condemns another person.  We'd prefer to just hide away from the fighting.  But imagine if the one who is doing the condemning is God?  Imagine if God was the one wanting to destroy or send others to hell.  Would we have the strength, the courage, and the energy to stand up to God?

Moses did!  In rather dramatic fashion.  Before he descended from the mountain, while the people were making a golden calf, God went into a rage.

"Go down for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.  They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them.  They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it...Now therefore leave me alone that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you."(Exodus 32:7-10)

God's pretty mad, huh?  Notice how he puts the blame on Moses?  It's Moses' people who Moses' brought up out of the land of Egypt.  Sounds like my wife when my kids do something wrong.  "Your kids who YOU raised!"

And God's so angry that he's going to consume them.  His wrath is burning hot.  Hotter than hellfire we might say today.  He's so mad he's going to wipe out the people of Israel and make Moses into a great nation instead.

Now at this point most of us would step back.  "If God condemns them...who am I that I should stand up to God?!" we would say.  Christians have a way of telling others that they're going to hell at this point.  "God hates fags" the Westboro Baptist signs read.  With no compassion or mercy we step aside and would gladly let God consume them, as long as he's not consuming us too.

But Moses doesn't do that.  Not at all.  Moses stands up to God.

"But Moses implored the Lord his God and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?...Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people.  Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self..."(Exodus 32:11-14)

Notice what Moses does here?  He turns the tables on God!  He reminds God that Israel is HIS people.  HE rescued them out of Egypt.  HE has given them a law and a covenant.  HE has done this because of HIS promises.  There's no room for burning anger or disaster, for God has promised to rescue his people.  God has promised...and there's no going back on it.

Moses says all this to God.  He stands up to God...and God relents!  God changes his mind.  The Scripture says, "And the Lord relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people."

All because Moses stood up to God's condemnation and said: NO!

Might we do the same?  Not just to God but also to one another?  Might we stand up to others when they condemn someone else?  Might we stand up and say, "No!  You will not treat them like that!?"  Might we not join our voices with those condemning or join our voices with the silent ones, but rather stand up, like these students did in Missouri, and protect those who are being condemned?

Moses did...generations before us!  Jesus did too!  And we can do the same.

I am proud that so many people have stood up against those who would condemn Michael Sam and others and have said, "No!"  I was touched by a football commentator last week who did this very thing and stood up against those who would condemn with a firm, "No!"  (You can see his story here).

May we do the same, joining the ranks of those who have stood up to oppression no matter what it might cost us.

Give us courage, Lord, that we might stand up to the oppressors wherever they might be.  Amen.

"My Precious..."

"Up, make us gods who shall go before us.  As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."  Exodus 32:1b

"My Precious..."
By Rev. William Dohle

What do you call precious in your life?  What has more value to you than anything else?  What would you kill to protect?

There is a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga that is so enamored with a ring in his possession that he lifts it above everything else.  He kills for the ring.  He hides away for the ring.  The ring twists him and consumes him, turning him from a gentile river folkman to a gollum like creature who lives in the shadows of the world.

All because of a ring he calls "precious."

We might dismiss such stories as works of fantasy and science fiction, but the fact of the matter is these stories describe reality.  We too are tempted to twist and mold the good things that God has given us into an idol that we can bow down and worship.

That's what the people of Israel did after all before Moses came down the mountain.  The Bible tells us: "When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, "Make us gods who shall go before us!" (Exodus 32:1)

When the people couldn't stand to wait on God anymore, they decided to take matters into their own hands.  Sounds familiar, huh?  Isn't that what we do?  Take matters into our own hands.  We figure, since God is so very slow, we'll just take care of things here on our own.  We've got this under control.

But what do the people use to make their gods?  What goes into the fire?

"So Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your duaghters, and bring them to me."...And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf.  And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"(Exodus 32:2-4)

What made that golden calf was none other than the gold that had been a gift from God.  The precious things in their lives was fashioned into an idol named "Our Precious" and worshiped there on that mountain.

That, they said, saved them.  That, they claimed, was their god.  That idol was all they ever needed.

Oh how familiar that sounds!

We may not throw our gold and jewels and fashion them into a literal golden calf, but we do twist the good gifts that God has given us into something profane.  We fashion our own "Rings of Doom" and call them "Precious", just like the characters in the Lord of the Rings do all the time.

Think of all the good gifts that God has given us.  Each one can be twisted into something profane and wrong.

Our families... can be mutually caring and compassionate entities or harbors of conflict and abuse.
Our Churches... can be places of outreach into the neighborhood and community...or can turn into a fancy country club that shuns outsiders and those different than itself.
Our sports... can unite us in friendly competition or consume us with the lull of victory
Our nation...can be an ambassador of peace in the world, or can become a social idol where nationalism reigns supreme.
Our food...can feed us or be horded by us.
Our world...can be protected or exploited.

In fact, there is no good gift that God has given that hasn't been melted down and fashioned into a golden calf at sometime or another.  There is nothing that we have held back from those fires.

And so we pray for forgiveness and a forgiving God.  We pray for mercy and the sight to see.  We pray that God wouldn't so much remove those gifts as be present for us, taking us from the temptation to twist what he has given.

The people did this when they saw that Moses was delayed.  When they couldn't stand in faith any longer, then they turned to idols for answers.  May we be confident in God's presence among us in Jesus Christ so that we never have to turn to anything but him, even when our faith is short.

God, forgive me for taking your good gifts and melting them down into something else and calling it my god.  Redeem me from myself and help me worship only you.  Amen.

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.