God: Lover of the Excuse Makers

"Moses answered: "What if they do not believe me or listen to me or say 'The LORD did not appear to him?"  Exodus 4:1

God:  Lover of the Excuse Makers!
By Rev. William Dohle

God has a strange sense of humor sometimes!

You spend so many of your younger years making excuses for things.  Why your homework didn't get done.  Why you CAN'T do the dishes right now.  Why your bedroom will always stay a mess.

Then you grow up, get married, and have kids and...THEY start making excuses!

Little things at first, just like you did.  "I didn't hear you..." they say when you've asked them countless times to do something.  "I forgot to bring home my book..."when a certain assignment is due.  "I didn't know I had to..." they say when you ask them again, for the umpteenth time to finish their chores.

Ahh, yes.  God has a righteous sense of humor!  The excuses we give...come right back to haunt us later in life!

God should know too because God's chief prophet.  His messenger to Pharaoh.  His right-hand man.  The only person to ever have seen God face to face.  The author of five books of the Bible.  Moses.  Moses was...above all things...the king of excuses.

Don't believe me?  Just read chapter 3 and 4 of Exodus.  Then you'll see what I mean.

It begins with a simple question.  "Who am I?" Moses says.  The excuse?  I'm a nobody.  Choose someone else.

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.   "What's your name?  I don't even know your name, God!"  The excuse?  Not enough information.

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.  "What if they don't believe me?"  The excuse?  My friends!  Peer pressure!

Then Moses thinks up another excuse.  "I just can't talk." The excuse?  It's just too hard!

Four times Moses offers God one excuse after another and each and every time God shoots his excuses down.  Talk about persistent!  I wonder sometimes if I chased after people as God chased after Moses, could I overcome their excuses?

But God does... in a way.  Moses does lead Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness.  True...Moses complains the whole way.  He really gives God a hard time...but he does it!  Excuses and all!

We laugh at Moses, but frankly we're really no different.  We too are excuse-makers.  We are like little children to God.  And the number of excuses we offer God is staggering!  Numbering in the thousands!  And what does God do with our excuses?  Take them?  Of course not!  God leaves our excuses and keeps pressing.

We say to God... "We don't know who you are..." And God surrounds us with creation and gives us Scripture and the Church to teach us about his grace.
We say to God... "We don't have time..." And God makes time for us, sometimes in the most inopportune moments, to call upon him.
We say to God... "We can't do it.  We just don't know how."  And God gives us gifts of the Spirit and a community to teach us how to use them.
We say to God... "What if we fail?'  And God gives us forgiveness in His Son, Jesus, that overcomes all our failings.

God doesn't take our excuses.  He never has.  And He never will.  And, though we may give excuses to the world, to his church, to our families, and to everyone else, God still remains close to us.  Close enough for us to touch.  Always ready to break open our excuses with his grace and lead us into service.

Heavenly Father, Moses was the king of excuses...and I am his prince.  Help me to put aside my excuses and trust you, no matter where you should lead.  Amen. 

God of the Ordinary

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." 1 Cor. 1:27-29

God of the Ordinary
By Rev. William Dohle

Like many families, my family has two sets of dishes.

We have the dishes we use every day.  Those we dirty on ordinary occasions.  Dinner, lunch, etc.  These dishes all go in the dishwasher to be washed and then thrown in the cupboard.

Then there are the special dishes.  The china.  These dishes only come out at special occasions, like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they DON'T go in the dishwasher.

The ordainary dishes have normal wear and tear on them.  They're stained in some places.  They're scratched.  We've even broken a few pieces of the ordinary dishes.

But the china... Now that's a different story.  Because they're stamped on the bottom, we are extra extra careful with the china.  Nothing(and I do mean nothing) stains the china.  It's all very special you see.

Now... here's a question for you.  If God was going to use dishes... which ones would he choose??
Would he choose the dishes that are used every day.  The ones with scratches and stains on them.  The ones thrown about in the dishwasher?

Or...  would he use the china?  The special dishes.  The ones that we set aside as a little holier than the other dishes?

You might think that God would use the holy dishes.  Since God is...well... holy!  But if you did you'd be wrong.  Very wrong.  You see God loves ordinary things.  He resides in ordinary things.  He uses ordinary things.  God is just an ordinary thing sorta God.

Take God's first face-to-face encounter with Moses for instance.  Instead of speaking to Moses from one of the great cedars of Lebanon(one of the holiest trees in all the Middle East!).  Instead of speaking to him from a cloud or a pillar of fire...God speaks to Moses through a bush.  A SHRUB in Hebrew.

Now you might think:  Come on... This shrub is pretty important, isn't it??

Well... no its not.  It's just a shrub.  One of many, many thousand you would see growing all around the area.  God doesn't choose a special tree.  He chooses an ordinary shrub.

Even Moses doesn't get it at first.  The Bible tells us, "Moses saw that the though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up.  So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up."(Ex. 3:2-3)  Moses walks up to the shrub to see this freak of nature.  To him it's nothing special.  Nothing holy.  It's just a strange bush!

Moses walks up to the thing, but still doesn't get it!  God calls him, "Moses!  Moses!" from within the bush.  (Notice, it's from WITHIN the bush, and not from some voice in heaven.).  Moses still doesn't get it.

"Here I am." He says.

Finally, God tells him, "Do not come any closer.  Take off your sandals, for the place you are standing is holy ground."

Without these words from God, Moses wouldn't have had a clue who was talking to him or why!  And, catch this, the Bible never tells us whether Moses obeyed!  It never says he took off his sandals or anything!

Now, why would Moses have this reaction?  Because... Moses was expecting a God of the Holy and God is a God of the Ordinary.  God works in ordinary ways, transforming ordinary things into extraordinary.

We see it's true for Moses here... and we see it's true elsewhere.

God changes ordinary people...into HIS ordinary people.
God changes ordinary bread and birds...into manna and meat from heaven!
Later with Jesus God makes an ordinary manger...into the cradle of a king.
God changes ordinary water...into baptismal water!
He molds ordinary bread and wine...into the body and blood of Christ!

In fact, if you think about it, God doesn't use very many things that start holy.  He likes to infuse his own holiness into them and through that holiness, make the ordinary, extra-extra ordinary!  He does it for things.  And he does it for people.  Our God is a God of the Ordinary!

So... ordinary people... if God can speak out of a shrub...what could he possibly make of you?

Almighty Lord, you spoke out of a shrub to call your servant, Moses.  Use us as your shrubs in the world, calling the world to behold your presence here, in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

"You Remind Me Of..."

"God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."  Exodus 2:24-25

"You Remind Me Of...."
By Rev. William Dohle

My wife and I have a little game we play around our children.  We call it: "Tell me where that comes from..."

We play it whenever our kids do...well pretty much anything.  Jenny will say something like:

"That's SO you!"

Or

"He gets that from your side of the family."

Or

"He or she reminds me of you when they do that!"

I'm sure other families play that game too, but we've taken it to an art.  Everything, and I do mean everything, connects back to someone else in our family.

William's growing stature... "Your father is pretty tall..."
Matthew's red hair... "My grandmother used to have red hair..."
Lynne's personality... "She reminds me so much of your mother!"

Maybe it's good.  It shows that we're all connected to each other.  Maybe it's how we "prove" to each other that our kids really are...our kids!  In any case, our kids remind us of our family which remind us of our kids.  It's a gigantic game of memory!

God played such a game in this passage from Exodus.  The people of Israel, once at home in Egypt, had been enslaved and their cries rose up to God.  Now, God had a choice of what to do here.

God could have ignored them.  He hadn't really spoken to any of them for quite some time.
God could have told them it was their fault.  It was Jacob who led his people into Egypt in the first place.
Or... God could act.

And act God did.  God acted too, not because he had a soft spot in his heart for Israelites, but because, according to Exodus: "...he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob."  In other words... the Israelites REMINDED God of the promises he had made with their forefathers and it was because of the patriarchs that God was concerned about them.

You know, too often we feel that we should stand on our own.  "Judge me," we say.  "By my own actions, not the actions of my family!"  We want to be so individual.  So distinct.  And yet...even with all our independence, we are still products of our families!  They raised us.  They nurtured us.  They may have made mistakes...but we are forever connected to them.  Their memory lives on within us.

God remembers us too, not because we are so important or special on our own, but really all because of Jesus!  It is Jesus and the promises made to us through Jesus that God acts in our lives.  He sends his Spirit...because Jesus promised it.  He forgives our sins...because Jesus promised they would be forgiven.

Just as the Israelites were remembered because of the promises God made with and through the patriarchs, we too are remembered because of the promises God makes through Jesus Christ.  It is Jesus who sparks God's memory.

So...the next time you look at your children or your grandchildren and think about someone they're related to...remember how you, child of God, are remembered because of Jesus.  And every time God looks at you...he remembers the promises he made through him!

Oh the promises you have made through Jesus Christ.  Remember me because of him.  When you look at me, God, may you see Jesus!  Amen. 

Just Like Moses?

"Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"  Numbers 12:8b

Just like Moses??
By Rev. William Dohle

A few years ago, a gentleman in the congregation I was serving asked me to have dinner with him.  He was a little upset.  Having served the congregation as their president for some years, he had a few things to share with me.

We met at a diner just down the street.  After a bit of small talk, he looked at me and said: "Pastor...I need you to be more of a leader!"

"Really?"  I said.  "What do you mean?"

"I mean... I need you to be a leader.  Like Moses."

"You want me to be like Moses?" I asked him, a bit puzzled.

"Yeah.  I need a pastor who's like Moses."

I listened to him as he described his own version of a strong leader.  A leader who is brave like Moses.  A leader who stands up in front of people.  A leader who's able to bring his people into a sort of promised land.

As we parted company, I realized something.  My friend really didn't know anything about Moses.

Why?  What gave me that impression?

Well, because if you really knew Moses, you would never want a pastor who was like him.  Never!

Moses wasn't your model leader.

First of all... he starts out on the wrong foot.  He starts out a murderer.  After his miraculous rescue from the river and his raising in Pharaoh's own palace, the next thing Moses ends up doing is murdering a fellow Egyptian!

"One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor.  He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.  Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand."(Ex. 2:11-12)

Now, you might be thinking: "Boy, pastor, it seems like Moses was just defending his friend's life." and it does seem that way to our 21st century eyes...only listen to what his own people say.

"The next day, Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting.  He asked the one in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?"  The man said, "Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptians. "  Then Moses was afraid..."

So...you see...Moses knew he had done wrong.  Moses knew what he had become.  Moses had become a murderer!

The next thing Moses does too is flee Pharaoh who tries to do what any rightful ruler would do: punish Moses for what he did!  So...in addition to this indiscretion... Moses also becomes a fugitive outlaw!

Murderer... Outlaw... Fugitive!  Is this the sort of man you would want as YOUR pastor??

I'm sure that many churches would dismiss a candidate right from the start if it were known they were a murderer.  Even if they claimed it was in defense of someone else.  The law is the law!  Not to mention, Moses too didn't even stay put to be put on trial.  Moses ran.  A Murderer...and an outlaw!  What sort of leader is this?!

But it's just the sort of leader God can take.  You see, God isn't put off by our sins and past transgressions.  God isn't scared away by our past.  In fact...he seems attracted to it!  The people God works with are losers, right from the start.  They have nothing going for them.  And they shouldn't be leaders.  Not from the world's standing.

But God is able to raise up such leaders and choose foolishness over the wisdom of the world.  God doesn't give up on Moses.  Not for a second.  God follows him from Egypt to Moab where Moses meets his wife.  God stays with him as Moses discovers a new life there.  And God calls Moses out of that life, back to the Egypt he had fled as a murderer to lead his people to the Promised Land.

That's what God can do...with a fugitive murderer like Moses!

Imagine what God can do with you?!  Imagine what God can do with all your flaws and foibles.  Imagine what God can do with you, weak and frail and foolish as you are.  Imagine what power can come out of your weakness.

So...if that's the kind of leader that's wanted.  The kind who is deeply flawed and yet forgiven, sinful but redeemed.  Whose only hope is the Lord!  Then I am like Moses!  And so are you!

God of the murderer Moses, you chose the weak things of this world and the things that are not to shame the things that are.  Choose us, frail though we be, that we might be instruments of your grace, through Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Well... I Never!

"For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose."  Romans 8:28

Well... I Never!
By Rev. William Dohle

Life... is a wild journey!  Life has a way of working out in the end.  Never in the way we think it should and never in the way we expect.  It might start out looking bad...terrible even...but God has a way of turning it all for good...in the strangest ways.

It almost seems sometimes that God has a wacky sense of humor!

My life I've certainly seen that to be true.

• In Seminary, we stayed at a motel on our way home...just a few miles away from where we'd eventually live for 5 years.  Never once did I look south and think: "I want to live there..."
• I visited Montana when I was kid, drove up through Yellowstone park and everything.  I remember standing outside the gate...never knowing that I'd live there five years as well.
• I flew into the Chicago airport going to a conference in college.  I flew over prairies...never knowing that I'd be living south of there in Peoria some years later.

God just has some strange sense of humor.

Moses proves that true as well.  Moses' mother, I imagine, never realized that placing her child in the reed ark would save her child for the future.  She expected to never see him again.  She expected him to die.  And casting him on the waters isn't the bravest way to see your baby off.

She did it in faith.  Never realizing what would happen to him from there.  Never imagining that Pharaoh's daughter would rescue the baby from the reeds.

But there's more.  The irony doesn't stop there!  Pharaoh's daughter, seeing Moses was just an infant and would need a nursing mother, called, of all people, Moses' sister forward.

"Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”
“Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him.

Did you hear the irony of it?  Could you sense God's chuckle?  Here Moses' mother was, expecting to lose her baby boy, and she ends up being asked to care for him.  And even more than that!  For being a mother to Moses, she's paid for her work!

Talk about crazy...and ironic!  Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined it would turn out that way.  She expected a curse...but received a blessing.  She expected death...and received life!  She expected bad...but God works for good, and good God was doing.  And that good included giving Moses back to his mother in a way that no one could have ever expected or anticipated!

God works in your life the very same surprising way!  God is constantly turning our sorrow into joy, your tears into laughter, your death into life.  It happens when an unexpected baby turns into the greatest blessing of the family.  Or when being laid off at one place leads us to a better job.  Or when even a death in the family brings peace.

These times happen often but can only be recognized in retrospect.  At the time of stress, we can't see past our noses.  We can't see the good being prepared for us.  We wait, nervous and confused and frustrated and lost.  We think life has no meaning.  And then the marvelous new beginning unfolds before us.  God's gift of the good appears.  And our eyes are open to a whole new reality.  A place where God is present for us, in Jesus Christ.  A whole new adventure.  God turns our tears into cries of joy, and our sorrow into laughter.  And He does it all in Jesus Christ our Lord!

God give us the faith to wait for that marvelous new beginning and the eyes to see and recognize it when it appears before us.  Amen.

God's Extraordinary Grace

"Salvation belongs to the Lord."  Psalm 3:8

God's Extraordinary Grace!
By Rev. William Dohle

If someone was to walk up to you and ask: "Are you saved?" What would you think they meant?  Would you think they meant...
A:  Are you safe?  Are you free from danger?
B:  Are you protected from your enemies?
C:  Are you going to heaven when you die?

I would imagine most of us would assume that, whomever is asking us "Are you saved?" is really asking us "Are you sure you're going to heaven when you die?"

Salvation in normal Christian-speak is another way of speaking of the after-life.  It's after death that salvation is given.  Salvation doesn't apply to now.  It's not from our enemies that we are saved, unless our enemy is the devil. It's not from danger that we are saved...unless it's the danger of going to hell.

But when most of Scripture speaks of salvation, it's speaking of a real event taking place in the present.  Now...God is saving us.  Now...God has given us his salvation.  When the Bible speaks of salvation...it's a present reality.

Take the salvation God gave baby Moses.  Moses, born of a Levite mother and a Levite father, both Hebrews, should have been killed when all the other Hebrew baby boys were being killed.  But Moses' mother, loving him, decided to save Moses.  Moses' mother built for him an ark(yes, it's the same word that's used for the famous ark Noah builds too!).  Moses builds him an ark and sets him a float, hoping beyond hope, that someone else will find her little baby boy.

Moses' mother takes a leap of faith!  And that faith pays off.

Because God ordained to save little Moses...and Pharaoh's daughter just happened to be playing in the reeds when Moses' ark comes floating by, salvation is given to Moses.  Salvation from danger and death.  Salvation from Pharaoh's hand.  Salvation in all of it's glory.

Is this the salvation that we speak of most Sundays?  No.  Is it the salvation so often questioned by well-meaning Christians?  No.  Does it involve heaven and eternity, with bright lights and all the rest?  No.  But is it salvation nevertheless.  Absolutely!

You see, we seem to forget sometimes that God is alive and among us TODAY working his salvation TODAY in the lives of others. Salvation isn't just about heaven.  That's a piece of it sure, but there is more.  Far more actually.  When the Bible speaks of salvation, it's not thinking of the afterlife.  It's thinking of the here and now.  Salvation is God's saving act here among us today.

This salvation takes on a variety of different forms.  Everything from...
Salvation from disease, when the doctors find and remove the cancer.
To salvation from our enemies... when bullies are caught and dealt with.
To salvation from poverty...when work is found for us and our families.

Salvation comes in the form of others.  A simple handshake.  A hug on Sunday morning.  A kind word spoken by a stranger.  All of these can be saving acts by God in our lives.

I heard a story once of a man who had suffered from depression.  He had planned on committing suicide one day and had said his goodbyes.  That was, until another individual spoke kindness into his life.  A few simple words of grace.  Some kind words shared by a neighbor.  That was all it took to save that man's life.  He didn't commit suicide.  He got help.  And it was all thanks to the salvation God gave him, not at death, but here in this life.

So, open your eyes.  Keep an open mind.  God will save us when we die...that is true.  But God's salvation is much larger than just death.  It's not just about heaven, my friends.  It's about life.  Life everlasting that starts today with God's ordinary saving actions in our lives.

God, your salvation in Jesus Christ is for today and for eternity.  Help me live today saved and freed by Christ, freed to love and serve my neighbor.  Amen.

When Disobedience is Commended

"The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live...So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous.  And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own."  Exodus 1:17, 20-21

When Disobedience is Commended
By Rev. William Dohle

The law is good...or so we are taught.

From the time I was a little kid I was taught: "Obey the law...or else!"  Obey the law, do what the police say and what your government tells you, or face the consequences.

This fear, implanted in me since I was a child, has kept me driving the speed limit(for fear of the police lights behind me.).  It's kept me paying for things(for fear of being caught stealing).  It's kept my hands to myself(for fear of retribution from others).

All of these are good things to do.  Good things required by the law.

But what happens when the law requires you to go against your conscience?  What happens when you are faced with a decision like the midwives were in Pharaoh's day?  When you must choose between obeying the law and doing what is right?  What do you do then?

The Israelite midwives are faced with a tough decision.  On the one hand they are told, by Pharaoh, "When you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live."

Since these words come from the mouth of the god's emissary on earth(also known as Pharaoh), these words are LAW!

They can choose to obey the law...Or...they can choose to fear God and let the babies live.  These women choose the second option.  They fear God, allowing the babies in their care to live.

But then they go the next step.  When asked why this happened...they lie!  They say: "Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive."

Ironically, God doesn't punish them for lying.  He doesn't even mention the lie.  Instead, God is kind to the midwives and gives them families of their own.  All because they stood up against the law of Pharaoh and stood up for what is right.

In our day and age, we are faced with all kinds of issues.  Abortion and marriage equality, taxes and health care all fill the airwaves, especially during this time before an election.  As important as these issues are, though, most of them do not directly affect us.  Our opinions concern what OTHERS do...not what we do ourselves.  We may feel strongly one way or another, but either way our opinion is an easy one to keep.  We are breaking no law thinking this or that.  And most of the issues themselves do not directly affect us, so we can think or say anything we want to.  We may picket an abortion clinic, knowing full well we will never have to face the decision the young women are facing entering there.  We may stand up for or against marriage equality, knowing again that that issue has no personal bearing in our lives.

But when the issue and what we think of it does affect us and when our loving action goes against the law...that's when we join the ranks of the brave Egyptian midwives.  When we stand up against a group like the Nazis and hide Jews away in our home, despite what the law and the police tell us to do, we join their ranks.  When we stand up against segregation and sit where we're not suppose to on a bus full of white people...we join their cause.

For these brave women didn't care if the law said this or that.  They knew what was right and just.  And they acted accordingly.  They knew that they could be put to death for what they did, but their respect for God was greater than their respect for their Pharaoh.  And God blessed them for it.

If the law ever requires you to treat anyone with disrespect or unkindness or if the law ever tells you to love one person over another, stand up for what is right!  Fear God.  Do what God requires and commands...even if it means standing up against a human law.  For, in the end, you will be blessed just as the midwives were blessed for what they did.

Almighty God, king of the Universe, give us courage to stand up for what is right, no matter the cost to ourselves.  Give us strength to be a voice to the voiceless, even if it costs us everything.  Give us your Spirit, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.