Joining and Oholiab

Exodus 35:30-36:2

You probably had never heard of Bezalel and Oholiab until Paul read about them in this brief passage from Exodus.

They were ordained by God to prepare the , the place where God’s people would come, leave their fears, frustrations, struggles, and doubts – and they had plenty of them during those forty years of wandering in the wilderness – and reconnect with God. Heal their relationship with Him. Find new peace with Him. Become whole again.

Bezalel and Oholiab, and those who joined with them, provided the sanctuary for bruised and battered and broken souls.

Now, I suppose that our God who created the universe out of almost nothing, could have just snapped His fingers and called the tabernacle into being.

I suppose could have found some Canaanite folks, who had likely already built their own , and paid them to do the job.

But that’s not how God wanted it. He wanted His people to be a part of the process.

Which is why their story is essential on Mission Sunday. God doesn’t want us to sit back and watch as He fixes everything. Nor does He want us to just toss money in the offering plate for our mission causes and leave it at that.

He wants us to DO mission. He wants us to join Bezalel and Oholiab and others in working to build a sanctuary, a place to meet God, for all the bruised and battered and broken souls around us.

And so this morning, as Ellie Johns-Kelley challenged us last week to do, we are going to tell OUR story, the things we DO to build sanctuaries:

Nancy Zane

Joyce Woodrow

Sue Golding

Mary Kay Reynolds

Tracey Urion & Megan Geserick

John Pedicone

Nancy Butler

In closing, I want to complete the story I told the children earlier. Caleb Walker was eighteen when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Doctors at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia told him he had three months to live. He lived eight years. And in that time, he started a foundation that raised funds to help the children, and their parents, he interacted with during his own treatments. His family has continued his work, and so far has helped eighty-four families find a sanctuary.

Interestingly enough, his brother, , is a doctor on staff at Children’s Hospital, treating children who are fighting the same brain cancer Caleb fought.

He and his family took their pain, and used it to build a sanctuary for so many others.

When Moses sent twelve spies to scout out the land of promise, ten came back frightened. The people are giants! We’ll never defeat them! Let’s go back to Egypt!

But two of the ten said: Giants? Yes! But God is on our side and we can defeat them!

The names of the two? Caleb and Joshua.

Yes, there are giants out there. Hunger. Homelessness. Pain. Alienation. Fear. Emptiness. Natural disasters. Prejudice. Oppression.

But we can beat them.

As we DO mission.

A lot of sanctuaries remain to be built. Will you join Bezalel and Oholiab in doing so?

Worship

September 24, 2017

Call: Litany

Assurance: Litany

Children’s Message: Caleb Walker – sick. Saw other children in hospital, and parents – afraid. He raised $$ for them. Paid for medicine, food for families. Why? He did things to show generosity. If a friend is crying, would you give him or her a dollar? Would that help? What helps is being there. So, word for today is generous.

Prayer: Lord God, you gave us this world that we might be good stewards of it. And you gave us the people in it that we might help them find their way back to you. So help us, Lord, do our part to build sanctuaries, ways in which we can fill lives with hope, with peace, with promise, with corsage. Help us to be willing to step out in faith and do the jobs you have ordained us to do. May we never sit on the sidelines; may we always lift up our hearts and spirits and souls that we might change even just one corner of the world. And if we see giants out there, may we not run from them, but run toward the challenge of defeating them. Needs, etc.

LORD’S PRAYER