In the Footsteps of Bezalel, Part 1

This post and the ones following are from a sermon I preached last Sunday.

I want to start today by telling you about an experience I have had over the last three years, but in order for it to make sense, I have to share a few things about myself.  I love to teach – I hope it is a skill I have, or maybe even a spiritual gift. When I take a Spiritual Gift Inventory, it always rises high to the top of the list.  I remember as a kid I always loved to pretend I was teaching school. I had a big chalk board at home, and I would teach dolls how to do math.  But – best of all – was when I could go to school with Mom.  She was a school teacher, and I would go with her to her school the week before my school started and the week after I finished – she had those two weeks when she had to be at her school to prepare for or finish the year.  My favorite thing to do was to write on her chalk board.  Teaching – I love it.  Or maybe I just love writing on chalk boards, but I think its teaching.  

I also love to study. I love to take classes; I enjoyed school.  I love learning new things.  I love teaching new things, and watching people understand them.

In late 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, the laity team and the district directors of lay servant ministry in the conference were trying to solve an problem.  There were people in our Conference who wanted to become Certified Lay Ministers, but there wasn’t an organized way to do that in our conference.  It’s a long process that involves general church curriculum, classes, books to read – it’s not a simple thing to offer.  Some districts had had classes – it takes almost a year to go through all of the classes – but most districts didn’t have enough people to form a class, or the staff to teach them.   So, I said that I would organize a Conference CLM Class.

God must have been very annoyed at me when, after agreeing to organize this program, I procrastinated for months.  Months.  Months in which I argued with myself about how much I didn’t want to do it.  I would find someone else to do it. Yes, I love teaching. Yes, I love studying, but I didn’t want to do this.  It would take too much time; it would be too much trouble. How could I do it when people couldn’t meet together?  I lost sleep.  I argued with God.  And God kept nagging.

And then, I had procrastinated long enough that I had to do it myself – it was too late to ask anyone else to do it.  And I wasn’t wrong – it did take a lot of time.  I had to read a bunch of books just to build the curriculum, and then two or three books a month to stay ahead of the class. It meant monthly Zoom meetings, and multiple recordings to post on Portico.  Especially that first year, it was a ton of work.  

Hear these words about a man named Bezalel in Exodus 31: 1-11.  

The LORD spoke to Moses,  “See, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with a divine spirit,[a] with ability, intelligence, and knowledge, and every kind of skill, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every kind of craft. Moreover, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you:  the tent of meeting, and the ark of the covenant, and the cover that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent, the table and its utensils, and the pure lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the basin with its stand, and the finely worked vestments, the holy vestments for the priest Aaron and the vestments of his sons, for their service as priests,  and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the holy place. They shall do just as I have commanded you.”

Think about what Bezalel and those who worked with him did.  They built the tabernacle – or the tent of the congregation – a portable construction that was the place where Yahweh met with the Israelites.  This is where the people were closest to God.  The builders created the ark that housed the tablets on which were carved what we call the 10 Commandments and the altar upon which sacrifices were made.  The passage tells us that God said, “I have filled him with a divine spirit, with ability, intelligence, and knowledge, and every kind of skill, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every kind of craft.”

God prepared Bezalel with knowledge and skills, and then called him to do this work.  The result is that God and God’s people were brought closer together – as close as could be managed. Bezalel built one of those thin spaces we talk about, where we experience God’s presence in a way that the distance between us is made small and the walls between us are carved away.  Bezalel and his co-workers used their gifts to do God’s work, and the people knew God better. I wonder how that made Bezalel feel?  How his faith was strengthened by it.

I know what happened to me.  I taught the Conference CLM Class, and I continue to teach it. We’re on our third cohort of students.  It has been a lot of work, but my faith has been strengthened by the devotion and faith of my students.  I have learned so much from them.  I am so blessed to know them and to see them do the work they are called to do – in churches, in senior centers, in prisons, with children and the elderly. God has called them, equipped them, and they have gone forth and done God’s work - with a lot less procrastination than me.  I’m so grateful that God nagged me into doing this, because it has been, and continues to be a blessing.