So all the work on the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, was completed. The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses. – Exodus 39:32

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 27, 2012): Exodus 39

Back when I was a student in Junior High School, my class was assigned a project. The idea was that the class would visit an old Fort that had been preserved from the nineteenth century. It would take us about ninety minutes each way (three hours on a school bus) but I anxiously looked forward to the outing. And while we were there exploring the fort, we would take pictures and measurements of everything so that when we returned to the school we would be able to rebuild a model of the fort. Actually, the teachers plan was ingenious. While we thought we were having fun exploring a fort, we were actually learning about life in the old west. While we thought we were building a scale model of a fort, we were actually learning about life in the days of our great-great grandparents – as well as a hands-on lesson about the use of saws and other woodworking tools. We had fallen squarely into the plot of our teacher. We would have fun, but we would also learn some important lessons.

The work on the Tabernacle was finished. It probably took them just under six months to get the job done. There was a lot of hard work that had gone into the venture. But the project was not really about building a sacred house. What the workers did not know was that everything that they were doing was really about building a nation. In the process of building the sacred house, the former slaves of Egypt began to understand how much they could accomplish when they committed to work together – and they had the opportunity to learn about the God who had taken them out of slavery.

When we resist community, when we refuse the opportunity to volunteer together at some task, we are the real losers. Our lack of involvement is the real reason why some of us have stopped growing and understanding the world in which we live – as well as the God who created it. When we expect to be served, rather than look for opportunities to serve, we remove one of the avenues that God has to shape us – and make us into the people, and the masterpiece, that God has always intended us to be. When we are involved in project in the middle of community, there is no end to the things that we can learn, both about each other and about God.

There is nothing new about any of this, and maybe that is the most important lesson my teacher taught me as I took measurements and pictures of an old fort – that when we accomplish things together, there is more to it than just the project that we are trying to accomplish.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 40

Personal Note: Happy 53^rd Anniversary to my Mom and Dad.