Numbers in Numbers

I gotta be honest, that 20 minutes I did today was pretty much making it up as I went along. Last week's readings were not high in the interest department, and hearing me speak on them had to be about as boring as anything you've ever endured. Wait 'til you see me with good material, but take heart--things will start getting better very soon.

I want to emphasize just where we are in the history and what they've done to this point, since I hadn't considered this until someone at my table stated it this morning. As we begin Numbers, we are told we're in the first day of the second month of the second year. You need to think about this for a moment, because this does NOT mean they've been in the desert for two years at this point. No, they're the beginning of the 14th month in the desert--to be in the second year is to have just completed the first. As David pointed out well in his posts, these people are getting ready to move, which is why the different clans of the tribe of Levi are given specific tasks to carry out. The tabernacle that I described two weeks ago was a mobile one, never meant to be a permanent structure, and God is beginning his plans to get the people of Israel into the Promised Land.

We have clans in Trinity today as well, such as the School Ministry clan that handles affairs of the school, the Parish Education Ministry clan that set up this series of classes and  the Buildings and Grounds clan that oversees the care and maintenance of our facilities. As Pastor Vokt described in his sermon today, we have others that tend to the smallest details that are only noticed when they're not undertaken. Only the terminology changes--we're all responsible for some aspect of the care of the church.

Many commentators over the years have said that people leave the church (or any other organization, for that  matter) when they lose their sense of connectivity, and one of the ways Trinity attempts to inspire community is through the opportunity to serve. I've been here when I was just adding to global warming by sitting in the pews and exuding carbon dioxide, and I made a conscious decision about 13 years ago that doing nothing was no longer an acceptable option. Join a clan at Trinity and become  a modern-day Kohathite.

Scott