If You Can’t Be With the Wood You Love (Lathe The Wood You’re With)

       In the northern Sinai desert, beyond the richly productive region of El Arish, is an area of huge sand dunes.  These dunes move with the prevailing winds.  At times they actually bury the road.  Several times on our trip through that area, the road had been reduced to a single lane or less by the encroaching sand.  Our guide told us that the Egyptian government maintains plows to push back the sand – just like we push back snow in the Sierras.

       The only thing we saw moving in this desolate region were Bedouins and their camels.  There would be a patch of small brush in a sheltered area and, occasionally we would also see a bright green tree rising above the sand.  This tree, Hassan told us, is the acacia.

       The acacia tree is able to survive in this hostile environment and even flourish.  They are hardy, require little water and are extremely resistant to insect damage.

As the people of Israel traveled through the Sinai Peninsula on their way to Mt. Sinai after the exodus from Egypt , the acacia becomes a very familiar and very welcome sight.  The leaves and the fruit of the tree are suitable food for animals.  The astringent bark is useful for tanning leather.

       But it is at Mt. Sinai itself that the Acacia became especially significant for Israel .  There, God gives very precise instructions for the building of the Ark of the Covenant which was to hold the tablets of the law.  God goes into considerable detail with Moses about how His Ark is to be designed and constructed.  One of the instructions God gives is that the ark and the poles used to carry the ark are to be constructed from the wood of the acacia tree.

       There are a number of possible reasons for this choice.  Acacia wood is hard and can receive a high polish – although that would not be especially important as the ark and the poles were to be covered with gold.  It is also durable.  But there are other woods such as the cedar which are more beautiful and more durable.

       So why does God choose the acacia as the wood for His Ark – the sign of His presence with the people of Israel ?

       He chose it because it was the wood that is available.

       No other tree grows in the desert.  Acacia wood is also chosen for the building of the table for the bread of the Passover and for the long boards used in the construction of the Tabernacle.

There was nothing that special about acacia.  It was chosen for a holy purpose simply because it was there and it was available.

       There is a lesson for us today the choice of the acacia and the reasons for the choice.  God says:  “If you can’t be with the wood you love, lathe the wood you’re with.”  I know that’s a terrible pun on the Stephen Stills song, but you’ll remember it.

       God is able to take the material that lies at hand and make it holy – just like He took a non-descript bush on a mountain side, set it afire, and used it as the place where He spoke to Moses and set in motion the freeing of His people.

       As the people of God, we are also called to make holy those things that lie close to our hand – to make the most of the opportunities we are given each day.

       What this means first of all, is this.  As a Christian, you don’t need to go out and hunt for a holy vocation – some sort of particularly “Christian employment.”  You are, instead, to seek to make your present vocation “holy” – to make the place where you work an avenue of Christian conduct, concern and compassion for co-workers, customers and employers.  We have an adult class going on right now to help you do this.

       All Christian vocation is the same.  The word vocation means calling and there is only one calling we have as Christians – to belong to Jesus Christ and to demonstrate His reconciling love in the world.  As Christians our vocation is the same.  It is only our location that is different.

       In Elmer Bendiner’s book, The Fall of Fortresses, he describes one WWII bombing run over the German city of Kassel .  “Our B-17, the Tondelayo, was barraged by flack from Nazi antiaircraft guns.  That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion our gas tanks were hit.  Later, as I reflected on the miracle of a twenty-millimeter shell piercing the fuel tank without touching off an explosion, our pilot, Bohn Fawkes, told me it was not quite that simple.

       On the morning following the raid, Bohn had gone down to ask the crew chief for that shell as a souvenir of unbelievable luck.  The crew chief told Bohn that not just one shell but eleven had been found in the gas tanks – eleven unexploded shells were only one was sufficient to blast us out of the sky.  It was as if the sea had been parted for us.  Even now after thirty-five years, so awesome an event leaves me shaken – especially after I heard the rest of the story from Bohn.

       He was told that the shells had been sent to the armorers to be defused.  The armorers told him that intelligence had picked them up.  They could not say why at the time, but Bohn eventually sought the answer.  Apparently when the armorers opened each of those shells they found no explosive charge.  They were clean as a whistle and just as harmless.  Empty?  Not all of them.  One contains a carefully rolled piece of paper.  On it was a scrawl in Czech.   The intelligence people scoured our base for a man who could read Czech.   Eventually they found one to decipher the note.  It set us marveling.  Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.”

       Those Czech slave laborers in the Nazi armaments industry seemed to be in a hopeless situation – a situation where they could do nothing toward the freeing of their country.  But they took the opportunity at hand – not knowing what the outcome would be – and made the most of it.  They made a difference.

       In just two weeks we will begin our Lenten sermon and small group series on How to Know and Do the Will of God.  I am excited about this series and what we will discuss and learn.  One of the most important things to learn is that God expects us to start – not where we would like to be – but where we are.

        In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells the parable we call the parable of the talents.  The operating principle of the Kingdom of God which Jesus sets out in this parable is that “The one who is faithful with a few things will be put in charge of many things.  The one who is not faithful with the few things will have even those few things taken away from him.”  Jesus says,        “For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have will be taken away.”

       A number of times I have heard people say, “If only God would give me an opportunity, I would do great things for Him.”  But God does give us opportunities every day and what we will be given to do in the future is determined by what we do with what is at hand in the present.  There is no reason to think that you would be effective as a missionary overseas if you are not now effective as a missionary in your office.  There is no reason to think that you would be an effective counselor if you have lost communication with your family.  There is no reason to think that God should entrust you with the stewardship of a large fortune if you don’t demonstrate good stewardship of what you have now.  So often, in seeking the “great thing” to do for God, the church, or our fellow people, we forget that our qualifications is how we now perform the more personal matters that are close at hand.

       It may be that there are some here this morning – and I would be very surprised if there were not – who are living with “if only” in parts of their life – “if only I had a better job” – if only my husband, wife, children, whomever, would do this that or the other thing.  “If only, if only, if only.”

       Here’s a lesson from the acacia tree.  If you are stuck out in a desert remember that God can still build His Ark and His tabernacle from the materials at hand.  And He can do the same in your life – if only – if only you are willing to seek His will and demonstrate His love not in what “ought to be” but what is.  Even if you are in a desert, make the very most of the desert you are in and God promises that He will lead you to fertile country.  For the one who is faithful in a few things will be put in charge of many things.