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At that time I said to you, \u201cYou are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. The Lord your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky. May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised! But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself? Choose some wise, understanding and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will set them over you.\u201d You answered me, \u201cWhat you propose to do is good.\u201d So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you\u2014as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. (Deuteronomy 1:9-15)

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This past year we talked a bit about deconstruction.\xa0 This past year, even these past few years, have been years of pruning, tearing down, being diminished.\xa0 Some of you went through that.\xa0 Some of you are still there.\xa0 But some of you, as we turn the calendar into this new year, are beginning to enter a different head and heart space: one of reconstruction, rebuilding: a season of growth.\xa0

The story for the Israelites at the opening of Deuteronomy is not so different.\xa0 During their bondage in Egypt, they were in many ways a people diminished, torn down, discouraged.\xa0 They lost sight of who they were and whose they were.\xa0 It was a season of deconstruction where the promises seemed to fail and the presence of God seemed absent.

But after God showed up in a big way in response to his people\u2019s distress, liberating them from their slavery, the seasons changed.\xa0 Though they were in the desert, it was very much a season of reconstruction.\xa0 It didn\u2019t have to go that way: it could have been a season of drought, despair, and death\u2014that is what the wilderness is all about, after all.\xa0 But through the surprising work of God to nourish and refresh with manna and water, to give direction and signs of presence through the cloud and fire, and to give structure, identity, and purpose through the covenant, law, and rituals: this season in the land of desolation became a surprising place of encounter, formation, and yes\u2014reconstruction.\xa0 Israel became a people\u2014a nation\u2014with an identity and a purpose in the wilderness.

How did that work?\xa0 Well, it was actually many little moments of deconstruction and reconstruction.\xa0 Our text today is one of them.\xa0 After crossing the Red Sea, Moses was the sole commander, official, and judge over the people.\xa0 This \u201cinstitution\u201d carried by one man could not bear the weight of this people, though.\xa0 The \u201cinstitution\u201d broke down. \xa0\u201cHow can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?\u201d Moses asks.\xa0 \xa0

Was this a sign of failure?\xa0 Not at all.\xa0 It was a sign of blessing, actually.\xa0 God was fulfilling his promise to multiply his people and to make them numerous!\xa0 But with that increase came different opportunities, challenges, and needs.\xa0 Before burning out completely, Moses received the wise intervention of his Father-in-law, Jethro to build something new, give power away, and entrust this people of God to the work of God in the people.\xa0

So a new institution grows up: a new structure for the faith and life of the people.\xa0 The new opportunity and challenge inherent in the pressing problems and their scale led to the deconstruction of one form of institution and leadership and the birth of another as more and more were invited to shoulder the responsibility of the blessing and its challenge.\xa0

It\u2019s worth noting though, that God worked through both the old and the new form.\xa0\xa0He\u2019s not bound to one particular institutional manifestation of leadership, church, society, or nation.\xa0

So as our own situation and culture changes around us: how might God be inviting us to deconstruct and reconstruct faithful and responsible forms of personal devotion, of family life, of church, and of leadership out in the world to support lives of faith and community in our culture today?\xa0 \xa0

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