Involve Me & I Understand: Exodus 25:8-9,22 & John 1:14-17 1
Have you ever heard the quote, “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. But involve me
and I understand.” This quote is so true. Think about the things you care most about or
remember best, likely you got involved in some way and the knowledge became a part of you
and you understood. I remember one of my professors in college wanted the classroom of
future educators to understand the power of involvement. During one of our classes, we
watched a documentary called “Paperclips” about a small middle school in rural Tennessee,
made up of mostly white Christian students. When teachers tried to explain tolerance and
diversity through the history of the Holocaust, the students had a difficult time understanding its
impact, nor could they grasp the enormous number of lives lost. None of them had ever seen 6
million anything. Teachers realized they needed something to show the students rather than just
telling them. Tell me and I forget.
In our scripture today, Moses has already received the 10 commandments and now God is
giving extremely detailed instructions on creating the mobile dwelling for God, the tabernacle.
God tells Moses the list of materials needed and how much, the dimensions of each piece,
where it will be placed within the tabernacle, who is and is not allowed into the different sections
of the tent, and at what time of year. God has literally thought of everything. The materials God
lists are things like, copper, gold, gemstones, the list goes on of really nice things that I don’t
usually think about taking on a trip to the desert. God has been thinking and planning for the
Hebrews, long before this moment. While they were still slaves in Egypt, God told Moses to
have them collect these materials from the Egyptians and bring them along on the journey. God
had a plan from the beginning to take people with no home, no identity, and transform them into
a chosen people and holy nation. These instructions are not just blueprints but a sign that they
now belonged to each other and more importantly they belonged to God.
Up to this point, God was found occasionally appearing on the mountain or at the traveling tent,
in a fixed place, far removed from the people’s everyday lives. This moment signals a new way
that God is choosing to be present with the Hebrews. God wants an ongoing presence with
them. God is now going to move with the people. The Hebrews have been told by Moses the
law from God for how they should live in community with one another, they are able to worship
God freely from within the camp in a place created solely for the purpose of worship, and their
lives are beginning to look much different than when they were slaves to Pharaoh.
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember.
Involve Me & I Understand: Exodus 25:8-9,22 & John 1:14-17 2
Paper clips were worn by Norwegians as a silent protest and symbol of resistance against Nazi
occupation during WWII. Whitwell teachers and students decided to collect 6 million paper clips,
to represent the number of Jews who were killed. They began to send out letters to family,
friends, celebrities, and government leaders for help but they never anticipated what was going
to happen. The paper clips began to come in and with them, letters and stories from people
whose family was impacted by the events of the Holocaust and other letters arrived from
Holocaust survivors themselves. Students now didn’t just have information from a history book,
but stories from real people. Their world was expanding, they were seeing how many real
people had been affected by this horrific event.
It wasn’t enough for God to dwell with humankind in a mobile tent or in a fixed place of worship,
God moved even closer when he came to the world as flesh and bones through Jesus. In the
Message translation of the New Testament reading today, it says “The Word became flesh and
blood and moved into our neighborhood.” The Word, Jesus, became a part of the community.
God is not only telling but is now showing creation how to live as children of God. Through
Jesus God showed humanity the expansive love God has not just for specific people but for all.
Jesus showed love to the poor, the outcast, widows, children showing us that there is no one
out of reach of God’s love. God’s love involves everyone. Jesus turned the world upside down
with his teachings and way of existing in the world. He transformed lives and communities
because of his love, grace, and mercy.
If we move back a few verses in John 1 we hear that “In the beginning was the Word and the
Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning,
everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being.”
(John 1:1-3) John tells us that Jesus has been in existence and a part of God’s plan from the
beginning, even before he became flesh and dwelt among creation. God knew that humankind
was going to need to be shown a different way of being in the world and it was now time for
God to involve people.
Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.
Throughout the “Paperclip Project,” students were transformed. The students decided they
wanted to involve others, beyond their school and local community. They made a museum
using an authentic German railcar that had once transported many Jews to concentration
camps. They filled the railcar with letters from those who sent back paper clips, information the
students learned, and 11 million paper clips, (6 million for the number of Jews killed and 5
Involve Me & I Understand: Exodus 25:8-9,22 & John 1:14-17 3
million for other victims of the Holocaust). I had a chance to visit Whitwell Middle School and
walk through the museum where the power of involvement really became clear.
First Corinthians 3:16 and 17 says that the church community, as a whole, is the holy place
where God’s presence dwells. God is present in and among us. God wants us involved! God
has been involved in the lives of this congregation for almost 200 years and I am certain that as
long as the members of DPC continue to seek God, this church will continue to be a part of
transforming the community for the better.
I invite you to get involved and if you are already involved extend an invitation of involvement
to someone else. Imagine the power of our intergenerational church, working together, to build a
more beloved community. Imagine what God can do with the hope of children, the energy of
youth, the courage of adults, and the wisdom of seniors. Surround yourself with others who
have different experiences and bring different gifts to the table. Inspire one another and listen to
the voice of the Holy Spirit in others. Get involved here at DPC and in your community. When
we get involved in one another’s lives, we are saying that our life together as God’s children is
more important than who is right or what is comfortable for me. This can feel intimate and scary
but it is also invaluable and transformative.
God has always been in the business of transformation with humankind. Transformation that is
thoughtful, creative, and imaginative. God took a formless void and made the heavens and the
earth. Reaching down into the dust, God formed and breathed life into the first human. God
gathered up a lonely, scared group of Hebrew slaves and formed them into God’s chosen
people, a holy nation. God used a young, unwed girl to become the mother to the Savior of the
world.
Thinking about transformation of the world or even our country might feel overwhelming, just
start where God has placed you right now: your job, school, family, on the soccer field, grocery
store, the MARTA station, wherever you are. Trusting that like the Hebrews, God has been
thinking and planning for you and this church community and has a plan. Trusting in a God who
cares so much for us They wanted to get involved in our lives and us to be involved in the
Kin-dom work.
You have been invited to be involved in God’s work on Earth, so what’s next?
Involve Me & I Understand: Exodus 25:8-9,22 & John 1:14-17
