At that time I said to you, "You 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." You answered me, "What you propose to do is good." So I took the leading men of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them to have authority over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens and as tribal officials. (Deuteronomy 1:9-15)   This past year we talked a bit about deconstruction.  This past year, even these past few years, have been years of pruning, tearing down, being diminished.  Some of you went through that.  Some of you are still there.  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.  The story for the Israelites at the opening of Deuteronomy is not so different.  During their bondage in Egypt, they were in many ways a people diminished, torn down, discouraged.  They lost sight of who they were and whose they were.  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's distress, liberating them from their slavery, the seasons changed.  Though they were in the desert, it was very much a season of reconstruction.  It didn't have to go that way: it could have been a season of drought, despair, and death—that is what the wilderness is all about, after all.  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—reconstruction.  Israel became a people—a nation—with an identity and a purpose in the wilderness. How did that work?  Well, it was actually many little moments of deconstruction and reconstruction.  Our text today is one of them.  After crossing the Red Sea, Moses was the sole commander, official, and judge over the people.  This "institution" carried by one man could not bear the weight of this people, though.  The "institution" broke down.  "How can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?" Moses asks.    Was this a sign of failure?  Not at all.  It was a sign of blessing, actually.  God was fulfilling his promise to multiply his people and to make them numerous!  But with that increase came different opportunities, challenges, and needs.  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.  So a new institution grows up: a new structure for the faith and life of the people.  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.  It's worth noting though, that God worked through both the old and the new form.  He's not bound to one particular institutional manifestation of leadership, church, society, or nation.  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?     

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