March 21,2021, 2 Kings 22:14-20 Post 2

Posted on by
Reply

You can find this week’s Scripture passage at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kings+22%3A14-20&version=NRSV

VI.
First, let’s reread this week’s Scripture in 2 Kings 22:14-20.

Now let’s take a few minutes to read some of 2 Kings 23 and notice what happens when King Josiah’s delegation returns from Huldah.

How seriously did Josiah take what had been read to him from the “the book of the covenant” and what Huldah had told his delegation?

Then the king directed that all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem should be gathered to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him went all the people of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. The king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. All the people joined in the covenant. (2 Kings 23:1-3)

I get the impression he took it very seriously and wanted “all the elders … the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both great and small…” to join in the covenant he was making with God.

And it seems to be taking hold of everyone, “All the people joined in the covenant.”

Next, he adds some actions to his words .

The king commanded the high priest Hilkiah, the priests of the second order, and the guardians of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He deposed the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who made offerings to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations, and all the host of the heavens. (2 Kings 23:4-5)

He institutes a “cleansing of the Temple” which includes not just the vessels in the Temple but also any “idolatrous priests” in the land that do not hold to the covenant.
Then there is the return to the celebration of the passover,

The king commanded all the people, “Keep the passover to the Lord your God as prescribed in this book of the covenant.” No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, even during all the days of the kings of Israel and of the kings of Judah; but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:21-23)

And just so we don’t miss anything, the writer of 2 Kings summarizes all this .

Moreover Josiah put away the mediums, wizards, teraphim, idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, so that he established the words of the law that were written in the book that the priest Hilkiah had found in the house of the Lord. Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor did any like him arise after him. (2 Kings 23:24-25)

So where does that leave us?

The King and the nation renew the covenant. The Temple is renewed for proper worship. The passover celebration begins anew. It seems this renewal attempts to touch all the “land of Judah.”

So are we ready for a “happy” ending of this story? With such a return to the covenant, the nation will find a reprieve from the “disaster” Huldah spoke of?

Maybe not …

Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. The Lord said, “I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel; and I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.” (2 Kings 23:26-27)

There is a lot here to process.

How do you take in and attempt to make sense of Huldah’s words, Josiah’s words and actions, and, “Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath….”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 21,2021, 2 Kings 22:14-20 Post 1

Posted on by
Reply

I.
This week we turn our focus to the time of the one of Kings of Judah, Josiah, and a prophetess’ words for an inquiring King.

First, take some time with this week’s Scripture and see what you notice in the scene, in Huldah’s words, and in how it strikes you.

You probably want to find some time to read all of 2 Kings 22 to see something of what leads up to this scene in Huldah’s home and what happens after Huldah’ encounter with those sent from the King.

II.
2 Kings 22:14-20

So the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe; she resided in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter, where they consulted her.

She declared to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:

Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says the Lord, I will indeed bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants—all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have abandoned me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched.

But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel:

Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent, and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. Therefore, I will gather you to your ancestors, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place.”

They took the message back to the king.

III.
King Josiah initiated a restoration/rebuilding of the Temple and in the course of that restoration a “book” was discovered. Shaphan (apparently a highly trusted member of the King’s court, maybe the most trusted?) brings this “book” back to the King and reads it to him.

… and …

When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and the king’s servant Asaiah, saying, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” (2 Kings 22:11-13)

IV.
That brings us to Shaphan and the others going to the prophetess Huldah to “inquire of the Lord.”

Pause here for a moment.

How does it strike you that these men, all important men in Judah, highly placed in the Temple practices and the administration of the kingdom, head off to a prophetess to hear a word from the Lord?

V.
Now consider the words from the Lord Huldah gives to them.

What do you think?

Does the future Huldah speaks of seem fair and right for the nation; for the King?

What should these men do? What should the King do? What should Judah do?

charles
{Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 14, 2021, Joshua 5:13-6:5, 15-16, 20, Post 3

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s Scripture can be read at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%205%3A13-6%3A5%2C%2015-16%2C%2020&version=NRSV

VII.
Let’s take some time to slowly and deliberately go back to the first part of this passage and as best we can enter the scene and even try to visualize it as we stand with Joshua.

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?” The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:13-15)

VIII.
We find Joshua looking toward Jericho, and I suspect he is trying to figure out what to do to take the city. Does he have a lot of questions in his mind, is he worried about what he will do and what the people he leads will do? Is he more than worried? Is he scared?

Then he is not alone and asks for the identity of the man standing with him.

Once the man identifies himself as the “commander of the army of the Lord,” we see Joshua dropping to the ground, bowing his head and “worshipping.”

All that probably seems very much in order.

Then he asks a question of the “commander” – “What do you command your servant, my lord?”

I wonder if Joshua might have thought the commands he would hear next would be how to take the city – but that was not what he heard!

“Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:15)

IX.
Moses found himself standing on holy ground, now Joshua does. In the Scripture we can find many times God’s servants found themselves in holy places.

But what of you and me?

Has there been a time, a place you so encountered holiness, you had to do something? Maybe you bowed your head, maybe you raised your hands, maybe you prayed, maybe you were so moved that only silence seemed right.

I remember a time when I was at a retreat, sitting on the porch of a cabin while rain was pouring down outside. I had such a vision of how the rain was bringing life to all I saw, I have to call it a holy moment.

Another time my wife and I were standing on a beach and the sound of the waves coming on the beach was so loud it was deafening, the sound seemed to drive everything else from the moment. In that moment, both my wife and I were called to acknowledge the power and holiness of the experience.

X.
Take some time and see if you notice when you have been on holy ground.

Are you open to encountering the Holy in the days ahead?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 14, 2021, Joshua 5:13-6:5, 15-16, 20, Post 2

Posted on by
Reply

This week’s Scripture can be read at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%205%3A13-6%3A5%2C%2015-16%2C%2020&version=NRSV

IV.
As you have spent time with this account you no doubt noticed the “big” and “loud” things as I did – the commander of the army of the Lord with a drawn sword, the people marching around Jericho, the blowing of the horns, the shout of the people, the rush of the people into the city. Maybe you even had in the mind (or even heard) the spiritual “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.”

V.
Let’s go past those images and see what else we find here.

Pay attention to Joshua.

What do you notice about him?

What is he doing at the beginning of this account?

What does the commander of the army of the Lord tell him and what does he tell Joshua to do?

How does Joshua respond to this commander?

VI.
Spend time with Joshua.

What might we gain from his experience and his example?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 14, 2021, Joshua 5:13-6:5, 15-16, 20, Post 1

Posted on by
Reply

I.
We come to another person identified as a prophet, Joshua. For a time, Moses’ understudy and then the leader of the people as they enter their land of promise.

I invite you to read this passage with care. For many it is a familiar account and one we can read “over” too quickly since we know the scene from many past readings. Or maybe you find it so fanciful and unbelievable, you rush through it since you know “what” happens.

Come to the reading this week and take your time so something might catch you afresh.

II.
Joshua 5:13-6:5

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?” The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldiers. You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead.”

Joshua 6:15-16

On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.

Joshua 6:20

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.

III.
Let’s take up a question I ask in one form or another almost every week – What grabs your attention? What holds your attention?

There are certainly enough dramatic elements here to grab us.

Why do you think that holds your attention?

Do you think it might “hold” your attention so tightly that it blinds you to other dramas in the passage? Maybe something that can be out of sight and hearing because of the vividness of what we take as the major elements here?

Try this – Read the passage again and look past the “big” and “loud” elements and see what you notice.

What is there for you?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 7, 2021, Deuteronomy 18:15-22 Post 3

Posted on by
Reply

You can find this week’s Scripture at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+18%3A15-22&version=NRSV

VI.
Let’s continue with the question I asked the other day –

Has Moses’ promise that God will send prophets to his people (you and me?) been realized in your walk of faith?

VII.
Let’s go a step further with this question. As this has or hasn’t worked out in your life …

When have you been disappointed?

When have you been surprised?

What has excited you?

What does a prophet call forth in your life?

How should you guard for those who claim to be God’s prophets but are not?

VIII.
Where do you hope/expect a prophet to show up next?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 7, 2021, Deuteronomy 18:15-22 Post 2

Posted on by
Reply

You can find this week’s Scripture at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+18%3A15-22&version=NRSV

IV.
After telling the people who they should avoid, Moses promises the people they are not left without hope. They will have prophets to listen to and to follow.

Keep in mind that while we tend to think of a prophet as one who tells us what will happen in the future, in the Hebrew Scripture the prophet is one who first of all speaks for God and speaks to the people God’s word.

The set of Scripture passages we start this week (and continue with till the end of May) will all look to those identified as prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures.

We start this series looking at Moses and his promise that other prophets will come after him.

V.
Take some time to jump from Moses’ address to the people and think about who might be the prophets who have crossed your path.

Why would you identify them as prophet(s) like Moses?

How have they helped you in your life of faith?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

March 7, 2021, Deuteronomy 18:15-22 Post 1

Posted on by
Reply

I.
This passage comes after a few remarks (18:8-14) from Moses about who the people are not to follow, listen to, and allow to influence their lives (such as a “soothsayer,” “sorcerer,” “diviners,” those “who seek oracles from the dead,” or those who practice child sacrifice).

In the passage for this week’s reflections we hear Moses offer the people some promises and some warnings.

II.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me [,Moses] from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet[e] shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.” You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the Lord has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

III.

What promises do you notice?

What warnings do you notice?

What promise stands out to you the most? Why does it hold your attention?

And what warning stands out to the most and why do you find it so?

Do the promises and warnings have a place in your life?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

February 28, 2021, Acts 16:11-15, 40, 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 Post 3

Posted on by
Reply

You can read this week’s Scripture in both the New Revised Standard Version and The Message at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2016%3A11-15%2C%2040%2C%201%20Corinthians%201%3A26-30&version=NRSV;MSG

VI.
Let’s focus on the passage from 1 Corinthians –

1 Corinthians 1:26-30

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

VII.
Paul asks the disciples in Corinth to “consider your own call.”

If he paused for a while with that image in their minds, they might begin to feel they were very important people and had every right to feel very proud of themselves. After all, there’s nothing that can compare to being one of God’s chosen ones, can it?

Now notice what he says next about the called ones. They are “ not … wise by human standards … not powerful … not of noble birth … foolish … weak … low … despised … things that are not ….”

Does this sound like the way to build people up? Could Paul make a career being a “motivational speaker” or doing seminars on “how to increase your self-esteem and confidence”?

So many times I have heard preachers – and others – take these words and similar words from Scripture as though it is the most necessary part of the Gospel message to do all they can to tell folk how bad and worthless they are. After all, they might say, we are all “sinful and fallen” and have “no good thing in us.” Some even seem to delight in bringing people to tears as they tear them down.

“… by human standards …”

I think something different is going on here than trying to make people feel bad about themselves.

It is about the counter-cultural Gospel. It is about turning the values promoted by so much of our culture upside down. It is an attempt to bring to light what God values in us and for us. As you read the “Sermon on the Mount” and the Kingdom parables of Jesus to see this same counter-cultural Gospel.

“[God] is the source of your life in Christ Jesus …”

Does he want the folk to trust in, put their faith in, have confidence in something, someone that can sustain their lives in all circumstances?

Rather than trying to convince people they are worthless, maybe he wants us to see and acknowledge how we often trust in those things that do nothing to give us hope and life.

Take time to “consider your own call” and think about where that call takes you. What it calls you to leave behind, to discard, the clutter it calls you to clear out, and what it calls you to, where it calls you to go.

Notice how this is presented in The Message translation,

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, “If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

February 28,2021, Acts 16:11-15, 40, 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 Post 2

Posted on by
Reply

You can read this week’s Scripture in both the New Revised Standard Version and The Message at –
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2016%3A11-15%2C%2040%2C%201%20Corinthians%201%3A26-30&version=NRSV;MSG

IV.
Within days of the arrival of Paul and his companions in Philippi (apparently an important city of the region and the Empire) they go outside the city proper to a river where they expect to find some people (other Jews?) in prayer. They do find a group of women, one of whom is a Lydia who is described as a business woman, an entrepreneur, and a “worshiper of God.” And most importantly a woman who will listen “eagerly” with an open heart.

V.
How does Lydia impress you?

What leads her to Philippi from home in Thyatira?

How does she occupy herself in Philippi? Think about not just what is mentioned in the Scripture but also what might be implied.

Why does she invite these new visitors into her home?

Why does she accept them into her home again after they leave prison?

What stands out to you the most about this woman?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}