November 29, 2015: Josiah’s Reform

2 Kings 22:1-20; 23:1-3

22 Josiah was 8 years old when he became king, and he ruled for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah; she was Adaiah’s daughter and was from Bozkath. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David—not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left.

³ In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s rule, he sent the secretary Shaphan, Azaliah’s son and Meshullam’s grandson, to the Lord’s temple with the following orders: ⁴ “Go to the high priest Hilkiah. Have him carefully count^[a] the money that has been brought to the Lord’s temple and that has been collected from the people by the doorkeepers. ⁵ It should be given to the supervisors in charge of the Lord’s temple, who in turn should pay it to those who are in the Lord’s temple, repairing the temple— ⁶ the carpenters, the builders, and the masons. It should be used to pay for lumber and quarried stone to repair the temple. ⁷ But there’s no need to check on them regarding the money they receive, because they are honest workers.”

⁸ The high priest Hilkiah told Shaphan the secretary: “I have found the Instruction scroll in the Lord’s temple.” Then Hilkiah turned the scroll over to Shaphan, who read it.

⁹ Shaphan the secretary then went to the king and reported this to him: “Your officials have released the money that was found in the temple and have handed it over to those who supervise the work in the Lord’s temple.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll,” and he read it out loud before the king.

¹¹ As soon as the king heard what the Instruction scroll said, he ripped his clothes. ¹² The king ordered the priest Hilkiah, Shaphan’s son Ahikam, Micaiah’s son Achbor, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the royal officer as follows: ¹³ “Go and ask the Lord on my behalf, and on behalf of the people, and on behalf of all Judah concerning the contents of this scroll that has been found. The Lord must be furious with us because our ancestors failed to obey the words of this scroll and do everything written in it about us.”

¹⁴ So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah. She was married to Shallum, Tikvah’s son and Harhas’ grandson, who was in charge of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem in the second district. When they spoke to her, ¹⁵ she replied, “This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says: Tell this to the man who sent you to me: ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says: I am about to bring disaster on this place and its citizens—all the words in the scroll that Judah’s king has read! ¹⁷ My anger burns against this place, never to be quenched, because they’ve deserted me and have burned incense to other gods, angering me by everything they have done.^{[a] 18} But also say this to the king of Judah, who sent you to question the Lord: This is what the Lord, Israel’s God, says about the message you’ve just heard: ¹⁹ Because your heart was broken and you submitted before the Lord when you heard what I said about this place and its citizens—that they will become a horror and a curse—and because you ripped your clothes and cried before me, I have listened to you, declares the Lord. ²⁰ That’s why I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will go to your grave in peace. You won’t experience the disaster I am about to bring on this place.”

23 ¹ The king sent a message, and all of Judah’s and Jerusalem’s elders gathered before him. ² Then the king went up to the Lord’s temple, together with all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem, the priests and the prophets, and all the people, young and old alike. There the king read out loud all the words of the covenant scroll that had been found in the Lord’s temple. ³ The king stood beside the pillar and made a covenant with the Lord that he would follow the Lord by keeping his commandments, his laws, and his regulations with all his heart and all his being in order to fulfill the words of this covenant that were written in this scroll. All of the people accepted the covenant.

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Introduction:

I fluctuate between a great desire for order and cleanliness and being comfortable with chaos and ‘messiness.’ Whether it’s my office at work or various rooms at home, an unexpected visitor might find a jumble of books, papers and other items…or everything in its place. This devotion is not meant to probe deep into my psyche, but I’m sure there are plenty of reasons for this.  Usually I will allow things to get almost completely out of hand before looking around and realizing “Something has to change! This needs to get better!”  Then papers will be filed, books placed on shelves, and furniture dusted. Order is restored!

My experience with cleaning has some similarities with our lesson today. King Josiah of Judah decided to refurbish the Temple in Jerusalem and in the process he found out that more than the building needed a good overhaul: the life of the nation needed to be cleansed. Upon hearing the contents of God’s instructions for the people, Josiah realized that the relationship between the LORD and the people was broken and needed to be fixed. The promises of God had been ignored, the life that God had intended for the people was not present. 

Josiah looked at his land and said “Something has to change! This needs to get better!”

The Technical Stuff:

Josiah ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah from 640-609 B.C.E. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been conquered and destroyed many years earlier in 722 B.C.E. by the Assyrian Empire. Judah had survived, barely, and received many refugees from Israel after its destruction.  Almost all of Judah’s kings received “low ratings” from the writers of the bible: they oppressed the poor and led the people away from worship of the LORD. Again and again we hear that a king had done “what is evil in the LORD’s eyes” but Josiah (along with another king named Hezekiah) is a notable exception. Scripture says “He did what was right in the LORD’s eyes, and walked in the ways of his ancestor David – not deviating from it even a bit to the right or left.” (2 Kings 22:2)

Our lesson today gives an account of the origin of and motivation behind Josiah’s religious reforms which removed shrines, centralized all officially recognized worship in Jerusalem and made worshiping any deity other than the LORD illegal.  The “instruction scroll” mentioned here comes is believed to be an early addition of Deuteronomy that had been forgotten or discarded over the years. It is quite possible that Josiah’s reforms helped create the Pentateuch (first five book of the Old Testament) as we know it today.

Josiah was also a very powerful monarch with great political accomplishments. He expanded the Kingdom of Judah beyond its previous borders and brought a great deal of prosperity. 

What Does this Say to Us?

We drift in many different directions over the course of our lives.  Like the people of Judah our relationship with God can become stale and/or empty. We too can go through the motions and miss out on the central, important parts of our faith but there are certain times when we are able to sit up and take notice, realizing what is truly important: living a life of faithfulness and integrity, not lip-service. I have met many people who have reached a point in their lives where they know that a change needs to happen: they need to stop drinking or using a certain substance, or they need to put more time and effort into their marriage, or they realize that they need to stop being lazy, clean up their act and figure life out.

Where do these moments of recognition originate? I believe that God’s Holy Spirit is active and at work in our world: nudging us, pushing us, pulling us…even hitting us on the head from time to time in order to get our attention.  I also believe that God did not make us to be unthinking robots who had no other choice but to follow God…you can’t have a relationship with a robot who is programed to act a certain way and God is all about relationships. Instead, the Holy Spirit moves in us, just like I believe the Spirit moved in Josiah so many years ago. We don’t deserve the call we receive, we usually don’t expect it, but when it comes may God give us the strength and ability to respond!

November 22, 2015: Isaiah’s Vineyard Song

Isaiah 5:1-7; 11:1-5

5  Let me sing for my loved one
    a love song for his vineyard.
My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
² He dug it,
    cleared away its stones,
    planted it with excellent vines,
    built a tower inside it,
    and dug out a wine vat in it.
He expected it to grow good grapes—
    but it grew rotten grapes.
³ So now, you who live in Jerusalem, you people of Judah,
    judge between me and my vineyard:
⁴ What more was there to do for my vineyard
    that I haven’t done for it?
When I expected it to grow good grapes,
    why did it grow rotten grapes?
⁵ Now let me tell you what I’m doing to my vineyard.
I’m removing its hedge,
    so it will be destroyed.
I’m breaking down its walls,
    so it will be trampled.
⁶ I’ll turn it into a ruin;
    it won’t be pruned or hoed,
    and thorns and thistles will grow up.
I will command the clouds not to rain on it.
⁷ The vineyard of the Lord of heavenly forces is the house of Israel,
    and the people of Judah are the plantings in which God delighted.
God expected justice, but there was bloodshed;
    righteousness, but there was a cry of distress!

11 A shoot will grow up from the stump of Jesse;
    a branch will sprout^[a] from his roots.

² The Lord’s spirit will rest upon him,
    a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    a spirit of planning and strength,
    a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

³ He will delight in fearing the Lord.
He won’t judge by appearances,
    nor decide by hearsay.

⁴ He will judge the needy with righteousness,
    and decide with equity for those who suffer in the land.
He will strike the violent^[b] with the rod of his mouth;
    by the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.

⁵ Righteousness will be the belt around his hips,
    and faithfulness the belt around his waist.

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Introduction:

My family has a mixed track record with our backyard garden. Some of our fruit comes in well and is a delicious edition to our dinner table. The herbs have been particularly successful and I have yet to find a dish were our basil isn’t a bonus to the taste. At the same time, it’s very easy for gardens to get away from you: weeds seem to grow faster than the plants and birds often help themselves to the produce you were looking forward to.

As we think about our lives, our nation and our society it is easy to see how Isaiah and others used an agricultural image in describing the relationship between God and God’s people. There are many “fruitful” aspects of our existence: cooperation and collaboration between neighbors, joy and fellowship that come from shared festivals and holidays, a feeling of safety that comes from community. There are also many “weeds” and “pests” that plague our experiences: jealously, underhanded actions, mistrust, envy, and violence. 

Even seemingly beautiful things like the “fun” that comes from the overuse of our natural resources can actually cause huge environmental and ethical problems, stifling the goodness that we can all share…in much the same way that the “Morning Glory” in our garden gives us pretty flowers, but also choke out the tomato plants if we’re not watchful.  We can certainly learn something from Isaiah’s Vineyard Song today.

The Technical Stuff:

The prophetic book of Isaiah is one of the largest and most influential books in the bible, and its prophesy spans hundreds of years. Bible Scholars universally agree that this book is not the work of only one individual. It is divided into three sections: First Isaiah (Isaiah 1-39) attributed to “Isaiah of Jerusalem,” Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) set during the exile and Third Isaiah (Isaiah 56-66) which is set after the return from exile.  Our text from today comes from First Isaiah, who was a prophet in the Southern Kingdom of Judah during the 700s B.C.E. Isaiah had a varied and exciting career that crossed in to the politics of Judah as well as speeches against the people’s unfaithfulness.

Vineyards were common in the Ancient Middle East and were a standard sign of agricultural prosperity.  Vineyards were associated with life and blessing. Fruitful vineyards meant divine blessing while barren vineyards were associated with divine judgment. Hosea used an unfaithful marriage as an image for the way that the people of Israel had mistreated their relationship with the LORD. Isaiah uses the descriptive image of a vineyard that was meant to produce the good fruit of justice, but rather gave the owner rotten grapes.

In addition to this indictment, Isaiah also gives a hopeful vision for the future. He speaks about someone to come who will bring about the righteousness and goodness that was originally intended for God’s people. That individual will be a “shoot from the stump of Jesse” (i.e. from David’s family line) and who will have the spirit of the LORD upon him.  Prophets not only gave out judgment and condemnation: they also spoke with hope about a future beyond broken relationships, when all would be made right again.

What Does this Say to Us?

Our three themes for this devotion (Promise, Relationship, Life) are not mutually exclusive. God’s faithful promise leads to a wonderful relationship. That relationship brings abundant life filled with goodness and joy. When the people are in a true relationship with God that is based on what God finds important (justice and righteousness) there is abundant life. Isaiah might say that the relationship brings “good fruit” and not “rotten grapes.”

Ultimately we are not able to find this righteousness within ourselves and if we pretend that we can we’re merely fooling ourselves. Our righteousness comes as a gift from God, and Christians believe that gift is Jesus Christ who died and was raised again for our sake. When early Christians read Isaiah having experienced Jesus, they felt he was present in the words of Isaiah 11. God’s spirit was indeed on him and that same spirit is a gift to us in our baptism. As a pastor I’ve prayed that God’s spirit would be present in the person I had just baptized: a spirit of a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of planning and strength, a spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.

When we view the themes of promise, relationship and life as gracious gifts given to us by God, our existence takes on a new meaning and significance. There will be good fruit in our vineyards, not rotten grapes.

November 15, 2015: Hosea

Hosea 11:1-9

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
        and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more I called them,
        the further they went from me;
    they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
        and they burned incense to idols.
³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
        I took them up in my arms,
        but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them
        with bands of human kindness,
        with cords of love.
    I treated them like those
        who lift infants to their cheeks;
        I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵ They will return to the land of Egypt,
        and Assyria will be their king,
        because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword will strike wildly in their cities;
        it will consume the bars of their gates
        and will take everything because of their schemes.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me;
        and though they cry out to the Most High,^[a]
        he will not raise them up.

⁸ How can I give you up, Ephraim?
        How can I hand you over, Israel?
    How can I make you like Admah?
        How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
    My heart winces within me;
        my compassion grows warm and tender.

⁹ I won’t act on the heat of my anger;
        I won’t return to destroy Ephraim;
    for I am God and not a human being,
        the holy one in your midst;
    I won’t come in harsh judgment.

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Introduction:

Good relationships are based on trust and mutual respect.  If you are involved in a relationship that is deep and rich, sooner or later you will need to be vulnerable with the other party. This is true in friendships, marriages and so many other partnerships.  Vulnerability is a scary thing: it’s hard to lose control, to trust someone else completely, and to be truly open. At the same time, a relationship without vulnerability can only go so far before it runs into “road-blocks.” Of course, not all relationships should have the same amount of vulnerability: you don’t need to ‘spill your guts’ to all of your co-workers at the office! At the same time, truly close and personal relationships need a certain amount of vulnerability.

God has desired a relationship with humanity from the very beginning and that relationship grew even more intimate with God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants.  Quite often we think of God as being cosmic, omnipotent and slightly aloof. There are plenty of places where the bible describes God’s power and majesty, but it is also interesting to see that the all-powerful creator of the universe loves humanity so much that God is willing to become vulnerable in a relationship with the people of Israel. God wants a relationship so much, that God is willing to hurt for us.

In our reading for today, God is described as a loving parent who faithfully cared for God’s child Israel.  The description is overwhelmingly tender: “I treated them like those who lift infants to their cheeks; I bent down to them and fed them.” That child, however, proved to be rebellious and ungrateful and there will be punishment.  Still, God will not punish forever and the language is once again poignant: “My heart winces within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.I won’t act on the heat of my anger; I won’t return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a human being, the holy one in your midst; I won’t come in harsh judgment.”

The Technical Stuff:

Hosea was a prophet in the mid-700s B.C.E. and most scholars believe him to be from the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Prophets in the Old Testament did much more than “predict the future;” they were spokesmen for God, channels of communication between humans and the divine world. They were concerned with moral and ethical standards and often felt that empty rituals and religious “lip service” could not compete with Godly living.  They most often spoke out against the oppression of the poor and unfaithfulness to the LORD.

The theme of Hosea is the relationship between God and Israel and how that relationship has deteriorated due to the unfaithfulness of the people.  The prophets often had “colorful” ways of getting their point across: Isaiah walked around naked for three years to show the potential humiliation the people of Judah would feel if they went to war with Assyria (Isaiah 20), Jeremiah put on filthy underwear to show how God had lost pride in God’s people, and Hosea had his own formula for getting the point across. 

Hosea was instructed to marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her. He married Gomer, a promiscuous woman who symbolized Israel’s unfaithfulness to the LORD (due to Baal worship) and had three children.  Each child was given a symbolic name: Jezreel (“God sows”), Lo-ruhamah (“not pitied”) and Lo-ammi (“not my people”). All of these names were mean to show that God was judging and condemning the people for their infidelity.  But, after the children are born, God promises to restore Israel. Hosea takes Gomer back, despite her unfaithfulness, just as God will take back unfaithful Israel.

Hosea was critical of the priests of Israel because they more concerned with sacrifices (which fed the priests) than with the people truly serving God.  Hosea was also very critical of the rich, upper classes of society, which he saw oppressing the poor. 

It is hard to know whether Hosea saw God at work in a marriage that had already taken place or if he purposefully married a promiscuous woman because of God’s orders.  Many present-day readers feel understandably uncomfortable with Hosea’s methods and the way that women are portrayed in this book.  At the same time, Hosea’s message packs a punch. Israel has been unfaithful, while God had kept God’s side of the covenant.  The imagery is vivid: the people have failed God.

What Does This Say to Us?

There are times when religion can seem like a business transaction: God promises this and we humans do that. God will protect us as long as we stay out of trouble.  This sort of system has been going on from the beginning of time, but ultimately it is empty and harmful.  It either leads to despair (“There’s no way we can live up to this!” says the hopeless person who feels overwhelmed.) or to delusion (“Look how good I am” says the person who is only following the letter of the law and abandoning its spirit). Instead, God offers us something infinitely more important: a relationship with mutual love and vulnerability. Are there rules, boundaries and expectations? Sure! Any good marriage will have that. But our relationship with God goes much farther and much deeper than the surface.

As Christians, we experience God in the person of Jesus Christ, who became so vulnerable for our sake that he was born in a smelly manger and died on a terrible cross, all so that we may be saved.  Business deals are fine for the right things, but thanks be to God we have a relationship with our Lord who saves us