2 Chronicles 35:1-6, 16-19
A couple of years ago, I helped my friend Rabbi Shawn B. Zell edit and publish his book on Passover Points to Ponder. This week’s Scripture has me ruminating on the teaching I experienced during that time. As a Christian studying the pivotal celebration through the lens of the Jewish faith, my eyes were opened in new ways to the importance and meaning of this holy day.
Today’s lesson continues our exploration of practices and traditions within a faith community. With our Scripture reading, we turn our attention to the young king Josiah and his effort to restore worship practices and traditions found in a piece of ancient Scripture during his reign. By reintroducing sacred practices like keeping Passover, he desires to bring Israel back into a fuller understanding their identity as the people of God.
Josiah’s example prompts us to ask: how have we fallen away from God’s instruction? What neglected spiritual practices are worth revisiting and committing to?
Promises renewed
Josiah, at about 16 years of age, knew the promises made to God had been forgotten by Israel for generations and must be made real again. As a result, he set about destroying the pagan places of worship and idols. Josiah traveled the length and breadth of Judah and Jerusalem looking for that which might impede upon the right and proper worship of the one true God.
After several years of purging and cleaning up the kingdom, Josiah was presented a copy of the sacred scriptures found in a storeroom. He read it and grieved mightily over how far the people had strayed from God’s words and God’s commands (2 Chronicles 34:19-21).
Promises renewed, Josiah gathered everyone, laity and clergy alike, to hear the Scriptures read. All needed to hear the instruction. Josiah renewed his covenant to obey the Lord fully and required all in Judah and Jerusalem do the same (2 Chronicles 34:29-33).
A Jewish friend said to me recently, “We Jews are a very ‘defined’ people.” Josiah recognized his people were no longer defining themselves as the people of God or living in relationship with God.
Promises not kept
Josiah was not the first king of Israel to find ancient scriptures that laid out prescribed worship practices. Several generations before Josiah, Hezekiah worked to bring the Passover and other worship practices back to Israel (2 Chronicles 29 & 30). However, the promises to keep God’s commandments, to worship God fully, to observe Passover faithfully fell away and were forgotten over the coming generations. Have we lost sight of our promises to God? Does our worship of secular and worldly things pull us away from an authentic worship of God?
Promises kept — The Passover Feast celebrated
Our lesson today highlights the significance of keeping the sacred ritual of Passover, a ritual remembering the saving of the Israelites as death “passed over” those in Egypt and remembering the exodus.
My friend and author Rabbi Shawn Zell, offers some perspective on the importance of Passover to the Jewish people in his book, Passover Points to Ponder. Zell writes, “Because of HaShem’s (God’s) saving grace, we are alive to celebrate our Passover Seder just like those who celebrated their Passover Seder in the previous generations … the Seder experience will touch a nerve, tug at our collective conscience, and ultimately find a place in our Jewish hearts.”
Josiah’s people are reminded that they are alive and able to do the most important ritual of all – remembering God’s saving grace. May we also be reminded of this truth.
Questions for discussion
- Our sacred rite of the Lord’s Supper is a reminder to us that we are called to acknowledge and to celebrate our covenant with God, a covenant to be kept in our hearts. What are the distractions in our lives that might keep us from coming to the Lord’s table?
- Who do you identify with in this story? What lessons for the modern church do you find?
- What other spiritual practices are important in your faith community? Do they need to be revisited, renewed, revitalized?
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