Pioneering: Meditations for Our Transformation
Number
9 October 21,
2012
Trust
But I trust in You, O Lord. I say You are my God. My times are in Your hands. Psalm
31:14-15a
In September, I started
Disciple IV, the latest of the Disciple Series.
For the third lesson we read the second book of Chronicles. I admit I wondered what I would get out of
this old history of Jewish kings beyond a list of unpronounceable names for
dead guys.
But as I got into the rhythm of
the writer, a pattern emerged. One king would
succeed another, and somewhere in each king’s ruling history the Chronicler would
give him a grade. Some kings did what
was good in the sight of the Lord,
while others did evil. This good king -- bad king seesawed
back and forth for about three centuries, eventually driving the nation into
captivity and reducing the land of Israel to an empty wilderness inhabited by
the dregs of her former glory.
Second Chronicles chapters 29
and 30 record the deeds of the mostly good King Hezekiah. After restoring and purifying the Temple he
sends word to all the tribes of Jacob, inviting them to Jerusalem to celebrate
Passover together. Now the original Kingdom
of Israel unified under King David had been divided for several generations
because of poor judgment and tribal distrust between the ten tribes of Israel (the
Northern Kingdom) and the two tribes of Judah (the Southern Kingdom). Hezekiah pleads with those in the north to not
be stiff-necked as their forebears were, but to come to the restored Temple in Jerusalem
and join in worship and fellowship in the one God who had chosen them. This was simply an invitation to commemorate the
most important nation-defining event in their common history, nothing more.
For one reason or another, most
of the people in the Northern Kingdom scorned and ridiculed the couriers who
delivered this message. They were highly
suspicious of Hezekiah’s true motive and refused to travel south to Jerusalem
for the Passover celebration. However, a
good number did put aside their mistrust and made the journey.
Meanwhile, God was busy with
the people of Judah, giving them “unity of mind” to carry out what the King
ordered. The people of Judah embraced
their responsibility and extended hospitality to their Northern brothers.
The Chronicler records that everyone
had a joyful time; no one was turned away, not even those Northerners who had
forgotten how to prepare themselves for Passover. In fact, the week-long event was so wonderful
that the whole assembly agreed to joyfully celebrate the festival an extra week. That word “joy” appears so many times in this
passage I cannot imagine how much joy there was. I am trying to recollect when I have ever
been that joyful for two solid weeks, especially in a crowd that size,
especially with relatives.
This joyful experience happened
because Hezekiah invited all Jacob’s descendants, notwithstanding borders,
boundaries, prejudices, and distrust. It
happened because distant families accepted the invitation and showed up,
trusting that they would be well-received, despite being from another
tribe. It happened because there was a
great common bond among them -- the Lord God, their creator and their strength
and shield. It happened because those in
Jerusalem trusted that those who were welcomed were God’s chosen as well.
Here in Carlisle, a different,
more wonderful and perfect king is inviting us to celebrate a great
festival. Although we may not travel a
long geographic distance, we need to travel a long emotional, wilderness-like
distance. But the King has made sure all
are invited. (I wonder if Jesus thought
about this when he told the parable about a king giving a great banquet, as
recorded in Matthew 22.)
All of us are invited to
celebrate this festival, which in a way is like a Passover. In this case there is no Angel of Death
passing over our houses looking for the sign of sheep’s blood on our
doorposts. But it is a passing over from
one phase of our Christian journey to the next – that of a new, exciting, and perhaps
daunting level of Christian unity. We
even had a practice celebration on July 29 when we three families welcomed our
new pastoral team at the fairgrounds.
As members of our three church
communities, we demonstrated before one another our trust in God when we took
the vows of membership. We are expected
to live our lives in the Presence of God, and in covenant with one another, wholly
trusting one another in Christ, and to put away suspicions about money
transactions.
Maybe we need to think through
what trust really means to us today. We confess
and profess our trust in God, but is that trust only for our last tomorrow, but
not for this day and the next? When we
fall into suffering and desperate situations where we cannot make our own
way, we lean on Jesus. But as soon as
we’re through that problem, do we take back our lives and, with a smile, show
Jesus the door? Or do we trust Jesus
with our lives all the time, every minute of them?
More to the point on this
wilderness pioneering adventure, can we trust each other? Can we trust that the unity we seek is
directed and overseen fully by Christ, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and blessed
by the One God we all worship?
This meditation cannot answer these questions. Only you can.
Common
Prayer. O Holy Spirit: defend and protect us from the
subtle insinuations that lead to mistrust among us, your wilderness
people. O Christ, the Way, the Truth,
and the Life: open our dulled minds to realize that the only certain way to
true life is by Your narrow way. O God:
grant us hearts and souls to trust and esteem one another that we may, as one
united people live into your Great Truth.
AMEN.
To think about: Can you identify one sacrifice
God is asking you to make for the sake of our united fellowship, and can you
pray that you can gladly make that sacrifice?
Can you put your trust in one another
over the suspicions and groundless speculations about building sales and
improvement projects?
Transformation
Team emphasis for the next two weeks:
Church Name, Administrative
Structure, Thanks for Holy Spirit’s leadership, and the support of our congregations.
Please
address your feedback and comments to Charles L. Reynolds at papoo99@comcast.net.