Jane Youtz Riecke

Walking Faithfully

II Chronicles 27, 28 Psalm 88

We've been warned three times in previous chapters that human fortunes can plummet when spirituality ceases to be a priority.  In today's readings, the Chronicler uses a different approach to preach the same message, setting to different reigns of kings side by side.  The message?  The Lord honors consistent commitment to moral and spiritual excellence.  The Chronicler then challenges his readers to continue all their days in a living faith. 

Perhaps that is the greatest challenge of all...to continue walking faithfully even when all seems against us.  Despite natural disaster, terrorism, unemployment, bankruptcy, cancer, addiction, divorce, depression....we are called to maintain our commitment.  How do we keep an even keel?  Through prayer and supplication...through worship and acts of kindness to others....through study of God's holy Word...in this way we maintain our relationship with God and know that all that may come against us cannot overcome us with God by our side.

Remaining Steadfast

II Chronicles 25, 26 Psalm 86,87

If eventual good is the prospect of those who love God, what awaits those who go on to turn away from that love?  Here the Chronicler tell us about yet another king who begins with great promise and in the end falls from grace.  The Chronicler intends this to be a moral narrative to be a warning.  He was pleading with his readers not to "abandon" their "confidence." His message is much like that of the new testament letter to the Hebrews, "we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved." (Hebrews 10:35, 39)

Today, when so many voices compete for our loyalty, we must not draw back afraid, but persevere.  We can not allow our faith to become a relic of the past or an "entertainment."  It is up to us to fight the good fight and stand for what we believe in.  It would be so easy to turn away when opposition comes against us, but as we learned yesterday, the battle is already won...God has already gone before us.  We need only remain faithful.  

The Battle Is Not Yours But God's

II Chronicles 13 - 24  Psalm 85

I simply love the words of King Jehoshaphat, "Do not fear or be dismayed...for the battle is not yours but God's...Go out against them and the Lord will be with you." (II Chronicles 20: 15-16 para)   Some days I need to hear those words. Because its not me, on my own, fighting the battles that life brings but God making a way before me. Fighting my battles before I ever need consider them.  I do not have to be afraid...and neither did the people of Judah.  

Out numbered, out financed and out soldiered, Judah went out into the wilderness against the Ammonites, Moab and others.  They went out in faith, singing God's praises as they marched, "Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever," and they were triumphant.  They sang and prayed before battle, they sang as they went into battle and they returned praising God.  Can we remember to do that as well?

Living in His Father's Shadow

II Chronicles 10 - 12

Rehoboam lived in his father and grandfather's shadow.  He had been raised in privilege and at his father's death he aspired to his father's greatness.  But we all know, it's never easy to follow a successful parent. Sibling rivalry is bad enough, but competing with a parent...you can't win.  Rehoboam didn't have much of a chance with Solomon as his father.  He tried his best, but ego got the best of him and he made many mistakes.  His first was thinking that he didn't need the counsel of his father's advisors and the second that he didn't need his faith.  It also didn't help that made it more difficult for his people.  There was something pathetic about the way he tries to make the best of things when all is falling apart around him.  In the end, it would have been better had he just lived up to what he had done.

The Temple of Jerusalem

II Chronicles 4 - 9 Psalm 84

It is said by Christians that the return of the Christ will not happen until the temple is rebuilt in Jerusalem. Faithful Jews, patiently waiting these many millennia also believe that the Messiah will not come until the temple is rebuilt. The Temple in Jerusalem is definitely a rallying point for many believers.  

Once a symbol of God's presence among his people, the Temple was amazing to behold in all its grandeur. It was gleaming white and was built on the tallest point of the city.  All could see that it was the proud centerpiece to Jerusalem.  Now all that remains is the western wall or the "wailing wall" and the  temple mount (with the Dome of the Rock).  We need to remember this severely contested piece of real estate is central to three different religions. 

We know that the origin of its construction begins with David.  Solomon then completes the project.  Why was this so important?  If the ark was a national or Israelite symbol of divine presence, effective in communicating to the people that God favored the king and his reign among them, the Temple was essential for projecting that message internationally.  The temple was literally a "shining symbol" of God's blessing upon Israel and her kings.

To have it destroyed so completely, the last time by the Romans in 73 AD, sent a strong message.  Roman might and power brought the Jews to their knees.  The Temple would not be rebuilt but Judaism would survive.  Out of the great diaspora came a religion centered not in the temple and in sacrifice, but in the synagogue and in the study of the Torah.

Will the temple ever be rebuilt?  I think not, but it still holds sway over the imagination of many people.  

Deja Vu

I Chronicles 13 - 18 Psalm 81

Doesn't it seem sometimes like we're just slogging through these readings?  It definitely feels like deja vu.  I know I've asked myself these two days....didn't we just read this?  Of course we did!  I and II Chronicles is a repeat of all we've just read in I and II Samuel and I and II Kings.  It is told from a particular theological point of view.  It's idealistic and there is no attempt to be historically accurate.  The Chronicler merely wants to advocate a certain pattern of religious life for his own day and he's advocating that through the retelling of the reigns of David and Solomon in particular.  He works hard, especially in chapter 15 to make David into an ecclesiastical figure. Note that he always has an emphasis on the Levites and their role.  This was a lover of the temple!  

   

The Tale Retold through Different Eyes

I Chronicles 8 -12 Psalm 80

No job is too small in the house of the Lord.

Chapters 8 and 9 certainly detail all the different work that was required of the Levites.  Each person had their work and no job was too small.  Even today no job is too small.  Whether it is picking up bulletins in the pews after services or washing the windows of the education building, each work we are asked to do is to the glory of God and should be treated with respect.  

No one person is without honor before the Lord.

Chapters 10-12 are the chroniclers version of the history of Saul and David.  They give a very distinct view of what happened and why.  Much like the version of the news we read or hear daily, each writer has a viewpoint they are trying to get across.  In this chroniclers eyes, David is the ideal king or Messiah of the people. You also get a sense that each person had a purpose in God's plan for Jerusalem.  Saul and David as well as those who followed them also had a purpose.  

Each Person is a Story

I Chronicles 6, 7  Psalms 78,79

Names upon names. And more names. Each one is a person with a story. 

One of the best things about traveling is watching people in airports. Each has a story.  Sometimes those stories are lived out right in front of you. People miss flights to see loved ones. Newlyweds spend their honeymoons stuck in airports. Children travel alone to visit grandparents in far away cities.  Airport employees patiently explain the terms of a passenger's ticket. Pilots arrive to check out their plane.  Flight attendants make their way through passengers with their hastily bought dinner or lunch to eat later on the plane (just like everyone else).  Every person is a story waiting to unfold.  

It's hard to read these lists of names and give them any credence at all, but each one is person with a history, with a story to tell. Most of the stories we will never know.  Some of the stories we've already read. I give thanks for each one, reminding me of the story that lives within each of us and goes on...and on...and on...through the eternal Word.

The Prayer of Jabez

I Chronicles 4, 5 Psalm 77

Not many years ago, there was a popular book that many Christians read, The Prayer of Jabez.  Today's scripture includes that prayer.  Jabez was born in pain and carried that pain with him through his name. The prayer he gives in 4:10 comes from the heart.  God answers his prayer, granting his requests.

What might we learn from this text?

Certainly, we might learn that we do not have to live out the expectations our names place on us. Jabez was born in pain and he could have lived his life in pain, but he chose a different way. The scriptures say he was honorable among his brothers.  He was honorable and good and did not accept the inheritance of his name.  As a child, much was made of my name.  Most common was the epitaph, "plain Jane."  Of course there were the taunts of "Tarzan and Jane" as well.  I never let those nicknames or taunts define me. Neither did Jabez. 

We might also learn that there is no formula in making our requests before God.  Jabez merely asked. Although The Prayer of Jabez tried to say there was a specific way to make our requests before God so that God would grant our request, I could never believe that.  We can only make our request with a purity of heart and await God's answer.  Like the Psalmist, we can cry to the Lord and make our needs known.  And like the Psalmist there are times when it seems as if God does not hear and as if God has turned away from us, but that is not true.  We must continue to be faithful and await his blessing.  It will come, perhaps not in the way in which we wish but it will come.

Knowing Who You Are

I Chronicles 1, 2, 3

My mother spent 50 years researching our family tree. As a child, I went with my mother to graveyards all over central Pennsylvania searching for Youtz (Jutz) relatives long gone. Besides making for some fairly spooky Sunday afternoons, I suppose I learned some rather interesting lessons from those old graves. One,those graveyards gave me an appreciation of who I was and where I came from. I yearned to know more about them than a name and where and when they lived. Two, it gave me a pride of family and the connections we have between one another. I never did quite understand the concept of a first cousin twice removed but I can tell you the name of my great-great-great-great grandfather and the ship he emigrated on in 1764.  Three, I realized after years of watching my mother pour over county courthouse records that her passion for research was ignited not by a need to prove herself better than others, but a passion to know who she was and where she came from.  The issue was always identity.

Although these first chapters of Chronicles are about as exciting as reading a phone book, they gave the Israelites a sense of their history. The names tied them to people, places and most of all to a  relationship with God.  They are a part of their identity. Just as African tribal cultures to this day can recite the generations of a family back hundreds of years, so the Hebrew people could do the same. It became their touchstone when they were exiled: a people set adrift with no land and no possessions. Where they came from would be their wealth...their ancestors and their stories would give them their identity.

After all these years, I enjoy more than ever looking at the picture of my great-great grandfather and wondering what kind of man he was and why his son left home at 16 to join the Union Army. I sit and ponder what my great Aunt Jane was like and if I look anything like her. And I wish I knew stories that go with the names on all those gravestones...because in the end, its not what they had, it's who they were that informs me.  Perhaps that is why the Hebrew people enjoyed their genealogy so much.  Those that had gone before informed them, gave them a sense of history and identity and made them who they were...God's chosen people.