The Center of Worship!

Reflection:  There is something powerful when we all gather for big service like on Easter or Christmas Eve.  We recount the central tenets of our faith of the birth, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  There is a special sense of God’s presence when God’s people gather together for big celebrations like this.  Today, in Chronicles, we see at the height of King Josiah’s reign, he arranged for a celebration of the Passover that hadn’t been done like this since the days of Samuel and King David.  We can see all the preparations that had to be made to do it right.  The 30,000 Passover lambs and goats, other cattle, and other burnt offerings were all prepared in accordance with the Law that had been given to Moses, as he led the Israelites out of the desert.  The Passover was enacted in order to celebrate the central saving act God had done for the Israelites by delivering them from their enemy the Egyptians.

Every time the Israelites celebrated the Passover, they were to remember God’s goodness and power in delivering them through the Red Sea and then the judgment on the Egyptians as they pursued them.  Today, we celebrate Holy Communion, which emerged out of the Passover to celebrate Jesus, the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world by His sacrifice for us.  The central act of deliverance for Christians is the deliverance from the bondage of sin that Jesus accomplished on the cross.  At our church we celebrate the Eucharist every week in remembrance of our Lord who broke bread and poured wine at the Last Supper to prepare His disciples for what He was about to do.  And then he commanded them to break bread and pour wine when they gathered so they would remember what He was about to do on the cross. 

As you worship God each week (for Christians this is usually on Sundays) and participate in Holy Communion together, Jesus’ real presence is with us.  Just as King Josiah had to remind the Israelites what God had done for them, we need to be reminded of what Jesus did for us each week.  Communion is at the heart of our worship and life together, and empowers us to serve and give our lives as a living sacrifice as our acceptable act of worship in response. (Romans 12:1-2)  Take a moment to remember what Jesus did for you on the cross and as you come to the table this week with other believers in your community you are participating in a foretaste of the feast that will come when one day we all gather together in heaven and sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.  He is worthy of glory honor and power, Amen.”

Psalm 31:6-9

6 I hate those who cling to worthless idols;

    as for me, I trust in the Lord.

7 I will be glad and rejoice in your love,

    for you saw my affliction

    and knew the anguish of my soul.

8 You have not given me into the hands of the enemy

    but have set my feet in a spacious place.

9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;

    my eyes grow weak with sorrow,

    my soul and body with grief.

2 Chronicles 35

Josiah Celebrates the Passover

35 Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem, and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2 He appointed the priests to their duties and encouraged them in the service of the Lord’s temple. 3 He said to the Levites, who instructed all Israel and who had been consecrated to the Lord: “Put the sacred ark in the temple that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. It is not to be carried about on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel. 4 Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon. 5 “Stand in the holy place with a group of Levites for each subdivision of the families of your fellow Israelites, the lay people. 6 Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow Israelites, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses.” 7 Josiah provided for all the lay people who were there a total of thirty thousand lambs and goats for the Passover offerings, and also three thousand cattle—all from the king’s own possessions. 8 His officials also contributed voluntarily to the people and the priests and Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the officials in charge of God’s temple, gave the priests twenty-six hundred Passover offerings and three hundred cattle. 9 Also Konaniah along with Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the leaders of the Levites, provided five thousand Passover offerings and five hundred head of cattle for the Levites. 10 The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions as the king had ordered. 11 The Passover lambs were slaughtered, and the priests splashed against the altar the blood handed to them, while the Levites skinned the animals. 12 They set aside the burnt offerings to give them to the subdivisions of the families of the people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. They did the same with the cattle. 13 They roasted the Passover animals over the fire as prescribed, and boiled the holy offerings in pots, caldrons and pans and served them quickly to all the people. 14 After this, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests. 15 The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, were in the places prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made the preparations for them. 16 So at that time the entire service of the Lord was carried out for the celebration of the Passover and the offering of burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord, as King Josiah had ordered. 17 The Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover at that time and observed the Festival of Unleavened Bread for seven days. 18 The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; and none of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah, with the priests, the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were there with the people of Jerusalem. 19 This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign.

The Death of Josiah

20 After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. 21 But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, “What quarrel is there, king of Judah, between you and me? It is not you I am attacking at this time, but the house with which I am at war. God has told me to hurry; so stop opposing God, who is with me, or he will destroy you.” 22 Josiah, however, would not turn away from him, but disguised himself to engage him in battle. He would not listen to what Necho had said at God’s command but went to fight him on the plain of Megiddo. 23 Archers shot King Josiah, and he told his officers, “Take me away; I am badly wounded.” 24 So they took him out of his chariot, put him in his other chariot and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. He was buried in the tombs of his ancestors, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him. 25 Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.26 The other events of Josiah’s reign and his acts of devotion in accordance with what is written in the Law of the Lord— 27 all the events, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

Acts 26:28-27:8

28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” 29 Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” 30 The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. 31 After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.” 32 Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Paul Sails for Rome

27 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment. 2 We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. 3 The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. 4 From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us. 5 When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia. 6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. 7 We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone. 8 We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.

God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. Nehemiah 12:43

The entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing. Luke 13:17

To you, Sovereign God of all creation, we raise our voices in glad thanks and praise. Your blessings preserve and sustain us. Alleluia! Alleluia! In Christ our Savior’s name we pray. Amen.