We worshiped in Utah today at the Community Church of Moab. This was a unique stop on our tour of the West and the middle of the country (ongoing as I type). This was a very warm and inviting church, filled with very friendly people who were quick to make us feel welcome.
Of note is that Utah is a stunning state! We visited five national parks in Utah... and there are only five national parks in Utah. It was an intense and exhilarating visit to some of the most striking landscapes I have ever seen.
One thing that comes with a visit to Utah is exposure to the Latter Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons. We went to the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City and walked through many of their buildings that are adjacent to The Temple. Mormonism is something I know a bit about, but Beth's knowledge of their beliefs and customs is extremely in depth. She has studied it quite a bit over the years.
A visit to an LDS church is out of scope for this blog, as they are not Christians. But when one visits Utah, they are a cultural variable that one cannot help but notice. Because of the prevalence of Mormonism in Utah, getting into an environment with Christian people felt a bit like pulling back from the larger culture into a place that is familiar to us.
As the five of us sat down inside the church, there was organ music playing. After a bit of time, there was some piano music, as well. It was that quiet period before the service where we were simply enjoying sitting in a pew quietly. The prior days had been characterized by canyon hikes and treks through rivers and through the desert. It felt nice to be sitting in one place for a bit.
As I am wont to do, I made a few friends and struck up conversation with many people. One of the men I met said that he had been to Charlotte for work years ago.
"I spent time on Albemarle Road, if memory serves. 28201 zip code."
Small world.
The woman who sat next to me was kind and we spoke often throughout the service. I asked her about what it was like to live in Utah as a Christian, since the state is dominated by LDS. She said that LDS do dominate the state, but there are fewer of them in the Moab area. I mentioned that we had seen many LDS churches with the angel Moroni on the top instead of a cross.
She nodded her head. "Yes, that is their custom."
I mentioned that we noticed Catholic Churches, as well. She said that she had always noticed over the years that Catholics had the battered and crucified Jesus on the crosses at the front of their churches, where Protestant churches that she had attended displayed an empty cross, like the one at the front of Community Church of Moab.
She then looked me in the eyes, and smiled. "And I am glad that the Cross and Grave are both empty. I'm very grateful, actually."
She also told me that Community Church of Moab is non-denominational, but used to be affiliated as a Baptist church.
Eventually, the praise band came out.
Like so many churches, Community Church of Moab is undergoing an evolutionary leap forward. This Independence Day service contained a blended service of organ and hymnal music, as well as a contemporary praise band. Most churches make such a cutover all at once, leaving the antiquated music behind in one fell swoop. I will say that it was nice to experience this blended format. Community Church of Moab's demographics skew slightly toward the more seasoned side, so I believe there was great comfort on the part of many of the congregants as we sang some of the great hymns of the last century, including That Old Rugged Cross.
The sermon was given by Pastor Kyle VanArsdol. My new friend explained that Kyle had been raised in the church and was the son of the prior Pastor. Luke had left for many years and then returned with his family to inherit the pulpit of his childhood church.
Such a great story of continuity and community.
We learned that the entire church is reading the Bible in a year, so today's sermon followed a series based on what the congregation has been reading. They are reading was 2 Kings, and we focused on chapters 22 and 23.
The sermon was on the subject of revival.
Here's how the story goes in those chapters...
King Josiah had been on the throne of Israel for multiple years. His time on the throne was following an eight-hundred year period in which the nation of Israel had been alienated from their heritage, as well as God. They had not celebrated Passover for centuries. The Temple in Jerusalem was in a state of disrepair. Pagan practices were being performed in The Temple, including male temple prostitutes performing rituals in The Temple. Israel had also fallen into practices that mimicked the peoples around them - they worshiped foreign gods "in the high places" and also had taken to erecting Asherah Poles around their land.
There was even an event in this particular section of The Bible where the Israelites found a copy of the Book of the Law in The Temple and did not know what it was. When Josiah heard a priest reading words of the Book of the Law aloud, he tore his clothes in anger and revulsion at how far the nation had fallen away from their spiritual birthright.
What was anathema to God eventually became "normal."
Josiah was having none of it.
King Josiah cleared out the prostitutes and pagan practices from The Temple. He tore down the high places and burned down the Asherah Poles. He also went so far as to dig up the bones of the priests who had made these accommodations to paganism and burned their bones.
In the act of digging up the bones of those who had come before and defiled Israel, there was one particular grave that Josiah asked the local people about. They told him that this was the grave of a man who four-hundred years prior had made a prophetic prediction about Josiah doing exactly what he was doing at that moment - reviving Israel's identity and foundation in YHWH.
Josiah ordered everyone to leave that particular grave alone.
After Josiah's death, his son came to the throne and again let the pagan practices of the surrounding nations seep back into Israel's national and spiritual identity.
I have more recently taken a turn in my understanding of the Old Testament. First and foremost, its utility is to show the insufficiency of The Law. It is secondly a recording of the history of the nation of Israel, which is a huge family that trace s its common ancestry to Jacob, the man whose name was changed to Israel after he fought a divine messenger on the edge of a wadi. The Old Testament's third category of utility is as a recorded set of stories that can be read as a depiction of one's personal walk with God.
It is in that third category that we can read the history of Josiah's rule as a depiction of personal revival.
Our lives can mimic the phases that Israel went through, Pastor Luke pointed out.
Revival is the act of returning to God with all of your heart, all of your mind and all of your strength after a period of being lost.
Our lives can have gaps where our faith ebbs, or perhaps ceases altogether. Not only is the modern era one of massive distraction via the perpetual screens that we find ourselves staring at, but we also are often very busy. Where does sustaining our spiritual practices fit into our lives amidst Instagram, Game of Thrones and our twelve hour workdays? Sometimes we pass an entire day without uttering a word of prayer or reading some scripture.
And that can become our baseline that we live with. Eventually, we begin to think of such gaps in our spiritual practices as normal. The next phase that can come from it is the idea that there is some intellectual accomplishment in that normality, that belief in nothing is a sign of some sort of cognitive ascent. Perhaps the final phase of alienation is when a sense of right and wrong are out of your personal reckoning and the ultimate measure of what belongs in your life is "what serves you."
What revival requires of us is that we take a hard look in the mirror and start with some acknowledgment of our own brokenness. As we gaze at ourselves in the full light of truth, we cannot help but understand our insufficiency to commune with a perfect God.
Instead of accommodating the normality of the world around us, followers of Yeshua are called to live a life that is in the world, but never of the world. People should be able to see someone who professes a life in Christ as having certain characteristics - love, charity, patience, self-sacrifice among them. Do they see such attributes, though? How much of what is considered normal in a worldly sense can also be seen in our lives, as well? How much venom and hate comes from people who profess Yeshua?
If we are honest, far too much.
Wherever we see that worldliness within us, may we always see in ourselves the need for revival.
So, what does the rule of Josiah teach us about the act of recommitting to God and leaning in to revival?
First, it reminds us to have a sense of regret at what was lost.
Secondly, it reminds us of the need for relentlessness in digging deep into the source of what has caused the wandering. The act of tearing down and burning those things that caused our initial wandering requires hard work over longer periods of time.
Finally, it must be remembered (as illustrated by Josiah's son) that there is always the risk of repeating mistakes and sliding back into a period of being lost again. And in the event that this might happen, may we remember the need for revival, yet again.
Revival is iterative, thank God.
Thanks to Community Church of Moab for a great Independence Day visit.
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