Sermon for October 13th, 2024

2 Chronicles 34:29-33

29 Then the king sent word and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests and the Levites, all the people both great and small; he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the Lord. 31 The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, keeping his commandments, his decrees, and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. 32 Then he made all who were present in Jerusalem and in Benjamin pledge themselves to it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors. 33 Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of Israel and made all who were in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord the God of their ancestors.

American Reformations: The Great Awakening

Somewhere in a small town in the Midwest, three local churches--Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian--worked together to sponsor a community- wide revival. After the revival had concluded, the three pastors met for lunch, and were discussing the results with one another. The Methodist minister said, "The revival worked out great for us. We gained 4 new members, Hallelujah!" The Baptist preacher said, "Amen, brother, but we did better than that. We gained 6 new members, Praise the Lord!" The Presbyterian pastor said, "Well, we did even better than that! Thanks be to God, we finally got rid of our 10 biggest troublemakers!"

Today I’m going to talk about the 18th century revival movement in America known as the Great Awakening. But to get there, first we need to go back in time almost 3,000 years to Ancient Israel, or more specifically the Kingdom of Judah, and to our scripture passage from 2nd Chronicles. The King in today’s scripture passage is Josiah, who was probably the first great reformer in Judeo-Christian tradition. 2nd Chronicles tells how King Josiah discovered an ancient book of the law (probably the book of Deuteronomy) while making repairs to the temple in Jerusalem. He had the book read aloud in the presence of all his citizens, who then made a commitment to honor its commandments all of their days. This revival became a reformation when Josiah restructured the worship of the temple, the laws of the land, and his own royal court according to the newly rediscovered scriptures.