`2 Chronicles 29.1-11
Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old; he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his ancestor David had done. In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east. He said to them, ‘Listen to me, Levites! Sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and carry out the filth from the holy place. For our ancestors have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God; they have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the dwelling of the Lord, and turned their backs. They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps, and have not offered incense or made burnt-offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel. Therefore the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. Our fathers have fallen by the sword and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to minister to him, and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.’
Reflection
The most difficult period of my ten years as Policy Officer for the churches in Wales was in 2020-22, when churches in the UK were closed by law for the first time since Roman Catholic public worship became legal in 1791, and their activities were legally restricted for the first time in generations. For some Christians, this was an abomination equivalent to that committed by King Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28.22-27) – although he not only closed the Temple, but set up altars to alternative gods around Jerusalem. For many, it was a painful infringement of liberty, and the delay in re-opening churches until after “non-essential retail” added insult to injury. Indeed, some individual Christians took legal action to prevent further church closures, and won their case in Scotland. In England and Wales, their governments allowed churches to remain open in the 2021 lockdown, and churches were never closed by law in Northern Ireland.
However, the United Reformed Church and other denominations within the Churches Together family supported the closure, seeking to ensure that we did not by worshipping God contribute to the spreading of a deadly and (at the time) incurable disease, and setting up new online ways to worship.
As churches re-opened in restricted form, we learned to keep our distance, to worship without singing or socialising, and I was engaged in constant discussion with the Welsh Government about the epidemiological risks of ordination, baptism and the like – not topics I ever imagined I would need to consider!
Hezekiah was a king who realised that restricting worship infringed the very identity of his people. I hope that this realisation has dawned on our own rulers too, and that in any future emergency churches (and other faiths’ places of worship) will be consulted on how they can both honour God and keep their neighbours safe.
Prayer
Loving God,
you call us to love You and to love our neighbour.
In times of emergency, these two loves may seem to be contradictory.
Give us wisdom to navigate our heartfelt desire to meet together to worship You
and Your command to us to put the needs of others before our own.
Give governments wisdom to understand the necessity of worship
as well as care for neighbours, and free us to do both.
Amen.