Observation: If you read the history of Judah's kings, a trend emerges. There are a lot fewer who "do what is right" in the sight of the Lord than "do wrong". But apparently Jehoash was one of the good ones. He commits to making repairs in the Jerusalem temple, and he holds his priests accountable to save the money they need from people's offerings to make it happen. No more melting down coins to make fancy bowls, snuffers, trumpets or anything else. The money goes straight to the workers, and the workers fix God's house.
Application: For as long as I've been in leadership in a church, I've heard over and over--largely from Christian leaders--that buildings can be a burden on real ministry. They're expensive. You have to heat them and cool them and clean them and plow their parking lots and shovel their sidewalks and, you know, pay for them, assuming your great great grandparents from the old country didn't raise them with their own two hands (which ushers in its own host of issues when you have to renovate).
It's pretty common that I'll hear, "gosh, I wish we could just get free of these golden calves, be like the early church, or like AA and meet in someone else's building; the church is a people after all, where two or more are gathered, etc, etc..." And to this, I say, "yes." Buildings can and do become a distraction sometimes, and the church is indeed the people, not the place where they meet. But let me also tell you, based on a year of working out of a Starbucks, with a few bins of hymnals and communion supplies (even the table) in the back of my tiny Scion Xa, to be moved in and out of a high school every single week: buildings can also be a tremendous ministry tool.
More and more Christian communities are by necessity figuring out who they are apart from their traditional meeting spaces. That's the chapter of ministry they are in, and he Spirit can and will still do amazing things through them. Let's hold them in prayer. But at the same time, what I get from this text in 2 Kings is that taking care of the space where we meet is an important ministry too. For congregations able to do it and keep it in perspective, it can be a tremendous tool for ministry, and those called to help maintain that tool are doing an essential ministry task. I'm thankful to God for the particular place where God calls us to meet on Sunday mornings, and for the ministry God calls us to beyond its walls.
Prayer: God, thank you for those who build, for those who clean, for those who repair, for those who raise money, those who give it, and those who are able to do important works of mercy and love, without giving a second thought to the logistics of how that happens every week. Help us be good stewards of the ministry places you have given to us. Especially, Lord, I want to lift up places of worship that were damaged or destroyed by the recent hurricane, that you would comfort and guide the churches who met there in the process of rebuilding. Amen.
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