I love worship and was looking forward to exploring this text and sermon. I ended up with too much material on worship and did not focus closely enough on the ark of the covenant. It is a great text - the detailed discussion of how to build an ark and then the announcement from God: "There I will meet you." i wish I had foucsed more on that han on worship in general terms.
“The Ark of the Covenant” March 21, 2021; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp; Exodus 25; Lenten 2021 series “Postcards from the Wilderness”
Exodus 25: 10 They shall make an ark of acacia wood; it shall be two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. 11 You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and outside you shall overlay it, and you shall make a molding of gold upon it all around. 12 You shall cast four rings of gold for it and put them on its four feet, two rings on the one side of it, and two rings on the other side. 13 You shall make poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with gold. 14 And you shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, by which to carry the ark. 15 The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be taken from it. 16 You shall put into the ark the covenant[b] that I shall give you.
17 Then you shall make a mercy seat[c] of pure gold; two cubits and a half shall be its length, and a cubit and a half its width. 18 You shall make two cherubim of gold; you shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat.[d] 19 Make one cherub at the one end, and one cherub at the other; of one piece with the mercy seat[e] you shall make the cherubim at its two ends. 20 The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat[f] with their wings. They shall face one to another; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned toward the mercy seat.[g] 21 You shall put the mercy seat[h] on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant[i] that I shall give you. 22 There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat,[j] from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant,[k] I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.
Introduction: Quite a bit of detail about how to build the ark of the covenant.
Important details because the ark of the covenant will be the place where the God will meet the Israelites, where God will meet the Israelites in worship.
AS you may recall, the ark of the covenant went with the Israelites as they traveled and was placed in the Tent fo the Tabernacle, where the Israelites would live out their rituals of worship.
Spiritually, the Ark was the manifestation of God's physical presence on earth (the shekhina) (for a more complete description of the role the ark played, see https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ark-of-the-convenant)
there are numerous stories in the Old Testament related to the role of the ark of the covenant as Israel traveled through the wilderness; as Israel fought wiht its enemies; as God spoke to the Israelites; and as it was connected to Israel’s worship of God.
this morning we focus on the ark of the covenant and the power of worship for the Israelites and for us.
Your prompt this week is to remember your favorite worship experience and why? I would push you to not just name the service that felt neat or where we sang your favorite hymns, but reflect on worship that moved you and transformed you. that is what the Israelites discovered through the power of worship.
Move 1: Worship was one of the defining marks of the Israelites’ relationship with God.
a. We see this clearly in the Exodus story.
1. When God sends Moses and Aaron to talk to Pharaoh about why Pharaoh needs to let the Israelites go, what is the main reason they give (ask you friends in the Pastors’ class who have been studying Exodus)?
It is so the Israelites can worship God in the wilderness.
3. remember the words for which Moses is famous "let my people go….”
do you know what the next part of the sentence is?
“Let my people go so that they may worship me in the wilderness” (Exodus 7:16) ( Loses some of the drama of the moment. No wonder they left it out of the movie!).
4. what do the Israelites do as soon as they cross the Red Sea and are in the wilderness?
Break out into song and sing praises to God.
They are free, let the worship begin.
b. Worship reveals their distinctiveness.
1. The Israelites are different than the Egyptians because they worship Yahweh - one God.
2. Unlike all the other people in the world, the Israelites have a unique relationship with this singular God.
3. This relationship sets the Israelites apart from all the other people in the world
4. Worship for us is the reminder that our relationship with God is primary.
5. Worship is counter-cultural.
that is, it calls us to a new way of life that is distinct from the life to which the world calls us.
b. Worship connects us with this distinctive God who is always critiquing and challenging our worldly ways.
1. let’s look at a few examples:
2. In a world that places a premium on efficiency, worship reminds us that God’s time is different than the world’s.
1. the Presbyterian authors of Being Disciples of Christ in a Dot.com World (89) note worship is an eccentric practice that is, “an ineffective use of time and resources. Worship does not exist simply so the community can gather together, nor does it exist to meet our emotional needs.”
2. Worship is not about time, but about experiencing God.
3. We may have a goal for worship taking an hour, but once worships begins, the clock takes a backseat.
3. Ok, I admit we probably still worry too much about how long worship takes.
4. Laura, a long-tenured member one day she asked me, “why do you rush?” “what?” “every time we have communion you start talking faster the minute you get behind the Lord's Table. I know you are worried about time, but I don't care. I want to experience communion with God.”
d. Another example - corporate worship in a world that often pushes self, self, self.
1. think about what we do in worship
2. WE Greet one another.
3. We Pray for each other. Share our difficult challenges. Invite others to celebrate with you.
4. Pass the communion elements to one another – the gift of Christ for me, but also for that other person down the pew. We are connected in Christ.
5. Even when we do communion on the live stream, we simulate doing together.
4. Worship teaches us to be in a community in a world that preaches worrying about one's self first.
e. We also see the worship push us into mission.
1. Marcus Borg and NT Wright discuss describe this connection between mission and worship.
“I have come (not very originally) to envisage the two poles of Christian living in terms of mission and worship. The two flow into each other: worship without mission becomes self-indulgence (and might even imply worship of a god other than the one revealed in Jesus); mission without worship generates into various kinds of do-goodery, following agendas that may be deeply felt but are by no means necessarily connected with Jesus” (The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, 208) Chapel, 8/29/10, FPC, Troy; FPC, Troy, 1/11/15
2. We discover our call to serve others as we gather for worship.
As we look to the future and see the church changing, we must find ways to worship God to find our calling in the ever-changing world.
Move 2: We see the ark of the covenant and are reminded that in worship we discover the presence of God.
a. “there shall I meet you!”
1. That is how God describes the vital role of the ark of the covenant.
2. It held the presence of God for the Israelites.
3. As Harper’s Bible Dictionary describes the ark: “the most striking fact of about the Ark at an early period was that it was a direct manifestation of God’s presence and was virtually identified with God.” (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, 63-64).
4. We worship to be in the presence of God.
b. Along with God’s presence comes the mystery of God’s presence.
1. As we read stories of the ark of the covenant we see how The relationship between the Ark and the presence of God is reinforced by the recurring motif of clouds.
2. God’s presence is frequently seen in the guise of a cloud in the Bible (Ex. 24:16), and the Ark is constantly accompanied by clouds:
When God spoke from between the Cherubs, there was a glowing cloud visible there (Ex. 40:35);
when the Jews traveled, they were led by the Ark and a pillar of clouds (Num. 10:34);
at night, the pillar of clouds was replaced by a pillar of fire, another common descriptor of God's appearance (Ex. 24:17);
and when the High Priest entered presence of the Ark on Yom Kippur, he did so only under the cover of a cloud of incense, perhaps intended to mask the sight of the presence of God in all its glory (Lev. 16:13). (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ark-of-the-convenant)
3. presence and mystery.
b. Donald Miller describes worship in his book Blue Like Jazz like this, “When we worship God we worship a Being our life experience does not give us the tools with which to understand. If we could, God would not inspire awe.” (Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller, 202)
- we worship God because we do not know what else to do with his mysterious God whom we cannot fully understand.
- Yet the God who has proved again and again to be worthy of our praise.
3. Sometimes in our effort to make God accessible, we lose some of the mystery and awe.
4. you don't have to wear a suit and tie if you're a man or a dress if you're a woman to worship God. We say come as you are and be comfortable.
5. We encourage children in worship so that they might discover God, and we try to make God accessible to them. In some ways, we are trying to blow away the clouds and make God seem clear.
6. We do not need a priest to mediate God for us.
7. Ironically, in that effort to make God accessible, we may also have taken some of the awe out of worship.
8. But as we reflect on the ark of the covenant we are reminded that the mysterious God we cannot ever fully understand meets us when we gather for worship.
c. That is part of the power of worship - to be present with God.
1. Nevada Barr, Seeking Enlightenment Hat by Hat (190-191): “I didn’t come to the Episcopal Church because I believed in the unbroken lineage of bishops or because I believed in the god to whom they were said to have dedicated themselves. I chose the Episcopal church over a temple, mosque, or churches inhabited by Presbyterians, Catholics, or Baptists because it was close to my apartment and, the evening the whim came upon me to turn to God, the front doors were unlocked. I didn’t come to worship. I came because I was lonely, frightened and desperately unhappy.”
2. In our ever-changing world, we need a place where we can move beyond our world, where we can go when we desperately need to be with God. 3. Worship is that place.
Move 3: final thought on the ark of the covenant and worship - notice its portability
a. Ark could be moved, indeed it would be moved.
1. the Ark of the Covenant traveled with the Israelis and would be placed inside the Tent of the Tabernacle (another portable) where the Israelites would worship.
2. Portable worship born of necessity.
3. when you wandered around the wilderness for forty years, you needed a way to take worship with you.
b. WE know that need more now after a year of worshipping in a pandemic.
1. Worship for us has changed and adjusted in the past year.
2. LIvestreaming worship.
3. Communion kits in worship and meeting our own communion table at home.
4. Video clips in worship.
5. Changes born of necessity.
6. Not the last changes, I suspect, as we grapple with what church will be like in the future.
7. Even when we fully open the doors of our sanctuary, exception for worship, or at least how we worship will be changed.
c. We move into that future in the assurance that the God whose presence was found in worship in the ark of the covenant will be present with us in our worship.
Conclusion: Paul announces to the Athenians that he knows the “unknown God” they mention on the statue.
We know that God as well. The God who is present with us. The God whom we worship with awe.
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