March 2, 2008<br>
Background Scripture: 1 Chronicles 15:1-28<br>
Devotional Reading: Psalms 150<br>
The “ark” to which the title refers is probably not the same “ark” that comes to your mind.<br>
It is natural to assume that we are speaking of Noah’s ark, the wooden ship that Noah was instructed by God to build. (Gen. 6:14-16). Neither is it a reference to the ark of the infant Moses, the container of Nile bulrushes (papyrus), mud and pitch in which Moses was placed by his mother to hide him from the Pharaoh’s decree (Ex. 2:3).<br>
Instead, it is the ark (a chest or box), the Ark of the Covenant constructed of acacia wood and overlaid with gold for the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple (Ex. 25:22). Its contents included a gold lid, the mercy seat, two golden cherubim and two stone tablets containing the Law, the basis of God’s covenant.<br>
Even in the days when the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness, there was an Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies of the tent-like tabernacle, as there would be in the subsequent Temple of Solomon.<br>
The ark was carried wherever the Israelites went, including into battle. It was in a battle with the Philistines that the ark was captured and spirited away by the enemy. Only later, when the Israelites vanquished their enemy, was the ark recaptured. The first attempt to return it to Israel ended in tragedy (1 Chron. 13).
But later, in our background scripture for this week, David makes a second try and this time is successful in bringing the ark into Jerusalem.<br>
The mystery of the ark<br>

In the centuries following, the ark was removed from the temple and lost. We do not know who took it, when, how or where it was taken. Quite possibly it was during one of the several invasions of Jerusalem by its enemies. Ethiopian tradition holds that the ark was taken to that country and is safely ensconced in an Ethiopian church there.<br>
The mystery continues.<br>
So why spend time learning about an ancient Hebrew relic that has been lost for centuries? I think we can learn from how the people of Israel handled that loss. The Jews regarded the ark as symbolic of God’s presence. They knew that God was with them in their wanderings because the ark went everywhere they went.<br>
When they were exiles in Babylon, they learned to experience the presence of God without the ark and without the temple. And still later, after their return to Jerusalem and after the ministry of Jesus, as they violently rebelled, the Romans destroyed the Temple and it was never to rise again.<br>
But the Jews continued to worship God, now in their community synagogues, where early Christians worshiped, a practice that evolved into the earliest forms of Christian worship. The essence of that worship was the conviction that God was present.<br>
God’s presence<br>

Today, there is a lot of controversy over the ways in which Christians worship.<br>
Some hold that the old forms of worship do not appeal to the younger generations we are trying to reach. Some churches find that even the older generations seem to be remiss in worship attendance. And why do so many members stay away when Holy Communion is served?<br>
I do not know the answers to these questions, but I wonder whether all of us ought not to ask ourselves whether worshippers are experiencing the sense of God’s presence. I wonder about church services that are basically folksy and entertaining, with sermons consisting of a number of jokes or funny stories at the beginning and ending, and with a bit of scripture and a few platitudes in-between. I wonder about churches that follow faithfully time-honored rituals that many find stale and mind-numbing.
Does any of this worship engender a sense of the presence of God?<br>
Rufus Jones has written: “Worship is the act of rising to a personal, experimental consciousness of the real presence of God, which floods the soul with joy and bathes the inward spirit with refreshing streams of life.”<br>
I agree – but is that what we are looking for and experiencing in our churches? Is the ark still missing?