The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in all. During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them. [1 Samuel 7:2 (NLT)]
As we settled into our pews in the sanctuary, people talked loudly, called out to one another, laughed raucously, visited other pews, and checked their phones even after the organist started his beautiful prelude. It wasn’t until the pastor stood at the pulpit and started speaking that they eventually quieted down and put away their phones. As I wondered what became of the awe and reverence that should accompany us into God’s house, I again thought of the time Israel brought the sacred Ark of the Covenant into battle with them. Putting aside their idolatry, consider the lack of respect given to this religious chest designed by God and representing His presence among His people.
After being defeated by the Philistines, Israel blatantly disregarded the law that the Ark was to remain in the Tabernacle’s Holy of Holies in Shiloh and brought it to their camp in Ebenezer. Rather than treating it with the reverence due the most sacred object in the land, they loudly cheered the Ark’s arrival as if it were a team mascot. Pagan armies carried their gods into battle with them and, when they carried the Ark into battle the next day, the Israelites were no different than the pagan Philistines. Their sacrilege ended with defeat and 30,000 dead.
In the ancient world, the gods of the defeated were carried off by the victors and the Philistines took their battle trophy to their temple in Ashod. Thinking Israel’s god was in the box, they placed the Ark in the temple to serve as a secondary god to their major deity Dagon. The great God Jehovah, however, is second to none and He is not to be treated disrespectfully. When things went from bad to worse for the Philistines, they finally decided to return the Ark to Israel. Accompanied by a guilt offering of golden tumors and rats like the ones that probably ravaged their land with a plague, the Ark was returned to the Israelite city of Beth-shemesh.
The people of Beth-shemesh were overjoyed at the Ark’s return but, instead of treating it as the sacred object it was, they treated it as a curiosity. The inquisitive men opened the Ark and looked into it. This sacrilege was a serious violation of the law. As descendants of Aaron, the men of Beth-shemesh were priests and knew that they were prohibited from looking in the Ark “for even a moment.” Regardless of intentions, even touching (let alone opening) the Ark was punishable by death. When 70 men (some translations say 50,070) were struck down for this sacrilege, like the Philistines, the people of Beth-shemesh wanted to get rid of the Ark as soon as possible. What they failed to comprehend was that the Ark didn’t cause those deaths; it was the people’s impious, thoughtless, and reckless behavior that did!
Men from Kiriath-jearim came for the Ark but, rather than taking it back to the Tabernacle in Shiloh where it belonged, they took it to the home of Abinadab. Stored unceremoniously as if it were an old trunk in the attic, it remained there for twenty years.
Which brings me back to the noisy sanctuary last week. While church should be a welcoming place, it seems that we’ve shifted from relaxed, friendly, and unintimidating to irreverent, cavalier, and rude. A neighbor has noticed the same thing in her church.
A sanctuary is a sacred place set aside for worship—it may be in a large cathedral, small church, rustic chapel, park, living room, arena, auditorium, school room, or store front. Nevertheless, wherever it is, God demands (and certainly deserves) reverence and respect. Do we approach the sanctuary with awesome wonder at being welcomed into God’s house or do we irreverently give no thought at all to where and why we’re there? Does our behavior in church honor and glorify God? Does it reveal our gratitude for worshipping freely, safely, and openly; for hearing God’s word and singing His praises; and for sharing the Eucharist with our brothers and sisters in Christ? It should.
Israel “mourned because it seemed that the Lord had abandoned them” and it was twenty years before they repented of their behavior. God, however, had never abandoned them; they had abandoned Him when they stopped revering Him and started treating His Ark with disrespect and contempt. May we never make the mistake of treating our place of worship (His house) the same way!
In Acts 16, we meet Timothy, the son of a Greek Gentile and a devout Jewish woman. Paul probably met him several years earlier when he preached in Lystra or Derbe. Both Timothy and his mother were Christ followers and it was from his mother that Timothy became knowledgeable in the Hebrew Scriptures. By the time Paul returned to Lystra, Timothy was a young man who was well-regarded by the churches in Lystra and neighboring Iconium. Seeing his potential, Paul asked the young man to join him on his second missionary journey. Before departing, however, Paul asked Timothy to be circumcised.
I think Satan chuckles every time he sees another division in Christ’s church. He probably shouted with glee when the Southern Baptist Convention recently expelled five congregations (including the mega Saddleback church) and when the no-longer-united United Methodists lost 1,800 congregations and found themselves embroiled in lawsuits with many of those congregations. Although Methodist Bishop Tom Berlin sadly noted that, “The path of anger and hostility is not the Christian way,” it seems to have become the way of Christ’s church in the 21st century! While today’s issues are different, they are no less divisive than an issue that threatened the very existence of the early church.
When reciting the creeds as a youngster, I wondered why I said we believed in the catholic church when we didn’t go to one. My family didn’t attend the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our priest was married, and our service was in English, so why did we attest faith in the catholic church? It wasn’t until my confirmation class that I clearly understood that the creeds weren’t referring to the Roman Catholic church. Coming from the Greek katholikos (derived from kath holos, meaning “throughout the whole”), catholic simply means universal! The term originates from the first century and the words of Ignatius of Antioch: “Where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic church.”
Can worship be fun? In various translations, Hebrews 12:28 tells us to worship God with reverence and awe, honor and respect, or deep reverence. No where is there any mention of fun. In fact, except for the somewhat cynical and world-weary words directing us to eat, drink, and be merry in Ecclesiastes 8:15 Scripture uses the word “fun” in a negative way—that of “making fun” of someone. Hagar was sent away after she and Ishmael made fun of Isaac, Delilah accused Sampson of making fun of her with his lies, and the fertile Peninnah made fun of Hannah because of her barrenness. So, if, by “fun,” we mean mere amusement (especially at another’s expense), it doesn’t seem that fun and worship go hand in hand. On the other hand, if by “fun” we mean something deeper than light-hearted entertainment or diversion, perhaps it does.
