Ark, What Ark?

Jeremiah 3:14-18

This week the sermon may seem a bit disjointed. You may listen and think that I am chasing rabbits all over the place; but, actually I am not. As I read this text and reflected on it the themes seemed to jump around as well, but yet still they are all tied together. That being said let me lay a map out for you to follow on this journey through the text. First we will discuss the History of the Hebrew people that led them to this point. Then we will look at the thought of “return”, third we will consider the metaphor of “shepherd”, fourth the “Ark”, and finally “Jerusalem”. In the end I hope to tie these disjointed thoughts together and at the same time apply them to our lives.

Let us begin by looking at the text:…

HISTORY
If you remember back to our study of Genesis last fall you may remember how Abraham and Sarah were the parents of Isaac, and the grandparents of Jacob. Now Jacob wrestled with God at the River Jabok in Gen. 32:22 and his name is changed to Israel, the one who strives with God. Jacob had 12 sons whose families eventually formed 12 tribes – the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Over time they became enslaved in Egypt but through the leadership of Moses and the direction of the God of their Ancestors, YaHWeH, they were once again freed and they gradually returned to the Promise Land, the land of their ancestors of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. In Joshua 15 – 19 we see the division of the land to the 12 tribes and some of the half-tribes. Over the years they were led by various Judges and military leaders, both men and women, but eventually they wanted a King. In fact Judges 21:25 tells us that “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.” Samuel tells us about the rise of the Kingship of Saul, then David, and finally Solomon. Under David the kingdom united. They experienced great wealth and military victories. It was a great time for the Israelite people. It is the time of David that the people would look back to as their “Golden Age” and wish to return to. It is to the stories of David that future generations would look to as they awaited the Messiah.
After David and Solomon the Kingdom began to divide and eventually the Northern 10 tribes, now called Israel, seceded from the Southern 2 tribes, called Judah, where the capital city of Jerusalem was. Gradually the North first and later the South began to fall away from God and worship other gods. As they look at their own history they blame themselves for their destruction as they feel that God removed the protective blessing from them and they fell to the enemies around them, namely here the Babylonian Empire. The North fell first but Judah held on until 587 B.C. when it fell, Jerusalem was sacked, and the Temple was destroyed.

Jeremiah now writes to these exiled Hebrew people to give them a message from God, a message to challenge them and to give them hope.

RETURN
Jeremiah’s message is a command, an invitation, and a plea to return to God. To turn from the worship of themselves, to return from the worship of their false gods, to return to the life of promise that God had offered the generations before them.
In a sense it was also a call to return to the land they had been promised. Many of the leaders of the country had been removed from the land and exiled to Babylon. The Babylonians had a theory that to defeat a nation or kingdom you should remove the best and brightest, imprison them for a while but then incorporate them into the life of your society. As a result, the people are scattered, their customs forgotten, and their gods replaced with the worship of Babylonian gods.
But the Israelites were different. It seems that in exile they were drawn closer to God. Jeremiah and Hosea continued to bring messages to them, both in the exiled region of Babylon and in the homeland. They knew that they needed someone to lead them, to guide them, to shepherd them back to God.

SHEPHERD
Let’s think about the metaphor of a shepherd. What is a shepherd? One who leads the sheep. And what are sheep? The dumbest animals on the face of the earth! You can train a dog. You can teach a cat, somewhat. A horse and a cow can be left alone and they will go to the ponds for water and the pastures for grazing. If a cat or dog gets dirty they will clean themselves, but what about a sheep? If a sheep gets dirty it will stay dirty until the shepherd cleans it. If a sheep is thirsty it will wait for the shepherd to guide it to the waters. The sheep are helpless, they have absolutely no defense.
The Hebrew people compared themselves to sheep in need of a shepherd. They knew that they were helpless without God and a guide, a leader to shepherd them. And they needed to remember that God was with them.

ARK
That is the significance of the Ark of the Covenant. Many of us remember the movie “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” so we have an idea about what the Ark was. It was a box overlaid with Gold which contained the commandments from God. It was placed in the Holy of Holies and was a designated place where God would meet with the people. It was a visible representation of the presence of God with the people of Israel. But here we see that the Ark will not be remembered by the people. It will be a thing of the past. They will no longer need the Ark to know that God is with them, rather the presence of God will be with them and they will know it.
They will no longer need something to remind them that God is with them for Jehovah will be their God. A God who will meet with them, not on the lid of a beautiful box, but rather in the city of Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM
Ahhh, Jerusalem, the beautiful city of God. It is a place where Israel and Judah once gathered together in Worship of the Lord. And, it is a place where all the world would one day gather together in worship of the Lord.

CONCLUSION
So, now that we understand the passage from the standpoint of the people to whom it was written, what can we gather from this passage? What is the message for us today?

Are we so different from the children of Israel? Have we not forsaken God and followed our own gods? Not the gods of Baal, or other named gods, but instead we have followed the gods of money, the gods of sensuality, the gods of self and power. After September 11, 2001 a prominent African American pastor made the comment that “America’s Chickens had come Home to Roost” meaning, I assume, that the attack on our country was the result of our foreign policy in the Middle East and our domestic treatment of minorities. Though I may not agree with what Rev. Wright meant by that phrase, today I think that “our chickens have come home to roost.” As we have placed our faith and our trust in the all mighty dollar we have finally found that the dollar can not be our shepherd. The pursuit of wealth at all costs can not be sustained and as a nation, and for some of us as individuals, our chickens have come home to roost. Now, even those who stayed true to God have felt the pain of those who worshiped the god of money.

I can hear God now, calling us to return to our foundation.
I can hear God calling us to the promised life that was offered to us so long ago.
I can hear God calling us to forget about the Golden Years that we think we remember and return to the God who will bless us regardless of the years.
I can hear God calling us to forsake the worship of wealth and to use our financial abilities to glorify God and to grow the Kingdom of God here on the earth.
I can here God calling us to Jerusalem. That place that, 2000 years ago became the place where Judah and Israel came together. That place where all nations return to worship the Lord…

God is calling us back to the Cross. You are invited on a journey to this Cross. This week we will begin our Lenten Journey to the Cross with Ash Wednesday. We will spend Six weeks reflecting upon our lives and our devotion to our Lord. In the end, we will find ourselves at the foot of a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem where we return to find our salvation in the One that unites all under one banner, the cross of Christ.