As with Our Ancestors

Each of the passages we read this morning describes a multitude, in both the multitude is gathered in the presence of God to worship. One is visible and one is a vision.

The visible multitude is gathered for the dedication of the Temple. King Solomon assembles the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses and the priests carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David and they bring everything from the Tabernacle, the tent of meeting God, and place it in the newly built Temple in Jerusalem. And Solomon dedicates the Temple. The passage we read this morning is his blessing of the people. “The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, but incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his statutes and his ordinances, which he commanded our ancestors.”

Solomon is praying that they will be made saints. A saint is a person acknowledged as holy, and to be holy is to be dedicated and faithful to God.

We call the process of becoming a saint, “sanctification.” So, how do we get “sanctified.” First, we don’t do it. Solomon prays for God to be with them and to incline their hearts. Second, we don’t do it alone. Solomon prays for the multitude. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us as individuals and as a congregation that transforms us. As our hearts are inclined to God, the Holy Spirit works in us, so we live lives of increasing holiness, righteousness, mercy, service, power, and love, as we are changed more and more into the image of Christ.

God is the one who is making us saints so that we may join the multitude in the vision, from every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages. All standing before the throne, robed in white with palm branches crying out, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the lamb.”

One multitude, all the saints. One of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s powerful quotes comes to mind, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”

We are on that boat. Our ancestors are on that boat. For the early Christians, the symbol of the boat was important. The first prayer that we have recorded for a baptism ritual says “Received into the ark of Christ’s church…may so pass the waves of this troublesome world as finally to come to the land of everlasting life.” In fact, symbolizing being on the boat together to safely navigate the troubled waters of the world around us was so important to early Christians that in 375, the Apostolic Constitution stated, “When thou callest an assembly of the church as one that is the commander of a great ship, appoint the assemblies to be made with all possible skill, charging the deacons as mariners to prepare places for the bretheren as for passengers, with all due care and decency. And first, let the building be long, with its head to the east, with its verstries on both sides at the east end, and so it will be like a ship.” They designed their Sanctuaries to look like a boat. The main body of the church, where all the pews are, is called the nave. The word nave comes from the Latin word for ship, navis. The church building is a symbolic ship for worshippers. Look up, see the ship’s hull turned upside down?

The multitude…we may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat. And we gather at this table. All the saints. For here the communion of saints, the visible multitude and the vision of the multitude, gather together to receive the presence of God. Here we are fed by God’s grace, gathered in a boat to weather the storms of life together. The floods will come. The thunder will roar. The boat will go through squalls. Do you know what to do if you are in the boat in a storm? Move to the middle of the boat.

Hear again the blessing of Solomon to the multitude and the song of the multitude in worship at the throne, “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised; not one word has failed of all his good promise. The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he not leave us or abandon us, but incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments.”

“Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”