ALL ABOUT COVENANTS...

HEALTH WARNING: this sermon contains two jokes - to make up for not having the Archdeacon this morning...

GOLF

Shortly after the Pope made a statement of reconciliation to the Jews the Jewish Prime Minister suggests a friendly game of golf between representatives of the two communities.

The Pope’s problem is that he can’t play golf, and there are no senior Cardinals who are any good. One Cardinal has a suggestion...

“Holy Father there is a man named Jack Nicklaus, an American golfer who is a devout Catholic - why not make him a Cardinal, then he can represent us!”

Everyone agrees what a great idea it is and the deed is done.

The day after the match Nicklaus reports by phone to the Vatican to tell the Pope how the match had gone.

“There is good news and bad.”

“What’s the good news?” says the Pope

“Well, I played some blinding golf... the drives were long and true, the irons accurate and purposeful, my putting was perfect - in fact my play was truly miraculous.”

“How can there be bad news?” the Pope asks

Nicklaus sighed “I lost by three strokes to Rabbi Tiger Woods...”

Today in the OT reading we see God making a covenant - a promise, an undertaking with Abraham. He pledges himself to Abraham and Sarah.

Both Abram and Sarai get their names changes in token of this new agreement. (Abram means “exalted father”; Abraham means “father of many”; Sarah means “princess”). And for both of them the sound ah-ah is added! Laughter! To be parents at that age! Ha ha!... God’s covenant involves putting laughter in to their very names! So that’s the only justification for that joke... God seems to delight in putting laughter into the lives of his friends!

COVENANTS EVERYWHERE...

This is not the first covenant God has made - the first two covenants with Adam and Noah where when God pledged himself to the whole Creation, not just a person - as we were remembering in the Lent course on Thursday. This is a covenant to human beings - which comes after the covenant to the whole of Creation.

J, E, D AND P...

Scholars will tell us that there are four identifiable strands of writing in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy). Four different schools of spirituality with different interpretations, different emphases and concerns. This chunk of Genesis was written by the Priestly writer who was active after the Exile, when Israel returned to the Promised Land following their captivity in Babylon. And for the Priestly writer history was divided into sections (according to importance, rather than length), and each section was introduced by a covenant, or a promise. The four periods of history were: Adam to Noah; Noah to Abraham; Abraham to Moses and Moses (with the advent of the Law) to the ushering of the final age of the Messiah.

So for the Priestly writer Covenant, God’s Promise, was hugely important.

It showed that:

• God was active
• God took the initiative
• God had expectations of those with whom he made Covenants
• God was faithful, even when people were not
• God also revealed something of himself in each covenant and revealed a new name, or aspect of himself

The covenant came about through relationship - through faith; rather than by rules or regulations. In other words it was a covenant of grace, not of law. And this is what Paul is trying to stress in the reading from Romans.

THE EFFECT OF A PROMISE

A promise changes the present by changing the future... if we are convinced that something will happen then our behaviour can be quite radically affected. e.g. somebody confident that a very stout cheque is arriving in tomorrow’s post may well go out and spend some of it today... The very early church was convinced that Jesus was coming back within their life time, so they sold their possessions, didn’t both too much about social engagement and didn’t write any of the Jesus stories down. A promise changes the present by changing the future.

TERRIBLE JOKE 2:

It was October and the Indians on a remote reservation asked their new  Chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.  Since he was a Chief in a modern society he had never been taught the old secrets.  When he looked at the sky he couldn't tell what the winter was going  to be like.  Nevertheless, to be on the safe side he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should  collect firewood to be prepared.  But being a practical leader, after several days he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and  asked...

"Is the coming winter going to be cold?" 

"It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold," the  meteorologist at the weather service responded. 

So the Chief went back to his people and told them to collect even  more firewood in order to be prepared. 

A week later he called the National Weather Service again. "Does it  still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?" 

"Yes," the man at National Weather Service again replied, "it's going  to be a very cold winter." 

The Chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect  every scrap of firewood they could find. 

Two weeks later the Chief called the National Weather Service again. 

"Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?" 

"Absolutely," the man replied. "It's looking more and more like it is  going to be one of the coldest winters ever." 

"How can you be so sure?" the Chief asked. 

The weatherman replied, "The Indians are collecting firewood like  crazy." 

A promise changes the present by changing the future. Confidence in the promise is a prerequisite for real risk-taking.

NO SEX PLEASE, WE’RE... VERY OLD...!

God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah tested their confidence to the limit. He was 99, she was barren and yet they were promised descendants as numerous at the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore... With what kind of faith did they go to bed that night I wonder...?!

The promises of God for our future should also affect our present and the way we live.

THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG...

Paul expands this in writing to the Romans. Our behaviour is altered as a result of the promise of grace which arises out of the relationship with God. In other words our behaviour as Christians - the moral, ethical practicalities of living in the world - are not the result of obeying a set of rules, a written code or a complex series of laws; our behaviour is the outworking of our relationship with God. So Christian morality, Christian living, arises as a reaction to our faith; rather than our actions or morality being what make us pious or holy or acceptable to God.

Abraham acted as he did because he trusted God - he believed God’s promise. Not because he was presented with a series of impersonal rules and told to follow them.

This phrase about “justification by faith” which Paul sees exhibited in Abraham’s life and says is how Christian believers must act, is not some academic intellectual attribute of agreement with some proposition - it’s about acting in a way that shows we believe the promise of God.

FAITH - FOR ALL...

So faith becomes open to all - not just the preserve of the clever, or the well connected, the well educated or the middle class... but it becomes accessible to us as we respond to the grace of God.

In the gospel reading Peter’s reaction - which gets such a battering from Jesus - is about the very short term. Jesus is talking about the promise of God, the fulfilment of the Kingdom, the coming of salvation. Peter wants to avoid a bit of discomfort in the short term. Jesus reminds his listeners that being a disciple requires a whole new mindset. We are to see ourselves as dead to an old way of life, and alive to God in Jesus because of the resurrection.

The Scriptures are divided into two halves - the Old & New Testament - but they are also sometimes referred to as the Old & New Covenants.

PREDICTED

The prophet Jeremiah said

“‘The time is coming’ - declares the Lord, ‘When I will make s a new covenant with the house of Israel... I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, saying ‘Know the Lord’, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest”

(Jeremiah 31.31f)

This new covenant is based on grace, in the person of Jesus Christ - it’s God’s ultimate move towards his people. Our response to God’s grace is - or should be - like that of Abraham: what we do arise out of our relationship with God, not the other way round. God takes the initiate: our job is to respond.

LENTEN LINK

So what’s that got to do with Lent?

Sometimes we can find ourselves trapped in a meaningless ritual or way of behaving... and we’re not quite sure why, or we might say to ourselves “Well this is what Christians do... isn’t it?”. Empty ritual, or putting up a pretence because we think this is what others expect of us, can blind us to the order of things and our life in Christ.

In the overhaul of our lives at Lent we have a chance to look at our actions and attitudes; a chance to look again at our response to God’s grace. And as we do that, as we reflect on Abraham’s faith as a reaction to God’s initiative, like the Priestly writer we can see in God’s move of grace towards us:

• God is active
• God takes the initiative
• God has expectations of those with whom he makes Covenants
• God is faithful, even when we are not
• God reveals something of himself to us in his dealings with us.

A promise changes the present by changing the future...

Fr. Andrew J Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea