The New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:23-37

                          

Israel’s living as captives in Babylon. Even after all the covenants God has made with Israel, all the promises and guidance through the gift of the Law, the gift of the Promised Land, God still has to step in because the people with power, wealth, and influence keep using it against the weak, poor, widows, and orphans for their own benefits rather than treating each person with respect and honour as fellow image bearers of God. The saddest thing is that you see so much of that still happening today; we don’t learn very well. God allows Babylon to defeat Israel and take her best and brightest into captivity. God punishes and allows the consequences of our sin play out in their painful ways, but he refuses to give up on or abandon his people. Ezekiel shows us the Spirit leaving the temple and heading east since God goes with his people, Ezekiel 11, “Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.”

It’s early in Israel’s exile. Yet they deeply long for their punishment to come to an end. In Israel’s case, the punishment’s going to last a while yet, so God tells Jeremiah in 29:5–7, ^“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Covenant has been broken and Israel’s facing the consequences. But, as Pastor Stan Mast reminds us, “There was that business of the Promised Land that goes all the way back to Abraham and is renewed here in verses 27 and 28… “I will be your God and you shall be my people,” …  That covenant relationship will continue.  Even the horror of the Exile did not break that relationship, though it seemed that God had forsaken them.”

God doesn’t allow them to wallow in sorrow or fear. He tells Jeremiah, “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” But there are other prophets who don’t like what Jeremiah’s saying and they trash him, telling the people that Jeremiah doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The Lord steps in and promises to punish the prophets Hananiah and Shemaiah for their rebellion. The Lord will bring his people home, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Covenant’s been broken, yet God always remains faithful to his people.

The Lord has allowed Israel to be torn down as a people and nation. Because God is a God of covenant and has fully committed himself to his people, he promises to build them up again, “The days are coming when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant.” The Lord’s going to bring them home, he’s watching over them, he’s going to rebuild them, plant them, help them grow again; grow in relationship with God, grow in their understanding of who God is, and who they are as his people. God is promising to invest in them and help them flourish again.

The Lord allowed Babylon to crush Israel. Israel is now able to experience what the nations are really like under their gods, helping them realize just how much the Lord has done for them, how the Lord has always stayed in relationship with them, even though they keep drifting away; attracted to the ways of the other nations. The Lord’s now showing them the depth of his commitment to his people, staying true to his side of the covenants, even as he allows them to experience the consequences of trusting in alliances and covenants with other nations. What alliances and groups do you place your trust, who commands loyalty in you that should rest in Jesus alone? Our hearts are easily drawn to the promises of others, causing us to forget Jesus’ promises and call on our lives.

Now the Lord says something that sounds kind of strange. “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.” We hear an echo back to Deuteronomy 5 where the Lord tells Israel, “You shall not bow down to idols or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” This acknowledges that parents’ sins often create pain for their children. We saw a little of this at Synod where churches who have declared themselves churches in protest because of the decisions of the past few years, have been placed in discipline, even if not every person in the congregation agreed with their council’s decision.

Now the Lord moves closer to his people, into a more intimate relationship with his people. Now each person will be responsible for their walk with God. When you go your way instead of God’s way, Jesus’ way, you’ll experience the consequences of your choices and actions. This doesn’t mean that someone else’s sin and wrong choices won’t affect you; that happens way too often, even today; it doesn’t mean that your parents’ bad decisions or sin won’t impact you in hurtfully or even harmful ways. Abuse, greed, lust, anger and more are such a part of the world that many of you have been hurt by others, yet this is because of their choices, not because God is punishing you through their sinful choices.

God tells Jeremiah that he’s going to make a new covenant with the people. “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with my people…. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, 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 they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is covenant given in a new way. Unlike the covenant at Mount Sinai that was written on stone tablets, this covenant is going to be written on the peoples’ hearts so they can’t forget. The covenant at Sinai was rooted in laws showing the people how to live with God and each other, and show us the character of God as a holy, righteous God who cares about justice and the flourishing of all his people, not just the wealthy and powerful. Now the laws will be right in the hearts and minds of the people. God gets deeply intimate with us here.

Pastor Stan Mast writes, “God’s people will actually have that law written on their hearts.  “I will put my law in their mind and write it upon their hearts… the new covenant does not reject God’s law.  Instead that law is injected into God’s people.” The Lord shows what that looks like in Ezekiel in 36, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Jeremiah and Ezekiel point ahead to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where his blood washes us clean from our sin, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit Jesus gives us after he rises from the grave and returns to heaven. Jesus’ Spirit now lives in our hearts, pointing us constantly to Jesus and leads us into lives that reflect the fruit of the Spirit in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Are you embracing the guidance and movement of the Holy Spirit, are you allowing yourself to be shaped in this new covenant into a deeper relationship with God? The new covenant calls us to say “Yes!” to Jesus each day, always remembering his commitment to us! Say “Yes!” to Jesus today, and every day!

 

The Davidic Covenant - 2 Samuel 7:1-17

                           

Israel’s at rest. David’s a man of action, so as he sits in his palace, he realizes, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” The ark’s back in Jerusalem after being captured years ago by the Philistines, but they gave it back after God showed them his power. David arranged for the return of the ark and now it sits in a tent. David doesn’t believe it’s right that the ark sits in a tent instead of having a proper home. Nations were judged by the power of their gods and the grandeur of their temples, so David wants God to be honoured. The prophet Nathan also thinks this is a great idea, but God has different ideas.

The Lord comes to the prophet Nathan. When Nathan tells David to go ahead with building a house for God, he never thought to seek the Lord’s leading first. Nathan falls into the trap of thinking that if it sounds like a great idea, then God must also think it’s a great idea. It’s not that David’s idea is a bad idea, it’s that it doesn’t align with what God’s doing, or where God is leading. This is why we’re given the gift of prayer, and today the gift of Scripture, gifted wise people in our congregations, and the ability to gather together to seek God’s leading. David and Nathan forgot all this.

The Lord tells Nathan to go to David and give him God’s plans; which are different than David and Nathan’s plans. The Lord tells them, “Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” The Lord reminds David that he’s never had a house, he’s always been a God on the move with his people wherever they found themselves.

When the Lord says, “a house to dwell in,” he uses the word tabernacle. The tabernacle was the meeting place for God and his people, which is why John in the opening of his gospel writes about Jesus, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” In Greek, John says, “The Word tabernacled among us,” echoing back to Israel’s time in the wilderness, and to this conversation. It doesn’t matter where we find ourselves, God’s there with us.

Since Pentecost, the Spirit makes our hearts its home, picking up on the idea of the tabernacle and God being with us wherever we are. Jesus gets at the same thing in his conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” Through the Holy Spirit, God’s always with us and we can worship him everywhere.

The Lord’s not against a temple. That’s not what the Lord’s getting at here. A physical place that reflects God’s presence is a blessing, not only to God, but also to the people, giving us a place to gather together to worship that reflects who God is. God gives detailed plans for both the tabernacle and the temple; both places of great beauty and wonder, places of craftsmanship. The layout of the buildings leads them closer to God, reminding us that God comes towards us first. The Lord reminds David of what he’s done; raising him up, being with him always, and now giving him peace.

We read in 1 Chronicles 22:7–10 that the Lord shared more with David about why he’s not the one to build the temple, “‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.”

This helps us understand what the Lord says next, “I will provide a place for my people, a home, and rest from enemies.” Then comes a personal promise to David, “The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom.” The word that God uses for “house” is bayit and it has three meanings in Hebrew.  It can mean “house,” “temple” or even “dynasty.”  David wants to build a house that is a temple for the Lord.  But God turns it around and promises to build a “house” that’s a dynasty for David.  As one scholar writes, “God rejects “temple,” but promises “dynasty.”

David’s children will succeed him. The Lord promises to establish David’s son’s kingdom and it will be this son who will build the house for the Lord’s Name; for the Lord’s reputation and fame. The Lord is also clear about the future. David’s line isn’t always going to be faithful; they’re going to sin. The Lord says straight out, “When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands.” This punishment is not about vengeance, it’s about guidance back into a right relationship with God.

Like a parent disciplining their children, it’s to help our children realize where they’ve gone wrong, but also to help them change. Change looks like realizing your wrong, confessing you’ve sinned, asking for forgiveness and reconciliation, and to continue to grow in your relationship with God and the body of Jesus. The beauty is that we don’t have to fear not being forgiven, “But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” This isn’t permission to do whatever you want, counting on Jesus forgiving you no matter what. Paul writes in Romans 6, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

This is a call to recognize Jesus’ commitment to us, and to respond to Jesus through obedience; that’s what covenant looks like. Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We see Jesus’ love in the cross, in his willingness to take on himself our sin and punishment in order to make us right with God our Father, and it calls for our love in return.

Walter Brueggemann writes, “David, David’s son, and David’s line can never lose Yahweh’s loyalty.” God’s work in David’s life and through his descendants reveals a shift from God’s presence with the people to God’s presence with the people through the line of David. The coming Messiah will be a king just like his father, David. Brueggemann writes, “David is given no credit and assigned no merit in this recital. David’s pre-eminence and power are all Yahweh’s doing. David is the creation of Yahweh’s powerful, relentless graciousness.”

This covenant is about presence and commitment, something that flows through all the covenants; it’s the promise of a kingdom and king rooted in relationship with God. We’re part of God’s people, grafted in as adopted children. God’s at work in our lives, present through the Holy Spirit in us. Jesus is on the throne; he’s been given all authority in heaven and on earth; he’s King of kings. We’re called to submit ourselves to Jesus our king, to live his way as he taught and modelled. We’ll sin, but we live in hope, knowing that through Jesus, God’s love is never removed from us. We may face punishment for our sin, we’ll certainly experience the consequences of our sin, but we never have to fear the we’ll ever be outside of God’s love. 

 

 

 

The Mosaic Covenant - Exodus 20:1-21; Exodus 24:3-8

We often look at law as obligation, a burden and limit on our freedoms, or as a challenge to see what we can get away with when no one’s looking. Israel recognized what a gift the Law is to them. While other nations worshipped gods who were selfish and dishonest, Israel’s God clearly lays out his covenantal obligations to his people; giving Israel a clear expectation of what God expects from his people and who he’s calling them to be. There are no surprises.

This covenant begins in Exodus 19:3-6, “Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’” The Lord tells Moses to give the people these 10 Commandments, beginning by reminding them that he saved them from slavery. Everything else flows from this reminder that God is their redeemer and saviour.

God makes this covenant with them to shape and form them into a people who reflect him to the nations. They’re called to make no images of anything because that will lead them away from worshipping God, to use God’s name respectfully, and to set aside one day a week to simply spend time with him; trusting God to provide for them. All these commands are still applicable today, reminding us of who God is and how we’re called to relate to him. The Holy Spirit keeps pointing us to the importance of our relationship with God and what that relationship should be like.

Then God moves into how we’re to live with each other, and just as respect is the foundation for our relationship with God, so respect for each other is the foundation of these next commandments. We’re called to honour our parents as it imitates honouring God, we don’t take another person’s life since God is the giver of life, we don’t have sex with anyone who’s not our spouse as it brings brokenness into our relationships, we respect the property of others by not taking it for ourselves, we don’t hurt our neighbour’s name or reputation, and we’re to be content with what the Lord has given us.

Moses sees the law as a test for the people to demonstrate their commitment to God. The Law brings balance to our lives, reminding us that we cannot let our wants weight more than God’s call on our lives. Moses then shares with the people more of the commands the Lord has given them that reflect the character of God. The people respond, “Everything the Lord has said we will do.” To help them remember the laws, Moses writes them all down. The next day the covenant is ratified with a blood sacrifice where blood is splashed on the alter and then splashed on the people. God commits himself to making them a kingdom of priests.

As one commentary writes, “Priests were the primary religious leadership in the ancient Near East. Their duties varied according to the region and religion. All priests are defined primarily by their intercessory role. Priests acted as representatives of the divine to the people, and representatives of people to the divine.” Do you see yourself as a priest in our community? The people commit themselves to being God’s people and the blood covenant reminds everyone that this is a serious relationship with consequences if it’s broken. The covenant shapes the values and way of life of the people, values that reflect who God is and how we’re to live with God and our neighbours.

Law makes things more difficult. There’s something about law that triggers us in negative ways. Paul gets it in Romans 7, “Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power…. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me. But still, the law itself is holy, and its commands are holy and right and good.” Paul goes on to talk about how he does the things he hates, but the things he loves he doesn’t do. Law triggers our selfish prideful sides.

John Calvin sees that the Law has three main uses. Calvin sees the Law as a mirror that “shows us the spots on our face.” Looking into the mirror, we see that we easily worship things more than God, we’re seldom content with God’s gifts, always coveting more, and how lust, anger, and more fill us. When we pay attention to the mirror image of our souls, this prods us to turn back to God, confess our sins, and seek forgiveness because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sin. Calvin sees the Law as a bridle that keeps us from doing what we want, and he sees the Law as a lamp that shows us, as Psalm 119 says, “the path of righteousness.” In our worship services we regularly take time to confess our sin, hear God’s words of forgiveness and grace, and then reflect on who God’s will for our lives. We do this out of gratitude for God’s love for us, accepting the Law as a gift that guides us in pleasing God. As a church in the Reformed tradition, this is one of the main characteristics of our faith, Law as gratitude.

Jesus talks about the Law in Matthew 5:17–19, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” I began thinking about what Jesus is getting at when he talks about fulfilling the Law. It’s more than just following the rules. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches us what the kingdom of heaven looks like. Tim Mackie writes, “It’s an upside-down kingdom where the humiliated and afflicted find honor, never to experience poor treatment again. It’s a world where the greatest power is love, not wealth or might. It’s a kingdom where the ways of God and the ways of humankind become united as one.” Jesus summarises the law in terms of relationship when he tells the people in Mark 12:28-31, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus expands the Commandments from simple obedience to our heart’s alignment, we see that fulfilling the Law is rooted in love. In loving God and neighbour, we help in establishing the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Think about God’s command to not commit adultery. It’s easy enough to obey, don’t have sex with anyone you’re not married to, yet Jesus says, “anyone who looks lustfully at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” When we consider all of Scripture, the goal of not committing adultery is about respecting marriage and each other. To fulfill this law is to support and encourage the marriages of others, helping couples to keep their eyes and hearts on each other and the Lord.

In not committing adultery and building others’ marriages, we fulfill the law. When we love, we fill it fully. Paul writes in 1 Thess 5:15, “See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone but always pursue what is good for one another and for all.” Tim Mackie writes, “biblical law often gets misinterpreted, leading to religious-looking behaviors that still allow space for ongoing contempt and hatred in our hearts. But Jesus and the apostles say that these commandments… are instructions that restore human beings’ love for one another. In this way, love fills full the Law and the Prophets.”

Purity, holiness, and proper love were important in the early church, believing that by living according to Jesus’ way, others will also follow Jesus. Justin Martyr writes that Christians “pray for our enemies, and endeavor to persuade those who hate us unjustly to live conformably to the good precepts of Christ, to the end that they may become partakers with us of the same joyful hope of a reward from God the ruler of all.” We need people of faith living with this kind of a vision for society: the living testimony of a faithful, virtuous, loving community that honours all people.

If we want our children and youth to take Jesus seriously, we need, as adults, to live out Jesus’ way through sincere love for others, seeking what is best for them, to go beyond just following the rules to being Christ-like in our relationships with God and each other.

 

The Covenant of Circumcision - Genesis 17

                    

We re-enter the story of God’s relationship with Abram 14 years after last week’s story when God called him to go to a new land, and promising him descendants. Now Abram still doesn’t have any descendants with his wife Sarai, though Abram now has a son, Ishmael through Hagar, a slave girl. Ishmael is now 13 years old. It’s a messy situation and it’s created a whole lot of pain, so much so that God sent Hagar an angel to reassure her that he hears her cries; Ishmael means, “God hears.” In today’s passage, we learn that Ishmael will be the father of 12 princes and the Lord will bless him, even though he’s not the son God will carry out the covenant with.

The Lord appears to Abram, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.” Abram falls facedown to the ground in worship and awe as the Lord goes on to tell him that he’s going to make Abram the father of many nations. The Lord changes Abram’s name to reflect what he’s going to do, changing it to Abraham, which means “father, progenitor, and chief.” Now the Lord promises to make this covenant an everlasting covenant between the Lord and Abraham and his descendants after him. This is a promise of relationship and presence, a promise of protection and identity for Abraham and his descendants. The Lord goes on to reaffirm his promise of the land for Abraham and his descendants as an everlasting possession. This promise is what lies behind the push after World War 2 to re-establish the nation of Israel. How many other nations, after being out of their land for over 1,800 years have ever been re-established? The Lord is faithful.

The obligations for Abraham and his descendants are obedience and faithfulness, to be the Lord’s people. The sign for this covenant, and the blessings that come from it, is circumcision; the covenant sign is made in the flesh of every male child who belongs to, or lives among, the people of Israel. The covenant is going to be played out through a son of Abraham and Sarah. Sarah is going to be the mother of the nations living in covenant with the Lord.

The covenant is based on walking faithfully with God and being blameless and obedient. The Hebrew words point to wholeness, honesty, devotion, integrity, and being without fault. This is what it means to be in relationship with God, this is the character God’s people are supposed to cultivate, this is part of our identity, who we are as his people created in his image, showing the world who our God is. Faith is not as much about what we do, it’s about who we are. Our character shaped by God, leads into what we do and how we live. As the blog The High Calling says, “Being blameless or integral means living a life of wholeness as God originally designed us to live.”

This points us to Jesus and how he fulfilled all the laws and the prophets, how he lived life the way we are called to live; living out God’s will and call on our lives in obedience and faithfulness. We call this Jesus’ active obedience, all part of our being saved from our sin. Jesus isn’t our example; we can’t do life as he did because sin still keeps drawing us away from God. Jesus is called the Second Adam, the one who lives out the covenants we can’t, the one person who completely believes in and trusts God the Father, even as it leads to the cross and offering his life and blood as the sacrifice for our sin.

God chooses circumcision as the sign for this covenant, just as he chose the rainbow for the sign of the covenant with Noah. These signs remind us over and over again of God’s promises to us and of our response to God. The One For Israel blog writes about why God chooses circumcision, “Circumcision is a blood covenant between all those in the house of Israel… and God, and God takes it seriously. He says it's an everlasting covenant, and those who do not enter into it are to be cut off from the people. Ordinarily in any ancient covenant blood is spilled as an ominous warning about the consequences of breaking it, but typically an animal is cut instead of a person. In the blood covenant of circumcision, we see the symbolism of a line being cut off, the seed of the man stopped in its tracks, as abandoning the covenant means being cut off from the people…. God could have chosen any sign…. So what was the point of it…. It's to do with the most graphic symbol there is of fleshly desire, and how our flesh can be at war with God. It's to do with our innermost being: our hearts.”

Circumcision’s a physical sign of the covenant made in the flesh of the male members of God’s people. It’s not only Abraham who’s called to be circumcised, but also the slaves and servants of his household. Later on, all Israelite males, all male slaves, and any male foreigner who lived in the land were also to be circumcised. If they became followers of God, they needed to be circumcised to be allowed into the temple area or participate in the Passover. Exodus 12:43–49, “These are the regulations for the Passover meal: “No foreigner may eat it. Any slave you have bought may eat it after you have circumcised him, but a temporary resident or a hired worker may not eat it…. “A foreigner residing among you who wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat it. The same law applies both to the native-born and to the foreigner residing among you.” Circumcision is the sign of belonging to Israel’s God.

Through the generations, circumcision becomes a metaphor for faith. In Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses says, “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” Then in Deuteronomy 30:6, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Circumcision is a sign of purity and right-living with God, of walking in the way of the Lord and trusting the way God has called us to walk.

Even in the time of Jesus, circumcision was part of the Jewish faith and identity; both John the Baptist and Jesus are circumcised on the eighth day. After Pentecost and the growth of the church among the non-Jewish peoples, circumcision became a point of controversy. There were Jews who demanded that anyone converting to following Jesus had to be circumcised. Circumcision was closely tied to law obedience and Paul seeks to expand our ideas of faith from simply following the law to a way of life focused on our character, shaped by loving God and neighbour. Paul speaks out strongly against circumcision of the non-Jews in his letter to the Galatians where he calls the people to live by the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” He writes in Romans 2:29, “No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” This echoes the Old Testament connection of circumcision to faith. 

Paul connects baptism with covenant as a fulfilment of the Exodus and God’s saving of his people by making a way through the Red Sea, and also as the fulfilment of circumcision under the Law. Israel’s identity came through circumcision and the Exodus; in the New Testament, the Church’s identity lies in baptism. The good news of the Gospel is not just about forgiveness from sin and brokenness; it’s about being whole again and living the life we were intended at creation. Many of us live with brokenness inside ourselves, pulled in different ways by our faith and our culture. We can be torn between what we understand as our faith’s response to various social issues and our culture’s response. Definitions of basic words and concepts such as love and tolerance separate rather than draw us together, creating conflict in our hearts and minds as we seek to follow Jesus. Some of us walk with unspoken hurt, fear, and even fear of trusting Jesus because trusting Jesus means fully committing to his way.

The good news is that through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for us and the grace he offers to us, we’re, through repentance and faith, made brand-new persons. When we choose Jesus’ way, he makes us whole inside, creating integrity within our hearts, souls, and minds as the Spirit shapes and guides us. Jesus re-establishes the lost intimacy, integrity, and relationship we once had in Eden with God and with each other, and will have again when Jesus returns. The Spirit helps us trust Jesus, healing our soul pain, guiding us to Jesus, helping us find peace and wholeness.

 

The Abraham Covenant - Genesis 12:1-9; 15:1-21

          

This morning we’re entering the stories of God’s relationship with Abraham. Since the creation of the world, God’s been working with humanity as whole and now God takes a different path in his relationship with humanity, he chooses one person to work through to reveal himself to all people, and he chooses Abraham. The Lord’s very deliberate in his choosing in order to reveal his glory and power. The Lord approaches Abram and tells him to pack up his life and leave his clan, his country, and his security and trust the Lord’s promises.

Can you imagine getting a call from the Lord to leave everything behind and start a new life in a place you’ve never seen? Some of you understand the difficulty in this call, having immigrated here to Canada, not necessarily for yourself, but for your children and grandchildren. You, or your parents or grandparents were willing to sacrifice so you could have better lives. You understand how big a change the Lord is asking of Abram. Abram immigrates with Sarai and his nephew Lot and Lot’s family, and all his servants and slaves. Abram is 75 years old with no kids; no spring chicken and his wife is barren.

Abram has a choice: trust God or to trust in the life he’s created over the years. Trusting the Lord will be hard because the promises made to Abram seem almost impossible to believe; promises of becoming a great nation and of being a blessing to all people on earth, promises of the Lord’s blessings and protection when Sarai is barren. Abram chooses the Lord, he chooses trust. I’ve been thinking a lot about trust the past year. Our culture doesn’t trust very easily anymore. There’s been a huge loss of trust in the past couple of years in government, churches and pastors, in leadership of almost any kind. Trust in each other has suffered; people tend to look for the worst in a person rather than giving each other the benefit of the doubt when there’s disagreements. Trust is a choice we make and if we tend towards not trusting, this affects our relationship with Jesus, making it more difficult to trust in him, leaving us to trust only in ourselves. This leads to chaos and brokenness, which is part of why God makes covenants with his people; to help us to learn trust in him.

Abram makes his way to Shechem where the Lord meets him, telling Abram, “To your offspring I will give this land.” As Abram settles into the area, he and Lot separate. Lot gets into trouble and Abram saves him by going to battle against a coalition of 4 kings. God gives him the victory and Abram meets Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Lord who blesses Abram. Abram has established himself as a military power in the area; people now see him as a potential ally or threat. Abram’s safety is no longer as secure as it was before defeating the 4 kings.

The Lord approaches Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” God will protect him. The word “reward” seems to trigger Abram, reminding him of the Lord’s promises of descendants, but he’s getting older and so is Sarai. What does the Lord really mean with his promise? Abram tries to interpret the Lord’s promise, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” How often we still do that today; we read a promise in the Scriptures and then try to fulfill it in our own strength and way instead of patiently waiting and trusting in the Lord to do his thing in his way?

The Lord takes Abram outside and they contemplate the night sky in all its glory and wonder. “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir. Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” Think of what the night sky looks like when you’re away from city lights, like when you’re in the mountains away from artificial sources of light and how when the stars come out, the beauty and wonder touch our souls in a deeper way, helping us understand when the psalmist tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God. In this moment, Abram believes, such a simple statement, and yet life changing!

Paul talks about this moment in his letter to the Romans, “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith…. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham…. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him.” Abram does nothing to deserve or earn anything from God, but his simple act of believing in faith is credited to Abram as righteousness, as the right response to God.

The Lord enters into a formal covenant with Abram, building on the covenants with Adam and Noah which include the call to be fruitful and multiple. Now the Lord promises an heir to Abram from his own flesh who will be a blessing to the nations and a land for them to live in. This covenant is ultimately fulfilled in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, who calls people to himself into his kingdom. Abram, even though he believes, still wonders how it’s all going to happen, and in a roundabout way, asks the Lord for a sign.

The Lord calls Abram to do something we find strange, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram brings them to the Lord; he cuts the larger animals in half, and arranges them opposite to each other. The birds he leaves whole and places them across from each other. The Jewish Commentary at Chabad.org says, “He (the Lord) was forming a covenant with him to keep His promise, to cause his sons to inherit the land, as it is written (verse 18): “On that day, the Lord formed a covenant with Abram, saying, etc.,” and it is the custom of those who form a covenant to divide an animal and to pass between its parts.” We’re given an example of this covenant making in Jeremiah 34:19 between the Lord and Jewish leaders, “The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf.” The pathway of animals creates a pathway of blood, as they would make a slight trench between the pieces of the animals. This highlights the importance of the covenant and it also means there’s serious consequences for the side of the covenant who fails to live up to the terms of the covenant.

The Lord comes again to Abram in a deep sleep. Moses describes it as a thick and dreadful darkness. The Hebrew implies fright and horror; this is a scary moment for Abram. Now the Lord gives Abram a glimpse of the future of his descendants, a future filled with both tragedy and triumph. They’ll leave this Promised Land, but the Lord will be with them and bring them home again. Many see the creation of Israel in 1948 as another fulfillment of this covenant again. Now the Lord appears as a smoking firepot with a blazing torch and passes between the pieces. This image of God as fire echoes all through Israel’s history and is one of the names of God, the Shechinah. One dictionary describes Shechinah as, “Transliteration of Hebrew word not found in the Bible but used in many of the Jewish writings to speak of God’s presence. The term means “that which dwells,” and is implied throughout the Bible whenever it refers to God’s nearness either in a person, object, or His glory. It is often used in combination with glory to speak of the presence of God’s shekinah glory.”

The Lord binds himself to this covenant, and by passing through the blood pathway on his own, he takes on the entire responsibility of the covenant on himself. The covenant points us to the covenant of blood Jesus makes with us on the cross. Through Jesus’ active obedience and sacrifice on the cross, which only he’s capable of doing, we’re made right with God and can have confidence in God’s faithfulness to us in all his promises of forgiveness, healing, and new life in his kingdom. Abram believes and chooses trust in God. The same challenge is there for us today; the call to believe and allow that belief to grow into a deep trust in Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus has shown himself worthy of our faith and trust. This is why we share our faith stories, to remind ourselves of why we trust Jesus, and to help others to believe and trust with us.  

The Noah Covenant - Genesis 9:1-17

    

We’re returning to our series on covenants this morning; a covenant is: “A sacred kinship bond between two parties, ratified by swearing an oath… serving as a means to forge sociopolitical bonds between individuals or groups. God’s covenants are prominent in every period of salvation history. Divine covenants reveal the saving plan of God for establishing communion with Israel and the nations, ultimately fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Christ.” God’s first covenant with Adam and Eve and is called the covenant of works where humanity was given stewardship over creation. The only rule for this covenant was obedience to the command to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Today’s covenant is called the Noahic Covenant and builds on this first covenant.

The Noahic Covenant really begins with Adam and Eve disobeying God. After Adam and Eve disobey God, evil rapidly grows in the world. It grows so great that God sees what’s happening and he mourns. Noah is often understood as a story of justice and vengeance, but it’s in the context of God’s grief. Genesis 6:6 says, “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

God looks down and finds favour with one man, a righteous man, Noah. God doesn’t give up on humanity; he approaches Noah and calls him to build an ark to save his family and the living creatures on the earth from a coming flood. Noah has a choice to make, does his obey God or do his own thing? There are painful choices here for Noah. God’s going to save him, his wife and his sons’ families, but everyone else is going to be destroyed; family, friends, neighbours are all going to be wiped away. Sin brings pain and brokenness. The world as Noah knows it will never be the same. Noah chooses God. We know the story, Noah builds the ark, God sends the animals, and then sends the flood, but Noah and his family, and the animals are saved. The creation story of Genesis 1 is reversed; watery chaos returns, but God steps in again, and restores order, renews the earth, and brings life again after the death that occurs during the flood.

After a year and 10 days, Noah, his family and the animals can leave the ark to walk on dry land again. God approaches Noah again and makes a new covenant with him. As we hear the words of the new covenant, we hear echoes to God’s first covenant with Adam and Eve, but we also see changes because the world has changed. “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.”

We hear the echo to be fruitful and multiply, but now the creatures of the earth will be filled with dread towards humanity. The Lord gives them the green plants to eat, but meat now enters humanity’s diet; no wonder dread of humanity enters the beasts! But as with Adam and Eve, God gives them restrictions, “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.” This is a command to not be like the nations around them who believed that there’s magical power in a creature’s blood that they can have for themselves when they drink the creature’s blood. Life comes from God, not through magical incantations and the drinking of blood. Life is precious, this is why God goes on, “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.” Moses wrote down these first 5 books of the Bible, so the setting of the telling of these stories is likely Mount Sinai. These stories prepare the Israelites for the coming laws God gives them.

Now God makes a formal covenant with Noah and all living creatures, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” This is a covenant of life, a promise to never again destroy all life through the waters of chaos. God gives Noah and all living creatures a sign to remind them of his promise, and to remind himself. There are no requirements on Noah, his family, or the living creatures to live up to the terms of the covenant; this is a covenant that only God can make and keep as creator of the universe.

God tells Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.” God takes all the action and responsibility of this covenant on himself.

The rainbow is a sign of punishment, of renewal, and grace. Isaiah 54 refers to this covenant as a covenant of peace, “In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the Lord your Redeemer. “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord.” Every time God sees the rainbow, he remembers his covenant. According to one physicist, George Millay, there are about 10,000 noticeable rainbows at any given time around the world. The rainbow is made up of rain and sun, the elements of punishment and then grace. God has given us a sign that is always there; a constant reminder to God himself of his promise. God cannot, will not forget his promises to us, all out of his love and commitment to us.

The rainbow’s a powerful symbol of how serious God is here. The rainbow’s not a child’s bow, it’s a military image, a war bow aimed straight into heaven at God himself. God’s telling the world that if he fails to keep his covenant, he’ll pay the price for his failure, putting himself on the line, a formidable commitment to humanity and all life on earth, to life over death, to grace over vengeance. We see this commitment by God to us worked out in Jesus Christ who did die for us, taking on all the responsibilities of all the covenants we’ve failed to live up to. Jesus pays the cost of the covenants on our behalf, allowing us to receive all the benefits of the covenants.

Stan Mast writes, “Immediately after speaking his commandments for new life in verses 1-7, God anchors the continuation of life on earth in a covenant, a covenant initiated and kept by God and God alone.  Contrary to the universal belief of our day, the continued existence of life on our planet does not depend on human decisions and actions.  Though we are responsible to live by God’s commandments, it is not finally up to us to make human history turn out right.  If right living determines whether life continues on planet earth, may God help us, because we have demonstrated from the very beginning that we cannot do it.  Ours is a legacy of chaos and rebellion and disobedience and death.” 

Doug Bratt echoes this thought, “Noah’s drunkenness and his sons’ disrespect show that the thoughts of post-Flood peoples’ hearts remain quite evil…. So if the post-Flood future is up to people, God help us.  We’re in a lot of trouble. Genesis’ stories, our history and the current world show that we will lie, rebel, kill and push our way into the future.  God, however, responds by insisting, “I now establish my covenant with you and your descendants . . ..”

The rainbow is God’s way of reminding us and himself of his commitment to us; to life and grace, to an always relationship with us. The next time you see a rainbow, give thanks to God for his faithfulness and grace!

 

 

 

 

The Gift - Acts 2:1-13

Last week we focused on Ascension Day when Jesus returned to claim the throne as King of kings and to send the promised gift of his Spirit. This morning, we remember and celebrate the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has returned home and told his disciples to go wait for the coming of his Spirit. The disciples go from Galilee and head to Jerusalem. It’s Pentecost, the big harvest festival 50 days after Passover, which is why it’s called Pentecost, which means 50. The disciples go to Jerusalem as Jesus had told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The coming of the Holy Spirit is connected to the harvest, reminding us of Jesus’ comment that the fields are white with harvest, just needing workers.

The Holy Spirit comes with the sound of a rushing wind. For Israel, the wind is a familiar symbol of the presence of the Holy Spirit. In Ezekiel 37 we read of the Valley of Dry Bones, “The Spirit of the Lord set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones…. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones…. So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; … So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army….”

The Lord goes on, “you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’” The Lord uses word play here as the word for wind, breath, and Spirit are all the same word. In John 20, when Jesus met his disciples in the upper room right after his resurrection, Jesus breaths on his disciples, “And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” The Holy Spirit is God, a gift and presence, bringing new life and new hope, a sign of forgiveness.

Luke writes, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” This is another play on words, the word for tongues and languages are the same, similar to English; an echo back to the Tower of Babel when the people’s languages are confused because they’re building a “tower that reaches the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” The Lord responds, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” The Holy Spirit now gives them the ability to communicate in order to gather all people together into the body of Jesus. The new church is equipped through the Holy Spirit to go to the nations to share the gospel news: the “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs.”

The Heidelberg Catechism talks about the work of the Holy Spirit in gathering together the church in Question and Answer 54, “I believe that the Son of God through his Spirit and Word, out of the entire human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, protects, and preserves for himself a community chosen for eternal life and united in true faith. And of this community I am and always will be a living member.” The wonderful thing is that the Holy Spirit uses and equips us to gathering God’s chosen community as we share our faith in Jesus with others and live out that chosen-ness in our day-to-day lives. This is all part of what God promised Abram back in Genesis 12 when he says he’ll make Abram a blessing to all the nations of the world. God does this through Jesus, and now through us, the body of Jesus in the world. What greater blessing is there today than to introduce people to Jesus and all that he’s done for us in washing our sin away on the cross, bringing us healing from our brokenness and pain. We often look to the things of the world to find hope, healing, and meaning, and yet through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we don’t need to look outside ourselves for healing or hope, the Spirit within us brings us what we need, a renewed relationship with God.

I love how Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit points us to telling others about Jesus and building the kingdom of heaven. However, the coming of the Holy Spirit isn’t just about sharing the gospel; the Holy Spirit’s also given to strengthen the church and guide us into a closer relationship with Jesus. Derek Vreeland reminds us, “The church is not merely a gathering of the baptized to be scattered in the world. The church is a gathering of the baptized energized with the Spirit and then given to the world.” The church as the body of Jesus is a gift to the world, that gives the world a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven, of God’s shaping of a body that lives together, loves, forgives and offers grace, and invests in each other so we might become more and more who God calls us to be. 

Heidelberg Catechism Question and Answer 55 asks, “What do you understand by “the communion of saints?” The answer is, “First, that believers one and all, as members of this community, share in Christ and in all his treasures and gifts. Second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and joyfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.” To be a church that goes out into the world with the good news of Jesus, we need to be healthy together as we bring the healing hope-filled message of Jesus that brings new life. The Belgic Confession picks up on this in Article 24, “We believe that this true faith, produced in us by the hearing of God’s Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates us and makes us new creatures, causing us to live a new life and freeing us from the slavery of sin.”

This is the heart of the good news of Jesus, it’s not that we’ll never face trouble or hard times, it’s that we’re freed from the slavery of sin; freed from the lie that we need to save ourselves, or that our value comes from what we do and offer; our value comes from being made new through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for our sin, washing us clean from our sin, and being adopted into the family of God and body of Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 3, “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

What does it mean to be a healthy church able to reach our neighbours with the good news of Jesus? The early church gives us some good insights into what a solid foundation looks like, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer... praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Learning together, hospitality and friendship, generosity and compassionate care for each other, worship of God, and generously sharing our faith are always at the heart of a strong church and this leads to a church well-equipped to build the kingdom of heaven through the gift and power of the Holy Spirit.