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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, January 11, 2015

“In Covenant” Jeremiah 31: 31-34 Matthew 26:28

A rainbow. Blood brothers. Pinky swears. Marriage certificates. What do all of these things have in common? They are a sign of a covenant. Now it may seem odd to compare pinky swearing to being married, but at their heart they show a binding agreement to either do or not do something. With marriage their are lots of things that are covenant, to be with each other in sickness and in health, to forsake all others, and to be with one another until death, to name a few. With the Biblical covenant of the rainbow, God made one promise to never again destroy the whole earth. 
Biblically, covenants were a form of law. When God made a promise, God did not go back on it. Perhaps the most famous Biblical covenant was between God and Abraham, when God promised that Abraham’s decedents would number the stars. That he would be a great nation who would be blessed and they would have a land to dwell in. In order to symbolize the importance of this promise and to seal it into law, both Abraham and God traveled through animal carcasses that had been split in half. Perhaps a little odd to us now, such severing of an animal was important to the parties entering a covenant at this time because it symbolized that those who broke the covenant would have similar fate. 
After Abraham, there was a new covenant under the leadership of Moses. God promised that he would make Israel his chosen people, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. However, there was a twist with this new covenant - God now had expectations of the people as well. It was no longer just God making a promise to the people, God now had an expectation of the people’s behavior as well. They were to follow the ten commandments and remember that God had brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Unfortunately, the people failed in upholding their side of the covenant, and as a result they often felt distant from God. 
Covenants often were accompanied by a sign to remind people whenever they saw or experienced it of God’s faithfulness. Following the destruction of the earth in the time of Noah, it was a rainbow. Every time the people saw it in the sky they were to remember God’s promise that the whole earth would never be destroyed again. For the people of Israel under the leadership of Moses it was the Sabbath, a time of rest that they never received as slaves in Egypt. A time to wholly commune with God.
The next time we Biblically see a covenant established it was between God and David. David was described as the greatest king to rule Israel and a man after God’s own heart. The Davidic covenant was a bit more complex. God promised David that one of his decedents would succeed his leadership. That one of his offspring shall build a temple to worship God as a holy place, set apart. And that through him, the kingdom of God would be established forever. However, the people of Israel forgot about the Davidic covenant when his reign came to an end. They went searching for their own leadership and king, instead of trusting that God would provide one for them. Ultimately, their lack of faithfulness and breaking covenant ended in their captivity, which is where we find them in this morning’s scripture lesson found in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. In a time of complete desperation, God meets the people’s need by telling them that a new covenant is on the way. It will be an unbreakable covenant, one where the very love and law of the Lord will be in the people. Under this new covenant their unfaithfulness and sin will be forgiven. 
Enter Jesus. As Christians we believe Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made in Jeremiah. In fact, we remember the covenant God made with us through Jesus, every time we celebrate holy communion and recite the words from the gospel of Matthew, that he shed the blood of the new covenant on our behalf. 
Why are we spending time talking about promises made long ago? Because this Sunday we are celebrating different covenants that we make in the church. During the sacrament of baptism we promise to help raise the one being baptized up in the faith, looking after their spiritual care and well-being. When we take vows of membership we promise to give to the local church and the Church universal our prayers, presence, gifts, witness, and service. These aren’t just words that we say they are promises we make. 
My friends and family will tell you that I strongly dislike broken promises. In our present culture, we seem to make promises left and right that we have no intention of fulfilling. Or we make promises that we try to keep for a short period of time and then give up when it becomes hard. But if there is any place that the words “I promise”, or “I vow”, or “I covenant to” should matter it should be the Church. For God has made an unbreakable covenant with us through Jesus Christ, who we strive to both worship and emulate. 
Some promises we can only make once, like vows of membership or promises made at our baptism. But John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed that we needed a reminder of those promises. Like celebrating an anniversary or the people of Israel remembering God’s covenant through the keeping of the Sabbath, as Methodists we gather once a year to reaffirm what we believe and who we covenant to be together. In your bulletin you should have found a copy of the Wesley covenant prayer this morning. I’d like to invite you to take it out and read over it. In a few minutes we will read this covenant aloud together, saying that we want God to be first in our live and that we will submit to the will of God, whatever that may be. This is our binding promise for the year, one we will remember when we gather together for worship or fellowship. One that we will remind each other of. I’d encourage you to put this card some place where you can see it every day, and remember both the covenant you are making and the covenantal promise God has offered to you.
Additionally, our parish is entering into two new covenant starting this year. The first is a covenant between the Pastor Parish Relations Committee and the Pastor. This covenant combines the vision of each church with the role of the Pastor in the coming year, specifically focusing on areas of spirituality, leadership and administration, worship leading, education, pastoral care and counseling, community service, representation, and personal responsibility. From time to time this year you may wonder why I am doing one thing and not another and reference will be made to this covenant. The covenant helps the churches define what is important to them and how we are going to live together as two churches sharing one pastor.
Another covenant will be for our leadership team/ council. This covenant speaks to how we are going to treat each other as people of God following Biblical principles of love and respect. Before entering a meeting, those present will be reminded of the covenant and the promises that we make to each other and to God. Copies of this covenant will be made available following the worship service today as well. If we do not follow the covenant during meetings, the pastor or chair will stop the meeting and gently remind each of us to read over the covenant again. 

Promises matter because they speak to where our heart is. They show the binding truths that we believe are crucial between ourselves, God, and others. May we now join our voices together, affirming who we are and what our guiding truths will be in this coming year as we pray together Wesley’s covenant prayer….

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