Actions of the Covenant

But God came courting, and through the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea, the food and water he provided in the desert, he said with unmistakable conviction “I love you.”

And then came the event at Sinai.

When God said on that mountain “I will be your God and you will be my people”, the Lord was saying “Will you marry me?”

And the Hebrews blurted out the words, “We will be your people.”

Oh, they certainly had trouble living within that marriage.

The prophets railed regularly and vehemently about their faithlessness.

Hosea and others described the nation as running away and playing the harlot against the Lord.

But the Lord did not give up on them.

At the time of the Lord's choosing, at the right time, 1,200 or so years later, Jesus came courting.

He rubbed elbows with crooked politicians and poor people, with the pious and the prostitutes.

He showed in a concrete way his love for us, yes us the unfashionable ones, oh so homely.

And he said to every sort of people “Follow me.”

And so may saw how absurd it all was.

Is this God in the flesh in my neighborhood, offering his love for me, for us?

With all that he has going for him, measured against our little lives, why in the world would such a One even talk with me, let alone announce his love for me, for us?

And so the generations since then have known ourselves as scripture announces us, the Church, which is the Bride of Christ.

Perhaps part of our problems and ennui in the church these days is that we have lost the sense of the wonderful lunacy of God loving us in these ways.

Our faith is based on the most far-fetched love story of all time, and we cannot reduce it to a checklist of do's and dont's which we can accomplish to our credit.

Yes, we have been called to love, honor, and cherish until death... and beyond.

But we have not been called to love a tyrant or a stranger.

It is not a business transaction; it is a romance.

And a sense of romance is exactly what we need to make the Christian life the adventure it was meant to be.

This romance is the way in which God acts with us, and we call it a “covenant.”

No, it is not an agreement between equal parties;

no, we cannot bargain with God to take this and not the rest.

This covenant is offered by God; and even more, he pursues us in order to offer it to us.

“Stop running away,” he says, I intend for you to be my people.

See how much I desire your life and not your death.”

This may not be the way the stronger party in a covenant usually acts,. But it is God's way.

In most other covenants, the stronger party lays out the demands in such a way that the weaker party will always stay that way, and never rise to challenge the stronger.

Pile on the duties, requirements, taxes, the sacrifices of persons and booty.

What God does at Sinai, and even more at the Last Supper, is to take the difficult parts of the obligations on himself!

“I will be your God, even though you do not deserve it.”

That which remains, the keeping of the law, is not the demands of the treaty, but the acts of thanksgiving which we come to understand that we can give freely and without reservation.

God took them, a rag-tag band of runaway slaves and made of them his people, and thus they are enabled and encouraged to thank, praise, serve and obey.

Jesus took them, a rag-tag bunch of disciples, and made of them his people, promising his continuing presence with them, and thus they are enabled and encouraged to thank, praise, serve and obey.

That is such a small thing measured against the obligations which Christ has taken upon himself...the abuse, suffering, criminal's death, and his continuing pursuit of us by the Spirit.

But Christ is determined that this marriage will work, and he acts to make that possible.

So each time we gather here, let us take up our side of the covenant with true joy:

taking the bread and wine, blessing God for them, breaking the bread for many, eating and drinking as the Lord invites us, caring for our selves and every neighbor, and inviting those not present to join in the continuing marriage feast.

Yes, this is for us, the ordinary ones, maybe even homely, deserving no special mention, even doing the Lord ill – we are the ones whom the Lord pursues and desires.

This is the covenant which he offers us, a marriage enduring eternally.

Let all say, Thanks be to God. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.