The Brand New Covenant

For March 25, 2012

All Scriptures are from The Message Version

This post is intended to help the reader personalize the words and thoughts in the scriptures.  It works well if shared between two or more people as a conversation but there is much to be gained by just considering the questions for yourself.  Commentaries for the lectionary scripture can be found on Textweek through this link http://www.textweek.com/prophets/jer31c.htm.

One of the themes of Lent is renewal; setting things of the past aside and being led in the new direction that Christ’s sacrifice on that first Good Friday opened to us.  Our Old Testament Lectionary Scripture speaks to renewal, a new covenant from God to the people of Israel.  But Christians claim the prophesy as the New Covenant promises which came to us through Christ and his sacrifice on the cross.  First we will first look at the prophet Jeremiah’s words and then one of the many New Testament scriptures which speak to this New Covenant from the Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.

Jeremiah 31:31-32 "That's right. The time is coming when I will make a brand-new covenant with Israel and Judah. It won't be a repeat of the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant even though I did my part as their Master." God's Decree.

·       What was the original covenant?  Wikipedia introduces it this way:

The Mosaic Covenant, beginning in Exodus 19-24, contains the foundations of the Torah. In this covenant, God promises:

To make the children of Israel His special possession among all people if they obey God and keep his covenant [Exo 19:5]
To make the children of Israel a kingdom of priests and a holy nation[Exo 19:6]
To give the children of Israel the Sabbath as the permanent sign of this covenant [31:12-17]
As part of the terms of this covenant, God gives Moses the Ten Commandments. These will later be elaborated in the rest of the Pentateuch. The Decalogue begins with Yahweh's identification and his doing for Israel ("who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Ex 20:2) as well as the stipulations commanding absolute loyalty ("You shall not have other gods apart from me"). The fullest account of the Mosaic covenant is given in the book of Deuteronomy http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy&version=MSG.

·       Can you think of some examples of transgressions which might have caused God to conclude that Israel had broken the covenant?   The Old Testament prophets wore out the theme of God’s disappointment and anger at the Israelites constant falling away – just read Isaiah 1 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%201&version=MSG for a good example of this frustration.
·       What do you imagine was the mood, demeanor, tone of voice, and frame of mind of God as the new covenant was announced?  Might God have made a mistake when the first covenant was made?  Does it speak to a God created human being that ended up operating in a manner that was not anticipated when Adam was molded from the mud?  Is the new covenant a Plan B after Plan A seems to have failed?   What other reasons might there be for the failure of the first covenant?
·       What does this announcement by God say about the tenacity in His desire to establish a relationship with humankind?  Do you have a person in your life with whom you have worked hard to maintain a relationship through times when you felt let down or shunned?  What caused you to continue to work on the relationship?  Think about that in the context of our creator and us, his creation.

Now Jeremiah prophesizes about the nature of the new covenant:

^33-34"This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They'll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I'll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!" God's Decree.

·       The Ten Commandments are a small but important part of the covenant – how have you done in keeping faith with them?    Is it easy to understand exactly how to apply the few words of each commandment to the real world?  For instance what exactly does it mean to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy”?  Can you remember all of them http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2020&version=MSG?  How did you learn about them?  Is continued learning and study an important part of a healthy faith life?
·       What does having something written on your heart mean to you?  Take a minute and think, what is dear, important, intuitive, and instinctive in your life?  How did these things become so much a part of you?  What went on in your life that set the stage for them to be inscribed in this way?  Do these things differ in the impact on your life from those that you may have learned through study, do out of obligation, or use to earn a living.  
·       Two very specific promises are made as a part of the new covenant, what are they and who do they apply to?

Christians have inherited this promise; we are the people of the New Covenant, as Paul explains in his letters most notably in Romans.  Below is one of the many scriptures which help us understand the new:

Romans 8:9-11 But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

·       What must happen for the New Covenant to be written on our hearts, what does Paul give us as the big if in the first sentence?  What meaning does God himself taking up residence in your life mean to you?  Have you sensed this in your faith journey, are there specific instances that come to mind?
·       What is the reality we live with as people of faith, is our humanness ever totally removed?  But what is different for us as we travel on a faith journey, what overcomes those human failings and brings us real life?  Do you think that any of these promises are real for you, that your faith has been and continues to be transformational, that it brings real life?
·       What have you learned today?  Do we need to explore ways of making ourselves more open to God and allowing Him to take residence in our lives?  Have you found some ways to do that during your Lenten preparations this year?

 Closing Litany (from Psalm 51)

Generous in love—God, give grace! Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,
scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don't look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Amen

Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16

Reflection and Anticipation

For November 28, 2010

This is the first Sunday in Advent and Thanksgiving weekend. It is also the first Sunday of the 2011 church liturgical year which serves as a time to both reflect back on our year long journey through the life of Christ and to look forward to the coming reign of Christ as King of the earth and his completion of a new creation.

We first look back on those things which have held meaning for us this past year:

· Take a moment to write down the things of the past year for which you are truly thankful:


It is also important to reflect on our faith life during the past year. Our spiritual blessings and growth can be taken for granted and the writer of Ephesians turns our attention to them:

Ephesians 1:3-6 How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

· What spiritual blessings does the writer celebrate in these words? What meaning do these words have for you?

· What spiritual blessings of this past year would you give thanks for today?


We can now look forward to the coming year:

The writer of Revelations speaks to the establishment of God’s kingdom here on earth. Advent is the time when we celebrate the initiation of that process – the coming of the Messiah, our Savior.

Revelation 21:3 I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate

· What comes with the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth? What is your reaction to this imagery; do you include thoughts and hopes like this in your personal faith life? What is your vision of Christ's return and how significant is it in your spiritual life?

But we live in the in-between times, between the Savior’s birth and the promise of Revelations 21. As Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans:

Romans 8:18-21That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

· Is there a sense of the in-between, now and not yet, in your spiritual life? What do you find reassuring about that reality and what is spiritually challenging?

· Do you think that the things we consider the ups and downs of a typical life are of the intensity the writer speaks of as “hard times”? When might this scripture take a very meaningful place in our spiritual lives.

· Are there ways in which the Kingdom of God is alive among us today? What would you point to as concrete examples in your life or in our faith community?

As a closing take a moment to reflect on your spiritual blessings and your hopes and prayers for the future work of God in your life, the lives of those around you and for the world. Compose a prayer to frame your reflections in a personal Advent prayer. You might consider using it in your personal devotionals during the Advent Season:

Closing Prayer

We give you thanks, O God, for the many blessings in our lives. But we long for the fullness of your peace and justice in our midst. Strengthen us to do our part in bringing your promises to life in our waiting world. Amen.


Next Week’s Lectionary Scriptures: Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19, Romans 15:4-13, Matthew 3:1-12