This Is the Covenant 3-25-`1

The Reading: Jeremiah 31: 31-34
“Behold, the days are coming, Says Yaweh, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them up out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was their spouse”, says Yaweh. “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yaweh: I will put my law in their minds and on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they need to teach one another or remind one another to listen to Yaweh. All of them, high and low alike, will listen to me, says Yaweh, for I will forgive their misdeeds and will remember their sins no more.”

The Gospel: John 12:20-33
Among those who had come up to worship at the Passover were some Greeks. They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put forth this request: “Please, we would like to see Jesus”. Philip went to tell Andrew, and together the two went to tell Jesus. Jesus replied, “Now the hour has come for the Chosen One to be glorified. The truth of the matter is, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. If you love your life you’ll lose it; if you hate your life in this world you’ll keep it for eternal life. Anyone who wants to work for me must follow in my footsteps, and where I am, my worker will be there too. Anyone who works for me will be honored by Abba God. Now, my soul is troubled. What will I say: ‘Abba, save me from this hour?’ But it was for this very reason that I have come to this hour. Abba, glorify your name!”
A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowds that stood nearby heard this and said it was a clap of thunder; others said, “It was an angel speaking.” Jesus answered, “It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours. Sentence is now being passed on this world; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown. And when I am lifted up from this earth, I will draw all people to myself.” By these words Jesus indicated the kind of death he would die.
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This is the Covenant 3-25-12
God, we need to dig deep into our hearts today if we are to understand your message. Help us hear beyond what we have heard before. Give us willingness to open the ears of our heart to hear. May the words that I speak and all things that we reflect upon bring honor and glory to you. Amen
This week’s readings call us to re-think some of what we may have heard before. The theme of both readings is covenant, although I admit that it is more hidden in the Gospel reading—challenging us to do the hard work of getting to our own understanding.
We must surely start with the meaning of the word covenant. There is the legal definition of a covenant: An agreement, contract, or written promise between two individuals that frequently constitutes a pledge to do or refrain from doing something. And this we learn from the on-line legal dictionary. However a legal definition has no place in God’s covenant with us in both the Old and New Testaments.
God’s covenant can only be understood from the standpoint of relationship—so much deeper than the do’s and don’ts of a simple legal contract. In God’s covenant legalism has been replaced with the image of radical acceptance in a relationship that is surrounded by and infused with God’s grace—the same grace we experience every time we partake of the cup of the new covenant in Holy Communion. So, we are blessed to approach these somewhat perturbing readings already fully enveloped by God’s grace.
We begin with Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s words were addressed to the Hebrew people who had, once again, strayed from a relationship with Yahweh. These folks, just like us, had terrible time putting God first in their lives. They were a lot like the story my friend the kindergarten teacher told me. There was this child who just could not or would not sit down. The teacher finally convinced her to sit down and the little girl said, “I may be sitting down with my body, but I’m standing up in my head.” These Hebrew folk just could not find the will within them to remain obedient to God.
Now God used the words of Jeremiah to reveal the divine prophecy to those who had a difficult time with faithfulness and steadfastness. “Behold, says Yaweh, in the days to come, I will establish a new covenant with these people even those who have broken our prior covenant over and over again. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yaweh: I will put my law in their minds and on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. All of them, high and low alike, will listen to me, says Yaweh, for I will forgive their misdeeds and will remember their sins no more.” As we listen to the words of God to Jeremiah, we must remember that prophecy, while set in an historical time and place reaches far beyond those particular people. We, too, are the recipients of these prophetic words. Are we ready to receive this new covenant—to be God’s people fully?
Jeremiah was given the difficult task of speaking God’s word to a people who had been rejecting God’s grace and the ways of God for a long time. They had been rebuked by God for what appears to be their unfailing disobedience. God had called and called and they still did not turn their hearts toward God. In an amazing turn of events, God promised them a new covenant, a covenant where God would place the Divine Law directly on their hearts. In this covenant, they would all listen to God, whether they were high or low, wealthy or poor, educated or illiterate. Not only that, but God promised to forgive their unfaithfulness and to forget all about their sins. Now these were people who had sinned in some of the most important ways, turning their backs on God; nevertheless, God makes a Sacred Promise—and we hear the prophesy of a new Realm of Justice centuries before the New Covenant of the Gospel appears.
You know, we MCCer’s shun the word sin. Having been told that who we are at the core of our personhood is sinful, we tend to reject the notion of sin in its entirety. MCC pastors mostly hate to use the word at all, and as a result, our attempts to preach a Gospel of Radical Acceptance can take us to a place of “all is well” without doing the hard work of preparing ourselves for this New Covenant in Christ Jesus. By failing to respond to God’s grace in a full and complete way that shines the light of forgiveness into every corner of our lives, we fall short of what Jesus calls us to in our Gospel lesson today. And, lest we forget, this is Lent, and during this time we are indeed called again to allow God to work in our hearts, our spirits, and even, our minds. Should we blithely assume, however, that this excavation of our hearts, this preparation of our whole selves for the receiving of the blessing of the New Covenant, takes place only during Lent, we learn to think another way. Lent does not conclude next week with Palm Sunday. Lent is a path that leads us to open ourselves up to the grace of God; and once faithfully started, leads only deeper for as long as we walk with God on this earthly journey.
And here we are at the Gospel. The presence of the Greeks are significant as a way to measure how far the news of Jesus had spread. Jesus knew if news of his teaching had spread to the Greeks, that the time was drawing closer for his death. This brief passage tells us all that we need to know about the New Covenant. Jesus replied, “Now the hour has come for the Chosen One to be glorified. The truth of the matter is, unless a grain of wheat falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. If you love your life you’ll lose it; if you hate your life in this world you’ll keep it for eternal life. Anyone who wants to work for me must follow in my footsteps, and where I am, my worker will be there too. Anyone who works for me will be honored by Abba God.” Speaking of his life and ours, at once he brings us to the place of honor and grace.
We often forget that Jesus was, first and foremost, a Jewish man who knew the words of the prophets and the content of the Law. Jewish thought regarded the heart as the seat of the will, not the seat of feelings. Here, he calls us to move beyond the realm of feeling—loving God is not a feel-good event. Jesus is calling us to a way of obedience, just as he is choosing to become obedient to God’s will, even if that will leads him to a cruel and horrible death. Jesus, always in the place of grace, calls us to sacrifice—He calls us to put the work of the harvest ahead of our fear and uncertainty. He speaks to us, gently, as if we are little schoolchildren struggling to understand a difficult idea. Listen to his illustration of what we must do to follow God: a grain of wheat (our lives before we choose to follow God) simply held in our hands will produce nothing. We can gaze upon it and wait for something to occur; but nothing will. However, if we allow God to lovingly plant the seed into the ground, the seed will first die, but will then sprout new growth—growth which will break through the barren soil and will yield a rich harvest.
Just so, allowing God to call us to a place of readiness for the new covenant—going into the ground, a dark and scary place where the truths of our inner heart are found, forgiven, healed and transformed, will result in a great and wonderful harvest. Our lives, when examined and readied by God, will produce wonderful things for God’s glory and will hasten the coming of the reign of God’s justice into our world and into our lives. Jesus is serious here—calling us to discipleship beyond the easy path—Jesus calls us to follow him in grace all the way to the cross and beyond—and he makes us a sacred promise—the promise that is indeed the new covenant: “Anyone who wants to work for me must follow in my footsteps, and where I am, my worker will be there too”.
This, then, is the new covenant—being where Jesus is—in the world, healing, loving and caring. And like the covenant of which Jeremiah speaks—this is a covenant of grace. Within a circle of grace we gather at the table, his table, and drink the cup of the new covenant. And as we do, may we walk in unity—together, as a people called to do the work of Jesus in the world. Amen and amen.