Week 5: That's in the Bible? - Signs of Covenant
November 17, 2019 Genesis 15:7-18a
Deborah Laforet Luke 22:14-20
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“Signs of Covenant”
As most of you know, Jeff and I have purchased a house and will be moving in twelve days. This coming Friday, we will sit down with the lawyer, pay the balance of our deposit, our land transfer tax, and, I’m sure, sign a bunch of paperwork. We are basically making our agreement official; money paid in exchange for a house. In fact, there are a lot of agreements being made in the purchase of this house. In exchange for money to pay for the house, a mortgage company will charge us interest. In exchange for the lawyer’s services, we will pay a fee. In exchange for a bunch of people to come help us move, we will give them pizza and beer. Our lives are full of these kinds of agreements, from our work where we get paid for offering our services, to the many transactions we make everyday from gas to groceries, to parenthood where we entice children to eat their vegetables in exchange for dessert after.
Most agreements are “prid pro quo,” “tit for tat,” with both parties, hopefully, receiving their due or equal benefit. Usually there is a consequence to breaking this agreement. Nowadays it might be the police or the law in some way that would give out punishment. If Jeff and I were to stop making our monthly payments on our house, we would lose our house. If a child does not eat their vegetables, they would probably lose out on dessert.
Rob Bell, in his book, “What Is the Bible?” tells us about covenants, or agreements from the ancient world. He writes about one ritual from the ancient world that was performed in the following way: “First, you’d get some animals, like a cow or a ram or a goat or a dove. Second, you’d chop them in half. Yep, in half. Third, you’d lay out the halves with space between them, forming an aisle. Fourth, you’d stand side by side at one end of the aisle made of animal halves and you’d each state what you were going to do to uphold your end of the bargain…Fifth, you’d then walk between the halves of the animals while you said something like, ‘May I become like these animals if I fail to uphold my end of the covenant.’”
Bell continues, “In earlier cultures where systems of justice and enforcement were more primitive and in some cases nonexistent, your word was your bond. Rituals like these were like the glue, the bond, the insurance, the way that people trusted each other, the way that society held together…By the way,” he writes, “this is where the phrase to cut a deal comes from.”
So this brings us to the story that Carol Anne read for us. In this story, Abraham, by God’s instruction, takes a “heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon,” and he cuts them in half, laying each half over against the other. He then goes into a deep sleep. It’s described as a deep and terrifying darkness that descends upon him. God then makes promises to Abraham and then “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch [pass] between these pieces.”
It almost sounds like the setting for a scary story, one you might tell around the campfire with this “deep and terrifying darkness” descending upon Abraham and then these fiery objects appearing and floating before him.
But did you notice anything missing in this ritual? Abraham did not make promises to God. We only heard about God’s promises. Abraham did not walk with the smoking fire pot and flaming torch between the animals. It was only these objects that represented God that did this. In an agreement though, both parties are supposed to make promises and walk together. For all that God promises, for all that God will do for Abraham, and Abraham’s descendants, what will Abraham do for God? What will God get out of this bargain?
I’ll tell you. Nothing.
Which is similar to other covenants in our bible. In the story of Noah, God makes a covenant after the flood. The rainbow is a sign of this covenant with all the creatures of the earth. God promises that there will never again be another event like the flood. Nothing is asked for in return.
In our gospels, Jesus makes a new covenant. In his last supper with his disciples, he breaks bread and shares wine. He says in the gospel of Luke, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” He encourages his disciples to remember him every time they gather to break bread and share the cup. He tells them that the pouring out of his blood is a sign of the new covenant with them, but again, he does not ask for anything in return.
In March, we held a covenanting service between myself and St. Paul’s as I entered into my new role here. Tonight we will covenant with Carolyn as a new minister at St. Paul’s and we will covenant with Horseshoe Falls Regional Council, as we form a new relationship with a new structure in the United Church. These covenanting services are times when we all make promises to one another before God. During a wedding, a covenant is made before God between two people who make vows to one another. Covenanting is all about agreements and promises. We stand before God and one another and we promise to love, care, and support one another. Promises in exchange for promises.
But when God creates a covenant, there is no exchange. God makes promises and does not ask for them in return. God promises to love us, to care for us, to surround us with grace and mercy and asks for nothing in return.
We do have a covenant in the bible, with a two-sided agreement with God and that is the Mosaic covenant, the covenant in the book of Exodus and Deuteronomy, where God promises the Israelites, through Moses, to make of them a chosen people, if they follow the commandments given to them. God wants everyone to keep the sabbath, to honour their parents, to not kill, to not steal, to not covet, as well as a host of other commandments. If you’ve read the Torah, that is the first five books of the bible, (those reading the bible with me in a year have just about finished these five books), you’ll notice that the people break these commandments over and over and over again. God gets angry, threatens to cut the people off, Moses intervenes, and God settles down and gives the people another chance. Over and over again.
Now these written covenants and promises in the bible were passed down for generations and finally written down during and after the exile, the defining moment in the history of the Israelites, a time when their sacred and holy temple was destroyed and many taken from their land and exiled to another. It was a time when people were trying to figure things out. If God loved us and promised us this land, why are we now banished? Why has our temple been destroyed? Is God not on our side anymore? Did we break too many commandments? Is this our punishment? Is the covenant broken?
Some believed that it was, that God was an angry, jealous god, that doled out punishments or encouraged others to do the punishing when laws were broken. Others though saw a glimpse of something else. They saw the wonder of the created earth, they experienced love and mercy, they witnessed new life and resurrection, and they knew that they had not been abandoned. They knew that God had never left. They knew that God’s promises were ever-faithful and always true. No matter how many commandments were broken, and how often, God was always on their side.
Thus we have these stories of covenants with no conditions. In this story of Abraham, this relationship with God was seen in a new way. Bell writes, “In the story, God commits to upholding both ends of the deal. Even if Abraham fails to do his part, this God will be faithful…Abraham is being invited to trust God, to believe that God is good and has his best interests in mind and will be faithful to him even if Abraham makes a mess of things.”
And we do tend to make a mess of things, don’t we? In our own promises and covenants made, ones we make with vows to another person, ones we make in a covenanting service between churches and people, mistakes are made. Sometimes these promises fall apart. People are hurt. Relationships are broken. This is natural. We do our best, we work hard to mend or to heal these hurts, but sometimes they need to be let go. Sometimes, we need to offer forgiveness, to others and ourselves. Sometimes, promises need to be broken and new ones made.
But God’s promises will always hold true. What are these promises? For me, these promises are about the ongoing presence of the divine, holy acceptance for who I am, forgiveness when I make mistakes, patience when I’m stubborn, inspiration and courage to help create a more just world, and all of this, surrounded and immersed in the love of the universe.
You might articulate these promises in a different way and that’s ok. Like Abraham, I invite you to find those moments, when you might descend into that deep darkness and hear the voice of God and the promises that are there for you.
May you hear those promises and feel comforted and assured. May you be aware or come to be aware of that divine presence, always near, always filled with love, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy. And may you go out into the world, filled with that knowledge, and able to extend that same love, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy to world, bringing us ever closer to the kingdom of God. May it be so. Amen.