“How did you sculpt the Statue of David?”
He replied: “I simply chipped away everything that wasn’t David.”
And for this season of Lent I’ve been doing something similar. Chipping away at our ideas about the Creator/Creation relationship, until all that remains is the “New Covenant” that the Prophet Jeremiah writes about,
the New Covenant we Christians describe as God’s relationship with the world,
established by God through Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
I’ve been chipping away by saying what God’s covenant is not,
so that we can see what God’s covenant is.
In the first four weeks, I let you all know that:
-God’s Covenant is not a weapon of war, but the proclamation of peace.
-God’s Covenant is not exclusionary rules, but trust permeated by hope.
-God’s Covenant is not Diktats to the Enslaved, but Freedom in Community.
-God’s Covenant is not Wages for Human Work, but Our Whole Life, a Gift from God.
Now, finally, I want you all to know that:
-God’s Covenant is not a fragile, scattered, shattered relationship,
but continually being drawn into internalized, intentional, renewed relationship.
Prayer
God’s Covenant is not a fragile, scattered, shattered relationship,
but continually being drawn into internalized, intentional, renewed relationship.
Jeremiah writes to a people in exile
—off in Babylon, kidnapped there
an experience not unlike the Exodus in Egypt,
that the 10 commandments—the 10 words—addressed.
To the Exiles, all those promises of God
—they seem empty, they seem exhausted, at an end;
it seemed like God has betrayed God’s people!
The people fell short and God had cut them loose.
And like Moses before him, Jeremiah offers hope to a hopeless people
—things didn’t work out because our relationship with God depended on:
our own willpower,
our own comprehension
our own abilities…
Not next time, Jeremiah writes
—it shall be a relationship upheld by God!
God drawing people to God’s-self.
A relationship that is inside you,
that is not haphazard but intentional,
a relationship that is renewed by God!
And the big question
—at least one of you have asked me about this before
—when? When will such a thing happen?
Is this something we wait for,
or has it already occurred?
If this is the Christian covenant, how is it fulfilled?
And this is my answer—though it might seem to simple… In Christ Alone!
In Christ, there is a new relationship with God.
In Christ, an event like escape from Egypt.
In Christ, the Law incarnate, and the Gospel too (just look how people respond to their encounters with Jesus).
In Christ, the Spirit within our hearts and lived out in our communities.
In Christ, God among God’s people.
In Christ, we know the LORD—the invisible God made visible.
In Christ, we find forgiveness and God forgets all guilt.
Remember that statue of David I’ve been telling you about…
well, Michelangelo might have made a David,
but what I’ve been sculpting for you all,
this covenant of God…
it is the image of Christ.
If I’ve done my job, we ought to say like those Greeks in today’s Gospel, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus!”
Look to the one who dies, and is a seed,
planted so that we might all taste of the fruit of this relationship
—we are all continually being drawn into internalized, intentional, renewed relationship
Do you wish to see Jesus?
Look, there on the cross
—it is like Noah and God’s Rainbow
—a war monument, to peace!
An intentional shift of divinely sanctioned violence into the compassion of Christ!
Do you wish to see Jesus?
Look, at him, his cry of dereliction somehow yet tinged with trust…
zeal and righteousness are no longer a thing to boast about as Paul warns us,
instead being held by hope is the only thing that matters
—a hope in the face of death on a cross,
a hope for the impossible life that comes out of death!
A daily dying and rising!
God’s ongoing work with me, in me!
God’s ongoing accompaniment of God’s people—to the end and beyond the end!
That’s the only game in town!
The only thing worth putting your trust in.
Do you wish to see Jesus?
Look, the Passover Lamb, behold the Lamb of God!
Behold this gift, freedom from death and freedom for a life with him!
The Spirit of Christ ushering us into a new and renewed life,
a people, caring for community in word and deed
—called to be the Church
—a people of ongoing death and resurrection!
Do you wish to see Jesus?
Look, a ripped curtain in the Holy of Holies,
the division between the sacred and the profane itself divided,
torn open like Baptism! God is on the loose!
All the preparations of Lent, leading to the ultimate down story
—buried to bear fruit.
the ultimate because/therefore story
—because Christ is lifted up on the cross, therefore he is drawing us all to himself.
the despairing love of the cross,
love on the cross,
God among us, despairing with us
—between dying thieves, longing for us,
this God, comes alongside you and me.
Yes, peace, hope, freedom, life—that is what remains,
that is the relationship with God and this world God so loves.
That is the New Covenant.
-God’s Covenant is not a fragile, scattered, shattered relationship,
but continually being drawn into internalized, intentional, renewed relationship. Amen.
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