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Life is full of commitments and
promises. We make them every day. Some are profound and some, in the scheme
of things, may seem small and inconsequential. If you wear a wedding bang,
then you have made a commitment, usually with the church's blessing, to
remain faithful to your partner in sickness and health.
In order to drive on the roads in the state of New Jersey, despite all
contrary evidence, you had to demonstrate that you had the skill and you knew
the rules to drive. And if you break this commitment, you run the risk of
paying the consequences.
We make commitments to our jobs, our families, our friends, and to our
church. In the Baptismal ceremony, we promise to bring the young ones to
Worship, place in their hands the Holy scriptures, and teach the Creed and
the Ten Commandments.
Politicians make commitments to the citizenry and theoretically, if they
break these commitments, they will be booted out of office when the next
election comes.
Many of you may have a mortgage, or at least had one. Did you know that the
word mortgage literally means agreement with death. If you have ever had one,
this is no surprise. Mort- meaning death. -gage sounds very similar to agree.
Most bankers do not look like the Grim Repaer, but you better keep your
commitment, or everyone will be unhappy!
There is a story about such an agreement; what may at first seem like an
agreement with death. And to everyone's surprise (especially the Disciples of
Jesus), it has a very happy ending.
This story begins in the Common Testament passage for today (Genesis 15:1-12,
17-18.) There seem to be some strange things taking place. Abram, one of the
Super heroes of the Bible, and God have entered into an agreement. It is an
agreement that would for good measure, change Abram's name to Abraham.
It seems pretty simple really. God will provide the aged Abraham and his wife
Sarah (as I have quoted Fredrick Beekner often) who had one foot in the grave
and one foot in the maternity ward, that they were to be parents of a great
nation, a nation whose population was to number as many as the stars; a great
nation that would be a blessing to the world. In exchange, these children of
God were to remain faithful to God, carry out God's Commandments, and trust
in God.
The Lord Almighty, the one with no name, was to be their God and they were to
be God's faithful people. That is it, simple and to the point. We refer to
this agreement as the Abrahamic Covenant.
Now, here is the odd part. When we make agreements with folks, we often shake
hands. Commitments often require contracts. You have to sign on the dotted
line. In olden times, before the invention of the modern lawyer, contracts
went like this:
The parties to the contract would meet in the center of town, where everyone
could see them and witness the agreement. Upon conclusion of the stated
terms, an animal of some type was to be ritually sacrificed by being torn
apart or cut in two. The bigger the contract, the more animals involved. The
more important the agreement was, the more expensive the animal.
The two parties would then stand in the middle of the bloody and gory scene
to indicate that if one of them breaks the contract, then the other party has
a right to exact the same fate upon the breaker. If one party fails, the
other party has the right to literally divide the person's goods, family, and
even life. Got that? You could end up like the poor chicken that has just
been mutilated in the town square.
So Abraham and God have made a covenant. It is at this point that the story
takes an amazing turn! A deep sleep comes upon Abraham. While he is sleeping,
a smoking firepot and torch pass through the animal parts. The firepot and
torch only! You have probably guessed by now that all that smoke and fire
represents the God that is too Holy to see. So God passes through the blood,
alone.
Here is the big point. (FANFARE) God signed the contract for both parties.
God made the deal and agreed to uphold BOTH ends of the contract, so that if
Abraham loused up his end of the deal, God would take the fall. That is like
going to the bank, asking for a million dollars and the baker saying
"sure, here are the terms and the contract. I'll sign both lines so that
if you can't pay me back, I'll take care of it for you." Where is that bank?
God demonstartes that if for some reason God messes up, the blame will be on
God, and if Abraham and his children mess up, the blame will be on God. GUESS
WHICH PARTY MESSES UP? Hint: It ain't God.
That brings us to the Disciples. Can you see where this is going? The
followers of Jesus do not understand that this agreement God has made with us
to be our God and for us to be God's people is a permanent covenant, one that
we constantly break.
Jesus got it. And he has his mind set on Jerusalem to keep the contract, pay
the price, and make good on the promise. In this moving passage (Luke
13:31-35) Jesus speaks to the children of Abraham as a mothering God wishing
to take them under His wing, and protect them, even to the point of death.
Over the next few weeks that we call Lent, we will see how this great
contract is fulfilled in a frenzy of love for us. How our salvation is
secured, our faults redeemed, and our debts paid.
As Christians we are called to imitate Christ. One of the hardest parts of
that is to forgive others as we have been forgiven. We pray it each week. We
all have someone in our lives, living or dead, that we need to forgive. That
someone may even be ourselves. Perhaps the best way to start forgiving others
is to realize the steep price that has been paid.
So rejoice and rejoice again!!! The bank has called. You are off the hook!
Amen!
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