Covenant or contract?
Joshua 24 verses one through 2
John 6 versus 60 through 69
August 27, 2000
when our children were young, we used to travel from Connecticut to South Carolina in the summer time. The drive with four young kids was anything but peaceful. Back then there was no air conditioning, cassette players nor, television for your car. We were truly in the dark ages. And so, we often had to rely on the parents oldest and most effective weapon, bribery.
There was a place about midway on our Rd. South called Pedro, South of the border. This was a kid’s dream and a parent’s nightmare. It was a motel that had everything from firecrackers to kiddie rides. Whenever we got within 100 miles of the place, our kids would begin to lobby to go.
I can remember 1 summer when the boys were fighting in the back seat Plus we had animals ear to ear. As we approach Pedro’s we were handed a piece of paper. It said, we the children of Roger and Peggy agreed to the following, no arguing, no fighting, no loud noises from the back as long as mom and dad agree to going to Pedro’s. That they had each of their names and there was a place for us to sign.
Even at a young age, children understood contracts. As adults we do this with mortgages, leases, bank loans and everything that involves contracts. They give expectations and consequences. They are part of our everyday existence.
Our Old Testament lesson it’s about the contract that the people of Israel had with God. It’s a little more serious and binding than keeping children silent in the car. Nevertheless, it contained some of the same elements.
This morning I want to look closely with you about your contract with God. What does it mean? How it gives your expectations of him? And what are the consequences?
For most of us the contract we started early in life, is quite simply, although not necessarily written down anywhere but it is well understood. We bank on it, and often build upon it. The contract for most church people is to go to church, provide a few prayers, give a little money, and in return we expect God will protect us from illness and other bad things.
The real problem with this crude contract is that it seems to me that any help we receive from God of us to lead normal happy lives and almost by definition I do not include events and events beyond our control and therefore we feel he’s protected us.
But the only time we look closely at our contracts other than when the preacher asks, is when something happens. We learn that we have cancer, our job gets terminated, we receive a call from the middle of the night from our child. It is then that we begin to cry foul. We feel cheated and we say God has not lived up to his agreement.
I know some people, and I’m sure you do also, who were good churchgoers, church school teachers, regular volunteers who we no longer see. Some event occurred that breached their agreement. The contract that you worship me and I’ll look after you was no longer valid. They left the church, left their faith and because of what I’ve often called the growing number of church alumni.
But it’s not the agreement that is invalid. Suppose it’s our understanding of the contract. Suppose we don’t have a contract, but instead a covenant that is dependent on ourselves. Let’s just admit that life remains unpredictable and yes even perverse. As the scripture reminds us that rain falls on the just and the unjust. In other words, rainfalls on church picnics just as much as it falls on mafia long parties. Lightning strikes church halls as well as pool halls. Neither faith nor good works, nor church attendance, no matter who I am or what place the matter what me think our contract is not about circumstances it’s not a contract where God says if you will be faithful or good I will protect you.
This covenant we have it’s not your normal compromise of a continuing relationship. It’s not an insider’s tip, a peek behind the curtains, a continuation with the future with God
our covenant with God doesn’t say pray and stay out of the hospital. It’s more of a gift than an enslavement. It’s not a way out of damnation, it’s an invitation to what ifs and what is to come and an invitation to live and walk and be with the dancing God
. Jesus tried to walk in the covenant. Most of the people wanted a contract. They wanted an ironclad guarantee of success. They wanted to be first into heaven. Instead they were told of a covenant where they would walk with God. They were told that even in the valley of the shadow of death, God would not desert. The covenant is the knowledge that God is by our side and that we may dance together into the music of the ages.
We may not agree with the covenant or you may want to rewrite another clause into the final draft unfortunately that’s not possible. All we have signed is the bear covenant. The choice is whether we affirm or deny the reality.
Good people, you may not like what I have said this morning. But it seems to me, better to live with the painful truth than to continue in a lie. In the splashing of baptism, in the sharing of bread and wine, in the coming together to hear the word of God, there’s the music of what is and what is to come. We can hear it this morning. We can enter into it. We can even dance to it The covenant is what God offers to his people. Amen