Address
Beginnings of address for Covenant Service on 2/1/2011
This is the time of year when we think about promises, especially in the Methodist Church when we think about a special kind of relationship promise, Covenants. I’m sure all of us will have made our New Year’s Resolutions, promises to ourselves to stop smoking or go to the gym. How many of you have made a New Year’s Resolution? Are you going to stick to them? How many, come on now be honest, gave up last year and this is the second attempt? As someone who used to working the Fitness Industry, out of all the thousands of people who resolved to “get fit” in the New Year, 75% of them drop by the wayside in a month. Of the remainder, half will flag by three months. Now this tells you something about the Fitness Industry or people’s resolve. Or both.
Today we are thinking about promises, about promises we make with ourselves and with God. Promises, rather like our New Year resolutions we sometime break. The word Covenant is used a lot in religion, especially in the Methodist Church, especially in the terms of Ministerial Contracts! OR perhaps we think of the Solemn League and Covenant, a written agreemtn between God, the Church and Man. But what do we mean by a Covenant. Well, it’s a bit like a New Years Resolution. A promise, an agreement, a relationship between two parties.
Covenants or agreements between God and humanity have existed for thousands of years. In ancient religious they were based around doing what a particular deity (or his or her priests) demanded to avoid a good smiting. To a Roman a prayer or a pact with a God was very much “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”: you do this thing for me God and I’ll do something for you God. How many of us still pray like this? Or take a shopping list to God, constantly talking to and asking from God instead of listening. In the Old Testament, the covenant between God and humanity was very much “do as I say” - “Obey my laws or else”, “if you really love me circumcise your sons” "If you love me dont eat prawns". Could you imagine what you’d do or say if your wife of husband turned around and said “If you really love me do this or I wont love you any more.” I know what I’d do! These covenants were about making oneself acceptable to God, because it was thought or believed God could not possibly love u s we are, that we have to change and do exactly as God says to be loved. Sadly, an idea that is still with us - how many people think they only way that they can be liked, yet alone loved, by themselves or others is to change? To change their appearance, the things they do because they cannot possibly be acceptable as they are!
And into all of this comes Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. The Word made Flesh. The distant and unknowable made knowable, the unseen made visible. God revealed to us as and through humanity. No matter your theological views on Jesus, Trinitarian or Unitarian, the fundamental revelation still exists - God revealed as a man. The Word made Flesh, not as with the Old Testament covenants, the Word made Words on Tablets of Stone or Purity Codes, but the Word made flesh. But how often have we forgotten that the Word became Flesh! Time and again the Disciples struggled, and the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus because of this extraordinary revelation. Just look at the Disciples “Tell us what to do Jesus.” Asking Jesus if he has any commandments, how they should live their life to be acceptable to God. Tell us what to do! Give us some Thou Shalt Nots. A bit like automata or computers wanting to be programmed or soldiers to be given orders Tell us what to do and we’ll do it. But Jesus didn’t do that because he merely told his Disciples and continues to tell us simply to Love; to Love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
We continue to look for Thou Shalt Nots. We fetishise the Bible, as though it is the revelation of God itself. We mistake the Word made Flesh for the Word made Words. Thus the Bible becomes God’s only and final word, the ending of the dialogue between Heaven and Earth rather than the beginning of an extraordinary new dialogue with God, a relationship where God is revealed as and in and through human beings. As the hymn writer says, “The Lord has yet more light and love to shed forth from his word.” God didn’t stop speaking with the Bible. Because of the Word made Flesh, God is revealed through people like you and me. It’s challenging. It’s dynamic. It's scary isn’t it? No wonder we seek the security of “Thou Shalt Not”and the Word made Words. God is still speaking through the words and deeds of prophetic men and women, through all the arts and sciences, and above all, in that personal, “still small voice of calm” that we may all experience.
The relationship between God and the Church is likened to being between a Bridegroom and his chosen. To me this is not just a poetic image. The most beautiful covenantal promise is that between the bride and groom in the wedding service, promising to love one another no matter what life may throw at you; a promise of unconditional love
As we come to renew our Mehtodist Covenant this morning, let us remember the reality of God, of the Word made Flesh, of God with us, all of us. And the promise of love; unconditional love from God, no matter what, no matter who we are, and in return, no matter what, no matter who we are, to love. To love, unconditionally, not just God but ourselves and others. Amen.
This is the time of year when we think about promises, especially in the Methodist Church when we think about a special kind of relationship promise, Covenants. I’m sure all of us will have made our New Year’s Resolutions, promises to ourselves to stop smoking or go to the gym. How many of you have made a New Year’s Resolution? Are you going to stick to them? How many, come on now be honest, gave up last year and this is the second attempt? As someone who used to working the Fitness Industry, out of all the thousands of people who resolved to “get fit” in the New Year, 75% of them drop by the wayside in a month. Of the remainder, half will flag by three months. Now this tells you something about the Fitness Industry or people’s resolve. Or both.
Today we are thinking about promises, about promises we make with ourselves and with God. Promises, rather like our New Year resolutions we sometime break. The word Covenant is used a lot in religion, especially in the Methodist Church, especially in the terms of Ministerial Contracts! OR perhaps we think of the Solemn League and Covenant, a written agreemtn between God, the Church and Man. But what do we mean by a Covenant. Well, it’s a bit like a New Years Resolution. A promise, an agreement, a relationship between two parties.
Covenants or agreements between God and humanity have existed for thousands of years. In ancient religious they were based around doing what a particular deity (or his or her priests) demanded to avoid a good smiting. To a Roman a prayer or a pact with a God was very much “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours”: you do this thing for me God and I’ll do something for you God. How many of us still pray like this? Or take a shopping list to God, constantly talking to and asking from God instead of listening. In the Old Testament, the covenant between God and humanity was very much “do as I say” - “Obey my laws or else”, “if you really love me circumcise your sons” "If you love me dont eat prawns". Could you imagine what you’d do or say if your wife of husband turned around and said “If you really love me do this or I wont love you any more.” I know what I’d do! These covenants were about making oneself acceptable to God, because it was thought or believed God could not possibly love u s we are, that we have to change and do exactly as God says to be loved. Sadly, an idea that is still with us - how many people think they only way that they can be liked, yet alone loved, by themselves or others is to change? To change their appearance, the things they do because they cannot possibly be acceptable as they are!
And into all of this comes Jesus. Emmanuel. God with us. The Word made Flesh. The distant and unknowable made knowable, the unseen made visible. God revealed to us as and through humanity. No matter your theological views on Jesus, Trinitarian or Unitarian, the fundamental revelation still exists - God revealed as a man. The Word made Flesh, not as with the Old Testament covenants, the Word made Words on Tablets of Stone or Purity Codes, but the Word made flesh. But how often have we forgotten that the Word became Flesh! Time and again the Disciples struggled, and the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus because of this extraordinary revelation. Just look at the Disciples “Tell us what to do Jesus.” Asking Jesus if he has any commandments, how they should live their life to be acceptable to God. Tell us what to do! Give us some Thou Shalt Nots. A bit like automata or computers wanting to be programmed or soldiers to be given orders Tell us what to do and we’ll do it. But Jesus didn’t do that because he merely told his Disciples and continues to tell us simply to Love; to Love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
We continue to look for Thou Shalt Nots. We fetishise the Bible, as though it is the revelation of God itself. We mistake the Word made Flesh for the Word made Words. Thus the Bible becomes God’s only and final word, the ending of the dialogue between Heaven and Earth rather than the beginning of an extraordinary new dialogue with God, a relationship where God is revealed as and in and through human beings. As the hymn writer says, “The Lord has yet more light and love to shed forth from his word.” God didn’t stop speaking with the Bible. Because of the Word made Flesh, God is revealed through people like you and me. It’s challenging. It’s dynamic. It's scary isn’t it? No wonder we seek the security of “Thou Shalt Not”and the Word made Words. God is still speaking through the words and deeds of prophetic men and women, through all the arts and sciences, and above all, in that personal, “still small voice of calm” that we may all experience.
The relationship between God and the Church is likened to being between a Bridegroom and his chosen. To me this is not just a poetic image. The most beautiful covenantal promise is that between the bride and groom in the wedding service, promising to love one another no matter what life may throw at you; a promise of unconditional love
As we come to renew our Mehtodist Covenant this morning, let us remember the reality of God, of the Word made Flesh, of God with us, all of us. And the promise of love; unconditional love from God, no matter what, no matter who we are, and in return, no matter what, no matter who we are, to love. To love, unconditionally, not just God but ourselves and others. Amen.