Blogging Toward Sunday, February 18th -The 1st Sunday of Lent
Unbreakable: Trusting in God's Everlasting Covenant with Us
A Global Guarantee
"Most of us have had the experience of signing a contract or other legal document on the dotted line. Contracts are built on distrust, protecting ourselves from liability if the other person doesn't hold up their end of the bargain. Yet healthy human development and relationship are built on trust. Trust becomes possible only when we willfully and lovingly yield all authority and power and make ourselves vulnerable. The deepest and most eternal trust that undergirds our souls comes from a relationship with God, who has given all to be with us and keeps not only God's promises but ours as well, in an unbreakable love known as covenant." (Paul Rock, pastor in A Preacher's Guide to Lectionary Sermon Series).
Genesis 9:8-17
Theme: God's covenant impacts our view of creation today
12 God said, "This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. (Genesis 9:12-15)
During most of my years of preaching, I paid attention, as many Christians, both lay and clergy do, to the ecumenical lectionary and the seasons of the Christian year. Last Wednesday, February 14th marked the change of seasons from Epiphany to Lent with the dawn of Ash Wednesday. This coming Sunday, we'll start a new worship series based on the readings assigned for year "B" of the three-year cycle of scriptures for the Sundays of Lent, leading up to Easter. The point of the lectionary is to work our way as a congregation through the major themes in the Bible over three years.
The usual focus for Lent begins with Jesus' 40-day temptation by Satan in the desert following his baptism, and then skips to his journey toward Jerusalem with his disciples at the end of his ministry. The theme of God's covenant dominates the Old Testament readings for this holy season, beginning with the story of the first and most sweeping promise of God: the rainbow after the 40-day flood in Genesis.
If you think you're seeing "40s," you're on to something! Lent, like the temptation of Jesus and Noah's flood, lasts forty days (excluding Sundays). On Sundays, we'll be looking at what covenant means in various Old Testament narratives, and how Jesus seals that covenant between God and all living things with his life, teachings, death and resurrection.
"When we think about God's biggest agreements with humanity, God's most sweeping promises, our minds typically go to Moses and the Ten Commandments or perhaps Abram and Sarai. But before those specific covenants, God made the biggest promise of all - to humanity, to the creatures we share this earth with, and to earth itself: "I will never destroy you again." Can we make the same promise to God? As co-stewards of God's creation, how shall we live our lives to ensure every living creature can live fully into and under this promise?" (Paul Rock).
In this first revelation of the divine deal called covenant, God makes the promise not only to Noah, but expands the scope of the promise to be all-inclusive. The rainbow seals the deal, and its multi-colored arch covers the whole of God's creation with blessing. How can we widen the lenses of our sensibility and our faith to remember what God says repeatedly in this narrative?
"This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth."
After beginning the first day of Lent early with close to 40 pilgrims who came for ashes and a blessing on the portico at our "drive-through" service, we finished Ash Wednesday with spirit-filled contemplative worship. Our prayers started with silence, lifting up the victims of the latest of far too many mass school shootings, this time in Parkland, Florida. May we do more than pray to end this violence. Let's live up to our name, people of Peace!
Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy;
Lord, have mercy upon us, and bring us peace!
LeeAnn