ANN'S ATTIC

LEAP OF FAITH -  COVENANT

Covenant. It's a word we don't use very often.  We may have heard it in the legal sense, in which both parties have a legal obligation to do something.  The word comes from old French and English as CO VENANT. A coming together.  This is not merely a 'promise'.  Covenant in the Bible is a Blessed Connection.  It is a Divine Promise. This Covenant is Sacred. It is Holy. It will not be withdrawn by God who by Grace gifts us with this Covenant. Very different from the promises we make and break to ourselves and others very day of our lives.

Tomorrow I am to lead the Youth Sunday School class in exploring in Genesis the word and concept of Covenant which is really the story the entire Bible tells.  The Covenant announced by God early on had no strings attached. As in Genesis 9:12 - And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Genesis 9:12-14

Through to Genesis 12:1-3 where the Lord said to Abram, I will make of  you a great nation, and I will bless you, so that you will be a blessing....And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.  Key word: ALL. 

We know that contingencies were attached by differing writers.  In Genesis 15 the requirements added most probably by the priestly class were harsh.  In verse 9 it is thus recorded that God said, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three year old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon:.  He brought him all these and cut them in two, laying each half over against the other.  - The birds, by the way, were spared this fate! 

So what to  make of Covenant?  What's the take away of all of this?  Hear the Prophets: Isaiah 42:6
“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles."  Notice the ALL, not just some 'chosen' but ALL.

And what is more:Jeremiah 31:33

³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

This is a covenant to be written on the heart. Break it on your side, but it will simply not be broken.  Jeremiah has long before seen a glimpse of a new Covenant that the Gospels affirm and record that in Christ Jesus there is a NEW covenant.  Mark 14:24
“This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.

For the sins of all?  The slate is wiped clean.  CLEAN.  Wow. 

Well now!  What is our obligation?  God needs nothing from us.  Nothing.  God is God.  The obligation, or a better word, participation in the Covenant must come from us.  Do we have any relationship  with Covenant?  Do we have conscience.  CON (cooperative) SCIENCE (knowledge). 

So here's the deal.  We either see God's Grace in Covenant as it is written on our very hearts, or ignore it.  Our choice.  As I get older, the Covenant written on my heart is more and more insistent.  Responsibility.  RESPONSE ABILILTY.  Everyone one I meet, and everyone you all meet in life, on FaceBook, all of creation, animals, the environment, the whole world enters into kinship with us. KIN - family.  Like it or not.  One may reject or even block people electronically.  But it's no good.  It simply doesn't work. It may be out of sight, but never ever out of mind.  God told us that.  How many times was the Covenant was by the second partner. Us? Over and over again.  But God never left.  God may have expressed dismay, disappointment, even what the writers viewed a 'curses'.  But God never left.  In fact in the gift of His Son He wiped the slate clean.  CLEAN.  Can we do less?  And if we do not, who does that hurt? 

It's scary to give up our treasured enemies, hates, disappointments, fears.  They have been cherished mates for so long.  It's a leap.  But it's a good leap for Leap Year, for Lent.  Let's hold hands and together make that huge leap!