New Promises for a New Day

March 22, 2015 Jeremiah 31:31-40 Promises Year B Fifth Sunday of Lent Have you ever known someone who never had anything positive to say about anything? Everything was negative, gloom and doom. Everyday they gave you some warning about life. My grandmother was like that. She had a negative story for every occasion in life. Every day she would tell me a story of woa and beware. She had a warning for everything. One day I burst out and told her to just leave me alone and let me make my own mistakes. Learning from my mistakes in life was much better than having to listen to you mouth every day. I was 13 years old when that happen. There were several times that year when I would say, Grandma you talk too much, why don’t you just shut up. Today I stand here amazed that I am still alive to tell that story. Amongst her other good qualities, grandma was amazingly kind, patient and forgiving to her favorite grandchild. She never said a word to me in my outburst, she would just quietly wait for me to finish, and go on. Jeremiah was that irritating person for the Isrealite people. He never had anything nice to say to them. Everyday he had a warning about his behavior, everyday he warned them that if they didn’t get any better that the wrath of God would be upon them. He reminded the people of their own sinfulness. They did more then tell him to shut up. They persecuted him all of his life. Jeremiah came from a family of priest of the temple. He says that he was called by God to be a prophet very early in his life. He says that God put charcoal on his tongue to cleanse his words, and touched him to speak truth to the people. The thing is, people didn’t want to hear the truth. Even his own brothers beat him up for talking too much. The king would order him to be thrown out of town if he didn’t shut up. One day the people got so mad at him that they through him into a cistern, a water tank and left him there to die, but he did not die and he did not shut up. Eventually they got so tired of hearing his warnings that they exiled him to Egypt – He spent the rest of his life there, no one knows what happened to him. But his words survived. Just as now I treasure every word that my grandma said, and I wished that I had been mature enough to listen more carefully. Jeremiah became one of the most important prophets to the Isrealite people. They learned to treasure his words, and they recognized that he was truly a prophet from God. Jeremiah is one of the second most important prophets in the bible. One day things got so bad, that he realized that there was nothing else that he could say. Instead of preaching gloom and doom, he had to give the people words of hope, a word from God that punishment will only last so long, and that things will get better. Our scripture for today is known as the hope scroll. God made a promise to each of us a long time ago – a promise that he would love us unconditionally. As we go through lent season we are always reminded of God’s promises to us. THE COVENANTS Eternal covenant, Heb 13:20—The redemptive covenant before time began, between the Father and the Son. By this covenant we have eternal redemption, an eternal peace from the ‘God of peace’, through the death and resurrection of the Son. Edenic covenant, Gen 1:26-28—The creative covenant between the Triune God, as the first party (Gen 1:26), and newly created man, as the second party, governing man’s creation and life in Edenic innocence. It regulated man’s dominion and subjugation of the earth, and presented a simple test of obedience. The penalty was death. Adamic covenant, Gen 3:14-19—The covenant conditioning fallen man’s life on the earth. Satan’s tool (the serpent) was cursed (Gen 3:14); the first promise of the Redeemer was given (3:15); women’s status was altered (3:16); the earth was cursed (3:17-19); physical and spiritual death resulted (3:19). Noahic covenant, Gen 8:20-9:6—The covenant of human government. Man is to govern his fellowmen for God, indicated by the institution of capital punishment as the supreme judicial power of the state (Gen 9:5-6). Other features included the Abrahamic covenant, Gen 12:1-3; confirmed, 13:14-17; 15:1-7; 17:1-8—The covenant of promise. Abraham’s posterity was to be made a great nation. In him (through Christ) all the families of the earth were to be blessed (Gal 3:16; Jn 8:56-58). Mosaic covenant, Ex 20:1-31:18—The legal covenant, given solely to Israel. It consisted of the commandments (Ex 20:1-26); the judgments (social) - (Ex 21:1; 24:11) and the ordinances (religious); (Ex 24:12-31:18); also called the law. It was a conditional covenant of works, a ministry of ‘condemnation’ and ‘death’ (2 Cor 3:7-9), designed to lead the transgressor (convicted thereby as a sinner) to Christ. Palestinian covenant, Deut 30:1-10—The covenant regulating Israel’s tenure of the land of Canaan. Its prophetic features include dispersion of disobedience (Deut 30:1), future repentance while in dispersion (30:2), the Lord’s return (30:3), the restoration (30:4-5), national conversion (3:6), judgment of Israel’s foes (30:7), national prosperity (30:9). Its blessings are conditioned upon obedience (30:8, 10), but fulfillment is guaranteed by the new covenant. Davidic covenant, 2 Sam 7:4-17, 1 Chr 17:4-15—The kingdom covenant regulating the temporal and eternal rule of David’s posterity. It secures in perpetuity a Davidic ‘house’ or line, a throne, and a kingdom. It was confirmed by divine oath in Ps 89:30-37 and renewed to Mary in Lk 1:31-33. It is fulfilled in Christ as the World’s Saviour and Israel’s coming King (Acts 1:6; Rev 19:16; 20:4-6). New covenant, Jer 31:31-33; Mt 26:28; Mk 14:24; Lk 22:20; Heb 8:8-12—The covenant of unconditional blessing based upon the finished redemption of Christ. It secures blessing for the church, flowing from the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:13-20), and secures all covenant blessings to converted Israel, including those of the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. This covenant is unconditional, final and irreversible. On first Sunday when we have communion – we repeat the words of Jesus when he says that this is the new convenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ is the new covenant – the new promise. The Old Covenant made provision for sin to be covered, whereas the New Covenant cleanses it. It's the same difference as covering a dirty shirt with a jacket or having it totally cleansed. God does not look at us through Christ so that His blood covers our sins. Rather, Christ's blood completely removes our sin. ________________________________________ You're in the middle of dinner, about to go out to a special function where you are the guest speaker. You spill tomato sauce all down your front. You have two choices: you can either put on another shirt, or you can just wear a jacket to cover up the stain. The blood of bulls and goats that were such a prominent feature of the Old Covenant, could never do anything to the stain of sin except cover it up. But the blood of Jesus cleanses that stain completely. Now you may ask, what makes the new promise of God so different than the old promise of God. Afterall a promise is a promise. And God did indeed promise to love us. God did indeed say that he would do all of the hard work of the promise and all that we had to do is to follow along and do what he said. Accept his love and life our lives with his love in mind. God didn’t break his promise to us – we broke our promise to God. We didn’t hold up our end of the bargain. So God made a new covenant with us. The difference this time is that God gave us the ability to be faithful. He paved the way so that we could actually keep our promise and live in the new covenant of Jesus Christ. He did that by forgiving us, by evening the playing field. So that we did not have to live in the consequences of our own actions, we could know that we are forgiven and have a chance to start all over again. This time the laws of God are not things out there that we have to obey, they are things in here that keep us going and guide our actions. Jeremiah says that the laws of God will be written in our hearts. We don’t remember them we can live them. We’ve talked about the eternal and daily nature of our covenant with God. The problem is that while we can understand the reason behind the covenant, as long as we are deciding what to do in our minds, we won’t make changes to live out the covenant. That is why the prophesy explains that God will write the new covenant on our hearts. Only when we move from our brains to our hearts will we become the Christians God is calling us to be. Author Ray Bradbury says: “If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” When we hold something in our heart – we treasure it. It affects our feelings and our being. For the ancient jews, the heart was the center of you whole being. It represented who you were as a person. You don’t fall in love with your mind, you fall in love with your heart. Last night Darnell and Gwen Brown renewed their marriage vows and celebrated their marriage of 18 years. And we are grateful that they made this service an important part of their wedding and invited so many guest to be present today. This story of marriage reminds me of them. There was a couple who had been married for some time, when the husband went away to war. When he returned, he decided that their marriage was over and that he wanted to enter in a relationship with another woman. Devasted, his wife explains that she married him because he made her a promise. And that promise made up for all of his faults. And that she too made a promise to him and that promise made up for everything that she did wrong. The husband was not convinced and still wanted to leave. And she still asked him to hold on. She told him that he had to get that promise back. They made a promise to be together for better or worse. So it was not comfort that they were looking for, they had suffered together. It was the promise that they were looking for. And it was that promise that brought them back together. And they were able to make their marriage work. Just as in marriage, the love of two people can overcome a multitude of sins. The love of God can overcome anything that we have done in life. God is saying it is okay, I forgive you. All I am asking is that you remember the promise that I wrote on your heart. Remember you first love in life. Remember that I am the center of your being and of all that you do. You don’t have to do anything just allow god to love you. God transforms our hearts from the inside out. There are some people who remember every bad thing that every happen to them. God is not one of those person, he forgets it all – so that we can have a chance to start again. Amen. Children’s Sermon What do I have here – a heart. We also have a hear inside of us – do you hear it beating. When you think of hearts like this, what does it remind you of? Love Usually we hold the things that we love in our hearts. What are some things in life that are near and dear to our hearts? Usually when we care about something we also say that we know it by heart. Many of you have learned the Lord’s prayer by heart. What are some other things in life that you know by heart? The scripture for today says that we will know the love of God by heart, because God’s rules will be written on our hearts. How many adults know the Lord’s prayer by heart? Some of us do and some of us are still learning just like some of you. But one thing that we do know is that God loves us and that God shows us his love in so many ways. So it is important for us to know God by heart. Let us pray….