FIFTH SUNDAY IN THE SEASON OF LENT New Covenant: God s Final Answer Jeremiah 31:31-34 and John 12:20-33 Introduction Today is the fifth and final Sunday in Lent, which means Jesus journey toward the cross, and our journey toward Holy Week, is almost complete. Both passages of scripture today tell of the paradox of the Lenten Season and of the gospel itself: Hope in what appears to be a hopeless situation, and God s gracious activity on behalf of all of us even the most disobedient of sinners. Today we receive absolute assurance that the terrifying thou shalt nots of the Sinai covenant have been replaced by God s gracious new covenant; and the only requirement of this new covenant is our willingness to follow the Risen Christ. Jeremiah brings a paradoxical message straight from God by insisting that judgment is not God s final word. In spite of Israel s disobedience, God remains faithful, offering a new covenant, Not like the covenant made with their ancestors which they broke. This time God says, I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts: I will be their God, and they shall be my people. The gospel reading says clearly that in spite of impending betrayal and death, Jesus is obedient to God s simple message. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. In these final days of Lent we come face to face with this most marvelous, mysterious, and eternal truth. God s New Covenant" is Jesus Christ, who is indeed God s final answer. Covenants I God makes covenants and God keeps covenants. The only problem with God s covenants and the part that s hardest to understand is what to do with the other parties to the covenant: Human beings. People like you and me who consistently fail to keep up our end of the bargain. I say it s hard to understand God s covenant, and it is for adults. But children seem to have no problem understanding the eternal nature of God s covenantal love. A while back I received a thought-provoking e-mail entitled Windshield Wiper Sermon which illustrates God s willingness to keep right on making new covenants, over and over again. This e-mail reminded me, as it probably will each of you, that our children have a far better handle on theology God talk - than we adults ever could.
A mother and her son, Matthew, were driving along in the rain. When Matthew said to his mother, Mom, I m thinking of something. Of course, like most parents, she knew enough to sit up, take notice, and listen to her son s thoughts. Matthew said, The rain is like sin. And the windshield wipers are like God, wiping our sins away. This young mother felt goose bumps all over her body, a sure sign that she was in the presence of the Holy Spirit. So, out of curiosity, she asked her son a follow up question. Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What do you think that means? Matthew didn t miss a beat. He said simply, We keep on sinning and God just keeps on forgiving us. There it is. Plain as day. Simple as can be. You and I can shout till the cows come home that God only loves certain people. Ones who say the right words, live the right way, wear the right clothes, and attend the right churches. We can shout till God s Kingdom comes, but our words won t ever improve on what young Matthew said. We keep on sinning and God just keeps on forgiving us. God keeps on forgiving for one simple reason. God loved the world so much, he gave his only son. That whoever believes in him will not perish but will have everlasting life. God makes covenants. God keeps covenants. And God is free to change covenants. Any way. Any time. Any place. Covenants II Trouble is, God s covenants don t make sense. They just don t fit at all with what many Christians have been taught about judgment, and especially about eternal life. Truth is, God s covenants only make sense if they're seen through the lens of God s grace. Something we Methodists know a lot about. The good news for everybody else is that, whenever we humans have trouble understanding God s grace, God sends a messenger. God sends prophets like Jeremiah to interpret the love, the grace, and the will of God. Now, most prophets were, and continue to be, somewhat strange. Real odd ducks you might say. But, as prophets go, Jeremiah may have been the oddest duck of all. Where other prophets thundered their condemnation and judgment like Moses on the mountain top, Jeremiah clowned around. Running through the streets in a dirty piece of
cloth that was about as big as the skimpiest of speedo s. (If you don t know what a speedo is, think Olympics swimming competition.) Jeremiah fashioned clay into a piece of pottery he called Israel and Judah, and then smashed it to smithereens. This was to show what God was prepared to do with this select group of people. Now, there are two ways to read this passage from Jeremiah. One way is to understand this new covenant as some kind of utopian view of the future, a sort of pie in the sky when you die by and by. Which is how many Christians prefer to read it. However, there s another way of reading Jeremiah s message from God, and it s only when we place our first interpretation alongside this next one that we get the whole picture. You and I need to place this reading alongside all the rules and regulations that religious people insist we've all got to live by. Religious rules and regulations that try to place limits on the grace and love and salvation of God. We need to place this passage alongside every hell-fire and damnation sermon we ve ever heard. Alongside the notion that There s only a limited amount of space in heaven, you know, and anybody who doesn't go to "my" church is going to "hell in a hand basket." It s only when we read Jeremiah in both ways that even the most hard line, judgmental Christian gets to see the really good news of gospel. They shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity. And remember their sin no more. But you know what, I've got a sneaking suspicion that if we humans were in charge, we'd do things differently from the way God does. If you and I took every word in the Bible literally; if we judged people according to all the Laws and rules of conduct we find there, we'd spend more time shutting people out of the party than we do inviting them in as honored guests. According to the stipulations of every single covenant God ever made, the people of Israel deserved all the bad things that happened to them. It was their own disobedience that caused the destruction of the Temple, loss of the Promised Land, and being be sent into exile. Hard to believe, isn t it? Just a few short years after Moses meeting with God on Mt. Sinai, The Ten Commandments lay in ruins, trampled on and forgotten by the very people who had been so blessed by them. Time and time again, God watched helplessly as Israel went their own way, and created untold problems for themselves. The Law
stated plainly what was supposed to happen, but the final decision was up to God. And like any loving parent, God never gave up. Now, this is where Christians sometimes get irritated. But, like I said before, we can shout till we re blue in the face about how "those sinners" are beyond the love and mercy of God. We can rant and rave to our heart's content, but it won t change a single thing. Because, one more time, God offered a new covenant, one that would be written on our hearts and not on tablets of stone. One more time, God offers a New Covenant, one that transcends words in the Bible. And goes to the heart of God s Son, and through him, to us. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt a covenant that they broke, says the Lord. This time I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I will be their God. And they shall be my people. Conclusion God makes covenants. God keeps covenants. And God changes covenants. Any way. Any time. Any place. God never gives up on us. God just keeps coming back, prepared to re-frame, re-word, re-negotiate a new covenant. And the most mind-boggling part of this new covenant is the single condition on which it s made. There s nothing here about repentance or conversion. All we have in this new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ, is this simple statement. Whoever serves me must follow me. And where I am, there will my servant be also. All we have in this new covenant is the unilateral action of a God who loved the world so much, He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. The New Covenant, God s final answer is the Risen Christ.