A New, New Thing

A sermon preached at Old South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Hallowell, Maine, April 2, 2006.

Text: Jeremiah 31:31-34

The Rev. Susan M. Reisert, Minister

We have been spending much of Lent talking about covenant, particularly the ancient covenants in the Old Testament. We began with the covenant symbolized by the rainbow, the primarily one-way covenant in which God promised never again to destroy the earth through a flood. We moved on, then, to the covenant with Abraham, whose name was originally Abram. Through the covenant, his name was changed and God promised that he would be the father of a multitude, despite his old age and, perhaps even more surprising, the old age of his wife. She couldn’t help but to laugh at the notion. The sign of this covenant required something on behalf of the human beings this time, although only the men with the sign of circumcision.

A couple of weeks ago, we deftly and quickly moved through a great deal of Old Testament history and drama, with its twists and turns, to make our way to the presentation of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai with the Israelites who were wandering about the desert on that long road to the land flowing with milk and honey, after being delivered from slavery in Egypt. This covenant of the Ten Commandments was almost the complete opposite of the first with the bulk of the responsibilities on the shoulders of the humans in the equation. This covenant, this agreement, offered a set of rules, a set of clear expectations for the people to follow in order to develop a good relationship with God and with each other. This covenant would help the people build good relationships with each other and with God and that through those good and healthy relationships, good and healthy communities would follow and a Godly path would be struck.

Today, we encounter a prophecy of Jeremiah, who looks forward to a new covenant, a covenant written on the heart. Before we consider this prophecy and Jeremiah and this new covenant, it may be important to think about why there would be such a need for a new covenant. What was wrong with the old one, or the old ones? What is wrong, or incomplete, about the covenant symbolized by the rainbow, or the covenant shown in circumcision or the covenant of the Ten Commandments? What value is there in perceiving this new thing, this new agreement, that Jeremiah puts forth in his prophecy? What went wrong with the old one? To what is Jeremiah looking forward?

The answers into why the old covenants didn’t work, or at least failed to produce the kind of people that God seems to be after, are many, varied and complex. But, I’d like to focus us on just one thing. Now, this “thing” is a subject to which I’ve made reference before and it is likely a topic to which I will return in the future. The significant difference between the old covenants and the new one is the difference between doing and being.

The old covenants required someone, either God or the people, to do something, to be conscious of actions. Never again will I destroy the earth through a flood. You will be a father of many nations, you will have children and they will have children and so on and so on. And you will mark yourselves as being God’s people by having the male babies circumcised. You will follow these Ten Commandments—the first four to honor your relationship with God (having no idols, honoring the Sabbath, etc.) and the last six to ensure good relationships among people—honor your father and mother; do not murder; to not lie; do not covet.

The old covenant is about doing. And, doing can be a difficult thing. If you want to get right down to it, we human beings are not particularly talented at following these kinds of rules. And once one is broken or one person strays, then it may just continue. Doing is a difficult thing. Doing also diminishes the meaning and value in our relationships, including our relationship with God. If all of our lives of faith are just about following the list of rules, then we have little direction, little motivation, in moving further in our relationship.

And, in addition, the whole business of doing can actually get in the way of building good and healthy relationships. It’s one thing to follow the rules and get along well, but it’s quite another when we get caught up in making sure that our neighbors follow the rules, when we spend much of our time making sure that others are following the rules, or how we interpret those rules. Doing can be a difficult thing, as is the going after the doing of others.

The new covenant seeks to move the people beyond those simplistic notions of doing, as if following a set of rules (and making sure that your neighbor does too!) can safeguard your place in heaven. Faith, having a good relationship with God and with each other, it turns out, cannot be founded solely on rigidly following rules. The rules seem to actually get in the way of building that good relationship, that relationship that offers us the opportunity for transformation, of being made into something new ourselves. It is not that rules are unimportant but that by themselves, they can impede our ability to seek to deepen our understanding and our relationships, to enter into that intimate relationship through which we are changed.

So, the new covenant seeks to aspire to something completely different. This new covenant will be written on the heart: “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 Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

“I will put my law within them, and I will write in on their hearts.” And it shall be a new covenant. What does it mean to have the law of God written on our hearts, to have God’s law within us?

The old way wasn’t working. It wasn’t producing the kind of people that God had in mind, so what might this new covenant bring to make it all all better, to make it work? It’s hard to see that this new covenant does anything substantially better than the old. We human beings still have difficulties in participating and in taking part in and in assisting in the creation of healthy and good relationships. We often fall into the same old traps. It is difficult often to get out of our own way and reach out in faith, to step into that new path that God puts out for us.

Yet, we are better for having the law within us, that God’s grace may take a bigger role in leading us in the right path. After all, being God’s people is not simply about following rules that have no purpose or vision beyond themselves. The rules were meant to lead the people and not to close them off from the new life of hope and freedom. So, we have a new way, a new law, a new covenant, a new agreement: the law within us; the law written on our hearts.

God has set out to do that new, new thing. And we follow in faith and in hope and in trust for what God intends for us—a new, new thing. Something that none of us can yet imagine, something that motivates us from deep inside and calls us to yearn for that deeper relationship, to see the new things that God is doing.

The United Church of Christ, I suspect most of you know, has been engaged for a while now in a campaign to raise awareness about who we are and what we believe—as best as the national office can for a denomination that has no hierarchy, no settled creed.

The lead theme of the campaign is “God is Still Speaking.” The lead quote for the campaign is “never place a period where God has placed a comma.” This has also led to the use of the “no matter who you are, no matter where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here” which we use in our bulletin and at the beginning of worship each Sunday. The campaign has used advertisements that have led to various controversies, as is also likely with the new round of ads that are set to air beginning tomorrow. These new ads feature ejector seats. Look for it, particularly on cable channels.

One of the other quotes that is used as part of the campaign materials, though much less obviously—which is a real shame—is a quote from an early Pilgrim minister. The Pilgrims, who had first left England and went to Holland before eventually setting off for the New World, heard these words from their minister, John Robinson, before leaving Holland: “If God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of His, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth of my ministry; for I am very confident the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy word.”

The New Covenant continues. There is more truth and light yet to break forth out of His holy word. There is more truth. There is more light to break forth. We are a part of that covenant, that agreement, to look for that new light, the new truth, to follow in faith.

This is the covenant I am inviting you into in these days, says the Lord. I will put my law within you, and I shall write it on your hearts. Not a law of restrictions and rules, but the law of life. The law that keeps you safe within the bounds of love and joy and overflowing exuberant life. The law that enables you to reach the heights of joy and fulfillment and that guides you away from death and despair. I will pour into your hearts my Holy Spirit and she will be a seal of my love and faithfulness to you. She will blossom forth and bear within you her fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. You will be my greatest delight, my most beautiful treasure. You will be more precious to me than anything else on earth. I offer you this commitment, this covenant relationship, this promise of myself. 

I will be your God and you will be my people, says the Lord. As you celebrate life together with one another, you are sharing together in the new covenant. I have called you, not only to be mine individually, but to be mine as a people. As my Holy Spirit begins to work in your hearts she will begin to reconcile you one to another and to bind you together as a covenant people. You will begin again to express for one another the sort of love and care and faithfulness I have expressed for you. My righteousness, my justice, my mercy and my love will be seen by all the world as it is lived out among you, my covenant people. [This paragraph is borrowed from a sermon by Nathan Nettleman, found at www.laughingbird.net.]

May we be renewed as a people of truth and light, that we will see that new light and truth break forth from God’s holy word. May we be renewed as God’s covenant people, living hopefully and joyfully as people on whose heart is written the law of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.