Covenant Renewal

Falling forward - is a way of actually taking control. Once you’ve learnt to walk and catch your fall by putting your feet out in front of you in time - you will get the hang of going where you need to go.

A partnership of the inevitable and unchangeable - Gravity.

And the variable and allegedly controllable - our bodies.

Until you figure out how to balance the control and the surrender you have no control.

Paul invites us in Romans 12:1 -

Romans 12:1 NRSV

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

By the mercies of God - present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Up to chapter 12 Paul has been writing about differences between Jews and Gentiles - and trying to sort out their differences. Inviting them to put their trust in Jesus - in faith.

Here he makes a simple appeal:

Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice.

He then goes on with some practical ways in which we offer ourselves:

Ministry, Teaching, Exhorting, Giving, Leading, Compassion.

But the part I like the most - and also I think - the main point of it all. - is the part where Paul focuses on the character or nature of our offering:

Romans 12:9–10 NRSV

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; 10 love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.

Surrender to God - In love.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 29:10–12 (NRSV)

10 You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God...

12 to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today;

Our scriptures then take us back a few thousand years to about 1100BC…

The Israelites have wandered in the desert 40 years after having fled from slavery in Egypt. They are entering in to the promised land and God is making a covenant with them.

Deuteronomy goes on to talk about the consequences. If the people make this covenant but do not keep it - they will not benefit from it.

On one hand:

Stay faithful to the Lord

But on the other hand.

The language is quite harsh in Deuteronomy 29:18

Deuteronomy 29:18 (NRSV)

18 It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth.

Deuteronomy 29:19 (NRSV)

19 All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, “We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways” (thus bringing disaster on moist and dry alike)—

Warning these people that they might enter into this covenant without dealing with those poisonous and bitter roots in their hearts.

And further warning that if they turn away from this promise that they are making they will only see destruction.

It turns out that this is the learning curve that the Hebrew people have to go through in the story of scripture that we will read through Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

Disobedience to the covenant - eventually resulting in their exile from the promised land.

And bringing us to Jeremiah:

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 31:31 NRSV

31 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.

In Jeremiah the Hebrew people have been exiled from the promised land. They had lived in the promised land and become more like the Egyptians - than like the Hebrews they were supposed to be.

They had oppressed the poor - abused their power and not cared for the foreigners in their land.

So they lost their home.

Jeremiah foresees a new beginning - a new covenant - with a different end…

I will make a new covenant…

Jeremiah 31:33 (NRSV)

33 …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.

In Deuteronomy - the people are eager to enter to the promised land - but at the same time - God knows they won’t be faithful. They will be enticed by the ways of the world.

Jeremiah foresees a day when things will be different.

And that is what Romans in talking about - calling the people to offer themselves as a living sacrifice.

Entering into a covenant that is not about law.

And not even a promised land.

But a covenant that is about transformed hearts.

I will be their God and they will be my people.

Romans 8:14 NRSV

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

Romans 8:15 NRSV

15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”

In this new Covenant God offers us his Holy Spirit to give us the power to live the lives we ought to live.

God pours the Spirit into our hearts

that doesn’t just empower us - and remind us that we are God’s children.

But helps us to have God’s heart.

The conclusion…

Our offering ourselves as a living sacrifice. And making that offering within the Great and generous Spirit of God:

As Romans 12:9 said.

Romans 12:9 NRSV

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;

It becomes our nature to live this way when we offer ourselves to Jesus.

A New Covenant

The reason we have our Covenant renewal service as a communion service is this: When Jesus was sharing the last supper with his disciples. He was sharing with them - a new covenant:

Mark 14:24 NRSV

24 He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.

Today we come like that community moving from the wilderness into the promised land.

And offers us a covenant.

Today we get to be the community that Jeremiah foresaw - a people who would have the law of God written on our hearts.

As God offers us this meal - of bread and wine - we say yes I want this covenant with you O God.

As we receive - we receive as if from Jesus.

I am yours and you are mine.

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