LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Lent I + Match 5, 2006 + St. Paul’s, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Most people in our culture are used to belonging to various groups which include others having similar interests, beliefs, or parentage. Families would be an example, so would racial, ethnic, religious, and social groups. We often identify ourselves by labels. We are Republicans or Democrats, Episcopalians, Baptists, Roman Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, or some other such name tag. One sports team or another may be so important to us that we describe ourselves as “fans” or we may claim a non-fan designation equally firmly. If we were minded to do so, I suspect everyone here could come up with a list of groups with which we identify. For instance (and forgive my list since it’s so clearly that of a “Damn Yankee”), I enjoy football and think of myself as a New England Patriots fan, though now, since I am fortunate enough to live here, I also root for the Carolina Panthers. I don’t particularly enjoy hockey so I tend to ignore that sport.

So what? Simply that neither my moderate attachment to some teams nor my disinterest in others involve any obligations on my part. I do not feel guilty if I don’t buy tickets to their games (watching on television is usually quite sufficient for me, thank you). If the team owners make a profit, that’s fine with me, but if they lose money, I’m not troubled. I neither expect to receive a dividend from owners in good times nor a letter asking me to help them recover any losses in off seasons. In short, I am not really involved!

At the risk of using the word “I” a few more times, let me take that line of thought a step further. There are some organizations dedicated to causes which interest me and I try to support them. They include the Cancer Society, the Episcopal Benedictine monks of St. Gregory’s Abbey, Doctors Without Borders, and others. But even there, while I wish them well and truly care about them, I don’t lose sleep over how well they are doing. I support them as best I can and that’s that. On the other hand, the well being of my family, friends, and this parish concern me far more. If good fortune hits, or a crisis occurs, I am personally involved. My sense of identification in those cases is quite different from my connection to a sports team, a political party, or a favorite charity, and I am rather sure that most everyone here this morning might say pretty much the same thing in terms of your lives.

As Christians, you and I are identified by an agreement into which we entered at the time we were baptized. The Biblical word used to describe that agreement is “covenant” and in the first Bible Reading today, we heard a description of the making of a covenant between God and humankind. Notice that that Covenant came about on God’s initiative, not that of humans. God said “Behold, I establish my Covenant with you and your descendants after you.” Nor is that an idea confined to the Hebrew Bible. In St. John’s Gospel, we are told “You did not choose me, but first, I chose you!”

Throughout Holy Scripture, there is a clear pattern where God makes covenants with humans, and in every one of them, the terms are consistent. God will be a loving Father and, in turn, the people are to be faithful, behaving in appropriate ways toward God and toward each other. The idea and the reality of “covenants” are both peculiar to the Judeo-Christian understanding of religion. Other ancient religions never heard of such things! Their deities did not enter into loving covenants with humans. Instead, those gods and goddesses were thought to be simply immensely powerful beings who treated people as the whim took them, so the best path for humans was appeasement, trying to keep on the good side of those gods by any means possible, even the sacrifice of humans or animals.

There is one aspect of God’s covenants with humanity which may seem to be rather odd. Christians believe that God is omniscient – that is, all-knowing. Nothing in the past, present, or future is outside God’s knowledge. What’s odd about that? Consider any covenant or contract you have ever chosen to enter, such as an agreement to buy a car or rent a house. Would you sign the papers if you knew beforehand that the car was a lemon, or that the owner of the house you were renting was famous for not providing heat in the winter or making repairs when needed? I am sure most of us would answer with a loud NO! and wonder why anyone would even ask such a silly question! Yet, entering that kind of agreement is exactly what God not only did, but still does! Even though God knows that humans have never been very trustworthy in the covenant-keeping business, God still chooses to go on entering those agreements with us! As what lawyers call “the party of the second part” our record is quite pitiful, whether that be the record of humans as individuals or the record of religious institutions such as the Church. Still, God continues both to love us and to keep His end of the agreements!

In the Hebrew Scriptures this morning, God makes a covenant with Noah who, despite his strong belief and trust in God, turns out to be anything but a sinless person. In fact, throughout the Bible, all the covenants are agreements made by God with very imperfect people, people whose sins are quite like yours and mine, people with whom, at least in that respect, we can identify so easily.

In the Epistle, St. Peter makes it clear that baptism is the way we have been incorporated into a covenant, a covenant which is no longer just something from ancient days but one which is also completely contemporary. It’s a covenant which includes you and me. It’s our agreement, our contract with God, not just somebody else’s!

During Lent, Christians traditionally take time to consider how we are doing in the “covenant-keeping business” and, equally traditionally, we are apt to find the answer is “not so good!” Our faith may be less than secure, less clear and vital as we know it should be; our lives may reflect the same reality with which the Patron Saint of this parish, St. Paul, struggled when he burst out saying “the things I know I shouldn’t do, I do so often, and the things I know I should do, I don’t do!”

Most of us might find it difficult to say “Look at me. I’m the perfect model for anyone to imitate if they are serious about being a good Christian!” (Any volunteers?) Yet the fact remains, we have our covenant with God, a covenant which God established with us, even though God knew how undependable our response would be.

This Lent offers us an opportunity to do one of two things. We can shrug our shoulders and say, “well, that’s the way it is, that’s just the way I am” and let it go at that. Or, responding to God’s love and mercy, we can take the kind of steps we know will bring us closer to where we should be and where, in our heart of hearts, we want to be. The way to do that is found in such simple and ordinary things as spending more time in daily prayer, in faithful reading of the Bible, sharing more intentionally in the corporate worship of the Church at the Eucharist, in self-denial, and by serving others in Christ’s name. No magic words are needed, nor are we required to perform impossible tasks – just a serious intention to be faithful, to live the covenant each one of us has with God, and through God, the covenant we have with each other.

So, what shall we do about that?

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:39 PM