2 Lent
Introduction. Evil and the four covenants
It all starts with the creation myth. At each stage of creation, as God creates light, the firmament, the waters, and so on, we hear the chorus, “and God saw that it was good.” But it wasn’t all good. How that came to be we don’t know.
But the tempter was there. And fallible human beings were there. And evil entered God’s creation. And soon there was murder, a brother killing a brother, Cain killing Abel.
God had a problem. What was he — she — to do about the evil in creation? The first, obvious step was punishment. Cain is to be a fugitive.
Later, once murder has spread among humankind, vengeance also spreads. The family of the victim can kill the murderer. A form of crude justice is emerging. But sometimes the killer is innocent of wrong-doing; so cities of refuge are established. If the killer can get to a city of refuge the family of the dead man cannot kill him.
But that’s not a good solution.
God sees such evil among human beings, it is so widespread that he — she — decides to start over. All human beings except for the righteous Noah and his family are to be destroyed by a flood. But when it’s over God decides that that is not a good solution either. So God makes a promise to Noah and all humanity, not to send another such flood. This is the first covenant, and its sign is the rainbow.
We read about that covenant last week. Today we read about a second covenant, one between God and Abraham. God has made another decision. “Instead of wiping out humankind I am going to build a new humanity. I see that Abram and Sarai are a righteous man and woman. I will choose them and their descendants to live in covenant with me. I will give them a multitude of nations for descendants.” Abram becomes Abraham. Sarai becomes Sarah. And the sign of this second covenant is circumcision.
In the next step God makes a radical new decision. Previously the covenants have been with all of humanity or with a great multitude of nations. Now God decides to choose one people, one tribe, the Israelites, with whom to make a covenant. He chooses Moses to lead this people and through him gives the Law, which is now to be his — her — instrument in the struggle against evil. Through the Law God is going to train the Israelites in righteousness.
In human terms we would call this succession of events a path of trial and error. God creates, but his creatures fall. The covenants with Noah and Abraham are not good enough; so God makes another with Moses and the people of Israel.
And now, today, in our second lesson, we hear Paul say No to the Mosaic covenant. He sees this covenant too as another inadequate solution to the problem of human evil. Paul’s argument in support of this conclusion is hard to follow. I’m going to simplify it.
1. Paul’s rejection of the third covenant
Let’s imagine ourselves in Paul’s situation. He’s a Jew, an heir of the Mosaic covenant. He’s a Pharisee, a student of the greatest Pharisaic scholar of the day, Gamaliel. He’s a Christian. He has tried to get in right relation to God by keeping the Law, by adhering to the Mosaic covenant, but has failed. Keeping the Law has not worked for him. What has worked is faith in Jesus. Through that faith he has received the Holy Spirit and has been reborn in Christ. He has become a new person. And he has witnessed the same rebirth in many other people — both Jew and gentile. You are saved, he teaches, not by keeping the Law, but by putting your faith in God and receiving the Holy Spirit. You do not keep the moral law through your own effort; you keep it through the Holy Spirit, because you have been reborn in the Holy Spirit. Faith, not human effort, is what saves you. Faith opens you to the power of God, and in that power — in that right relation to God — you are able to be good.
So, says Paul, we are not subject the covenant of Moses. Not even our father Abraham was saved through the Law; he was saved by believing the word of God.
2. Our covenant
Our church language sometimes obscures meaning. We speak, for example, of the “New Testament,” and usually understand that to mean a book. We think of the “Old Testament” as one book and the “New Testament” as another. Well, ok. But those are secondary meanings.
The Old Testament is the Old Covenant, the third covenant, the covenant made between God, on the one hand, and Moses and the Israelites, on the other. You and I are members of the New Covenant, the Covenant between all of humanity and God in Jesus. The sign of this covenant is Baptism.
Notice, in particular, that the covenants are with peoples. The covenants are not with individuals. It is Noah and all humanity. Abraham and a multitude of nations. Moses and the tribe of Israel. Us, the People of God and all humankind.
When I was ordained, Baptisms were private affairs. They were performed on a weekday at the convenience of the participants. Baptism was very much a family affair. Thus in practice the new covenant was understood privately, individualistically. What happened in Baptism, in our common understanding, was something between an infant (or occasionally an adult) and God.
That changed for us dramatically in the late 70’s when the present Book of Common Prayer was introduced. Suddenly Baptism was to be performed on Sunday as a public event, as a ceremony of the People of God, not an intimate family event. The change caused a lot of trouble between parish clergy and parents and grandparents. I had conflict after conflict with families that wanted a private Baptism at the convenience of the participants. They resented making what they saw as a private event being turned into a public event.
In Baptism we are reborn into a new humanity, the Body of Christ. In Baptism the People of God initiate a new member. The new member takes on the identity and the mission of the People of God. If you look at pages 304-305 of the Prayer Book, where we subscribe to the New Covenant, you find our identity and mission spelled out. We are to adhere one in another through the apostles’ teaching, the breaking of bread, and the prayers. We are to persevere in resisting evil. We are to proclaim the Good News. We are to serve our neighbor. And we are to minister to all humankind by striving for justice and peace and by respecting the dignity of every human being.
In sum, we are to build a new humanity. We are to carry out the task begun in the Abrahamic Covenant. The old humanity is riddled by evil. In this covenant the evil in humankind is to be combated by the building of a new humanity in the Holy Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Conclusion. How to combat ISIS
I’ve been thinking a lot about ISIS — the Islamic State — lately. I imagine that all of us have. We have seen one horror after another — kidnapped men beheaded, or burnt alive — or in the most recent case twenty-nine coptic Christians beheaded because of being Christian. And now recently many more Christians have been kidnapped, and in all likelihood will be murdered in some gruesome fashion.
My gut reaction is anger and violence. Go after them! Send our armed forces after them! This is intolerable! They must be wiped out!
I’m reacting like the God of Noah.
If I were God I would send a flood!
But that won’t do.
So what should we do? What should our reaction be to this human evil?
I do not know in particular. I do know in general.
We, the People of God, are called to be and to build a new humanity. Jesus fought evil by giving himself to the cross. Are we to do that? Are we to be martyrs to ISIS or Boko Haram or Al Qaeda? I find that hard to believe.
Perhaps the path we are looking for is the one of non-violent confrontation taken by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. There is an institution — the Albert Einstein Institution — devoted to the study and propagation of this kind of change action. Their studies show how various non-violent tactics — even against vicious dictators — can bring about change. And it isn’t just talk. Various revolutions have successfully taken place using their nonviolent method. In any case, I believe we as Christians — as the seed of the new humanity — are called to find and use ways to combat evil and build the new universal People of God. It’s our mission. That’s why the New Covenant exists.
http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/OSNC.pdf
http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/How-Nonviolent-Struggle-Works.pdf