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Remember the Promised Relationship (Covenant)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
28 I will always keep my promise to him, and my covenant with him will last forever. Psalm 89:28 (TEV)
“A Covenant sealed with blood commits both parties to each other for ever. All they have belongs to the other, and they will lay down their life on the other’s behalf” (1)
It was over a dozen years ago that I picked up a 2 year devotional book, called Celtic Daily Prayer. It is the source of the quote in green above. I’ve decided to renew my acquaintance with it, this year, partially because of its practical meditations that are challening. So my readers might see a lot of it pondered on my blog this year, as the last year often had quotes from St. Josemaria Escriva. (and still will – )
It seems to be one of those God things that the first day’s meditation I cam across was one that focuses on Covenant. My original training in theology was within the framework of Covenant, and the deeper I’ve gone into understanding liturgical worship, the framework there is Covenant as well.
A quick definition is needed then, one I’ve developed. Covenant Theology is a description of the intimate relationship that God desires to have with His people, and makes possible through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Scripture contains the history of God’s faithfulness to His covenant people, looking forward and back to the cross, the point where God’s love makes the depth of His desire to love us clear, where he gives us a tangible, perfect example of His lovee, as He commits Himself to us, as Christ’s blood was poured out to seal the agreement.
This is something we need to remember daily, as St. Paul prayed for God’s people (us),
I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength— 17 that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, 18 you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! 19 Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:15-19 (MSG)
Explore the love, meditate on it, rejoice as you find it revealed to you in scripture, as you pray, as you gather with others around the Eucharist, as you proclaim Christ’s death – the measure of the triune God’s love for you and I and all the world. That is what it means to remember Chirst when you take and eat His Body, when you drink of the Blood that cleanses us from sin.
Theology is the servant of this relationship, in the way a marriage certificate or a love letter, or a powerpoint celebrating a 50th anniversary is. It points to something that is more than anything we can ever completely express, this love of God for us, this desire to make us His children. It is what Christianity is,
He loves us… He hears us, He died for us, His is with us… and we are His!
THe Lord is with you, so relax in His love!
(1) Celtic Daily Prayer, The Northumbrian Community, HarperOne (Aidan Reading for Jan.5 )
Mandela, Memorials, Celebrations and Funerals…for what purpose?
Raising of Lazarus. Jesus calls out Lazarus from his tomb. Mary and Martha accompany Jesus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional THought of the Day:
21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” 23 Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.” 25 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?” 27 “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” John 11:21-27 (NLT)
Have you ever said something that was far more accurate than you could ever expect?
In the gospel, Martha responds to Jesus, testifying to why she believe her brother is alive. She says this even as she knows his body, broken and empty, lies cold behind he stone. She got the answer right! I have believed you are the Messiah… that makes everything – including seeing her brother again, not just a nice thought – but an expectation. Because of Him!
I have been thinkning about this a lot in the last days, since Mandela’s memorial service, and the uproars that it caused. People, newspeople and those who followed their stories missed the reason for a memorial service, and later for the funeral, which was far more private. It seems like a constant theme in the months that have passed, as many people I know have lost family, dads, and granddads. The grief is a bit overwhelming, in some ways more personal this year, more overwhelming, even before my own dad’s suffering was replaced with the joy of being in the Father in Heaven’s presence.
So why do funerals exist? Are they to celebrate the accomplishments of a person’s life? Are they there to give voice to the grief the family and close friends know? Are they times for us to put life in perspective, realizing that all life has a termination point? Are they times for us to meet up with old friends and family, in a place where the disagreements and distance seem.. well minute? Is there time for laughter and joy amidst the tears? If so, is it even appropriate? So many questions, and as a veteran pastor, each of the questions will find their answers differently, because they are not the primary issue of the memorial service, the celebration of life, the funeral.
THe prupose is something different. It is something deeper, something more challenging to consider.
It is about celebrating the relationship between God and the person who has passed away. About realizing that God has fulfilled the promises to that man or woman personally. That as God claimed them as His, as God sustained them, blessed them, disciplined them, exalted them, love them, that their life is a testimony to God’s love and mercy. THat we can entrust this person we cared about, whom we loved, into the hands of God. Because of that we know as King David said of His son, there will be a day when we can go to him.
It doesn’t matter whether it is Mandela, or a dear friend. Those God has claimed are His,stating His claim at the cross, when Jesus died. He is faithful, even when we struggle to be.
Such is God’s love for us… a love that is shown in life and death. A love that needs to be revealed, and celebrated, and known.
For in realizing that love, we also realize His comfort and His peace, even as our eyes resemble waterfalls…
ALl these labels for these events, the ceremonises should teach us of God’s love… and I pray we hear it, see it revealed, and know it in our hearts..AMEN
The Eucharist: the Strength to Reveal Christ to Others…
English: The Lord’s Supper. Christ standing at an Orthodox altar, giving the Eucharist to the Twelve Apostles. Frescoes in the upper church of Spaso-Preobrazhenski cathedral. Valaam Monastery Русский: Алтарная апсида верхнего храма Спасо-Преображенского собора Валаамского монастыря. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Devotional/Discussion Thought of the Day:
This can only mean that whenever you eat this bread or drink of this cup, you are proclaiming that the Lord has died for you, and you will do that until he comes again. So that, whoever eats the bread or drinks the wine without due thought is making himself like one of those who allowed the Lord to be put to death without discerning who he was. 1 Corinthians 11:26 (Phillips NT)
If you don’t keep in touch with Christ in prayer and in the bread, how can you make him known to others? (1)
Though I have been in churches of many denominations and brotherhoods, the three I have spent the most time in, have had something in Common. The weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper, also known as Communion, or my preference, the Eucharist.
To be honest, it is something that I took for granted far too often. The Eucharist was something that when I was younger I thought was a spiritual “fill-up”, an opportunity to refocus, a chance to be reminded of God’s promises, a chance to remember His grace covering my sin, as surely as His blood was poured out on the ground.
You might be saying, well Pastor Dt, that’ what it is all about – isn’t it? That moment of refreshing, a weekly “mountain top” experience, a break and rest from the norm, and a break from the sin which haunts them. A chance to really realize what holiness is about…
As we think about what the Eucharist results in, we slowly lose sight about it is… the Body of Christ, given for us; the Blood of Christ, shed for us…
It is not just about knowing God’s love – it is time with Him. A time for His to comfort and cleanse and help us explore with Him the height and depth, breadth and width of His love, and the Father’s love. A time not just where we are reminded of His covenant and its promises, but where He, Himself, reminds us of that promise – most specifically His loving presence. That we are His family, called to dinner with Him as the Host…
That is why Paul can say we proclaim His death – it is ours, we who are untied to Him in His death and resurrection (our re-birth) It is time with Him in that moment beyond time, that foretaste of the feast that will be thrown when we all have come home. We proclaim it – not just for our benefit – but that others would join us at this incredible moment, in this incredible time with Him…celebrating out union…our being the beloved. It is from there, from that depth of intimacy with Christ, that knowing Him and being known by Him, that the kerygma – the desire to introduce others to Him springs forth.
Not from duty…
But from the passion He has for us, the unbelievable love He has for us….
And we know who we are introducing people to, not just a way to “be saved”, but the God, the incredible, majestic, glorious God who loves them, Who gives them life… and brings them into His glory.
It is where we find the answer to our plea… Lord have mercy…. and know He does that in a way beyond expression… and it is He, even more than us, the is joyous in the reunion.
Godspeed us all to this realization.
Escriva, Josemaria (2010-11-02). The Way (Kindle Locations 396-397). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition
Related articles
- Will we trust what God has revealed? Or must we explain (and know) more than that? (justifiedandsinner.com)
