Jeremiah 31:31-34
A New Covenant
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. 32 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 the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33 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. 34 No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people[a] to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
My kids have an amazing memory. Especially my son when he was younger. If I promise something to him, or even hint at a promise. He doesn’t forget. If something comes up and we have to possibly be flexible, Brennan will simply say, “but you promised” and that’s the end of that for him.
If you are a parent, you know that it’s not always easy to keep your promises to your kids, try as you might, you simply can’t always do it. Grace then becomes a necessary gift to demonstrate and teach!
Our Old Testament lesson is about the promise, or covenant, of loving relationship. God has made promises to the people of Israel. A covenant of deliverance from Egypt, which God delivered on. Now the Israelites find themselves in exile in Babylon. God tells them that he has new promises for them. A covenant of abundance, of Presence, of blessing, of relationship. In this passage, God uses the term husband. Now, this is not meant to be patriarchal, but it was written a few thousand years ago, and the author is trying to convey something deeper than a masculine or feminine expression. This is a word of deep relationship, of connection, of relationship. The author is saying that God has made a commitment to Israel, to us, God is with us in relationship.
The passage goes on to say that God’s law will be put on our inward parts, on our hearts. It will no longer be about following a set of rules written in stone, but they will be placed on our hearts, they will become a part of us and lived out.
This is demonstrated to us by Jesus. Jesus embodied the law as we have said before. God’s covenants to us are fulfilled through Jesus in deep and powerful, and loving ways. We are called to cultivate, to discipline ourselves to follow Jesus, or, rather, to know what it means to “live in Christ”. But, this discipline is essential in growing in our understanding of our true selves as created, redeemed, and sustain by God. The root word of discipline even comes from disciple. A disciple is a student, a follower of Jesus. Now, Jesus also reminds us alter, that being a disciple leads to be a friend of one another and of God’s at the Last Supper. Living in Christ, and being a friend of Jesus is more about being than doing. It’s living out the Presence of God that is within and all around…and cultivating an awareness of our deepest identity that is in Christ.
In our gospel lesson, we hear Jesus talking to some Greeks, probably Greeks who were seeking to know more about God, who were drawn to Jesus’ teaching because it had power and demonstrated a challenge to the current system that governed culture. Jesus shares with them a hard thing to hear. That in order for something to grow, it has to die. He goes on to say that you have to lose your life to gain it.
This is hard to hear, yet true. When I was a kid, we lived on about 7 acres. My uncle lived next door and had a few more acres of land. We shared a large garden that was about 1/2 the size of a football field. Every year, in the fall, the plants and veggies in the garden would die and go back into the ground. He had a larger farm with cows. In the spring, we would go to the cow field where we had a manure pile. I hated this job, but we’d load up a bunch of smelly manure and spread it on our garden. Before that we would have tilled the ground to loosen it up and to churn up all of the dead plants into the ground. It was hard work, but when did that, planted the seeds, and then put the manure all over it, the nutrients that came from the smelly waste, would cause the ground to produce life. In order to do some of the more mundane chores, I would simply have to follow my dad and uncle’s lead, and live in a trust that they knew what they were doing, yet I benefited from great food and I learned a lot.
Jesus is calling us to be truly human and to grow. The way of Jesus can be hard, it requires trust, sometimes we have to spread some manure, till the ground. Yet, seeds are constantly being planted in our lives and in the lives of others that produce beautiful things.
Friends, we may have gone through some difficulties, or death, in the past…or even right now, we may be dealing with addictions, with broken relationships, or strained relationships out of the pandemic and the tumultuous years we’ve gone through, maybe we have experienced betrayal even, having been betrayed or the betrayer. We may have a physical set back or even death. We have fears, anxieties. Yet, I’m here to tell you that’s part of life, it smells, it’s hard. God does not cause bad things to happen, but know that God is working to produce good things, to restore relationship, in all of it. If we can trust God, then we may be able to see and to hear what God may want to pull out of the waste, out of death.
That’s hard for some. I know there are probably some folks in this room who are ready to give up on their life with God and maybe even giving up on church. I’d love to tell you about a God who is giving you, and giving Westwood First Presbyterian new promises of life. Our future with God is filled with God’s intimate presence with us as we practice disciplining ourselves through community with each other, through reading the scriptures with new eyes, through practices such as contemplation, lectio divina, listening, sabbath, and service. We will be starting some new things this spring with our adult education, which we will call the “Westside Abbey @ Westwood First Presbyterian,” where we will be cultivating some of these practices and teachings. The word Abbey means “joy” in its Hebrew roots…it also denotes a space set aside for spiritual growth. God is calling us to cultivate a life and love with radical inclusion in our communities and within ourselves. There is grace, and there is trust…both go towards growth.
The title of this sermon is “Endgame”. My son and I used to watch the Marvel movies when they came out, so I thought of that movie!
Jesus talks about the “endgame” in the gospel passage. But, it’s not like the endgame in Avengers. Jesus is not a super hero in the way that we imagine super heroes. He is not crushing enemies. He is following the way of humility, of emptying, of dying, which is much more powerful than any Avengers movie storyline. It’s a storyline of practice that has changed my life, your life, and the world.
Jesus knew this, Jesus also knew that he had to die. He died because of his challenge of a system that kept all of us enslaved to a way of life that was getting us nowhere…yet Jesus overcame that system, challenged that system, and invites us to love our neighbors as he did…Jesus even overcame death and is alive today, giving us hope that as he is lifted up, we are lifted up with him and are able to live full lives forever with him. The Ruler of the world in this passage is both Caesar and a deeper ruler, some would call Satan or evil systems…Jesus came to usher in a new reality that is both spiritual and material. A new way of living.
Let us be a church that lives out this radical call on our lives to follow Jesus by living in Christ. That in knowing our identity in Christ, we don’t have to force our God on others, just love others well and allow God to be shown through us!
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