THE STRAIGHTFORWARD PULPIT

Text:  Jeremiah 31:31-34

Theme:  "Are We In Agreement?"

22nd Sunday after Pentecost

October 20, 2013

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

 

+In the Name of Jesus+

 

³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
³² It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to^[d] them,^[e]”
declares the Lord.
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
³⁴ No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

A little over a week ago, I ran into a couple of friends of mine by the names of Doug and Lynne Ebersole.  I got to know them when I worked at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church just down the road.  Doug is a musician who plays brass in a number of local bands.  One of those groups is called "Strictly Dixie", and play a lot of old favorites in a Dixieland jazz style. 

 

At any rate, Doug had mentioned that he and Lynne were about to get on a plane and fly to France. While there, the plan was to visit American cemeteries.  While on the grounds of those cemeteries, Doug had hoped to get out his trumpet and play "Taps" in honor of those Americans, during the world wars, who gave the last full measure of devotion.  His eyes misted up when he told me about it.  It clearly meant a great deal to him. 

 

They had to change their plans. Why? Well, it was because of the government shut down.  Those cemeteries are not run by the French. Our federal government operates them, and, as it turns out, those cemeteries were closed due to the shutdown.  Finally, in Washington, an agreement was reached (if you can call it that), and the parts of the government that were closed were reopened. As a result, Doug and Lynne take off Wednesday for France.   Doug will be able to play his trumpet and check off an item on his bucket list.  He wouldn't be able to do it if there were no agreement.

 

There's a lot in the lives we lead that wouldn't get done without agreement.  Sometimes we like to think that we are free agents and don't have to enter into any kind of agreement with anyone else.  But that kind of thinking has pretty much been exposed as nonsense.  When we do the paperwork for a new car or a new home, we enter into an agreement.  When we take a spouse, we enter into an agreement -- for better and for worse, for richer and poorer, and so forth.  When we pull out our Visa or MasterCard to pay for lunch after church, we enter into an agreement. Agreements both large and small are part of the warp and woof of life.

 

The Biblical term for agreement is "covenant."  That's one of those multi-million dollar theological terms that has, for the most part, fallen out of common usage.  But a covenant is basically an agreement. It's very simple:  "I'll do this for you, and you'll do this for me." That's it; that's a covenant.  "I'll agree to prepare your Eggs Benedict and serve you your French Roast coffee, and you'll agree to pay what we charge -- for the Eggs Benedict and the French Roast coffee."

 

A huge portion of that book we call the Bible is nothing if not a track record of how well -- or how poorly -- covenants are kept.  God enters into covenant with Adam.  God enters into covenant with Noah.  God enters into covenant with Abraham and Sarah.  God enters into covenant with Moses.  God enters into covenant with King David.  The people agree to the terms.  You will be our God.  We will be your people. You will preserve our lives; we will follow your rules.  You will bring us into a land flowing milk and honey.  We will worship You alone. 

 

God's Word goes to great lengths and great pains to point out that the people didn't always live up to the terms of the agreement. They sinned; they became "free agents"; they worshipped other gods.   In short, by playing fast and loose with their terms of the agreement, they ended up spiritually and morally bankrupt.  God, on the other hand, kept the divine part of the bargain. God's terms of the agreement were followed to the letter; God's portion of the covenant never missed a beat.  But the people?  They would agree to the terms with their lips, but their lives told another story.  In short, when it comes to covenant, God was faithful but God's people were not.

 

During a particularly distressing time during this history of covenants kept and broken, there enters in a prophet -- a spokesman for the Lord -- by the name of Jeremiah.  Later generations would call him a "major" prophet; his book, in the Old Testament, comprises over fifty chapters.

 

Despite the doom and gloom contained therein, Jeremiah does serve up one of the greatest -- if not, the greatest! -- promises of God ever delivered to people.  Through Jeremiah, God says:  "The days are coming when I will make a new covenant."   It won't be like the old covenants.  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.  No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.  “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

 

What a strange covenant this is!  What a weird agreement there appears to be!  In a covenant or agreement, there are usually two sets of terms.  "I'll do this"; that's one set of terms.  "You'll do that"; that's the other set of terms.  But this is entirely new in the whole history of covenants, for there is only one set of terms.  They involve what God will do and NOT what the people will do.  At the beating heart, at the core of this radically new covenant, is this:  it entirely God's terms and no one else's.  In effect, God is entering into covenant with Himself.  "I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."  There's no more "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine."  This is entirely the initiative, the action, the mercy, and the grace of God alone.

 

The good news I share with you today is no more or less than this:  through Jeremiah, God make the promise of the new covenant.  In Jesus Christ, God fulfilled it.  Christ's death on a cross for our sins and His glorious resurrection on Easter day for our justification, shows God keeping the terms of His covenant.  Forgiveness is no longer a promise.  It's a present reality.  It's not a set of terms; it's a gift.  Jesus says:  "Take and eat; this is my body given for you.  Take and drink; this cup is the new covenant in my blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins." 

 

One of my golfing buddies told the story of walking into Racetrack one day to buy a soft drink after filling his car with gas.  When he was checking out, the cashier -- completely out of the blue -- handed him eight dollars. As it turns out, the previous customer had given ten dollars to the cashier to give, as an anonymous gift, to the next customer.  The two dollars he didn't get was used to pay for the Coca-cola.  Whoever that customer was made no difference.  That illustrates this new covenant of God.  You don't see it coming; it comes as a gift.  You didn't ask for it; you didn't earn it, but there it is.  "I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."

 

I remember standing behind a man in line at Starbucks.  I noticed he was wearing military fatigues.  I observed him pull out his wallet to pay.  The barista said:  "No charge today." The soldier was surprised.  "The lady in front of you paid for it," said the barista.

 

Call it kindness.  Call it "paying it forward."  Call it what you will, but stories such as this warm the heart, and why?  Because they are earthly examples -- parables, if you will -- of God's grace.  They are little illustrations and snippets of human love mimicking divine love.

 

As Christians, we are always tempted to fall back into the ways of the old covenant -- which only shows that we are no longer trusting the new covenant.  We tumble into the trap of thinking that Christianity is little more than a set of rules to follow that, if kept, produces holiness of life and living.  Instead of "little Christs" we become little -- and even not-so-little Pharisees -- who strive to pick the immoral speck out of our neighbors eyes while neglecting the massive log in our own.  If that's the type of Christianity people see, it's no wonder many are turned off.  Sometimes I think we become so earnest in trying to "discern the will of God" that we quite forget that this new covenant IS the will of God. 

 

A number of years ago I got a call from a fraternity brother that I hadn't heard from in a long time.  He called from Arizona.  I didn't even know that he lived there.  He told me that his dad was in the ICU of an Indianapolis hospital and that he didn't have time to live.  Through tears, this tough old fraternity brother told me that, while he was a good dad, his father never really cared much for the church or for spiritual matters. "But now," said my Sig Ep brother, "he wants to make peace with God." I knew what my old friend was about to ask.  "Sure, I'll go," said.

 

I drove to the hospital and went to the ICU.  I introduced myself and made the family connections.   "I don't know how long I have," the man said. "I need to make peace with God."  "We can't make peace with God,", I said,  "but I believe I was sent here to tell you that God has made peace with us."  Later that day, nothing prevented that man from receiving baptism right there in his hospital bed.  He was a child of the new covenant -- not by anything he had done.  At the end of day and at the end of his life, that didn't matter.  What mattered was this:  God forgave his wickedness and didn't remember his sin.

 

Agreements will continue to be made and kept and broken. Maybe the debt ceiling will be raised again and maybe it won't.  Maybe the government will shut down again and maybe it won't.  About all I know is that my friend is going to get to play taps at American cemeteries in France, and we get to begin a new week together as children of the New Covenant. Thanks be to God!

 

Amen.