god always forgives: 5th of lent

the first reading was jeremiah 31:31-34

the psalm was psalm 51:1-12

the second reading was hebrews 5:5-10

the holy gospel according to john (12:20-33)

²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.

       ²¹They came to Philip,

              who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,

       and said to him,

              “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

²²Philip went and told Andrew;

       then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

              ²³Jesus answered them,

                     “The hour has come for the Son-of-Man to be glorified.

                            ²⁴Very 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.

                     ²⁵Those who love their life lose it,

                            and those who hate their life in this world

                                   keep it for eternal life.

                     ²⁶Whoever 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.

              ²⁸Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven,

       “I have glorified it,

       and I will glorify it again.”

²⁹The crowd standing there heard it

       and said that it was thunder.

       Others said,

              “An angel has spoken to him.”

       ³⁰Jesus answered,

              “This voice has come for your sake,

                     not for mine.

                     ³¹Now is the judgment of this world;

                     now the ruler of this world will be driven out.

                            ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,

                                   will draw all people to myself.”

                                          ³³Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

the gospel of the lord.

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our final covenant this lent takes us to holy week.  it is a promised new covenant.  throughout the hebrew bible, or old testament, god has made covenant after covenant:            with the noah family and all living creatures, with sarah and abraham, with the israelites journeying out of egypt.  throughout all of this covenanting, god has been the one who is always faithful to the covenant.  

the israelites broke the 10 commandments before god was even done presenting them, and the bronze serpent became an idol to whom the israelites sacrificed for years to come.  the israelites continued to mess up, and yet god was faithful to the covenant and to the israelites.  god initiates the covenants and god chooses limitation to honor those covenants. 

and then, when we break the covenants,            as we, being human, are apt to do, god forgives us and renews the covenant again. 

god knows that we are a forgetful people.  we forget who created us.  we forget that god gives us all we need, that god gives us gifts and talents to do god’s work in the world.  we forget the love that grounds us and empowers us, the love that connects us to each other and to the world.  we forget the love that holds us in sorrow and exile and cheers with us in joy and excitement.

we forget that god surrounds us with others who care about us.  we easily forget so much and so, god keeps coming to us.  god continually comes to us in love, renewing covenants and making new covenants.  even when we turn our back on god, god continues to come to us.

the new covenant that god makes with the israelites today in jeremiah comes as they return from exile.  it is a covenant based entirely on god.  yes, there are expectations of loyalty and obedience, but it is grounded in god affirming the israelites as god’s people and in god’s forgiveness. 

god sets the terms for the new covenant.  it is, after all, god who is pursuing the israelites again after their unfaithfulness.  god is the faithful spouse in this relationship and continues to come back, seeking reconciliation, seeking right and renewed relationship with god’s people.

why?  because god has never had to operate on our terms, according to our logic.  in covenants, god chooses to operate on our terms, hoping that our response will lead us more deeply into god’s terms and into loving relationship with god.

god brings us back from exile.  god gives us second, third, even hundredth chances.  god gives us new ways of being in relationship, new ways of understanding the world.  god writes god’s love on our hearts.  god’s covenant becomes a living relationship, a commitment that grows and changes with us.

as god continues to “forgive our iniquity, and remember our sin no more,” it is a countercultural way of living.  our culture, our economy, is a tit-for-tat one.  we give things and expect something in return or receive things and feel indebted to the other.  our relationships are based on mutuality, and also an economics of accountability.  i scratch your back, if you scratch mine.  we keep track of favors and debts, things owed to us and things we owe.

god            doesn’t work that way.  god doesn’t keep score, because if god did, we would surely lose.  three strikes and we’d be out in no time.  we can never live up to the love that god pours out on us.  and we don’t have to.  god scratches everybody’s back.  god’s love is for everybody.  god hopes and works for the best for all of god’s creation, and doesn’t expect perfect reciprocation.  god gives first, grateful for responses, but not expecting or necessitating them in order to be satisfied.

this doesn’t work within our society.  our economy demands reciprocation, demands payback for all goods and services.  our economy even differentiates between the deserving and the undeserving poor.  says that only some deserve adequate health care, food, or shelter.  to get anything done in politics, there has to be clear, concrete benefit to the ones making the decisions.  laws are no longer passed because they are good for communities or for the country or world.  laws are passed for the sake of the next election.

and yet, jesus says, “²⁶whoever serves me must follow me, and where i am, there will my servant be also.  whoever serves me, the father will honor.”  following jesus means following jesus into the road home shelter, through detox, through the lines at the soup kitchen, into circles held for grieving, and even into our own homes and families. 

god’s way of life, god’s covenant with us is not the covenant we are used to.  it is not the social contract we live out each day.  it is a covenant of abundant life and abundant love for everybody and with everybody.

ultimately, god makes the everlasting covenant with us by coming to be with us—born in a feeding trough to peasants, walking among us—befriending the outcast, the sinner, the hopeless, and being tortured and killed on a cross—executed by powers of this world. 

in the crucifixion, god makes the ultimate sacrifice, joining us in suffering and death, so that the new covenant might last.  this covenant is a covenant of abundant life for all people.  as jesus draws all people to himself, he brings us all back into relationship with the god of second chances.  the god who never gives up—even after we’ve blown five or ten chances. 

still we know what we have learned by heart: “jesus loves me, this i know, for the bible tells me so.  little ones to him belong.  they are weak and he is strong.”  god is still with us, writing on our hearts the covenant that says “you are my child, whom i love.  you are worthy of that love.  i will always love you.”

thanks be to god.