Thursday's night sky was
cloudless as my northbound flight reached the Connecticut shore. The lights
below sparkled festively, more suitable for Christmas than for Lent! I was
struck by the short distances from New Haven to Waterbury to Hartford so easily
observed from my window and so quickly traveled by jet; more than an hour's car
drive was reduced to minutes. Wondering what it would look like from higher up,
I recalled a poster I'd seen somewhere depicting the entire planet from space.
My mind then flashed to a memory of a graphic drawing of our own Milky Way
Galaxy stretching for about 920 quadrillion miles as it speeds us along at 1.3
million miles per hour. Planet Earth is but a speck in a spiral arm of our
Galaxy, one of 100 billion galaxies in the entire Universe.
"...the word of the Lord came
to Abram in a vision. He said, 'Do not be afraid Abram .... I am the Lord who
brought you out from Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to occupy...'
...the Lord made a covenant with Abram, and he said, 'To your descendants I
give this land, from the river of Egypt to the Great River, the river
Euphrates.'" In terms of our galaxy, or even our own planet, this was not the
biggest real estate deal imaginable! But, it was the most significant contract
ever offered; for unknown reasons, and as a sheer act of grace, the Creator of
the Universe, the Lord God, reached out to Abram to initiate a Covenant, a
committed relationship. The Creator came to Abram, who was desperately
childless and landless, to bind Abram to Himself in love and gracious care. God
promised that Abram would be the father of many peoples and possess the
provided land. This Covenant was a contract binding God to Abram no matter what
happened. The Creator decisively intervened in human history to make a people
for Himself, a community to be a light to the nations. As a result, there has
never been a more remarkable family on the face of the earth than the Jewish
descendants of Abram; despite ongoing persecution, they have been the first
people to convey the Creator's meaning, purpose, and fulfillment to much of our
globe. With no need for the word "religion" in Hebrew Scriptures (the "Old
Testament"), they have borne the gift of an all-penetrating consciousness of
the presence of God in every aspect of human life. The experiences of Abram are
the very foundations for the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and for you and
me. The experiences of Abram are the bedrock for the life and ministry of
Mohammed and Muslims everywhere. An astonishing story!
One currently popular way of
viewing the Bible is to insist that its entire contents were invented by the
human imagination alone, that human beings create all stories of gods and
relationships with gods for comfort in an otherwise impersonal and perhaps
frightening world. Some psychologists explain ultimate beliefs as human
responses to emotional needs for meaning and for a cosmic parent; some
sociologists interpret all religion as a human need for a sacred canopy
protecting every culture. It is our conviction that among our sacred
stories are those containing ultimate truths not from our own imaginations;
within the legends about Abram is a cornerstone of our Faith: that the Creator
initiated a faithful, caring relationship with the Hebrew people, thereby
providing humanity with a vision of the life God intends for all.
I do not doubt at all that we
prefer meaning, purpose, and a sense of well-being on this planet; contrasting
faiths and lesser covenants are available. Many individuals and peoples choose
other faiths and covenants within which to live. For example, an
astrophysicist's fine testimony minus God illustrates his noble faith in these
words: "I find a certain pleasure and honor in belonging to the universe of
stars, of these events that have created the materials of which the` earth and
I are made." Other examples include humanists who have faith in and bind
themselves to other human beings, great philosophers bound to Reason, and,
mystics committed to the silence of Nirvana. In the everyday world many
Americans have covenanted with work, the nation itself, possessions, leisure
activities, heroes, success, prestige, happiness, and more. And, as St. Paul
warned the Philippians, "there are many whose way of life makes them enemies of
the cross of Christ ...." - in our times baptized Christians, and others, who
are drug dealers; crooked clergy and politicians: abusers of children, spouses,
and the elderly; polluters of the environment: financial and emotional
exploiters of vulnerable or naive people; and other horrid individuals. "They
are heading for destruction: appetite is their god, and they glory in their
shame." Their covenants are with demonic idols of their own creation.
Whether evil, noble, or
superficial, each faith, each covenant, beckons us with promises of meaning,
purpose, and fulfillment, but they deliver only what they are able. In his day,
Jesus grieved over the faithlessness and lesser covenants of so many in the
holy city of Jerusalem; as God's rejected Word, he lamented, "How often I have
longed to gather your children, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings: but
you would not let me." It is a sad reality then and now that the world normally
reacts negatively when God's Word is spoken; we're more apt to reject the
Creator's overtures than to respond positively, with awe and loving gratitude.
As the universe evolves, so
does our understanding of the Covenant between the Creator and the Creator's
people. No longer just a hereditary right of the ancient Hebrews and their
descendants, the New Covenant eagerly embraces all people who choose to be
"born again," to enter the Covenant community, the Church, consciously and
deliberately. Through Jesus, the God of Abram comes inviting all people to be
His family, faithful stewards, on this planet. With Christ as God's Clue to
what it's all about, the Church is nudged by the Spirit in worship, education,
pastoral care and fellowship, while compassionately inviting and serving
strangers as well.
Back to Thursday evening's
flight and speculations! A current scientific theory proposes that several
universes exist, each unknown to the other, that ours is one of many. If this
is actually the case, the Covenant with us remains intact; there just might be
additional Covenants between the Creator and others elsewhere! Common to all,
however, will be God's gracious and passionate offering of meaning, purpose,
and fulfillment as shown to us in Christ; common to all, I suspect, will be
creaturely resistance and rejection, and common to all will be God's
perseverance, faithfulness, and unwillingness to abandon His chosen peoples.
Lent is an appropriate time for
us to examine the quality of our participation in the New Covenant community
here! Is the Creator's Covenant emerging first and foremost in our lives
individually and as a congregation? Do we discover meaning, purpose, and
fulfillment in Christ? Do we strive to participate in the human commonwealth by
the standards of Christ? Or do elevate and embrace lesser, even evil, covenants
and their consequences? Think about it; pray about it, and be assured of God's
faithfulness to us, a congregation of His Covenant Community on Earth gathered
now In the Name of Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.