Contracts and Covenants

Exodus 20:1-17 

On the subject of God’s commandments, I want to talk about Toy Story. That makes sense, right? It’s a film about two toys, Woody and Buzz. They belong to a boy named Andy, a boy who loves them. And Woody and Buzz love Andy, too.

So yes, obviously in this movie the toys are alive. Sort of. They think and talk and move and they have rules. Among the rules is that the can only talk and move when there are no humans around.

Something that might be one of the rules, or maybe it’s just in their DNA (if toys have DNA?), is that they are completely loyal to their kid. Woody and Buzz are lovingly devoted to their kid, Andy.

Well, at one point in the story, Buzz and Woody both somehow end up at the home of Andy’s neighbor, a boy named Sid. Sid is vicious. He is the kind of kid who destroys his toys just for fun. Buzz and Woody are desperate to escape from Sid and get back to Andy, but they are losing hope. And something starts happening to Buzz, in particular. He kind of loses his sense of who he is, whose he is. So there they are, Woody and Buzz, trapped in Sid’s room. Woody is literally trapped under a plastic crate, and Buzz is trapped in his own hopelessness. Woody tries to encourage Buzz, but Buzz seems too far gone to be helped. But then, something happens.

Back when they were brand new, Andy wrote his name with a sharpie pen on the bottoms of his toys. Both Woody and Buzz have Andy’s name written on their soles.

When Buzz, sitting there in Sid's room, looks at the sole of his shoe, he sees Andy’s name. Since Buzz has been trapped in this wilderness of Sid’s viciousness, he has forgotten who he is. But seeing Andy’s name, reminds him. And he remembers – who he is, and who he belongs to.

At the risk of pushing this analogy too far, I want to say that these toys have a kind of covenant relationship with their boy, Andy. It is a relationship based on love.

So, what does that have to do with the 10 commandments? Or, in the words of Tina Turner, what’s love got to do, got to do with it?

When God gave Moses the 10 commandments, it was a gift. It was a mercy. I know it can be hard for us to see it that way, because these rules are not all easy to follow. And they are especially difficult when we make the effort to follow not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law.

And it’s worth remembering that when God gave these commandments to Moses for all Israel, they were just a small piece of the whole thing. There are over 600 laws in the Old Testament, which we mostly choose to ignore – for solid theological reasons.

We believe that the 10 commandments are unique in that they sort of summarize the essential points of the law. These commandments provide for us a rule, a guide, for faithful living.

Sounds simple – but as Christians, we have a complicated relationship with these commandments. Martin Luther believed that the law’s purpose was to convict us of our sinfulness. Seeing how far short we fall, we see how fully dependent we are on God’s grace. While this is true, John Calvin believed there was more to it than that. In addition, he believed, the law is also there to help us. We look to the law to see what righteous living looks like. And then we seek to live up to it – not out of fear of punishment, but out of pure gratitude for God’s grace.

And here we see, again, the clear distinction between contract and covenant. We know we can’t keep this law. If the whole business depended on us being able to keep up our end of the bargain, it would have all fallen apart centuries ago. We would have had the pants sued off us for breach of contract. End of story.

But that is not the end of the story.

God made this covenant with Israel knowing full well that they could not keep up their end. God entered into this deal with full knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses, faith and failings of these human creatures. God knew full well that they would fail – we would fail – and God did it anyway.

In making covenant with us, God is claiming us as God’s own. We have a relationship, and this relationship is not governed by rules. It is governed by love.

In making covenant with us, God has written God’s name on us. Knowing this, we won’t remain lost in the wilderness. We won’t remain hopeless and helpless. Knowing this, that we belong to God, we are empowered to live lives guided by love and justice and mercy, caring for our fellow men and women, as well as ourselves.

Take the example of Buzz again. When he was lost in his own hopelessness, he didn’t have the will to help himself or his friend Woody, who was calling out for help. Buzz would have just sat there in Sid’s room until he died. Or until the new morning when Sid took him outside and lit that firecracker strapped to Buzz's back. But when he remembered who he was, and whose he was, everything changed. And what was the first thing he did? He came to the aid of his friend Woody.

May you and I remember who we are, and whose we are.

May we remember the promises of God’s love.

May we walk in gratitude toward righteousness, in Christ’s name.

Bad News/Good News

Romans 4:13-25         

Mark 8:31-38    

If you want to have some fun, you should try sitting with a bunch of preschoolers sharing their joys and concerns. I do this every month with our church’s preschool children. We all sit in a circle on the floor, pass around a stuffed lamb, and take turns sharing our joys and concerns – just like we do in worship every Sunday. You might not think three- and four-year-olds would be able to manage joys and concerns, but they can manage pretty well. Many of them, in fact, will tell me that they have both – a joy and a concern. I always ask them which one they want to tell us first, and usually they want to start with their concern. I’m not sure why. Maybe the concern is what feels most pressing. Or, maybe they’re thinking ahead and want to end on a high note.

I will admit, they do get a little confused at times. Last week one little girl said, “I have a joy; Elena is my best friend!” and I told her how glad I am that she has Elena. Then she said, “I have a concern, too. Tony is my best friend!” So, there might be some important subtleties about preschool social life that I am not getting. Or, she might have been a little confused about the nature of joys and concerns.

They are still working on figuring out what qualifies as good news and bad news.

This business of good news/bad news is on my mind because of the gospel. Because I’m waiting for the good news. And sometimes in our world, and in this passage from the gospel, it seems to be scarce.

Sometimes it seems as though the gospel is all bad news. Especially today.

It begins with Jesus telling his disciples about all the bad things that will happen – the suffering, the rejection, the crucifixion. Yes, he also said that on the third day he would rise again, but I doubt that they heard that part. I think suffering, rejection, and death would have taken up all their bandwidth. You know, like after you hear the word cancer, all the words that come after it just sound like a drone in the background, because the word cancer is reverberating too loudly in your head. If you are invested in someone, you are invested in their bad news. Suffering, rejection, death.

Imagine how alarming this sounded to his disciples. Remember that just a short while ago they dropped everything and followed him. They dropped their nets, left their boats and their families. They’ve gone all in.

Now, admittedly, their decision to follow Jesus was not a rational one. They didn’t tally up the pros and cons before dropping their nets. It was purely a Spirit-led thing. And while they have been following him, they’ve been trying to sort it out, put the pieces together and figure out just what kind of program they are following.

Right before Jesus began telling them all the bad news of things to come, Peter had made a remarkable breakthrough. In answer to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am,” Peter said, “You are the Messiah.”

The Messiah; the Anointed One; the Deliverer of Israel. Good news: Jesus is the one they have been waiting for. This, finally, would have given Peter a framework for understanding just what they were all about. This would have helped him see some sort of agenda for the work ahead. And the agenda didn’t include suffering, rejection, and crucifixion. That’s not good news. This conversation has become –

Disorienting? Perhaps. But Peter was determined to stay oriented. And he did what he felt needed to be done: gave Jesus a little talking-to. Or, as Mark says, Peter rebuked him.

Don’t you wonder just what Peter said? Maybe he expressed concern about morale among the disciples. Maybe he told Jesus he really needed to improve his leadership skills. Whatever it was, it got a reaction out of Jesus, who then turned around and rebuked Peter. And here we don’t need to wonder what he said, because, apparently, everybody heard.

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

I think he shouted it. I think that, at this point, it was no longer a small group lesson between Jesus and the Twelve. This was like screaming at your dinner partner in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Suddenly, you are the focus of everyone’s attention.

So Jesus turned his attention to them. Speaking to the whole crowd, he began to talk of how following him would mean hardship, it would require selflessness. He let them know that they were welcome to try, but that following him would mean turning away from worldly things for the sake of divine things. And it did not sound like good news.

It was distressing news, because they thought they understood about divine things. But it turns out they didn’t understand it at all. And here is where I want to invite you to put yourself into the crowd, hearing Jesus’ words.

Here you are in this crowd – interested in Jesus but not knowing much about him yet. How does it feel to hear these words? Maybe you are there because you have heard things about Jesus that make you feel so hopeful. He heals those whom others have given up on; he cares for those whom others have forgotten. He speaks in a way that has the ring of truth. How does it feel then, to hear this man in whom you have placed so much hope, say “take up your cross” if you want to follow me? Does it feel like good news?

It turns out we’re not very good, either, at distinguishing between divine things and human things, as Jesus put it. We might not be as good as we think at knowing the difference between good news and bad news.

As the Apostle Paul said, in his letter to the Corinthians, it’s about knowing the difference between what is foolish and what is truly wise. And, he added, being willing to look foolish, at times, in the eyes of the world. Or, as he suggests in the letter to the Romans, as we read today, it is about knowing the difference between what has been promised by God and what is just plain human desire. It is not easy for us to distinguish these things.

This is especially significant during this season of Lent, when we are invited to go deeper into what might seem like the bad news. In Lent, we are encouraged to go all in, as those first disciples went all in, experiencing the good and the bad, the joys and the concerns. In fact, during Lent, we are particularly invited into the deep sadness and pain, those places we don’t normally choose to go. And, strangely, we may find deep joy and peace in these places.

The church of Jesus Christ is founded on the gospel, which is another word for “good news,” but the reality is we spend a lot of time on what many would consider to be “bad news.” In fact, it has surprised and confounded some that we seem to find our greatest joy in what looks to all the world like bad news.

During Lent we devote a little extra time to contemplating our sinfulness, our weaknesses, our failures. Fun, right? This doesn’t seem like anything that would increase our joy. But, if we walk into these dark places in trust, we may discover a sense of release, which brings joy and peace.

And what we might realize is that the bad news is always there. The pain, the sinfulness, is always there whether we choose to look at it or not. But if we walk into it, eyes open, Christ will set us free of it. And that is good news.

Paul’s words to the Romans help shed light on this difficult matter of bad news and good news. He said that faith and righteousness will be reckoned to us who believe in the God who gives life to the dead, who calls into existence things that do not exist, and who is able to do what he has promised to do. God is able to do what he has promised to do.

God does not eradicate suffering and death. God does not fulfill all our wishes like a Genie in a bottle. But God will do all that God has promised to do, and the secret is knowing what God has promised to do.

You and I will also suffer. You and I will live through good days and bad days, we will experience loss and maybe even rejection. But what God has promised us is forgiveness and reconciliation. We get there, to that good place, by walking with Jesus.

So often, the important things we learn in life come by serendipity. So it is, sometimes, with my preschool friends. One day, I asked a child if he had a concern or a joy to share and he said he had a conjoy. I have found that to be a useful word.

My friends, if we walk this walk with Jesus, we will go through places of deep concern. But this walk will lead us to places of deep joy. In fact, I would say the life of faith is a life full of conjoy.

May you seek to know the difference between the foolish and the wise, the human and the divine, the bad news and the good.

May you, too, get behind Jesus, follow him wherever he will lead you.

May you find the places of deep peace and joy that sustain us through this life and into the next.

Photo: Sharing our joys and concerns - and conjoys too.