We are a Covenant People – Deuteronomy 6:1-9; Luke 22:14-20

The word covenant has come to us from the records we read in the books of the Old and New Testament. There are two covenants that we are most aware of. The first was the covenant between God and the people of Israel established when they were still on their wilderness journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. The second is the one established by Jesus through his life, death and resurrection.  What is interesting to note about both of these covenants is that there is no actual written and signed document of either covenant except for the record in the Bible. In the case of the first covenant,  it was a verbal assent to the Ten Commandments that sealed the covenant between God and the people of Israel. In the case of the second covenant, it was the blood of Jesus that sealed the covenant.  The assent of the disciples and those who followed them was verbal as well when they proclaimed publicly their faith in the sacrifice of Jesus and its life-giving atonement for sin.  But a verbal assent to anything is only as good as our willingness to be faithful and so the people of Israel were commanded to write the laws and commandments and wear them as bands on their hands, as emblems on their foreheads and to put them on the doorposts of their homes.  They were to recite them to their children and remember them as they arose in the morning and as they laid down at night.  Such reminders were intended to keep the words of the covenant ever before the people and remind each of them of their personal responsibility to the One to whom they had given their pledge of faithfulness.

The disciples would no doubt have shown their willingness to be faithful to the new covenant by remembering the words and actions of Jesus in prayer and in the breaking of the bread and the pouring of the cup. Over the centuries times of prayer and the sharing of the elements have remained as important ways in which the community of believers have kept alive in their hearts and lives the great gift of forgiveness for sin and the atonement for that sin realized in full by the sacrifice of body and blood – the Lamb of God – Jesus.  Time spent in prayer in the morning as we begin our day and time spent in prayer at the end of our day are just two of the intentional reminders to us to not forget that we are a people who are in a relationship with the God of all time  and creation and that we have a personal responsibility to the One to whom we owe our very existence to live this life faithfully remembering that we are redeemed.

What is spoken in Deuteronomy to the people of Israel are words that are meant to impress upon them that the relationship being forged between God and themselves is not one to be taken lightly or dismissed from their everyday existence.  Their very life depends on their faithfulness to the covenant.  Of course, we know very well that faithfulness to the covenant was something that the people and their leaders struggled to maintain.

Remaining faithful to the covenants we make in life is challenging.  Our commitment to one another be it in relationships of marriage, family, friendship, or employment is ever in need of our attentiveness and care. We can and are tempted to neglect the covenants we make, to fracture the covenants to which we have given our assent.  Such times of temptation may seem to offer us something that we feel we are missing or something we feel is more worthy of our time and attention, but in the end it usually brings us misery and regret.  Losing our focus, fracturing the covenants we make in life with God and with one another, this is a fact of our human condition. And right from the beginning, God was more than aware that we would struggle to fulfil our side of the covenant. God knew the challenges we would face and that we would find ourselves failing at different times.  This is one of the reasons why community gatherings such as this one are so important to those of us who have chosen to be in covenant with God.  These gatherings help to refocus our attention back to that decision, back to that relationship and help to restore the balance in our lives that we can often find ourselves losing.

So here we are in this time and this place, drawn together to celebrate and proclaim  the words of faith: The Lord is our God; the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.

“Keep them in your heart”, said Moses. Moses knew that the heart was the very centre of their being. That was the place where their greatest treasure was kept. If the commandments of God, if love for God were in the heart, they would be treasured and lived from the depth of their being. If in their head, they would find their thoughts wandering and eventually new ways of thinking and seeing would creep in.

The heart is where our true self lies. As the blood that courses through our bodies is sent by the heart to enliven each part of us, so the commandments of God are to be sent to every part of our being and enliven us to be the people of God.

In Luke 22, the Last Supper that Jesus shared with the disciples is recorded. In that account we hear Jesus speaking of the sacrifice that he will make. It will demand of him his body and his blood. It will demand of him his heart and his soul. But that sacrifice will change the covenant forever.  It will no longer be just a covenant of law and commandment – it will now be a covenant sealed not with words but with blood.  This covenant will ensure that we will never again need to worry that our weaknesses, our loss of focus, our stumbling, will cause us to lose our relationship with God if we remember to seek his forgiveness and remember our responsibility to be faithful to God’s words and commandments.

For this is a covenant not written on stone but written in blood. It is a covenant that is to be remembered each time we break bread at home or here in community. It is a covenant that is to be remembered each time we raise a cup – be it wine or whatever may fill it. For this is now a covenant of grace, a covenant of mercy, a covenant of love.

As we approach the table of our Lord today, let us pause to consider what God has prepared and acknowledge the covenant that has been made with us through the sacrifice of Jesus. O taste and see that the Lord is good! AMEN