Changing the Basics of the Covenant
Commentary
God’s persistence results in changing the basics of the covenant — sour grapes and written on the heart. Paul calls for us to be persistent in faithfulness, in holding to the truth in a confusing world. Jesus calls us to be as persistent approaching a just and loving God in prayer. If a woman with no power can persist in pestering an unjust judge until justice is done, won’t it be more likely that God will respond to our prayers?
Jeremiah 31:27-34
There's a certain truth to the proverb that the parents eat sour grapes and their children’s teeth are set on edge. Whether you are seen eating sour grapes, or lemons, or scraping your nails across a chalkboard (if anyone remembers those), others shudder. This truth about the sins of the parents determining the life of the children is stated in Lamentations 5:7, and we see this truth in the way the life of a child is often determined by where they are born, the health of their families, or the economic strength of their region.
As true as that ancient proverb might be, thanks to Jeremiah’s new covenant someday we will transcend the burden of the past. The sins we bear as a society are great — structures built by slaves, economies based on the oppression of others, a legacy of genocide against Native Americans, the weight of a Civil War that infects our national dialog and identity a century and a half later, the persecution of German-Americans during the First World War and the internment of Japanese-American citizens during the Second World War, economic assumptions about haves and have-nots, casual language that assumes the subjugation of women and minorities, the list goes on and on. And if we wish to be free of the burden of the past, if we hope that we will not longer cringe at the sour grapes eaten by our ancestors, dare we bequeath our own sour grapes to the next generations, exacerbating climate change, creating new generations of terrorists, and new webs of oppression.
Jeremiah saw the destruction of the temple, the end of the kings, the dissolution of the nation, and told the truth about these things though it put his life in jeopardy, but against this backdrop he proclaimed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God is creating a new covenant, written upon our hearts. Just as Jesus invited us in the Sermon on the Mount to go beyond the legalisms of the law to the Spirit that gives new life, so here we see a wide open future, a divinely created change in our relationship with God. We know this stuff. It's written in our hearts.
This idea of the New Covenant, from which we Christians take the name of our book, the New Testament, has been called by some the high point of the Hebrew scriptures. (Actually, I think Leviticus 19 is the high point, but that's another story) In any event, although this is not a theme that is repeated over and over again in exactly these words, it is clear that the prophets call us back a renewed relationship with God, who is always willing to forgive. This is something extraordinary, however, a total recasting of the way we know God — beyond the actions of physical sacrifice in the temple or the study of the words in our scriptures. It anticipates the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Earth of Revelation, and the temple of the Living Lamb.
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
Paul’s second letter to Timothy calls for us to be persistent as well. I’m attracted to the phrase “whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Paul is writing from Prison, and as the letter concludes, with the famous phrasing “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (4:7)” one senses that Paul is aware his journey is nearly complete. Despite his looming death at the hands of Roman authorities, the danger Paul writes about seems to be internal, rather external pressure. People will listen to self-appointed authorities who tell them what they want to hear instead of the truth. They will create their own myths and cling to those rather than what God has revealed. In the face of these dangers Paul calls Timothy — and us — to endure and continue in our calling.
These verses could hardly be more timely. Flat-earthers, Holocaust deniers, science deniers prefer their own false gods to the living truth which is revealed in the world around us. Discern, learn, and burn with a desire to be God’s truth tellers, regardless of how unpopular that makes us.
Luke 18:1-8
Those who first heard Jesus tell this parable may well have laughed at the image of the widow pestering the judge wherever he want. A widow had less power in that society not only because she was not a man, but also because she had no connection to a man. Remember in the Book of Ruth that Naomi cannot inherit Elimelech’s property until Boaz marries Ruth and takes possession of her late husband’s estate. The judge in the parable seems to prefer serving the rich and powerful, because he benefits as well. But this widow embarrasses him because he can’t go anywhere without her following him. At last he gives in. Jesus uses the rhetorical device of arguing from a lesser, the unjust judge, to a greater, God in heaven. If an unjust judge, who has all the power and holds a powerless widow in disdain, eventually gives in and grants her what she asks, how much more so will God, who is greater, and a just judge, act justly. Shouldn’t we therefore be persistent in prayer and action. Yet Jesus asks if we an expect the people of God to act like the people of God. Yet will the Son of Man find those persistant disciples engaged in ceaseless prayer when he comes to earth?
Jeremiah 31:27-34
There's a certain truth to the proverb that the parents eat sour grapes and their children’s teeth are set on edge. Whether you are seen eating sour grapes, or lemons, or scraping your nails across a chalkboard (if anyone remembers those), others shudder. This truth about the sins of the parents determining the life of the children is stated in Lamentations 5:7, and we see this truth in the way the life of a child is often determined by where they are born, the health of their families, or the economic strength of their region.
As true as that ancient proverb might be, thanks to Jeremiah’s new covenant someday we will transcend the burden of the past. The sins we bear as a society are great — structures built by slaves, economies based on the oppression of others, a legacy of genocide against Native Americans, the weight of a Civil War that infects our national dialog and identity a century and a half later, the persecution of German-Americans during the First World War and the internment of Japanese-American citizens during the Second World War, economic assumptions about haves and have-nots, casual language that assumes the subjugation of women and minorities, the list goes on and on. And if we wish to be free of the burden of the past, if we hope that we will not longer cringe at the sour grapes eaten by our ancestors, dare we bequeath our own sour grapes to the next generations, exacerbating climate change, creating new generations of terrorists, and new webs of oppression.
Jeremiah saw the destruction of the temple, the end of the kings, the dissolution of the nation, and told the truth about these things though it put his life in jeopardy, but against this backdrop he proclaimed through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God is creating a new covenant, written upon our hearts. Just as Jesus invited us in the Sermon on the Mount to go beyond the legalisms of the law to the Spirit that gives new life, so here we see a wide open future, a divinely created change in our relationship with God. We know this stuff. It's written in our hearts.
This idea of the New Covenant, from which we Christians take the name of our book, the New Testament, has been called by some the high point of the Hebrew scriptures. (Actually, I think Leviticus 19 is the high point, but that's another story) In any event, although this is not a theme that is repeated over and over again in exactly these words, it is clear that the prophets call us back a renewed relationship with God, who is always willing to forgive. This is something extraordinary, however, a total recasting of the way we know God — beyond the actions of physical sacrifice in the temple or the study of the words in our scriptures. It anticipates the New Jerusalem, the New Heaven and the New Earth of Revelation, and the temple of the Living Lamb.
2 Timothy 3:14--4:5
Paul’s second letter to Timothy calls for us to be persistent as well. I’m attracted to the phrase “whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.” Paul is writing from Prison, and as the letter concludes, with the famous phrasing “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (4:7)” one senses that Paul is aware his journey is nearly complete. Despite his looming death at the hands of Roman authorities, the danger Paul writes about seems to be internal, rather external pressure. People will listen to self-appointed authorities who tell them what they want to hear instead of the truth. They will create their own myths and cling to those rather than what God has revealed. In the face of these dangers Paul calls Timothy — and us — to endure and continue in our calling.
These verses could hardly be more timely. Flat-earthers, Holocaust deniers, science deniers prefer their own false gods to the living truth which is revealed in the world around us. Discern, learn, and burn with a desire to be God’s truth tellers, regardless of how unpopular that makes us.
Luke 18:1-8
Those who first heard Jesus tell this parable may well have laughed at the image of the widow pestering the judge wherever he want. A widow had less power in that society not only because she was not a man, but also because she had no connection to a man. Remember in the Book of Ruth that Naomi cannot inherit Elimelech’s property until Boaz marries Ruth and takes possession of her late husband’s estate. The judge in the parable seems to prefer serving the rich and powerful, because he benefits as well. But this widow embarrasses him because he can’t go anywhere without her following him. At last he gives in. Jesus uses the rhetorical device of arguing from a lesser, the unjust judge, to a greater, God in heaven. If an unjust judge, who has all the power and holds a powerless widow in disdain, eventually gives in and grants her what she asks, how much more so will God, who is greater, and a just judge, act justly. Shouldn’t we therefore be persistent in prayer and action. Yet Jesus asks if we an expect the people of God to act like the people of God. Yet will the Son of Man find those persistant disciples engaged in ceaseless prayer when he comes to earth?
