Have We Kept Our Contract With God?
Sermon
Sermons On The First Readings
Series I, Cycle B
One day a man went to his son's room and knocked on the door: "John, wake up, it is time for you to go to school!" From inside the answer came back, "I don't want to go to school, Dad." The father was persistent, knocked again, and said, "You must go to school." The answer again came back, "I don't want to go to school!" "Why not?" asked the father. "There are three reasons," came the reply. "First, I find school boring; second, the kids tease me terribly. Third, I simply hate school." Then the father responded, "You have given me three reasons for not going to school. I will give you three that say you must attend. First, it is your duty; second, you are 45 years old; and third, you are the principal!"
This story, found in Jesuit Father Anthony de Mello's book Awareness, suggests the problem we ofttimes have with meeting our commitments -- to others, to work, and even to God. Sometimes we are too busy and on other occasions we are too tired to meet our commitments. There are times as well, if we are honest, when we simply are lazy or see no value in what we are asked to do. There are even those occasions when people are hostile to their responsibilities and openly reject their duties. We are asked to do many things -- tasks and responsibilities -- which in some ways are contractual. These duties may be formal or informal, written or verbal, understood and acknowledged or assumed, but when they are not completed, there are generally consequences to pay.
We are all familiar with contracts. A contract is an agreement between at least two different parties in which each person or group agrees to perform a certain task, pay a certain amount of money, or provide a certain service that is needed by the other party. Contracts come in many different forms, but the most formal kind is a written document. Most of us have a contract for the place we live -- a mortgage or a rental agreement. We agree to pay a certain amount of money each month and in return the contractor of the home or the apartment owner is to provide a residence. We use contracts when we purchase most high-priced items, including cars and electronic equipment. Most of us have a contract or two with certain credit card companies.
There is another form of contract which is more subtle but certainly more common and generally more important than any written agreement. Verbal contracts are made all the time, whether we realize it or not, and these are very significant, for they are used every day of our lives. Married people live under a contract made the day they professed their vows to each other. Couples promise fidelity, love, honor, and companionship until the day they die. Each time we promise to pick someone up, meet a person at a designated spot, run an errand, or visit a sick relative or friend, we have made a verbal contract. We usually do not think of these daily occurrences as contracts, but most assuredly they are agreements where at least two parties are counting on each other.
Contracts that work well service all concerns, but those that are broken are problematic for those involved. The consequences for failure in contracts differ depending on the nature of the agreement. If we fail to make our house or car payment, there may be a period of grace, but ultimately the item upon which we owe money will be taken away, repossessed, and we will lose both the item and our investment. Because the consequences of failure in written contracts are high, people are generally faithful to these agreements. The consequences of failure in a verbal agreement do not on the surface appear to be that great and, thus, the incidents of non-compliance are high. If we fail a friend or family member, the result may be some frustration, anger, or even a temporary parting of company, but somehow the severity of what we have done does not register with us; the consequences do not appear to be problematic.
On this Second Sunday in Lent, our First lesson describes the special contract or covenant made between God and Abraham, an agreement that was basis of a relationship between the Lord and the Hebrew people. The book of Genesis actually presents two versions of the covenant (as we recall it does with the creation story), written by two of what scripture scholars call the four Old Testament written traditions, namely the Yahwist and Priestly traditions. In chapter 15 of Genesis we read the Yahwist version of the great covenant, written (most probably) in the tenth century B.C. and emphasizing the role of the tribe of Judah in the Hebrew community. In this version Abram, while being warned of the future bondage of his people in a strange land (prediction of the community's trial in Egypt), is promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Today's lesson, the second of the great covenant stories, comes from the Priestly tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures, written about 500 B.C. and emphasizing the Hebrew tradition in well-ordered prose. Abram, as in the earlier covenant version, is promised multiple generations as a unilateral pact between God and God's people. Here God extends the promise to succeeding generations and the patriarch seals the agreement with the promise of circumcision for all male descendants. The Priestly author also adds the important detail that both Abram and Sarai have their names changed after the covenant is made. Scholars suggest that this signifies a change in life and/or function for the bearer. It also indicated a turning point in one's life. The relationship between God and God's people, the Hebrews, was from hence forward different. Each party had agreed to be faithful to the other; each was to uphold its end of the agreement. We know by faith and history that God was and is ever faithful on his part, but unfortunately the same could not be said of Israel, nor for that matter of the Gentiles, the inheritors of the great promise. Lent should be a time to revisit and reevaluate our commitments, promises, and contracts in all aspects of our lives.
The Christian community, collectively and individually, has made a significant contract with God through the sacrament of baptism. This contract was sealed when, for most of us, our parents and godparents, speaking on our behalf, told the minister or priest who administered the sacrament that we believed in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in the life and mission of the Christian community, the church. As children we might not have known of this special contract, but as we mature and gain knowledge it becomes incumbent on the Christian to learn the nature of the pact made between the individual and God and make certain our half of the agreement is fulfilled.
God and the Christian community have always been faithful in upholding their end of the contract. God is ever present in our lives, patiently listening, leading, guiding, and sometimes challenging and cajoling us in an effort to push us toward the goal of our eternal reward with the Lord. We at times may think that God is not listening, uncaring, or asleep on the job, but such can never be the case. We remember well the prophet's words, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49:15). God provides the leadership and points the way, through the church, and we are asked to follow. The Christian community provides us with the sacraments as moments of God's grace and special presence in our lives. We have the wonderful gift of the community's proximity in our lives, supporting, assisting, and, yes, at times challenging us to be all we can be in the eyes of the Lord. God and the community of the faithful have met their commitments to us; have we been as faithful to God and the church?
The Christian life gives us many privileges, but there are significant responsibilities that we must meet in order to uphold our end of the contract with God. The most basic element of our agreement with God is something I suspect most of us don't think much about. We are all called to be holy; we have a common vocation to holiness. Members of the Christian community participate in many varied and generally multiple vocations. Some are called to the vocation of the married state, others to the single life, and others still, in the Roman Catholic tradition, to the celibate religious life. This, however, is only the most basic avenue of our life vocation; there are many other sub-vocations in which we participate. Many people are called to the vocation of parenthood. All of us have some occupation, the daily work we do. In this light we may have the vocation of professional service as a physician, attorney, engineer, or teacher; we may have the vocation of greater direct service in sales, ministry in the church, or outreach to the poor and destitute of our world. Some people are called to more individual vocations in offices as clerical workers, writers, and computer operators and programmers. Regardless of our state in life or the day-to-day work we perform, all Christians are called to lives of holiness; it is our basic and common vocation and one we can never let slide. When we forget or disregard this most basic element of our relationship with God, we have failed in fulfilling our end of the contract with the consequence that we become estranged from God and the faith community. The contract will be broken and its benefits for both parties can be lost.
Our contract with God goes beyond the basic requirement for holiness; we are called to hear the Lord's voice and respond to his call to "Follow me." Discipleship is the second step in the common response of God's people to the One who first loved us. We simply cannot bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and think that God will not see us or that the Christian community will not miss our presence. Discipleship is not an option; it is a requirement of our contract, our baptismal promise made to God. Being a true follower of Jesus is not a passive endeavor, but rather requires our active participation. We often wish to place limits or attach special requirements to our active discipleship, but the famous Lutheran pastor, theologian, and writer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, told us in his book The Cost of Discipleship that being a true follower of Jesus Christ will cost us everything, even our life. We cannot make compromises with the Lord and say, "I will be your disciple tomorrow, but I am too busy or not of the right mind today." Such an attitude suggests an on-again, off-again agreement with God, but this cannot be for the true and loyal disciple. God, as Francis Thompson's immortal poem, "The Hound of Heaven" suggests, never ceases to be our advocate and will leave no stone unturned in searching for our soul. We, therefore, cannot take an attitude of partial participation. We can either follow Jesus all the way or leave the road somewhere along the journey; the choice is ours. Yet, we know, because we have been promised, where the journey will end. Saint Paul reminds us, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The requirements of discipleship are multiple and can be subsumed under the idea of faithfulness, but during the great season of Lent, the concept of service to God's people might well be emphasized. We are called to minister to God's people in little and great ways. If we have the time, energy, and opportunity to serve the poor in some sort of volunteer service, such as at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or free clinic, this would be a great response to the call of discipleship and certainly would make great strides in upholding our end of the contract with God. We may have the opportunity to visit a sick neighbor or relative or possibly assist a needy person next door with some routine household task. Our service need not be pointed outward but might be even more needed within our own families. Sometimes we become so wrapped up in the needs of others, we forget or at least gloss over our duty of service to those we know and love most. Children can do lots to help out around the house; parents can make special efforts to spend more time with children. Families in general can spend greater quantity and quality time together. This might not seem like service; it might even appear to be self-serving, but how can we muster sufficient strength and fortitude to be good disciples and ministers to others if we cannot gain strength from the most basic unit of our common human experience? Strengthening family life and fostering its membership is internal service and most certainly is appreciated by God.
The holy season of Lent provides the Christian community with the opportunity to renew and strengthen the many contracts we have made with people. In most all cases these are verbal agreements and thus the ones that might slip because the ramifications of our failures in such contracts will not result in the repossession of a material item or the loss of our job. Yet, our verbal contracts, especially those made to God, are the most important, because they are signed, not on paper, but on our hearts and are, thus, of great significance. Lent is a time for spouses to re-commit themselves to each other. Marriage is a verbal contract of commitment and love that needs to be fostered and renewed on a regular basis. Those who have chosen the married vocation and family have the obligation to revitalize this most basic human unit. We can also take the time to reflect upon how we can re-commit ourselves in our place of work. At times our day-to-day job may become so routine and dull that we don't want to continue. We need to ask ourselves what we can do to put more spark into these daily tasks so that we will faithfully and completely maintain our end of the agreement we made with our employer.
The most important contract renewal we must make is our agreement with God and God's people. Living our baptismal commitment fully, as holy and committed people, following Jesus as true disciples is absolutely necessary; it is not an option. Through the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we have the opportunity to renew and strengthen our contract with the Lord.
We at times, like the man in Anthony de Mello's story, may not feel like meeting our commitments; we may even feel like running away. But such an attitude is inconsistent with our Christian life and demonstrates no trust in God who is ever faithful, always present, and ready to renew his side of the bargain. As members of the Christian community, we have responsibilities that are in many ways contractual, but they are not in written form. As God made a contract with Abram, sealing it with a change of name to Abraham and the practice of circumcision, so we have a contract with the Lord, sealed with our baptismal commitments to live holy lives as disciples. During this Lenten season let us renew our relationships with the many people with whom we have contracts, within our family, place of work, and most especially with God and God's people, the church. Let us be faithful to what we proclaim. It is Jesus' kingdom we preach, build, and await; it is the Lord's life of holiness and faith we seek to emulate, today and to life eternal.
This story, found in Jesuit Father Anthony de Mello's book Awareness, suggests the problem we ofttimes have with meeting our commitments -- to others, to work, and even to God. Sometimes we are too busy and on other occasions we are too tired to meet our commitments. There are times as well, if we are honest, when we simply are lazy or see no value in what we are asked to do. There are even those occasions when people are hostile to their responsibilities and openly reject their duties. We are asked to do many things -- tasks and responsibilities -- which in some ways are contractual. These duties may be formal or informal, written or verbal, understood and acknowledged or assumed, but when they are not completed, there are generally consequences to pay.
We are all familiar with contracts. A contract is an agreement between at least two different parties in which each person or group agrees to perform a certain task, pay a certain amount of money, or provide a certain service that is needed by the other party. Contracts come in many different forms, but the most formal kind is a written document. Most of us have a contract for the place we live -- a mortgage or a rental agreement. We agree to pay a certain amount of money each month and in return the contractor of the home or the apartment owner is to provide a residence. We use contracts when we purchase most high-priced items, including cars and electronic equipment. Most of us have a contract or two with certain credit card companies.
There is another form of contract which is more subtle but certainly more common and generally more important than any written agreement. Verbal contracts are made all the time, whether we realize it or not, and these are very significant, for they are used every day of our lives. Married people live under a contract made the day they professed their vows to each other. Couples promise fidelity, love, honor, and companionship until the day they die. Each time we promise to pick someone up, meet a person at a designated spot, run an errand, or visit a sick relative or friend, we have made a verbal contract. We usually do not think of these daily occurrences as contracts, but most assuredly they are agreements where at least two parties are counting on each other.
Contracts that work well service all concerns, but those that are broken are problematic for those involved. The consequences for failure in contracts differ depending on the nature of the agreement. If we fail to make our house or car payment, there may be a period of grace, but ultimately the item upon which we owe money will be taken away, repossessed, and we will lose both the item and our investment. Because the consequences of failure in written contracts are high, people are generally faithful to these agreements. The consequences of failure in a verbal agreement do not on the surface appear to be that great and, thus, the incidents of non-compliance are high. If we fail a friend or family member, the result may be some frustration, anger, or even a temporary parting of company, but somehow the severity of what we have done does not register with us; the consequences do not appear to be problematic.
On this Second Sunday in Lent, our First lesson describes the special contract or covenant made between God and Abraham, an agreement that was basis of a relationship between the Lord and the Hebrew people. The book of Genesis actually presents two versions of the covenant (as we recall it does with the creation story), written by two of what scripture scholars call the four Old Testament written traditions, namely the Yahwist and Priestly traditions. In chapter 15 of Genesis we read the Yahwist version of the great covenant, written (most probably) in the tenth century B.C. and emphasizing the role of the tribe of Judah in the Hebrew community. In this version Abram, while being warned of the future bondage of his people in a strange land (prediction of the community's trial in Egypt), is promised descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Today's lesson, the second of the great covenant stories, comes from the Priestly tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures, written about 500 B.C. and emphasizing the Hebrew tradition in well-ordered prose. Abram, as in the earlier covenant version, is promised multiple generations as a unilateral pact between God and God's people. Here God extends the promise to succeeding generations and the patriarch seals the agreement with the promise of circumcision for all male descendants. The Priestly author also adds the important detail that both Abram and Sarai have their names changed after the covenant is made. Scholars suggest that this signifies a change in life and/or function for the bearer. It also indicated a turning point in one's life. The relationship between God and God's people, the Hebrews, was from hence forward different. Each party had agreed to be faithful to the other; each was to uphold its end of the agreement. We know by faith and history that God was and is ever faithful on his part, but unfortunately the same could not be said of Israel, nor for that matter of the Gentiles, the inheritors of the great promise. Lent should be a time to revisit and reevaluate our commitments, promises, and contracts in all aspects of our lives.
The Christian community, collectively and individually, has made a significant contract with God through the sacrament of baptism. This contract was sealed when, for most of us, our parents and godparents, speaking on our behalf, told the minister or priest who administered the sacrament that we believed in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in the life and mission of the Christian community, the church. As children we might not have known of this special contract, but as we mature and gain knowledge it becomes incumbent on the Christian to learn the nature of the pact made between the individual and God and make certain our half of the agreement is fulfilled.
God and the Christian community have always been faithful in upholding their end of the contract. God is ever present in our lives, patiently listening, leading, guiding, and sometimes challenging and cajoling us in an effort to push us toward the goal of our eternal reward with the Lord. We at times may think that God is not listening, uncaring, or asleep on the job, but such can never be the case. We remember well the prophet's words, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49:15). God provides the leadership and points the way, through the church, and we are asked to follow. The Christian community provides us with the sacraments as moments of God's grace and special presence in our lives. We have the wonderful gift of the community's proximity in our lives, supporting, assisting, and, yes, at times challenging us to be all we can be in the eyes of the Lord. God and the community of the faithful have met their commitments to us; have we been as faithful to God and the church?
The Christian life gives us many privileges, but there are significant responsibilities that we must meet in order to uphold our end of the contract with God. The most basic element of our agreement with God is something I suspect most of us don't think much about. We are all called to be holy; we have a common vocation to holiness. Members of the Christian community participate in many varied and generally multiple vocations. Some are called to the vocation of the married state, others to the single life, and others still, in the Roman Catholic tradition, to the celibate religious life. This, however, is only the most basic avenue of our life vocation; there are many other sub-vocations in which we participate. Many people are called to the vocation of parenthood. All of us have some occupation, the daily work we do. In this light we may have the vocation of professional service as a physician, attorney, engineer, or teacher; we may have the vocation of greater direct service in sales, ministry in the church, or outreach to the poor and destitute of our world. Some people are called to more individual vocations in offices as clerical workers, writers, and computer operators and programmers. Regardless of our state in life or the day-to-day work we perform, all Christians are called to lives of holiness; it is our basic and common vocation and one we can never let slide. When we forget or disregard this most basic element of our relationship with God, we have failed in fulfilling our end of the contract with the consequence that we become estranged from God and the faith community. The contract will be broken and its benefits for both parties can be lost.
Our contract with God goes beyond the basic requirement for holiness; we are called to hear the Lord's voice and respond to his call to "Follow me." Discipleship is the second step in the common response of God's people to the One who first loved us. We simply cannot bury our heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and think that God will not see us or that the Christian community will not miss our presence. Discipleship is not an option; it is a requirement of our contract, our baptismal promise made to God. Being a true follower of Jesus is not a passive endeavor, but rather requires our active participation. We often wish to place limits or attach special requirements to our active discipleship, but the famous Lutheran pastor, theologian, and writer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, told us in his book The Cost of Discipleship that being a true follower of Jesus Christ will cost us everything, even our life. We cannot make compromises with the Lord and say, "I will be your disciple tomorrow, but I am too busy or not of the right mind today." Such an attitude suggests an on-again, off-again agreement with God, but this cannot be for the true and loyal disciple. God, as Francis Thompson's immortal poem, "The Hound of Heaven" suggests, never ceases to be our advocate and will leave no stone unturned in searching for our soul. We, therefore, cannot take an attitude of partial participation. We can either follow Jesus all the way or leave the road somewhere along the journey; the choice is ours. Yet, we know, because we have been promised, where the journey will end. Saint Paul reminds us, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The requirements of discipleship are multiple and can be subsumed under the idea of faithfulness, but during the great season of Lent, the concept of service to God's people might well be emphasized. We are called to minister to God's people in little and great ways. If we have the time, energy, and opportunity to serve the poor in some sort of volunteer service, such as at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or free clinic, this would be a great response to the call of discipleship and certainly would make great strides in upholding our end of the contract with God. We may have the opportunity to visit a sick neighbor or relative or possibly assist a needy person next door with some routine household task. Our service need not be pointed outward but might be even more needed within our own families. Sometimes we become so wrapped up in the needs of others, we forget or at least gloss over our duty of service to those we know and love most. Children can do lots to help out around the house; parents can make special efforts to spend more time with children. Families in general can spend greater quantity and quality time together. This might not seem like service; it might even appear to be self-serving, but how can we muster sufficient strength and fortitude to be good disciples and ministers to others if we cannot gain strength from the most basic unit of our common human experience? Strengthening family life and fostering its membership is internal service and most certainly is appreciated by God.
The holy season of Lent provides the Christian community with the opportunity to renew and strengthen the many contracts we have made with people. In most all cases these are verbal agreements and thus the ones that might slip because the ramifications of our failures in such contracts will not result in the repossession of a material item or the loss of our job. Yet, our verbal contracts, especially those made to God, are the most important, because they are signed, not on paper, but on our hearts and are, thus, of great significance. Lent is a time for spouses to re-commit themselves to each other. Marriage is a verbal contract of commitment and love that needs to be fostered and renewed on a regular basis. Those who have chosen the married vocation and family have the obligation to revitalize this most basic human unit. We can also take the time to reflect upon how we can re-commit ourselves in our place of work. At times our day-to-day job may become so routine and dull that we don't want to continue. We need to ask ourselves what we can do to put more spark into these daily tasks so that we will faithfully and completely maintain our end of the agreement we made with our employer.
The most important contract renewal we must make is our agreement with God and God's people. Living our baptismal commitment fully, as holy and committed people, following Jesus as true disciples is absolutely necessary; it is not an option. Through the traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving we have the opportunity to renew and strengthen our contract with the Lord.
We at times, like the man in Anthony de Mello's story, may not feel like meeting our commitments; we may even feel like running away. But such an attitude is inconsistent with our Christian life and demonstrates no trust in God who is ever faithful, always present, and ready to renew his side of the bargain. As members of the Christian community, we have responsibilities that are in many ways contractual, but they are not in written form. As God made a contract with Abram, sealing it with a change of name to Abraham and the practice of circumcision, so we have a contract with the Lord, sealed with our baptismal commitments to live holy lives as disciples. During this Lenten season let us renew our relationships with the many people with whom we have contracts, within our family, place of work, and most especially with God and God's people, the church. Let us be faithful to what we proclaim. It is Jesus' kingdom we preach, build, and await; it is the Lord's life of holiness and faith we seek to emulate, today and to life eternal.
