“IS IT A
DEAL?”
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A sermon preached Readings: Jeremiah
31:31-34, John15:1-10 |
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I remember was I was very
very young I knew how important it was to be good –
or to be more precise how important it was to be good just before Christmas
or Santa would not come.
I had to eat up my cabbage
if I wanted any pudding
I suppose from an early age
I was learning the art of negotiation -
with my parents, with grown ups in general
learning the art of
manipulation
discovering what things I
had to put up with
(eg being good and eating my cabbage)
in order to get what I
wanted (eg presents and sweets)
And I suspect also that like
many of us,
I assumed or hoped at age 5 or 6
that I could deal with God our Heavenly Father in a similar way -
trying to do deals with God.
I think I was a bit like
some of the contributors
to one of may favourite volumes of theology -
“Children’s letters to God”
It includes such gems as -
Dear
God,
If you give me a genie lamp like Alladin’s
I will give you anything you want -
besides money or my chess set -
Raphael
Dear God,
If you will make me so that I can be invisible when I want to,
I will do all the things you want.
Is it a deal?
Your friend, Gordon.
Or, slightly more bullish in
tone -
Dear God,
OK I kept my half of the deal,
so where’s the bike?
Bert.
And here we are on Covenant
Sunday –
about to place ourselves
once again in the great tradition going back
to Noah and Abraham, to
Moses and the prophets,
of making a covenant with
God.
- and how do we understand
what we do today?
There is a danger that for
us we remain too near the nursery idea -
thinking that a covenant is
a sort of glorified business deal with God -
For its not only as kids
that we can try to negotiate with God.
Do you know David Head’s
famous tongue in cheek Methodist prayer? –
“O Lord, so long as the weather is reasonably fine,
So long as I have no visitors,
So long as I can sit on the back pew but one on the left,
So long as there isn’t a local preacher planned
So long as they don’t choose hymns I don’t know
So long as my Joe is asked to recite at the Anniversary…
Then will I honour thee with my presence at Church
- whenever I feel like it”
But underneath the humour
there is a real danger
that we seriously think of ourselves negotiating with God like this -
Consciously or unconsciously
– in all kinds of ways.
·
Oh Lord, let me pass this exam or get better,
and I will really do what you want.
·
Yes Lord, you can come into this room of my life,
as long as you don’t want to enter that one (filled with dark secrets) –
I’ll do a deal: you have that bit and I’ll keep this bit
·
Yes Lord you can have my faith and support
whilst things go well,
but if hardship comes along
(death, sickness, unemployment)
then I may have to reconsider my position -
my commitment is implicitly conditional.
And so on…
But this sort of
understanding of a covenant between us and God
is of course a travesty -
·
It raises us up far too high
to suggest that we could bargain like equals with God.
·
It also underestimates God’s love and faithfulness
to suggest that he needs bribes or business deals
to concern himself with us.
Thank goodness we do not
pray
“Our contractual partner in Heaven” -
we pray “Our Father”
- a Father who offers his
total faithfulness
regardless of what we do -
there is no turning or reneging from his side.
Our part of the deal is
simply to respond in gratitude.
Let me ask you to think
yourself into 3 imaginary situations:
1. You are a young child of 6
or 7.
Your mother works hard to look after you and your brother
and buy and cook you food.
In return she asks that you eat the food she has prepared,
and be kind to each other.
One day she hears the smashing of crockery,
and running into the room she finds you screaming at your brother,
throwing plates and food at him.
And what does she do?
Does she refuse ever to feed you again?
Does she throw you out the house?
No - she cries with pain and frustration.
She may well punish you - in order to help me learn better ways -
But still she works, and slaves, and feeds you - why? -
because whatever you do, you cannot stop her loving you.
2.
You am drowning in a river.
A passer by pulls you out.
You say “You saved my life -
how can I repay you?”
And what does the man say? He
does not say:
“Ah well, how much can you
afford?
How much would you have earned before you were 65?
Let’s calculate a reasonable fee based on earnings expected –
of course if you can’t manage the 5%,
I’m afraid I’ll have to throw you back in”-
Of
course not - he has saved you -
and that’s that.
It is, as they say, non-negotiable -
All that is at issue is how you respond -
whether you walk away and ignore your saviour,
or whether you respond with joy and gratitude
and make this river side baptism
the start of a whole new dimension to your life.
3. You are hooked on drugs or alcohol
and with the help of a dedicated professional
you are weaned off the dope and you are free of it.
One day this person
asks you to give some time to help others kick the habit –
This story could go two ways -
·
Maybe you say No -I’m leaving it all behind me now -
and your therapist says
“OK - it wasn’t a condition of the cure -
we’ll still help you again if you need it”
·
Or maybe you say Yes - I’ll help in the work
And then maybe you get a glimmer
of what it means to say that I am free to do as I wish,
but that there is a kind of service which is perfect freedom.
So we come today to renew
our solemnly binding covenant with God.
And this - as they say - is
the deal:
On
God’s side –
he offers us unconditional love, salvation, freedom,
life –
as
soon as we walk through the door -
its all on the table and we simply cannot stop him offering.
We don’t have to earn it –
we can’t twist God’s arm to give it –
its
just there for the taking -
[God is a very bad businessman – he puts all cards on the table]
God says,
I am your mother,
I am the one who feeds you and protects you, and
keeps you warm.
I am your saviour,
I am the one who pulls you from the waters of death
and frees you from the bonds of evil and corruption.
Here – take it all.
And on our side, what do we do??
Well, we are free to do as we wish aren’t we?
We may choose to drive a hard bargain,
all take no give,
we can grab the money and run –
The far country is awaiting, as it was for the
prodigal,
if that is where we would go –
God will not stop us –
nor take back what he has given us –
There will be a tear in his eye,
but he will simply watch us go, and yes,
still give us more than we ask for the journey.
But why do that??
·
For when you find the love of your life,
·
when you find the one who will always be faithful and true,
the one who just won’t stop dragging you back from the pit,
pulling you out of the water
·
when you find the one who gives the food of eternal life
Wouldn’t you be mad
if you didn’t stick with that kind of person?
·
What better place is there to be than by his side,
·
What better life is there than sharing his life of loving service?
·
What better road is there, than his road -
even if that is sometimes leads to
the cross?
So, we come to our covenant
renewal -
And God says, “Is it a
deal?”
Let us respond from a full
and grateful heart – and say:
Yes Lord,–
With heart and soul will we seek to do your will,
that you may be our God,
and we may become once again
your faithful covenant people.
Yes Lord, It’s a deal –