Tuesday, March 20, 2018

The Heart Covenant



5th Sunday in Lent
March 18, 2018
Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12

Twenty years ago, contemporary Christian artist, Michael W. Smith, released a song called “Missing Person.” The refrain says, “There was a boy who had the faith to move a mountain/ And like a child he would believe without a reason/ Without a trace he disappeared into the void and/ I've been searching for that missing person.” This kid “…used to want to try to walk the straight and narrow/ He had a fire and he could feel it in the marrow/ It's been a long time and I haven't seen him lately but/ I've been searching for that missing person.” And the songwriter wonders what happened to him, how’d his “…heart evolved into a/ Rock beating inside of me”? And “Is there a way to return,” is there a way to find his way home? What happened to his faith? Is it possible for his faith to be as strong and on fire as it once was? Michael W. Smith doesn’t answer the question in the song. However, it’s the first song on the album, “Live the Life,” and if you keep listening, you’ll hear the answer in the other songs.
The truth is it’s a familiar problem. Psalm 51 that we read this morning we also read back on Ash Wednesday. That psalm is attributed to King David, his confession and prayer when the prophet, Nathan, confronted him with his own wrongdoing. You see, David was God’s chosen one. He was the one God sent Samuel to anoint, and his father, Jesse, had to go send for him in the fields where he was keeping the sheep. David’s the one who slew Goliath with nothing but some stones, a sling, and his unwavering trust in God. David was anointed King, even though he was not an heir to King Saul. God calls David “a man after my own heart.”[1] But even this handsome man of faith, handpicked by God, was not perfect. He saw Bathsheba bathing, and he wanted her. He was king, so he sent for her, and slept with her. She got pregnant. The problem was her husband, Uriel, was a soldier in David’s army and hadn’t been home in quite some time. David arranged for him to come home on leave, but Uriel wouldn’t sleep with his wife while his fellow soldiers were still in the midst of battle. So David sent him back to the battle and had him stationed in the front lines, where, as expected, Uriel was killed in battle. Then David sends for Bathsheba and thinks he’s gotten off scot-free. Except God knows what he’s done. And God is not pleased. God sends his prophet, Nathan, to confront David, whom Nathan does, and David confesses his sin and pours out his heart in Psalm 51. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions… Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”[2]
This might also be the same prayer of God’s people when Jeremiah was the main prophet. By Jeremiah’s time, God’s people had reached the Promised Land, they had lived there for generations, they had tried to live according to God’s law, they had kings, including King David, and they had built a temple for the Ark of the Covenant, a place for God to dwell.  But now, Babylon has invaded and destroyed all that. The temple is gone. The line of kings descending from David has ended. And they’re in exile from the Promised Land. They lost it. They had it and they lost it. They are now also asking, “Now what? We messed up. We lost it. And we don’t even know our way back. The temple is gone. How are we going to worship God now?” Being settled for so many centuries, they had forgotten their history of worshiping God in the strange land of Egypt and through the forty years of wandering in the desert. Therefore, through Jeremiah, God says, “The time is coming when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel… It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt… The new covenant that I will make with the people of Israel will be this: I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”[3] Israel has a way to return. The temple is rebuilt within the century, and then they have their place of worship back. And God offers a new covenant, one written on their hearts.
If you’ve noticed, the covenants have gotten closer.[4] We began Lent five weeks ago with Noah and “the rainbow with its promise is way up in the sky.” Then we had Abraham and the stars, also up in the sky. “The Ten Commandments are rules written on stone tablets kept in the holy of Holies in the Temple.” Last week we read about the snake up on the pole, another symbol to look up toward. Now, “Jeremiah says that one day God will write a covenant on our hearts.” In other words, it’s gotten personal, within our very person. God’s gotten personal, and not just with us. God is preparing to send the person of his son, Jesus, to come and save us and restore us. A new covenant. One right here in person. One who lives in our hearts and has the power to change our hearts, to create clean hearts in us, if we are willing.
You see, that “Missing Person” song could also have been written about us. Those of us who grew up in the church. Those of us who, when we first came to know Jesus, had such a strong faith that it could move mountains. Those of us who have taken time away from the church and come back different. Those of us who never left but with faith whose fire has cooled. What happened to cool it could be any number of things: burnout, lack of direction, poor mentoring, righteous anger, pride, envy, fatigue, just to name a few possibilities. Something got in the way, and just as important, we let that something get in the way. Sleeping in on Sunday morning once makes it a whole lot easier to do it a second time. Giving an excuse to not go to bible study once makes it a whole lot easier to just say no the next time and not even bother with an excuse. When you break your New Year’s resolution, or your Lenten discipline, do you give up and say, well, that’s that? Or do you allow yourself grace and try again the next day?
There’s a reason why Psalm 51 has all these words that begin with “re-”. “Renew a right spirit within me” means that steadfast spirit was there before and we want one again. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation” means we’ve known that joy before and we long to know it again. So what do you do when your faith has cooled? First, most importantly, stay in that relationship with God. That’s what makes it a covenant and not a contract.[5] Once a contract is broken, usually that’s it. But a covenantal relationship goes on, even if one party violates the terms. A contract is a business arrangement, a legal agreement, but a covenant is a promise of commitment of two parties to each other. You may need some remedial work, but the relationship continues. As we mentioned last week, you may need to face some past sin or hurt or grievance that you’ve held onto and is keeping you from a fully healthy relationship with God. So, keep praying! If you’re not sure, keep praying! Keep talking with God. Listen for what God has to say to you. And if God asks you to do something, do it. Stay in relationship. Keep praying. And, finally, keep serving. Remember, we serve because God calls us to. We don’t serve because of how we feel about it or how we feel after it or what we get out of it. Serving isn’t about us. So, stay the course. Stay faithful. Trust that Easter is coming even when it feels like you’re on Good Friday, or worse yet, on Holy Saturday, the day when God was silent. Trust that Easter is coming and you will be restored to the joy of God’s salvation.
We have a great Wesleyan term for this process, it’s called sanctification. This is your life after you accept salvation. It’s God’s sustaining grace, as we continue to grow more like Jesus. It’s the Holy Spirit working in us, perfecting us, sanctifying us. This is where we are purified and refined, and as the dross and impurities are removed from us, remember it’s done through fire. Sometimes we allow ourselves to be consumed in the fire. Sometimes we get distracted by the fire, and take our eyes off God. Yet there’s that great verse from the hymn, “How Firm a Foundation,” that says, “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames shall not hurt thee; I only design. Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”[6] And as you are sanctified and made more like Jesus, “sanctifying grace is where we figure out that it’s not ‘all about me’ and begin to participate in God’s redemption in the world.”[7] As our covenant with God is written on our hearts, we stop focusing inward and instead move outward in service. God calls us to join him in his work of restoring the world, of making things right again, of restoring his image in each person, of renewing each person to become the person God intended for them to be, so that each of us can live with grace in whatever season of life we find ourselves in.
Let us pray... Lord, for all of us who are missing persons, for those of us whose faith no longer burns quite so brightly, recreate in us new hearts, renew a right spirit within us, and restore us again to the joy of your salvation. Amen. 

[1] Acts 13:22
[2] Verses 1, 10
[3] Jeremiah 31:31-33, from GNT and NLT
[5] Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, Year B, p. 166
[6] UMH 529
[7] James Harnish, A Disciple’s Path, Daily Workbook, p. 23

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