LOOKING AHEAD

March 25, 2012
Lent 5
Jeremiah 31:31-34
John 12:20-33

(prayer)

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I have spent the last two days helping coach at a football camp with players from age 7 to 17: They got going again this morning at 9:30am – I’ll join them for the last couple hours this afternoon.

This is the third year in a row that the Leduc and District Minor Football Association has organized winter football camps. We attract players from the LDMFA program area obviously, but also from other programs like Spruce Grove, Camrose and Sherwood Park, to name just a few.

The popularity is due, in part, because the organizers have brought in former and current NFL and CFL players, coaches from high school, junior and university teams. For minor coaches like me, I learn as much as the kids do.

This weekend’s camp focuses on Defence: last weekend we had an offensive camp focusing on the run game. Last month we had a camp focusing on the passing game.

Getting better at football is all about “the reps” – repetitions – learning a fundamental technique and practicing it over and over and over and over...

On the surface that can sound a bit boring, but over time the impact of a sustained commitment can be seen and experienced.

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Jeremiah was a prophet of Judah who lived in Jerusalem in the seventh century BCE [before the common era: aka BC – before Christ]. The dominant world power at the time was the Babylonian Empire; they were moving west and had their eyes on control of Judah: an attractive location at the crossroads between the trade roots connecting Asia, Europe and Africa.

Jeremiah preached to the people as the Babylonians systematically took control of the countryside. Many rural refugees fled to safety behind Jerusalem’s walls. The hope was that the city’s fortifications would withstand the onslaught. But the empire was relentless – they moved in and deported the political and religious leaders. Chaos became the norm for the people of Judah as Jerusalem was surrounded and shut off. Although some held out hope that they could outwait the Babylonians, the pragmatists knew that it was only a matter of time.

Most of the text of the book of Jeremiah is critical of the people for their long-term lack of faithfulness – this spiritual disconnect, Jeremiah argued, was a significant factor in the encroaching empire’s success.

The four verses we heard from chapter 31, however, are full of hope and promise. Jeremiah was one of those who kept strong to the idea that Jerusalem would not fall, but deep down, he must have known that the Babylonians wouldn’t give up – chapter 31, verses 31 to 34, speak more long term.

“The days are surely coming...”

The opening words of our first reading today are ones of confidence and the promise of a hope-filled future.

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”

The implication of these words is confirmed in the next verse: the covenant I made with their ancestors has been broken. Back when God first call Abraham, the promise was “I will be their God and they will be my people.” In the time of Moses, it was experienced as the liberating power of God as the people journeyed from slavery to freedom. The covenant took tactile form as commandments were etched into stone and later expanded into the Torah, the Law.

Jeremiah spent most of the first thirty chapters of his book talking about the lack of a faithful commitment by the people – a broken covenant, so to speak.

But that’s not the end.

God remains faithful – even when the people aren’t – especially when the people aren’t. God does not get legalistic and claim the agreement is null and void because of the lack of faithfulness. God looks for a new way for the covenant to be embraced by the people.

Like the football players over in the high school gym, God knows that a sustained commitment leads to positive results. Even with the Babylonians beating at the door, and the people on the edge of defeat and exile, God looks forward to a renewed future.

The law of God – the ways of faithful living – have made their way into written form, first in stone and then on to the parchments of the scribes. But words on stone, or papyrus or skins or paper are meaningless on their own.

“I will put my law within them,

I will write in on their hearts –

and I will be their God and they will be my people.”

It is called a ‘new’ covenant in this passage, but it’s really still the old covenant – those old words to Abraham are repeated – I will be their God and they will be my people.

Rather than a new covenant, we can think of it a renewed covenant - a way for faith to be experienced as fresh and meaningful in a time of a new, challenging context.

The days are surely coming when faith will be felt and known so inwardly that evangelists will be out of a job: “no longer shall people teach ‘know the LORD’ for they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest!”

The people’s faith does not need to die just because an empire will swallow them up and force the people to live in exile across the wilderness in the land of Babylon.

As we read on into the history of this time, prophets like Ezekiel kept the people’s faith alive during the exile. It took some refocusing – for the people of Judah, Jerusalem and its temple had become tangible symbols of faith. To some, the waters had been muddied so much that they had trouble seeing the possibility of faithfulness without those physical places in which to worship.

But, by the waters of Babylon, a new clarity emerged. One of Ezekiel’s visions was of the Spirit of God emerging from the rubble of the destroyed temple in Jerusalem and coming to be with the people in Babylon. God was not confined – to a place in time or real estate.

Even with a temple in ruins hundreds of kilometres away, God could be known.

Wherever, whenever: this God is our god and we are God’s people.

It’s not a new covenant, but it is known in a new context and felt and understood in a new way.

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When Jesus had the opportunity to talk with some foreign visitors, he spoke about renewal, as well.

“Think of a seed” [Jesus and his seed parables...] “think of a seed. If it stays in the head of the grain, it will eventually dry up and that will be it – that seed will be no more. But if it leaves the security of the head of wheat, and risks falling into the nutrient rich soul, it allows itself to be changed, transformed – its dormant life bursts through. In a way the seed has to die in order for a newer and fuller life from that seed to emerge.

No matter what land they came from, locals and visitors all knew the truth of Jesus’ parable. It was the way of things before anyone could remember – seeds are planted to create more seeds – exponentially expanded life emerges from what might be feared to be the end.

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Last week, I spoke about the late first century history and theology of Jesus’ death as a sacrifice for sins. [If you missed that sermon, you can find it on the church’s website].

Today’s death language offers a slightly different metaphor: the death of the seed is natural and expected, as is the new life that emerges from the dying seed.

Jesus’ sermon for the Greeks was to be thinking long term, to be thinking broadly. No matter how much the seed loves being a seed, it won’t be one forever – its destiny is to transform and be the agent of something greater.

I wonder how many people in the crowd that day extended that metaphor to Jesus himself – something the early church certainly did.

The author of the gospel of John, a half century or more after the events of Jesus’ life – saw those words as describing the Easter experience of death and resurrection. It took several decades for the followers of Jesus to come to terms with Jesus’ death - to find meaning in what should have been seen as a complete defeat.

I am sure that for some this parable of the falling grain of wheat helped define their faith.

You may have noticed over the past five Sundays, that as the candles were lit at the start of our worship services, the choir has been singing a version of Jesus’ words.

Let’s listen again. [Choir sings #125MV ‘When a Grain of Wheat’]

Being transformed is part of a long term commitment.  Jesus called on his disciples to follow him - even through suffering - for the promise of the wonder of both this life and the life to come.

That was a difficult teaching to live out in the 1st century, but it is especially challenging here in the 21st century.

We do live a world where instant gratification reigns. If we can’t have it NOW or if it takes too much EFFORT, we question how valuable it really is.

It is true that there are many in-the-moment wonders which faith brings into our lives – those thin place experiences; those moments of overwhelming inspiration. But... like young athletes trying to get better, faith also benefits from as many ‘reps’ as we can give it.

I know that you know that faith is not just a Sunday thing; it can be part of everyday of our lives. In fact, a person who never misses a Sunday service, but hangs their faith on the wall during the week, may not know as much depth of Spirit as a person who misses church here and there, but has that faith written on their hearts so that it shines through in all they do and say and feel everyday.

It may sound a bit boring and the possibility of instant gratification may be limited.

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Why do we have to keep doing these drills over and over coach? As I learned from my oldest son’s first football coach, the answer is... “to get better”.

Why should we let God into all aspects of our lives? To know the better possibility of the hope and promise of faith that is in this moment and for all days to come.

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Faith is an odd thing - more of a feeling than a thought. We need faith to make sense, but it's when it becomes so much a part of our deepest self ... that it changes the life we live.

Easter is just two weeks away - the time when the lives of Jesus' friends were completely changed.

We're not quite there yet, but we can be looking forward to what is to come.

Let us pray:

God, we long for the lasting peace that deep faith can bring. Remind us of your presence in each moment – in each time and place – so that we can know the promise that we are not alone, now and forever. Amen.

#12MV “Come Touch Our Hearts”