Sunday 20 August 2017

God's covenant with us: our relationship with God and with others

God's covenant with us: our relationship with God and with others 

By William Lyon Tupman. Preached at the Sung Eucharist at St. Thomas the Apostle, South Wigston.  

20th August, 2017. Bible readings: Readings: Isaiah 56:1, 6-8, Psalm 67, Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32, Matthew 15:(1-10), 21-28.

May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable in your sight, O Lord our strength and redeemer. Amen.

“Maintain justice, and do what is right.” Don’t worry, I’m not going to attempt to go through the readings line-by-line! This command the Lord gives here sums up much of the relationship between God and his people. This relationship is God’s covenant with us, a distinct theme we encounter in our readings today. The writer here is likely writing after the Israelites had been restored and returned from the exile. This was a time when the Israelites had been punished for their disobedience against God, but through God’s mercy He had not forgotten them; instead, he forgave them and brought them back. God’s faith is steadfast, in his covenant with us.

What exactly is a covenant, and why is it so important? A covenant has several characteristics. It is a two-way agreement, or a promise, involving two or more individuals or groups of people. Some covenants are small; a few years ago, a couple of friends asked my Mother and I if we could look after their pet cat for a couple of weeks while they went on holiday, in return for letting us stay in their house for free (and I actually cat-sat again just last week for some of my family!). Other covenants are bigger, such as the agreement between the people involved in the transfer of deeds when buying or selling a house.

There are several major examples of covenant in the Bible, initiated by God – God’s covenant with Noah, the people and the whole earth; with Abraham and his descendants; with Moses and the Israelites; with David and more.

Now these are all pretty big covenants; God often promises these individuals and their nations many descendants and much land, which are two of the most desirable goals of these times. The covenant here in Isaiah 56, however, is even bigger than any of these covenants on their own. It engulfs these covenants, and expands upon them.

In earlier times, God made covenants exclusively with individuals like Abraham and their descendants. Anyone outside of this covenant was not to be included, and if anyone in the covenant disobeyed they would often be punished for breaking the covenant by being “cut off” from the covenant. But that is no longer the case here – this is God’s all-inclusive covenant, for all people, and Isaiah 56:5 tells us it is “everlasting.” It is an open invitation, to all of creation. We see how foreigners will be gathered alongside those already gathered. That means God’s originally chosen people of Israel, plus everyone else – Gentiles, us Christians, all people – are freely invited to share in the same benefits, “to the ends of the earth” as the author of Psalm 67 writes.

Paul in his letter to the Romans remembers this, too. In our passage from Romans 11 today the apostle is quick to dismiss any notion of God rejecting his people; for that he would have to forget and abandon His covenant, which God logically cannot do with this everlasting covenant. His gifts and calling are, as Paul says, “irrevocable.” Therefore, we need not fear that God would ever turn away from us. Even if and when we sin, we still receive His forgiveness and mercy. He is faithful forever; His love endures forever.

That’s a lot about God choosing to include us – all of us, without exception. But what about us choosing God? How do we respond to God’s open, generous and all-inclusive invitation? We are invited to respond by choosing to accept God’s freely initiated covenant. This is the two-way agreement; a typical form of covenant.

It’d be impossible for us to repay Him to the degree He delivers for us; but God does not expect us to be perfect. He asks of us what each of us can give. We can of course bring God worship and prayer here at Church, or indeed anywhere; but there are lots of little (and big) things we can do, and what we do for others we do also for God. We can welcome guests to eat and stay with us (thank you, Fr. Chris and Laura!); we can counsel those in need; we can give a meal to the homeless person by the supermarket; we can sponsor someone on their charity project by donating to them or their online fundraising page on the Internet.  

Now this all sounds very nice, but isn’t it a rather tall order? I certainly know I’d love to help every homeless person I see, and having lived in cities for the past few years, unfortunately I see many people who are homeless. I always help them when I can, but it just isn’t always possible for me to help them. Sometimes, we just don’t have the means; other times, things can be too much for us.

Yet, provided we are willing to help, God does – or helps us to do – what we are sometimes unable to do alone. Think of when we support someone who is being baptised, or a couple getting married. When the priest or deacon asks us for our support, we respond, “With the help of God, we will.”

In our Gospel reading today, no matter how willing she was, there was no way the Canaanite woman could herself have healed her daughter. Yet as soon as she displays her faith, Jesus is “instantly” able to heal her daughter without delay. Here, in God’s covenant with us, Jesus’s willingness to heal and act is God’s offer; our response is to have faith and trust in Him, knowing God freely and gracefully blesses us. God is with us – and, as we see in Isaiah 56 – this is an invitation that is open to all of us.

God’s covenant with us unites us with God. Jesus is referred to in our Gospel reading as the “Son of David” – one of the many titles of Jesus in the New Testament. This alludes to the covenant God made with David and his offspring. The all-inclusive covenant seen in Isaiah 56 therefore includes this covenant too – another way we are united to Jesus, as well as through our Baptism as Christians being united into his death and resurrection, and by encountering Him in the Eucharist.

And we can encounter Jesus in each other; God is omnipresent, or present at all times and in all places, and in each and every one of us. Therefore when we are with each other – when we help each other – we are with Jesus, and helping Jesus. We are accepting God’s invitation, God’s covenant, which He so freely offers to us all – no matter how great or small our actions are.


I pray that we may always continue to look for opportunities to accept God’s free invitation, by loving and serving Him and our neighbours, empowered through having faith in Him. In the name of God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.