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Lent 1, Year B
March 9, 2003
Christ Church, Covington
“God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am
establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with
every living creature that is with you…’” (Gen. 9:8).
Something new happens in our reading from Genesis today; something that
hasn’t happened until this point in the story of creation. God has made
all things; he has pronounced them “very good”; God has seen humanity’s
disobedience and sin and the violence upon the earth; God has even
determined to destroy all living things, saving only the family of Noah
and the contents of their ark. All of this has taken place; yet the new
thing that happens when Noah and his family emerge is “covenant”: an
agreement that marks a new relationship between the Creator and the
creation.
We’re breaking new ground here with “covenant”, at a crucial point in the
story. The human race has encountered YHWH not only as Creator but as
Destroyer. The great Flood has followed upon the increase of violence, as
both punishment and a means to a fresh start, and God now has fences to
mend. The metaphor of fence-mending is intentional. A covenant is made
when a relationship needs a little work; in its origin, a covenant
adjudicated a dispute, such as who owned which oasis, and what obligations
followed. Covenants defined relationships. So we see how God has some work
to do in his relationship with humanity (we might think of it as remedial
work), and the result is “covenant”.
Well, it’s good to know that God will not act again as Destroyer; good to
know that God is busy mending some badly damaged fences. The rainbow that
appears in the heavens is the war bow that YHWH has laid aside; he no
longer will make war against the earth. But what is most significant about
the covenant with Noah is that God requires nothing for it, not even
Noah’s affirmation. Covenants were often, even typically, unequal affairs,
in which the weaker treated with the stronger. Yet in the covenant that
YHWH makes with Noah, what is emphasized is not God’s undeniable strength,
but his graciousness in giving without demanding agreement or return.
“Remember, O LORD, your compassion and love, * for they are from
everlasting” (Ps. 25:5).
God did not stop here in making covenants. He made covenant with Abraham
and his family, the People of Israel; he made covenant with King David and
those who followed him; he made covenant with Jesus Christ, who is
descended from both. When Jesus hears the voice from heaven in our Gospel
today, “You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Mk
1:11), it is a moment of covenant once again.
This covenant is immensely important for us. For in the Son of God, in
fellowship with him, we ourselves are made sons and daughters of God. The
covenant is necessary because the fences have been torn apart and need
mending. Because Jesus has died and risen again, we are alive; the badly
damaged relationship of God and humanity has been set right and
reestablished.
Lent is a good time for fence-mending; for repairing damaged
relationships. Like the covenant God made with Noah, the fence-mending
needs to come freely, and without a price; in some cases, even without the
cooperation or affirmation of the other. Above all, Lent is a time in
which our damaged relationship with God may be mended; where we encounter
him no longer as Destroyer but as Friend and Defender.
For the covenant that God makes with us in Jesus Christ is alive and real
today. It is this covenant that we celebrate at every baptism and at every
eucharist. Remember, it is at Jesus’ own baptism that God ratifies the
covenant; and it is baptism which our second reading says “saves” us,
“through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 3:21). As Noah was saved
through the water, so we are saved through the water. At the eucharist,
Jesus says, “This is my Blood of the New Covenant”. When we gather to
celebrate these sacraments, God is making covenant with us, recognizing
his covenant with us in Jesus Christ.
Lent is a good time for fence-mending; God himself is showing us the way.
He gives us the sacraments as signs, like the rainbow, of his covenant
with us. This morning we renew our covenant with God, in the gifts from
him we share.
The Rev’d John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
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