An Everlasting Covenant

A Sermon Preached at Salem United Church of Christ

Higginsville, Missouri

28 February 2021

I. God Speaks to Abram and Sarai

• Abram and Sarai are not perfect people, even if later on they are examples of trust in God – they make plenty of mistakes in their lives – after God had first spoken to Abram about establishing a covenant with him, when Abram was seventy-five years old, there comes a famine, so Abram and Sarai go to Egypt, where Abram tells his wife to pretend to be his sister so that Pharaoh would deal kindly with Abram – and, to be fair, she is, his half-sister (Genesis 20.12), but when Pharaoh takes Sarai for his wife, a series of disasters comes on him and his house, which brings out the truth of Sarai’s identity and Pharaoh sends them away (Genesis 12.10-20)
• And when Abram is eighty-five years old, God reaffirms God’s promises to Abram – at the time Sarai and Abram still have no children with which to begin a great nation – the two decide to take matters into their own hands – Sarai sends her servant, Hagar, to lie with Abram – but when Hagar becomes pregnant, Sarai thinks that Hagar looks at her with contempt, so she “deals harshly” Hagar, implying that Sarai is abusive to her slave, which causes Hagar to run away into the desert, where God finds her and blesses her (Genesis 16.1-16) – God also tells Hagar to return to and submit to Sarai, which raises a whole other set of questions and concerns that we should talk about, but that is for another day and another sermon
• Finally, when Abram is ninety-nine years old, and his son with Hagar, Ishmael, is thirteen years old, God affirms the covenant once again, promising that Abram’s family will become a great nation – this appearance of God to Abram is significant for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that this is the first time in the biblical stories that anyone refers to God as El Shaddai, which the NRSV translates as “God Almighty,” but likely means something closer to “God of the mountains” or, and do not be shocked, “God of the breasts” – whatever we might take as the translation, the idea that God gives God’s self a new name, or at least a new title, is a surprising thing
• Every time that God makes and affirms the covenant promises to Abram, the act is at God’s initiative – Abram does not ask God to come and say something to him – God is not working on Abram’s schedule – God is at work on God’s schedule, even if Abram cannot see it – from the foundation of the world, human relationship with God has always been at God’s initiative, has always been a human response to the invitation of God, and human beings are always disappointing God – think about that – the man and the woman in the Garden – Cain – Noah – God reaches out and humans disappoint God – and yet God comes back to humans every time – and here God is again, giving new names and affirming old promises
• God’s promises to Abram are lavish – by God’s creative activity, Abram, which means “exalted ancestor,” becomes Abraham, or “ancestor of a multitude” – and for the first time God makes a promise to Sarai, as well – God promises to bless her – God promises that she will give birth to a son who will continue the line of Abraham – through her nations and kings will come – and as a sign of the promise to her, Sarai becomes Sarah, which means “princess”
• In these most ancient stories, the covenant is between God and Abram/Abraham, then between God and Abraham and Sarah, and then on to Abraham’s descendants – because God is the one making the covenant, it is an everlasting covenant, one that even comes to us, not as children of Abraham and Sarah by birth, but as children of Abraham and Sarah by the everlasting covenant

II. An Everlasting Covenant

• We may rarely think of it this way, but at the heart of all of our relationships is the concept of covenant – some covenants are simply, such as everyone agreeing to stay on their side of the stripes on the roads, and some are complex – covenant is a way of relating to one another and living with one another that binds us together – covenant says that we are all one with one another and that as far as El Shaddai is concerned there is nothing that can break us apart from one another – but as we human beings always have done, so we do, too – we give ourselves to dividing ourselves from one another – and as God has always done, God allows us to do it and then comes to us over and over again
• That is because God’s covenant with humankind does not depend on our response – it is God’s choice from first to last – notice what God says in v 8 of the Genesis reading: “I will be their God” – usually in the Hebrew Bible, that declaration is only the first of two parts – usually, when God says that God will be their God, God also says that they shall be God’s people – not here – God simply, straightforwardly says “I will be their God” – the relationship does not depend on human response
• To be clear, God does state that the male descendants of Abraham will mark their bodies with the sign of circumcision and that if they choose not to do it they break God’s covenant, but God does not say that God will break God’s covenant – no – God says that God establishes an everlasting covenant
• The apostle Paul recognizes this when he says to the Roman Jesus community that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Jesus – there is nothing we can do or say that will cause God to withdraw God’s promise of love – we can reject that love of God, but not even that will move God to cease from loving us
• Jesus declares the same thing in the Gospels – over and over again, in his welcome of strangers, in his compassion for people on the fringes of “acceptable society,” in his love for everyone, in his prayers, Jesus tells his followers that God’s love is for them and for everyone
• God’s covenant, which God reaffirms to Abraham and Sarah, is an everlasting covenant – that is God’s nature – God does not give up on us, ever – even when we give ourselves to the ways of the world and of empires, even when we harden our hearts to the brokenness that we see all around us, even when we refuse to accept or to share God’s love, God still loves us
• God promises to be our God, and that is the heart of the everlasting covenant – it is a covenant of grace with all of creation

III. Conclusion

• Lent is a time of introspection – it is a time for us to consider again the depth and the breadth of God’s love for us and for all people – it is a time for us to think about how we live and whom we serve – we usually think of such introspection, such looking inside ourselves, as a solemn thing, and in one sense it is just exactly that
• In another sense, however, if our introspection leads us to remember that God’s love for us is unconditional, it can also be cause for great joy
• God’s covenant of grace with us is an everlasting covenant, and nothing in all creation can separate us from the promises and love of God – and that is a wonderful and powerful thing

Tags: Covenant, Faithfulness of God, Genesis 17.1-8 and 15-17, God's Promises, Grace, Lent, Relationship