Today I want us to reflect on covenant as it is revealed in Holy Scripture. We hear of covenant directly in the reading from the prophet Ezekiel, wherein Christ says, “I will make my covenant of peace with them” (meaning the faithful of Israel), “It shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” Covenant is spoken of more cryptically in the other two readings. Paul refers to it when he speaks of “the calling to which you have been called,” and Our Lord and Savior Jesus expresses it in the parable we heard when He said, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted,” and it is implied in the healing Jesus gave to the man who had dropsy, especially because the healing violated the letter of the law, which prohibited such activity on the Sabbath. Thus we turn today to the mystery of holy covenant.

By covenant we mean sacred commitment between God and His people. By covenant we mean holy partnership, with promises, signs (on God’s side), and secondarily conditions (which are on our side), all of which are part of God’s economy, that is to say, God’s plan for salvation, the ordering of history and creation towards salvation. God expresses His economy through a variety of covenants. What are these covenants?

To understand covenant, we start with Jesus Christ Who makes a covenant with us at the Last Supper. Jesus speaks of His precious Blood, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my Blood.” The Holy Spirit has written God’s law on our hearts, forgiveness is granted to all who repent and confess their sins, and we have God’s grace to be obedient to Christ’s words. All Christians are invited to partake of Christ’s Body and Blood to feed our inner transformation and nourish our ability to walk as a new creation according not to the flesh but to the Spirit; to live a life of obedience, not defiance, toward God. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, which we participate in through the Eucharist, we can attain purity of heart, lowliness of mind, and all the virtues of Christ. Hence the words of our Lord in our Gospel passage: “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Our humility is our side of Christ’s covenant, which if He sees in us, He promises everlasting life and eternal salvation.

With this covenant, or as I should say, within this covenant, are all previous covenants recorded in Scripture. Firstly there is the covenant God made with Noah and his family after they disembarked from the ark. This covenant follows the flood, and expresses God’s commitment to preserve His creation despite whatever human sin might occur. God promises to never destroy the earth – meaning His relationship with us, the relationship that allows for our spiritual growth toward Him – never to destroy the earth by flood again. The sign of this oath is the rainbow, which is a permanent reminder and symbol of God’s mercy upon all creatures, human and animal.

Secondly, there is the covenant with Abraham. In Genesis 11 and the following chapters, God promises to bless all nations and people through Abraham’s lineage. God says his descendants will be more in number than the stars of heaven. This covenant is expressed through circumcision, which as unveiled by the Cross and taught by Saint Paul, means circumcision of the heart and faith in Christ. Church Fathers elaborate on Paul’s teaching by emphasizing that not only our heart must be circumcised, but our ears, our lips, our mouths, and in fact all of our members, even our mind.

Thirdly, in Exodus and Deuteronomy, we hear of the covenant God forms with Israel through Moses, to be a kingdom of priests, what Saint Peter calls the priesthood of all believers. This priestly kingdom, which is the Church, is thereby through grace able to mediate God’s holiness to the world. God promises His protection if we obey the Ten Commandments, and the teachings on worship, justice, and morality. We are blessed if we have obedience faith; we are cursed if we have rebellious hearts.

Finally, at least for this sermon, there is the Davidic covenant. This is in 2 Samuel 7, and we learn of God’s promise of an eternal dynasty through David, which fulfills the blessings promised to Abraham through a faithful king. God promises that His Name shall be upon the hearts of His people, even in their hearts; He promises rest from enemies, and an everlasting throne for His Son, Jesus Christ. In this covenant, God’s promises a Messiah, and this is Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Right Hand of the Father.

My dear brothers and sisters, what the mystery of God’s holy covenant must always teach us is that everything we have is a gift given to us by God: everything – our life, our soul and body, our family. By His covenant with us, God makes existence itself His gift, and our relationship with God a gift beyond the telling. By the mystery of covenant, by holy covenant sealed in Christ’s Blood, we know that God guarantees forgiveness, internal transformation, and direct access to God. Through Christ we have an eternal covenant, so that the God of peace can equip us with everything good, through Jesus Christ, the Mediator of the true covenant, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

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