UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST in Simi Valley
Second Sunday in Lent - March 16, 2003
Anne G. Cohen - The Meaning of Covenant
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
FOR OUR REFLECTION:
In China the parable is told of a man who went out with buckets to
remove a mountain that was in the way. He would not live to see it
moved, nor would his sons nor even his son's sons. Still, one day the
task would be complete, and they all, generation after generation, would
have had a part in it.
- Douglas John Hall, Lighten Our Darkness Westminster (1976) p. 71
As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable it.
- Novelist Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Signs of
Covenant: The Knife
When I was 21, my best friend whom I had known half of my life, died.
More than that, she was murdered.
And more than that, she was raped and stabbed to death while walking
home from Cal State University Long Beach - at 11:00 at night.
We live in a world where stupid mistakes can kill us.
We live in a world where beauty and creativity and trust and love can be
destroyed in an instant by rage and power and the blade of a knife.
I suffered for years from an enormous load of survivor's guilt.
I wondered if I could have done anything to alter the course of our
friendship, her life, so that this wouldn't have happened.
I was angry with her for doing such a dumb thing - walking late at night
in such a place as this.
But its hard to be angry with the dearly departed. So my anger was
turned inward and I became depressed. I truly believed that she had
been a more intelligent, more creative, more beautiful person than I
would ever be. I should have died, not Cammi.
And so I began to
bargain with God.
As many of you know, bargaining is one of the stages of grief. But, at
the time, all I knew was that I was willing to do ANYTHING to make the
pain in my heart stop. Convinced that my friend should have survived
and that I should have died, I contemplated putting my car through the
center divide of the freeway - some late night - at 80 plus miles per
hour. The deal was that, in an instant, I would trade places with Cammi
and she would be alive again.
Page Two
But as I slowed back down to the speed limit, I realized that God
doesn't make those kinds of bargains. Instead of one dead girl there
would be two.
So I made a different bargain, this one at 55 miles per hour with tears
streaming down my face. I would go to seminary if God would help me
figure out why this had happened. And if God would help me understand
this tragedy, help me to live a meaningful life in spite of it - I would
live life with Cammi's spirit alongside of my
own. I would do what I
could to change
the world so that beauty and creativity and trust and love could win out
over rage and power and the blade of a knife.
>From that night on I burned my candle at both ends and searched high and
low for meaning. And in the intervening years I have come to understand
much more than I bargained for.
I understand now that the deal I cut with God over half my life ago was
not a covenant. It was a bargain initiated in grief to mitigate
suffering and to justify my staying alive. God was with me in that car
26 years ago - not promising me that life wouldn't hurt and that beauty
and truth would win.
Instead, God was with me reminding me that God's covenant with me was
LIFE ITSELF - given 22 years before that - with all the rights and
responsibilities, joys and sorrows, promises and pain that LIFE ITSELF
had to offer.
I was perfectly free to put my car through the center divide that night.
But that was as dumb as walking home late at night in Long Beach.
And, besides, I didn't want to take anyone else with me.
And, besides, I might survive and how much pain would I be in then?
God was with me - reasoning with my unreasoning grief - reminding me
that God's covenant with me stood firm - as long as I did not reject the
gift - as long as I chose life that night and every night since.
In the 26 years since that night, I have tried to cut other deals with
God. I've even played God in my own life - trying to change my destiny
and the destiny of others - to no avail. God does not bargain. God
covenants with us - and that covenant is on God's terms. We can only
accept or reject the gift - which is LIFE ITSELF - beauty and ugliness,
tragedy and comedy, insanity and perfect sense - LIFE ITSELF.
Now Sarah and Abraham are people I recognize as kindred spirits -
especially Sarah. These two are bargainers from way back - and with
good reason.
Page Three
Known most of their lives as Sarai and Abram, they
have lived most of
their lives among family in the home of Abram's father. They are good
people, honest people, who walk with God.
But Sarai is infertile - barren - which is more than
unfortunate. In
ancient Hebrew culture one's immortality was through one's children ----
in particular, through one's sons. So the lack of children meant DEATH
- much like infertile soil meant starvation.
As the story goes, Abram is 75 and Sarai is 66 when
God talks with Abram
and tells him to leave his father's house - promising to bless him with
immortality and greatness - in the form of many descendants. God has
initiated this covenant and made promises - but has not explained yet
how this will happen. As modern medicine has shown us, some women CAN
get pregnant and successfully give birth in their later years - 50's
maybe 60's. But in our story this doesn't happen.
Sarai and Abram leave - go to live in a foreign land
- walk with God -
get older and older. Still, no children appear. Sarai,
given hope only
to have that hope dissipate once more - Sarai decides
to play God. She
arranges for Abram to impregnate her maidservant. It works. Hagar
gives birth to Ishmael - and that is another story. But it is not the
story that God had in mind when the covenant was cut.
When our text begins, it is 24 years after the initial conversation
between Abram and God. Abram is 99, Sarai is 90
and God visits Abram
again to restate the terms of the covenant. God will give them many
descendants (many of them royalty). AND God will give them land AND
will make their people a great nation. Abram has heard this before and
believes that God must be talking about Ishmael, now 13 years old and
ready for his bar mitzvah. He falls down before God in gratitude and
awe.
Then God goes on - and gratitude is supplanted by a number of other
feelings. One of the things that God says is that Sarai
is going to be
the mother of this multitude of descendants. Abram laughs at the
absurdity of this. It can't happen - sorry - not now when she's 90
years old! Me, I can father children any time, in fertile soil. But
Sarai will never be a mother!
And Sarai - how is she feeling? We will have to do
some real imagining
here.
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you prayed for it over and
over again?
Page Four
Have you ever wanted something so badly that you could taste it and
bargained with God hoping to get it?
And have you ever gotten to the point in your life when you've resigned
yourself to NOT getting it - and now that you're older and less flexible
and crankier - you realize that you don't really want that any more any
way?
Well then - can you imagine - wanting children your whole life and being
told that it’s finally going to happen now - now that you are 90 years
old?
I don't THINK so! That is just one bargain you might wish you had never
tried to make with God.
Many of you will remember the pain of childbirth.
Imagine going through that now! Go ahead - laugh if you can!
[Exercise to help men to imagine here....]
Our story tells us that this is exactly what God has intended for our
geriatric couple. Their names are changed in order to mark the
promise. Abram - which means "exalted ancestor" is changed to
Abraham
meaning "ancestor of a multitude." Sarai
- perhaps a nickname - is
restored to "Sarah" meaning princess - to signify the royalty that
her
descendants will enjoy.
This is a SERIOUS covenant that God is cutting with these people. And I
mean CUTTING. The ancient term "cutting a covenant" is derived
from the
practice of cutting the skins of sacrificial animals. But it also
refers to this covenant that God has made with Sarah and Abraham.
Now we have skipped over a huge chunk of this story -verses 8 to 14.
This is the part of the story that tells us what the SIGN of the
covenant is. The sign that Abraham and his family are living up to this
covenant with God is for every male to be circumcised. Perhaps you men
won't have to imagine the pain of childbirth at all.
This is no RAINBOW covenant with creation. This is a specific covenant
with our ancestors - cut with the blade of a knife and sealed with
blood. And you can bet that Sarah - giving birth at the age of 91- paid
her price for immortality with pain that felt like a knife blade slicing
her in half, piercing her heart, tearing her own life out of her body.
Perhaps the men of the family - collectively - might have felt the same
amount of pain as Sarah felt singly - giving birth to Isaac -
"laughter"
of disbelief, hope and immortality of his parents, ancestor to the 12
tribes of Israel.
Page Five
God had promised LIFE ITSELF - once again. And God had given it - again
and again - even to old Sarah and Abraham - when they might have wished
it away. God promised them the immortality of children - but gave it
with a knife to the heart - metaphorically speaking. And it was a knife
that would appear again when Abraham is asked - in another story - to
take Isaac up a mountain to sacrifice him to God. But, as I said,
that's another story - or at least a part of the same story - to be told
another time.
In myriad ways, God has covenanted with each of us. God has given us
LIFE ITSELF - and IMMORTALITY, if not through our children, through one
interpretation of the covenant God made with us in Christ - a story we
continue to live out by being a church - together and remembering.
The way that this story is told, there is no mistake in Jesus being
referred to as God's own son.
And there is no question that the suffering of Jesus echoes the
suffering of all that is given breath, given heart and compassion, given
by God's grace alone the opportunity to EXIST and CREATE and WITNESS the
beauty and the ugliness, the tragedy and the comedy, the insanity and
perfect sense, the profundity of LIFE ITSELF.
And I no longer question whether or not God was WITH Jesus when he was
murdered by rage and power, bargaining and the blade of a knife - nails
in the wrists, a sword to the side. God was there, all right, grieving
with us, holding Jesus in strong, loving arms - and promising to take
him home.
And I no longer question where God was when Cammi was
murdered.
God was right here, grieving, holding her, taking her home.
And as much as it hurts sometimes, and as much blood and as many tears
as we shed in our lifetimes, God has given us LIFE ITSELF - through the
literal labor of others, sometimes with the blade of a knife - pressed
through the skin to the heart.
And who are we to trade this gift away for ANYTHING?
Who are we to reject such a gift - a gift that in the giving of it -
God's heart hurts as much as our hearts hurt collectively?
Who are we to reject a covenant - initiated by the One Who Made Us -
carved into the very stones of Earth -
and given a new name -
with every newborn cry?
Pastoral Prayer
God of Sarah and Abraham, God of Mary and Jesus,
God of Creation and Covenant...
Hear us as we cry - taking in the breath of life -
and as we laugh - giving breath back to You.
Know that we choose life - with all the joy and pain it brings.
In this life use us for beauty and truth and goodness.
And we ask of you that when the time comes, You take us in Your arms
and bring us home. Amen.
*************************************************************************
BULLETIN
Music for Gathering
Welcome and Perspective on the Day
Musical Preparation for Worship - A Time for Centering
+ Call to Worship (unison)
God of Israel, may our worship on this Sabbath bring us near to all that
is high and holy. May it bind the generations in bonds of love and
sharing, and unite us with our people in common hope and faith. And
through Sabbath rest and worship, may be learn to find fulfillment and
joy in the vision of peace for all the world. Amen.
+ Hymn of Praise Yigdal Elohim
Chai Hymnal # 24
+ Opening Prayer (unison)
Many are the generations of Israel, and in every age we have sought the
living God through Sabbath rest and worship. This time and place
hold the power to increase our joy in the Eternal. O God, even as we
seek You in the sanctuary, help us to know that Your glory fills all
space; make us understand that You are with us at all times, if we but
open our minds to You.
We feel the presence of Your spirit in our homes and on our ways; we see
the beauty of Your creation in mountain, sea and sky, and in the
human form; we hear You in the silence of our own hearts speaking the
truths the heart knows.
May we be Your witness to the world,
Your messenger to all the earth.
May we show forth Your image within us, the divine spark that makes us
human. Amen.
Time for Silent Reflection
One: My soul waits in silence.
All: God is my rock and my fortress. I will be at peace.
Silent Reflection
The Assurance of Good News (unison)
Made in the image of the Divine, we embody the Spirit of God.
God will not turn away from us.
Sung Response
Hallelujah - God be praised!
Conversation with Our Children
Tools
Reading from the Jewish Torah Genesis 17:1-16
Hymn of Hope Let Us Hope When Hope Seems Hopeless Hymnal # 461
(Sung to the tune of Hymnal # 257)
Teaching and Proclamation Signs of Covenant: The Knife
Intercessions, Celebrations and Encouragements
Call to Prayer Be still and know that I am God Hymnal # 743
Time for Silence
Our Joys and Concerns and an Offering of Prayer
Sung Response In Solitude Hymnal #521 vv. 1 & 2
We Offer Our Gifts So That Our Lives May Be Our Prayer
Offertory
Prayer of Dedication (unison)
Eternal Source of good, we give thanks for the numberless gifts
and
blessings that fill our days: for life itself and its endless variety;
for all that sustains body and mind; for love and friendship; for the delights
of
the senses; and for the excellence of Your Word, which deepens our life
and enriches our days.
Teach us, God of wonders, to work for a just and compassionate
society, where all may share Your gifts in the joy of freedom. Amen.
+ Hymn of Trust There's a Wideness in God's Mercy Hymnal # 23
+ Commissioning (unison)
Pray as if everything depended on God;
act as if everything depended on you.
Who rise from prayer better people,
their prayer is answered.
+ Sung Response Hymnal # 433 v.3
In our End is our Beginning; in our Time, Infinity;
In our Doubt there is Believing; in our Life, Eternity.
In our Death, a Resurrection; at the Last, a Victory,
Unrevealed until its Season, something God alone can See.
+ Postlude
WORSHIP NOTES:
The cross marks (+) in the order of service are an invitation for those
in the congregation who are able to stand to do so.
The New Century Hymnal or Hymnal has a black cover.
The Chapel Songbook is a blue, looseleaf notebook.
Call to Worship is from Gates of Prayer for Shabbat: A Gender Sensitive
Prayerbook by Chaim Stern,
Central Conference of American Rabbis
(1992) p. 44
Opening Prayer Ibid. p. 33
Prayer of Dedication Ibid. p. 45
Commissioning Ibid. p. 46