Promises, Promises

Sermon by Rev. Laurel Bobb

What kinds of promises do we make in life? We promise to love and honor our spouses until death parts us, and we show it with a band of gold; we promise to repay that mortgage or car loan, and we show that with a signature on paper. We promise to tell the whole truth in courts of law, symbolized by raising our right hands. We draw up our last will and testament and it is signed by witnesses to prove it is valid; these cannot be broken without going to court and proving some foul play such as coercion was at work. We also make many other less life-changing promises as well--we’ll meet a friend for lunch, we’ll take the kids to the park, we’ll write those thank-you notes, we promise we’ll get right on that task our boss asks us to do. These are not accompanied by any signs or symbols other than giving our word, but they reflect our character. Often we break our promises, sometimes intentionally, but sometimes out of sheer neglect.

God never neglects to keep his promises. His love for us is everlasting. Today’s lessons revolve around promises that God has made. With many of the promises God has made there are signs and symbols that remind us that he has made them. Throughout Scripture we have promises made by God; in religious terms we call them covenants. The Old Testament uses the word covenant more than 270 times. Our God is a God who makes and keeps promises.

Our Gospel gives the account of Jesus’s baptism and the accompanying sign that he was perfectly in God’s will. Those signs were the descending dove and the voice that came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." This was one step in the fulfillment of the first promise God made to humanity. In his promises God shows mercy when meting out punishment. The first of these is recorded in Genesis 3--that one of Eve’s offspring would come to crush the serpent’s head. And Jesus did come to crush Satan and bring about his ultimate defeat. The dove and voice called attention to the fact that he was right on track.

God’s signs are symbols of grace. In Genesis 4 we read that God sent Cain away from civilization for murdering his brother, Abel. Cain pleaded for mercy and God gave it. He put a mark on Cain so no one would dare to kill him, lest they face God’s wrath.

The next time we read about a promise that God made with humanity accompanied by a sign, it is in our Old Testament lesson for today. We are reminded of God’s saving act on behalf of Noah and his family in the direction to construct the ark to preserve both human and animal life. In 1st Peter 3:21 the significance of the ark is transferred to Baptism which, "...now saves you--not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him."

After all else was destroyed God decided that he would never again cause such a deluge. In Genesis 9 God told Noah that he set his bow in the clouds to be a sign of the promise that he made to never destroy the whole earth by a flood again. God began a new creation in Noah.

God had a specific plan for the salvation of the world however, and this plan whose fulfillment was made possible through Jesus Christ began to take shape with the calling of Abraham. He was promised a land, offspring, and that he would be a blessing to the nations. This promise was accompanied with the sign of circumcision. The people of Israel bore that sign in their bodies even as they came to be aliens in a foreign land and as they were forced into bondage.

But once again God came to the rescue; we see God’s saving act in the Exodus event. He appeared to Moses in a burning bush and used him as the leader, through whom he led his people from slavery in Egypt. The plagues were signs to the people of Israel and to the Egyptians that God was working on behalf of his people. The final plague was a sign observed by Jewish people to this day--that of the Passover when they were to spread the blood of the lamb on their doorposts, so the angel of death would pass over them and not kill their first-born along with the Egyptians’.

As God led them into the wilderness they passed through the sea on dry land. God then gave them the Torah, the law, at Mount Sinai as a symbol of what it means to be the people of God. As that people of God they had to know how to live in community and how to reflect the fact that they belonged to God when they entered the promised land.

After the people of Israel entered the land and began to flounder, God raised up a shepherd boy, David, to be king over them. The nation and the crown were symbols of this covenant that was to be an everlasting covenant. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise came through one of David’s descendants, Jesus of Nazareth, whom we call the Christ.

All of God’s promises focus on that ultimate saving act--Jesus’s death and resurrection. The cross of Christ has become the ultimate sign for the world of God’s faithfulness and love. As you are already aware the cross is made of a horizontal and a vertical bar. The vertical one reminds us of our relationship with God--that relationship which must take top priority in our lives. The horizontal piece reminds us that to love God is also to love our neighbor. It is the mark of the Christian, for it reminds us who and whose we are. In essence Christ’s cross is also our cross, for we are baptized into his death and resurrection. We are marked with that cross in our Baptisms. This is our sign and seal that we belong to God. Belonging to God has its blessings and responsibilities. The blessings are that we will share eternally with Christ his life in the presence of God the Father and that we will have the Holy Spirit living within us to empower us for the work Christ calls us to do, which is our responsibility.

Baptism is a once for all event, but it needs to be remembered and lived out each day of our lives. That is why we have a special celebration called confirmation or affirmation of Baptism, whereby young persons who had been baptized at a very young age could take upon themselves those promises others made on their behalf. It shows a commitment to live out that baptismal covenant.

Fortunately we have an on-going sign to remind us of God’s love as well. This was prefigured by the Israelite’s Passover celebration. For us it began with the institution of the Lord’s Supper when Jesus took bread and wine and proclaimed that they were his body and blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sin. This is our continuing sign of God’s presence among us. It is something we can feel and taste; in the eating and drinking we experience God’s love and reconciliation. It gives us strength to remember and live out our Baptismal covenants. We can look at the promises we have made and see how to act so we are fulfilling those promises.

In our ceremony of affirmation of Baptism we promise to live among God’s faithful people, hear God’s Word and share in the Lord’s Supper, proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, serve all people following Jesus’s example, and strive for justice and peace in all the earth. It is fitting that this Lenten season we focus on feeding the hungry, for that is one way we can proclaim God’s good news, serve all people, and even be striving for justice and peace in all the earth. If you have not already done so, I invite you to take a Lenten calendar and a bank. Then as you are moved, add to the bank what God is calling you to give, so that we may be his agents of saving grace in our world, showing love for our neighbors.

We know that God kept his promises, and indeed God continues to keep his promises. When we are baptized into the faith we put on the character of Christ. Since he keeps his promises, we also should be people who keep our promises.

Unfortunately it is difficult to rely on people keeping their word these days. We are often willing to do what we say we’re going to do until something better comes along. We promise to love our spouses until death parts us, but often we mean until we don’t feel like loving them anymore. We promise to follow through on our contracts until we can make more money fulfilling another contract first. We promise to live for God until it becomes inconvenient or might hamper what we would like to do. We promise our kids or friends we’ll do something and then other things come in and crowd them out of our schedules.

We need to remember that we bear the sign of the cross invisibly on our brows. That cross reminds us of our baptismal covenants, and our relationship to God and others. It should be the defining factor in our lives. I challenge you as go through this Lenten season to remember the covenant God made with you in Baptism and daily seek to live out that covenant so that you can more adequately reflect the character of Christ by keeping your promises.

God kept his promise to save his people; he will always forgive us when we fail. God always keeps his promises. His covenant is binding like our wills are. Even though wills can be contested and broken, God’s promises never can be broken. We are thankful this is so, for it means we can be assured, that if we trust Christ for salvation, we will indeed live with God eternally.
 

  Copyright 2002 by Rev. Laurel Bobb