Homily Lent 5B: Covenant love versus contractual obligations

 Homily for 5^th Sunday of Lent Year B 2021

Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33

Introduction

What kind of relationship do you and I have with God?  Or rather, what kind of relationship does God want to have with you and me?

One of my favourite TV shows is the sitcom, The Big Bang Theory. On this show, the eccentric Sheldon Cooper regulates relationships with his friends by means of written contracts.

·        He has a roommate agreement with Leonard that stipulates all kinds of things including the bathroom schedule down to the minute.

·        He has a 31-page relationship agreement with his girlfriend Amy, which regulates things like the frequency and duration of date night.

·        And as for his other friends, their status depends on how many strikes they have accumulated or how many Cooper coupons they have earned.

Is that the kind of relationship a Christian should have with God?  Apparently not.

Scripture and Theology

In today's reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, we heard: “The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”  In other words he defines the kind of relationship he wants to have with his people, one characterized by these three things:

·        He wants to have a covenant with them, not a contract.

·        He wants a new covenant, not the old ones.

·        And this is going to happen in the days to come, when the Messiah comes.

While they are similar, a covenant and contract are very different.  A contract is signed by the buyer and seller of a house, or an employer and employee, but a covenant is more about a relationship between two people.  Yes, both contracts and covenants stipulate rights and responsibilities of each side, but a covenant is permanent, even if one side fails to meet its obligations.  Our relationships in the family, in marriage are covenants not contracts.  Because of his covenant with Israel, the Lord says: “Can a mother forget her baby, or a woman the child within her womb? Yes, even if these forget, yet even if these forget, I will never forget you” (Isaiah 49:1).  God’s relationship with his people is personal and intimate.

But just because it is a covenant and not an unfeeling contract is no guarantee that it will work.  Several times God made a series of covenants with his people, promising to be their God and they his people.  But time and again they failed to live up to their end of the agreement.

1.    The first covenant God made was with Adam and Eve (Gen 1-2).  He gave them everything they needed, a garden, animals, each other and all he asked was one teeny, tiny thing: do not eat of the tree of knowledge.  As we know they disobeyed him and broke that covenant.

2.    The second covenant was with Noah (Gen 6-9) in which God promised that he would not destroy the earth again with a flood; and he gave the rainbow as a sign of his promise.  But the people still sinned.

3.    The third covenant was with Abraham (Gen 17), and God promised him many things: numerous descendants, a great nation, a land flowing with milk and honey.  Abraham and his children for their part had to obey God.

4.    The fourth covenant was with Moses (Ex. 20-34) and this was the big one.  God promised to deliver on the promises he made to Abraham as long as the people for their part kept the Ten Commandments, which were etched on two stone tablets.  Almost immediately they went back on their word.

5.    And then God made a covenant with King David (2 Sam 7), promising to establish the house of David as an everlasting kingdom.  But again, as we know, starting with Solomon, David's son who brought in idolatry, and then his sons who split the Kingdom into two, this covenant was soon broken.

But because this was a covenant, and not merely a contract, God never gave up on his people. And that is why now through Jeremiah, he promises: "The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."  And then he goes on to say: "It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt."  In other words, the new covenant cannot be "same old, same old" covenants, since that has been tried and failed.

The first five covenants of the Old Testament worked like Sheldon’s agreements, with rights and obligations clearly stated up to the smallest details.  They were enforced by external conditions and laws like the tree of knowledge, the rainbow, circumcision, the stone tablets and the monarchy. But the new covenant, which Jeremiah promises is going to be different.  “I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts,” God says.  In other words, the stipulations of the new covenant will be interior, within the people’s hearts.  And he goes on: “No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives how to know the LORD. All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD.”

Jeremiah's prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who announced this new covenant at the Last Supper.  Holding the cup of wine, he told his disciples, the same words the priest repeats at Mass: “The blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”  And on the next day, on the cross, Jesus shed his blood and sealed the new covenant.  That is why when the foreign Greeks come to see Jesus in today’s gospel, he did not start by giving them a set of rules and obligations.  Instead, he told them that there was a new sheriff in town: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."  And he is going to be glorified on the cross, like a grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies so as to produce fruit.  A little later after they had heard the voice of God confirm the mission of Jesus, he said: "Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world [meaning Satan] will be driven out.  And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have a new way of relating with God, one based on a law written in the heart, in love.

And that is why when we sin, we are not merely breaking laws and precepts; we are breaking a relationship with someone we should love, our Loving God.

Christian Life and Conclusion

And so, during this Lenten season, what kind of relationship are we cultivating with Jesus, with God the Father?  Is it the Sheldon Cooper kind, or is it mother and child kind?  For example, why and how do we undertake the three special practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving?  Are we doing them and indeed other Christian responsibilities the way of the Old Covenants, out of sheer obligation, or we can do them the way of the New Covenant, out of love, from the heart?

At the seminary I am known to be a strict professor, because I don’t tolerate tardiness for class or assignments, tolerate shoddy papers or exams.  And so, some students doubt that I have a heart.  But I do assure them I do have a heart, from the ultra sound of my doctor.  I have a heart for God’s people whom they will serve.  For if they don’t do their work now in seminary, learning theology and prayer, learning how to preach and to celebrate Mass worthily, learning how to relate with people, how will they serve their people?  And so, while keeping the bar high, I also work with them to gradually arrive at the passing mark.  That is what God asks of us, to grow our relationship with him in what we do.

In the new covenant of Jesus Christ, God has given each of us a new heart.  Let us use our hearts, like the Baltimore Catechism said, “to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.”