Promise

Covenant and Relationship

     The entirety of the Bible describes how one can be a righteous person, i.e. in right relationship with God and one another.  Throughout the Old Testament we can see that Israel, as a people, are constantly struggling and evolving with this notion of being in relationship with their Creator.  The Old Testament writers weave an intricate story describing this in terms of Covenant.  God reaches out to us, his children, and we respond.  Our response to God takes on many different forms as we see throughout the landscape of the Old Testament and the many colorful people that “respond” to God.  All of the people are described in three dimensions, we see their doubts, fears, anger, frustrations, suffering, disobedience; we see them being human.  Over and over we see God’s love for them continually played out against the background of human emotions.  The relationship is never static and God continually reaches out to us and waits for our response.  As God transitions from the Old Testament to the New Testament we see the emphasis change from rules and laws, meant to define relationships and community behavior, to what the spirit of being in relationship should feel like and be for us.  We transform from a rule based relationship to a relationship with love at its foundation.  Jesus tells us that when we love all the laws and rules hang together at that deep level in response to one another.

     What we see is not a “how-to” book so much as a “what-to” book.  The bible becomes a living document describing God’s love for us in action and our response to that love.  As the relationship matures and deepens so does the depth of the relationship.  The Bible becomes a love story.  It starts out as a parent would love their child.  The parent sets boundaries and establishes the rules one follows to live in right relationship with the parent and with the community that they will grow up in.  As the child matures and begins to think independently, they think they know better and rebel against the very authority that provided their framework and boundaries.  They become enmeshed and influenced by things in the world and they attempt to test the boundaries that have been set for them for right or wrong.  They now begin to experience life independently and sometimes that leads to the very human experiences of doubt and fear as they struggle with who they are; their purpose and place in the world.  Ideally when they falter, their parents are there to love, comfort, protect and teach them.  Israel clearly goes on this journey through the Old Testament and can be seen in a child’s maturing relationship as they grow within the family.  From the child’s point of view as they mature they begin to understand the rules for what they were, a parent’s expression of love to keep them safe and to form them into the person they will one day grow up to be.  As the child reaches adulthood the spirit of the rules becomes clear and they hopefully transcend the rules.  Their foundational ethics and response to love takes them forward to begin the process all over again within their own families.  The Old Testament plays out this human transformation with all its myriad variations.

     This process of being in relationship is what describes being in covenant with one another.  It is not a static place where boundaries are once established and maintained.  Instead the rules of behavior establish the guidelines and ethical structure that we begin with.  From there the relationship can take on many forms.  If love and serving the other is at the core of the relationship then the relationship will grow into a healthy one - based on mutual respect and love.  The covenant therefore becomes an ever-changing dance that constantly re-establishes and builds the relationships we have formed; and this is at the heart of it all - love and connection with one another and with our Creator.

Your faithful servant,

carmen