St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, March 1, 2009
Lent 1
O Promise Me – Rev. David Mundy
Genesis 9:8-17 Mark 1:8-17
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Several years ago on the Valentine’s Day weekend we held a marriage enrichment event for couples at St. Paul’s which we called Still My Valentine. There were a number of couples, some of whom are here today in worship. During our day together we talked about how our families of origin shape us, about understanding our communication styles, how to “fight fair,” as well as the importance of sharing faith and values. We enjoyed the participants and the conversation but at the end of the day we did something symbolic which we felt would be a fitting conclusion to our time together.
We came into the sanctuary, then we asked for a volunteer couple to get married. The pair that offered to do so had actually married many years before and had grown children and at that time one grandchild. But we brought them to the front as prospective newlyweds and put a goofy tie on the groom and a candy ring on the bride’s finger. Although it seemed rather silly, once I started into the vows, the mood changed.
Phrase by phrase they repeated after me,
In
the presence of God and before our family and friends,
I________take you __________to be my husband/wife
To
have and to hold, from this day forward
for better, for worse;
for richer, for poorer
in joy and in sorrow,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish and to be faithful to you
alone,
as long as we both shall live.
The “groom” admitted afterward that while he wasn’t impressed by the frivolity at the start, the exchange of vows became very meaningful and emotional for him. It seemed to touch others as well, the way the exchange of vows and promises often affects us when we attend wedding ceremonies.
Why is that, do you think? Of course part of the reason is our love for the couple who are joining together in holy matrimony. There is also something about the very public, yet very tender and intimate choice to make promises before God and others that are meant to hold true through every circumstance we might face, and for a lifetime.
In another time a favourite solo at weddings was entitled O Promise Me and it was a way of acknowledging that the promises made
This is the first Sunday in the season of Lent and we begin a series of Sundays in which we hear about the promises between God and God’s people. The first biblical promise relationship between God and humanity is recorded in the passage we heard this morning in Genesis chapter nine, the story of Noah and his ark.
You didn’t hear the word “promise” in that reading, but no less than seven times the term “covenant” was used. While covenants and promises are not exactly the same thing, they are close, and simply speaking of God’s promises might be more helpful for most of us. The secular covenants of ancient times were often made between subjects and their monarchs, or as treaties between differing tribes and their rulers, so it is not surprising that biblical covenants or promises include God as the ultimate monarch.
Most of us have a fair idea of the story of Noah’s floating zoo, of how God instructed him to build an ark which would be a sanctuary from the flood waters sent to punish an unfaithful human population. We put this story in the realm of myth rather than fact, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important, or that is doesn’t capture our imaginations. Barbara Reid is one of Canada’s foremost illustrators of children’s books and she creates wonderful images in plasticine. She has two delightful books based on the Noah story. What is missing in this picture is the sign of the first promise made by God to all living creatures, the bow which we call a rainbow.
Are you good at keeping your promises? We learn very quickly in life that promises are important both in their making and their keeping. Children learn very quickly that if we say we are going to do something with or for us they have considerable power when they say the words “but you promised!” Our children trust us to honour our commitments and really every promise is based on trust.
Some of our promises are contractual in nature, they are written down on paper and are obligations upheld by law. There are many people in the United States who are destitute because they could no longer uphold the legal promises of their mortgages and other financial commitments.
There are treaties between nations which allow enemies to avoid bloodshed and allies to support one another. Since the new year, we have watched with sadness and horror as the state of Israel and the Palestinian region of Gaza pounded away at one another, each side claiming that the other had violated a negotiated ceasefire. In the end those who suffered the most were the innocent.
Within religious communities we make promises as well, the promises of baptism, and confirmation, and marriage, which mark some of the most important passages of our lives in faith. In the instances of baptism and confirmation these are not legal obligations, although they can be even more powerful commitments than those sanctioned by law because they are matters of the heart. At both baptism and confirmation we are invited into promises which are signs of deep commitment to Christ:
Do you believe in God, Source of
love; in Jesus Christ, love incarnate; and in the Holy Spirit, love’s power?
I
DO, BY THE GRACE OF GOD.
Desiring the freedom of new life in
Christ, do you seek to resist evil, and to live in love and justice?
I
WILL, GOD BEING MY HELPER.
Will you follow the way of Christ in
your public and private life?
I
WILL, GOD BEING MY HELPER.
Will
you join with your brothers and sisters in this congregation to share in the life,
work and ministry of Jesus Christ?
I WILL, GOD BEING MY HELPER.
I
say they can be because I have to admit to you that as a minister I am
often baffled and disappointed when people make vows and promises before God
and others which they almost immediately disregard.
So
we might ask, what is the point of making promises when it seems as though we
are destined to break them? Virtually every example we can give of human
covenants and promises can be followed by further examples of how those
promises were broken. If we are not careful we can become cynical about making
them in the first place because as the saying goes “promises are made to be
broken.”
It
is so important not to give in to this cynicism because while we may be
unfaithful – sadly it is part of the human condition – God is faithful and
willing to begin again. The covenants and promises of the next few weeks will
show us that God does not give up on those whose desire is to be in
relationship. Even when we stumble and fall in the promises we make, Christ
will be with us. Even when we
break our promises they can be mended and amended and renewed and recreated.
How does that happen? We choose to say we’re sorry, to admit our guilt, and then go in another direction. The words repent and repentance don’t get used much anymore, but they mean finding a new direction. David Wilkerson points out that our God is a God of U-turns, and changes of direction, even radical ones, can be our individual choice or our collective choice.
Last year our Canadian government acknowledged that its predecessors had essentially broken its promises made through treaties with our Aboriginal peoples. I listened that day in June when Prime Minister Harper issued the apology and I think it was, perhaps, his finest hour.
We
now recognize that it was wrong to separate children from rich and vibrant
cultures
and traditions, that it created a void in many
lives and communities, and we apologize for having done this . . .
Not
only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you
were
powerless to protect your own children from
suffering the same experience, and for this
we are sorry . . .
The
government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the
aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly.
When the United Church apologized for its involvement in the Native Schools back in 1986, it also sought forgiveness: “We ask you to forgive us and to walk together with us in the Spirit of Christ so that our peoples may be blessed and God’s creation healed.”
When we break our promises, we say we are sorry and start again.
Today the gospel lesson for the beginning of Lent is the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness before his three-year ministry had even begun. He is tempted to use power to achieve his purposes, supposedly in the service of a higher good, but he understands that he has a different mission. At the other end of this Lenten season we will hear Jesus speak to his followers on the eve of his crucifixion. As he shares in the Passover meal with them he says, this is the new covenant or new promise in my blood. Whenever you do this remember me.
We can remember our promises as we share the bread and the juice today. If we have regret for promises broken, we can ask forgiveness. Perhaps there is someone with whom we need to make amends or seek forgiveness.
If we need the courage and determination to live up to our promises, we can seek it in this moment. Living the Christian life is challenging and requires courage and commitment, but we are not alone.
We are on a covenant journey, a journey of promise, and for this we say “Thanks to our God, made known to us in Jesus, the Christ.”