A Covenant of Peace

 Look around and be distressed;
Look within and be depressed;
Look to Jesus and be at rest.

(Corrie Ten Boom)

"Covenant" is not a word we use much today, except in gated communities, where the meaning seems to have evolved into the opposite of its original.  The only real covenant we have left today is marriage-- where two are made one flesh, one family, one bond.

The original covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of blood -- a covenant in your flesh, God called it:  My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant (Gen. 17).

By the time of Jeremiah and the other prophets, however, we hear that that covenant in the flesh means little:  

How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land,

the most beautiful of any nation.

I thought you would call me "Father" and not turn away from following me.

But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,

so have you been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel," says the Lord (Jer. 3).

Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.

Circumcise yourself to the Lord, circumcise your hearts,

you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem (Jer. 4).

...even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart (Jer. 9).

The result of abandoning the covenant, or the bond with God, is that the beautiful land "...has been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross" and, furthermore,

Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses;

it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares (Jer. 9).

The prophets, however, notably Jeremiah, promised a new covenant, "not like the covenant I made with their fathers...[.but] I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts....they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest" (Jer. 31).

And Ezekiel says, "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant....My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God and they will be my people" (37).

....a covenant of peace.  The mark of those who dwell with God.  At the Last Supper, Jesus promised: "My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."  Finally, it is given to us --- the covenant of peace.  Corrie Ten Boom, despite the worst that Nazi Germany could do to her family and to her, knew that peace.  As do the world's martyrs today.

If you would find the dwelling place of God on earth today, look for the "pearl of great price" -- that peace within men's souls.  It is the sure sign of the new covenant!

Who Is Your God?

 When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, He identified Himself:  I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

In my last entry, "We Believe," I wrote about faith in God not only in terms of our own stories, but in terms of the faith and friendship of those we love and trust.  When I hear how God has worked in your life, your story extends my own experience of God and increases my awe of His glory and Presence.

When God says to Moses, "I am the God of your father," He identifies Himself with the stories Moses has heard from his own family.  Although this may be Moses' first encounter with the Divine Presence, he undoubtedly has heard and absorbed family stories going back hundreds of years of how this God revealed Himself to the Israelites.  So already Moses knows something about this God who now reveals Himself to Moses.

I am the God of Abraham.....Who was Abraham's God?  He is God in search of man before man begins to search for God.  He is the God Who calls in the depths of our souls, "Come, and I will show you...."  

The God Who says, "Get up, leave this place and come to a place I will show you."  The God who has a plan for us:  I will bless you and you will be a blessing!  Not just bless us, but bless all those who are connected to us generation after generation.  

When we read the stories of the Bible, it might be helpful to ask ourselves, "Who is the God of Isaac,.....of Jacob.....of Moses....of David....of Mary.....of Jesus?

As we ponder these stories, we come to know not only their God but our God ---- the God of our fathers and mothers, the God of our friends and heroes.  We, too, have our stories but have not attended to them in terms of Who God has been to us.  If God is to be found anywhere, surely it is in our histories.  Spiritual directors often tell us to look back over our lives in ten-year sections, searching for where God has been in each decade of our lives.

Most of us in our youth, I would hazard to guess, sneered at the stories our parents told us -- if indeed they spoke of God at all.  And yet, now that we are old, we might look back with reverence on those stories as well as our own experience, and say to God, "I had heard of you with my ears, but now I behold you with my eyes!" (Job 42:5)

We Believe.....

 Bishop Robert Barron's video series on The Creed is packed full of thought-provoking statements.  Last night, after viewing episode 1 of the series, a friend and I were discussing Barron's insights on the first two words of the Creed:  I/we believe...

We used to say "We believe in God...." when I was growing up in the Catholic Church.  Now we say, "I believe...." each Sunday.  Barron argues that the question should remain open as to the most appropriate response.  He agrees that it is good for us to declare, each one of us, that "I" believe -- to make our own statement of belief, regardless of what others believe.  And of course, that stance appeals to our independent, individualistic culture, especially in the West today.

However, the statement "We believe" carries its own justification.  The faith of one not only strengthens that of the other, but it also imparts a particular joy of unification and friendship.  C. S. Lewis' classic essay on Friendship in his book Four Loves cannot help but bring joy to anyone who has experienced the kind of friendship he describes.  

According to Lewis, friendship, unlike erotic love, always welcomes the third, fourth, or fifth person into the relationship.  For friendship is not two people looking at one another, but rather it is two people looking together at a third "thing" which both love and enjoy.  The enjoyment of my friend in stamp collecting, birdwatching, traveling, wine-tasting, or whatever draws us together, enhances my own joy because now I see the object not only from my own perspective but also from the perspective and experience of my friend.  And when my friend dies, I lose not only my friend, but also his/her enjoyment of the third thing which we both enjoyed.

For the past 15 years, a group of about 6 to 12 of us have been meeting on Wednesday mornings to read, study, and talk about our faith.  The group began as a bible study, but eventually merged into a  book study, wherein we read the chosen book together (not individually at home), stopping to comment on, reflect on, question, or discuss what we are reading.  Our current study is Four Witnesses by Rod Barrett, a history of the earliest church reflected in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Ireneus of Lyons, and Justin Martyr.

As we openly discuss our reactions to the faith and experience of the early church, we tend to reveal our own stories and spiritualities.  Here is where "we believe" becomes strength to all of us.  We are absorbing what the Fathers of the Church believed and lived, with considerable impact on our own lives and stories --- but the faith reactions of one person in the group also impacts the faith and reactions of the others.  The insights given to one become the insights of all because we trust and respect one another --- and we are all built up together into one body with "living stones," in the words of Scripture.  The "I believe" eventually, through thoughtful exploration, becomes "We believe..."

For those of us who believe and live the communion of saints, living and dead, the circle widens even further.  Most of us chose patron saints when we were confirmed.  Mine was Therese of Liseux, for no other reason at the time than that I was a sixth-grade girl, and the statue of St. Therese in our church was beautiful.  But grace....grace.... itself went before and behind me.  Now, as an adult, I have discovered that my spirituality matches that of St. Therese, and her "beliefs" have strongly impacted and confirmed my own experience.  When my own spirituality cannot climb to the heights of that of the great saints, I find consolation in the littleness of St. Therese, in the simplicity of her everyday life.  And her reflections often pierce my soul.  

The same might be said of the writings of Padre Pio, Ignatius of Loyola, St. Benedict and so on....their unique faiths, their different approaches to the enjoyment of God, all serve to enhance my own faith and give me joy.  It has been said that the "life of the world to come" included in our credal statement means that as friends at last, we will all enjoy one another's enjoyment of God and of the ways He has worked in our lives.  Something to look forward to, indeed!