Sean Boisen
References: Jeremiah 31:27–34, Psalm 119:97-104, 2 Timothy 3:14–4:5, Luke 18:1–8
I’m not much of a sports guy: in elementary school, I was the nerdy kid who was usually picked second to last for any team, and my athletic career peaked sometime around fifth-grade kickball. But I understand there’s a rather important game taking place later today that involves one of our local teams at a critical juncture in the season. So, right off the bat,
- since we’re all on the same team
- as I step up to the plate this morning,
- I’m going to swing for the fences and try to comment on all four of our lectionary passages.
- Let’s see if I can tag all the bases and hit a kind of Scripture grand slam
- Now, I’m no heavy hitter,
- but even if I don’t knock it out of the park,
- I hope we’ll at least be ahead in the count as we look together at God’s word.
- So stay in the game,
- Keep your insert handy so you can follow the batting order.
- Take a swing at what I’m pitching,
- I’ll do my best not to drop the ball or wind up out in left field, and especially … not go into extra innings.
- And if nothing else … maybe all these baseball expressions will get you warmed up for the Mariners game later today.
Psalm 119:97-104
This is by far the longest of all the psalms, more than twice as long as any other, and it showcases the psalmist’s dedication to God’s Word and its instruction.
- “Oh, how I love your law! All day long it is in my mind.”
- It is my meditation; I contemplate it; your law “is always with me”; I study your decrees
- This takes real effort and commitment; it takes time; it is not a casual activity
- This effort leads to insight—more than all my teachers— and understanding—more than the elders—because the Psalmist has been taught by the Lord Himself as he has applied himself to know, to contemplate, and to understand God’s word
But this is not merely an intellectual exercise: the Psalmist tells us that this reflection and understanding provides greater wisdom than his enemies, and keeps his feet from every evil way. His time spent with God’s word changes him, and changes his behavior.
Jeremiah 31:27–34
As we turn to the passage in Jeremiah, however, the situation is much different from that described by the Psalmist. God’s chosen people, Israel, have disobeyed God and his word repeatedly. Rather than observing his commandments, they have worshiped idols and made alliances with foreign powers, trusting in them rather than in God.
A key word in this passage, and throughout Jeremiah’s prophecies, is the word covenant. Let’s dig into this word a bit.
Covenant
A covenant is an agreement between two parties, with mutual obligations. Often one party to a covenant has more status or power than the other, but agrees to bind themselves to certain obligations, provided the other party fulfills the terms of the covenant. There are blessings for those who keep the covenant, but consequences—curses or punishments— for those who violate the covenant. Covenants in ancient times might be between trading partners, or political allies: and even today, we talk of marriage as a covenant.
The entire history of the Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament—is a history of covenants.
- Some scholars see a covenant between God and Adam and Eve in the early chapters of Genesis, where God promises the blessing of life with Him in Eden for obedience, but also provides a prohibition—do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve disobey, breaking the covenant, and are consequently subject to death and expelled from the garden.
- God makes a covenant with Noah in Genesis 9:8-17 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you … and with every living creature on earth. Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.” The rainbow is a sign of God’s covenant with Noah to preserve human life.
- In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham, after promising in chapter 12 to make him a blessing to the ends of the earth. In English we say “make a covenant”, but the Hebrew term is literally to cut a covenant, and in this passage we see this acted out. Abraham brings out several sacrificial animals as commanded by the Lord, and cuts them in two, with the halves opposite each other. He then falls into a deep sleep and has a vision where an oven and a torch, symbolizing God’s presence, passes between the halves of the animals, and the Lord announces a covenant with Abraham, to give his descendants the promised land some 400 years later.
- Moses communicates a conditional covenant to the people of Israel in Exodus 19:5: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. ” The Ten Commandments are the conditions of God’s covenant with Israel, and the ark of the tabernacle is also called the ark of the covenant.
- The Lord also made a covenant with David that his house would continue to rule over God’s people, and his kingdom would continue through a future Messiah.
Looking ahead to a new covenant
But here’s the situation in Jeremiah: the people of Israel have repeatedly broken their covenant with God. Jeremiah and the other OT prophets have warned the people time and time again, but despite a few attempts at renewal, they have continued in disobedience and idolatry, and so God has punished them by exiling them to the foreign nation of Babylon. Their house and fields were destroyed, along with Jerusalem; Solomon’s temple was plundered and destroyed; many were killed; and a large part of the population were taken away into captivity by the conquering Babylonian army. This was a journey of more than 600 miles: it would have taken at least 4 months. This was a defining moment in the history of the Jewish people.
In our passage from Jeremiah, the prophet is speaking to those exiles who have suffered the consequences of breaking their covenant with God, and looking ahead to a time when they will be restored to their land. But Jeremiah sees much more than just a return from exile.
Let me read again verses 31-33
- The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
God’s covenant written on their hearts, not on tablets of stone. God’s law within, not outside. An abiding relationship with God
The New Covenant
Here is good news: we are the inheritors of this new covenant. Through Jesus Christ and his death on the cross, we can be restored to a right relationship with God and live as his covenant people.
- As Jesus celebrated the last supper with the disciples, he took the cup after supper and said “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
- The book of Hebrews quotes from this same passage in Jeremiah as it talks about Jesus as the mediator of a new and better covenant.
- In fact, the name we give to the Christian Bible, the New Testament, is derived from this same word: it is our New Covenant with God.
- In this new covenant, the Holy Spirit is given to Christians to teach us what faithful living is, and to empower us to live faithful lives.
- We are covenant people, charged by God to live according to the word of his covenant with us.
2 Timothy 3:14–4:5
Turning now to our passage from 2nd Timothy, the apostle Paul is reminding his young protege Timothy about the role and the importance of Scripture, that which describes both the history of Israel, its many failures, and our new covenant with the Lord.
Paul wrote this letter from prison: he is imprisoned in Rome, probably for a second time, under emperor Nero. He mentions several people who have ministered with him in the past but have now deserted him.He is uncertain whether we will be released—indeed, church tradition holds that Paul was executed under Emperor Nero around 64 AD.
2nd Timothy then is a kind of last will and testament for Paul, a farewell letter, as he encourages Timothy, to stay true to the Gospel as he ministers to the church in Ephesus which Paul established a few years earlier.
Drawing out a few points:
- He reminds Timothy that we learn in community
- Learning is more than knowledge: it requires belief and conviction
- Focus on verses 16-17
- All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.
- “Proficient” here means equipped; qualified; competent; able to meet all demands.
I wonder if you’ve thought of your Christian walk as training. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love me, keep my commands.” He expects us as people of the covenant to do what he says.
This obedience isn’t automatic. Though the power to walk in obedience comes from the Holy Spirit, we must apply ourselves and train ourselves to live into our new covenant. That requires effort.
Even though we are saved by grace—to quote author and professor Dallas Willard—
- Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.
The Power of Habit
Several academics have written about how we form habits, both good and bad. We can apply the things they’ve learned in the social sciences to help us form habits of faithful responses to the circumstances we encounter.
The essential elements include
- a cue, or a trigger, that reminds us to perform a certain action.
- a routine action that we take in response to the cue
- a reward that benefits our brain and reinforces the habit
Over time, these operate in a loop that reinforces behaviors and makes them habitual. As we think about training in righteousness, we can look for cues in our lives, and then practice a righteous action in response.
Here are a few simple examples:
- When we have to forgive someone, trigger to recall being forgiven ourselves and express our gratitude to God
- Perhaps you notice a moment of envy toward someone else who has things you want: our cue to remember that God has promised to provide everything we need
This kind of habit formation starts with recognizing those moments—a thought; a hasty word; an regular tendency—where we can retrain a human response into a righteous one.
Luke 18:1–8
So as I round third and head for home — I promise that’s the last baseball metaphor — let’s turn our attention to Luke 18. Isn’t it remarkable that Jesus uses the illustration of an unjust judge to teach us about God? Maybe there are things we can learn from the injustices in our current political climate.
What we learn about God:
- He cares about us
- He listens to us
- He is concerned about justice, for us and for others
- We must respond both with persistence and with faith
There are many things for which we persist in prayer. But let one of them be, asking the Lord to identify in us the opportunities we have each day to grow in our faith, to live into our covenant with him. and to be trained by the Holy Spirit in righteousness. It is not easy work.It requires motivation, commitment, a dedication to learning and understanding the inspired scriptures, but let us persist in prayer that God will train us in righteousness as people of his covenant. Because he has given us his faithful promise: ”I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Amen.