Covenant

Genesis 9:1-17

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life. 
Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
   by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
   God made humankind. 
And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’

 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

Language of covenant isn’t something we use often anymore.  We think about it perhaps at weddings.  In it’s most simplified definition it is simply a binding contract.  But where God is concerned, there is nothing simple about covenant.  Instead, it is a way for God to reach out us in relationship – and to do so graciously and even when most of the time we don’t deserve it.  Through covenant, God builds a bond with us and ties us to God’s self despite all of the ways we fail to meet our end of the terms.

Here with Noah, God lays out the terms of the covenant in language that takes us back to the first attempt at relationship in Genesis: with Adam and Eve.  Again God wants humans to be fruitful and multiply, but now, after sin has been introduced into the world, God is very clear and more descriptive in the terms (beyond simply “do not eat of that tree over there!”).

The language of divine covenant is that of “command” and “promise.”  God commands, but tempers that command with a gracious promise.  God sets the law, but offers the good news (or gospel) of a promise.  Over and over again the Hebrew scriptures God graciously offers terms of covenant – to Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and to his people Israel.  God is always reminding them and us that “You will be my people and I will be your God.”

Over and over, God’s people fail to meet God’s terms, and so as it is the season of advent we wait to see that God will ultimately even fulfill both sides of the covenant.  We wait for that baby to be born who will be the new covenant, the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of God.

God of promise, you provide for us and love us and forgive us over and over.  We thank you for your guiding hand.  Guide us this day to obey and to live into the promise of the new creation you have given us through our baptisms. Amen