The Family Business: Covenant and Kingdom

We’ve had such a lot of fun over the last four weeks digging deep into the story of Jonah. I’ve learnt so much – thanks Richard – and have loved all the word play and hyperlinks as we see the story of the Bible all connecting together in one small book.

This week we take a huge step back – and we’re going to explore two of the big themes that weave their way through scripture. Now that we’ve had Easter and Pentecost season out of the way we’re into ‘ordinary time’ – and so over the following few weeks we’re going to dig into the ordinary stuff of life – the day to day practices of how we follow Jesus. Things like [x] and [y] and [z].

But first, to set the scene, we’re going to take a bird’s eye look at two of the themes that run through the Bible. They are two strands that weave together, almost like a double helix or DNA of our relationship with God.

You might have heard them before, but it’s really good to remind ourselves of them because they help us see the whole arc of God’s story from the beginning of the Bible to the end and beyond into our story too. They are the themes of

Covenant and Kingdom

First up: covenant

What do we know of the word covenant?

Treaty

Promise (even a sacred promise)

Agreement

Two sides of a bargain – offering to one another – working to accomplish a goal together.

Partnership

What are some now?

Peace treaties; school agreements; marriage, job contracts.

In the Bible the idea of covenant is all about our identity in God. It reminds us that God wants us to be partners to help create a good world full of love, justice, family and peace. But we know that inside all of us even when we want to do our best we often screw up; which is why over and over in Scripture we see God intervening to try and renew that relationship – and he does this through covenant.

Covenant is an invitation into deep relationship – help us understand who we are in God. We can think about this through our favourite shape………the triangle!

[make a rope triangle].

At the top of our triangle is our Father God / Parent / Matua. From that relationship flows our identity. We hear right from the beginning of the Bible that we are made in the image of God; made to be in relationship with God.

We see this in the life of Jesus all the time. His identity comes from God the Father, and ours does too. We see this in our gospel scripture from today: Jesus receives his identity from God the Father – this is my Son in whom I am so pleased.

This is our reality too – there’s nothing we can do to earn the identity of child of God – it’s complete gift and grace. That going through the water is a symbol of the covenant relationship Jesus has with God; as is our baptism too.

Out of this identity we then have this life of obedience – out of the overflow of our identity is a heart’s desire to be obedient to God – even through we know we screw up again and again.

Jesus in baptism receives his that reminder of his covenant identity from God the Father and then in the story is obedient to the Spirit in heading out into the wilderness. In baptism too is the commitment that we make to say yes to God. We are saying to God “Yes, we acknowledge, we understand, we see that we are made by you.” We get that when we align our hearts to your heart, our lives fall into place. Our obedience, the acting out of our life, comes out of that relationship. “We love because God loves us first.”

Cf. 1 John 3 for us. “See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are!”

What we find in our broader culture often is we try to go the other way round – we forget that there’s nothing we need to do to earn God’s love – but we try to do things by works and striving – if I pray, read my Bible, serve – and then we are moving in the opposite direction, trying to form our identity in our own strength – ultimately exhausting ourselves.

Now for the second theme that weaves its way through the Bible: kingdom

In the deep intimacy of our covenant relationship we are also, amazingly, invited to partner in the Kingdom of God, in what the wayof God is – another way of thinking about it is that we are given Responsibility.

Again we can use our favourite shape to help us remember this….the triangle!

[can I have some helpers to make a second triangle please]

So at the top of our triangle we have our king / ruler / our Sovereign God / rangatira – and from that rule comes Authority– delegated or given by the King; a complete gift of grace.

From that authority, comes power to do the things God asks of us; to do the family business of partnering with God to bring God’s love, shalom/peace, restoration.

In our first reading from Exodus we meet the Israelites at the bottom of Mt Sinai. They’re about to receive the 10 Commandments but God has something to remind them about first. First up, he reminds the of the Covenant he’s made with them to be their God and to make them into a great nation – one he first gave to Abraham (cf. Gen 12.1-3).

(in red: covenant) “Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.”

And then God reminds them of their special authority: which will point all people towards restored relationship with God: in blue: 6 you[a] will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

And in obedience we see the Israelites responding: in white: 8 The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” [put the whole text up and highlight the relevant bits]

In the life of Jesus we can see his knowledge of his kingdom responsibility the authority he’s been given: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me”. “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me”. And we see is also not just in his knowledge, but in the works he does in the power of the Spirit: power to heal and bring restoration. We see this even in the flow of today’s reading – that after his baptism and temptation in the wilderness Jesus returns full of power. The flow is round the right way.

But like with the covenant triangle there’s the spiritual pitfall of being tempted to go the other way round – to use signs of power to demonstrate our authority; as if we have to prove to others that we are spiritual people through what we do.

When we think the wrong way round we are more inclined to see following the King as a life of spiritual drudgery and servitude. Instead by being part of the Kingdom Business we’re reminded that we are uniquely made and gifted, given passions and hopes and dreams and these are the Kingdom adventures God calls us to fulfil in the name of Jesus. We become more fully ourselves, not less.

So as we go forward into ‘ordinary’ time and as we hit the next few weeks with our focus on spiritual practices, I hope you will remember our covenant and kingdom triangles:

Covenant: We are part of the Family of God

Kingdom: We are asked to partner with God in the Family Business of love, peace, adventures and general awesomeness.

When you read your Bibles – even if you do this with your family over the next few weeks – we can you see God’s covenant relationship? Where can you see the idea of kingdom responsibility.