THE COVENANT IS LIFE!

As we anticipate our new study in small groups on Genesis, I could not in my own initial reading get past the title of our study booklet. It has the subtitle: The Covenant Comes to Life. As I got to reflecting and thinking about this I realized we needed to go even more basic than that.

Instead of the covenant coming to life, the covenant IS life! In his commentary on Genesis, the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann boils this first Bible book down to the following sentence:

“Creator creates creation.”

After this initial action, then the next simple sentence in my mind would be:

“Creator creates covenant.”

We find that God establishes a covenant relationship with the material creation. This covenant is the source of life. Life as we know it flows from the being of God. Without God there could be no life. Without God there could be no covenant.

The covenant is life. This is precisely why our covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ is so vital and important.
God initiated this covenant relationship, and made it all possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is why our life in Christ makes a difference.

Living the covenant-centered life in Jesus every day transforms how we view everything. It stands in awe of the Creator who has the power to initiate all of this to start with. May we all realize how much we owe our very lives to the Creator of creation and covenant!

In Christian love, Curtis

FOLLOWING JESUS BACKWARDS

While reading John’s gospel one comes across this sad comment:

“From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him”(John 6:66).

“Turned back” is literally the phrase, “they went away to the things that were behind,” or as we would say, “they went back.”

This is the opposite of following Jesus forward—this is following Jesus backwards. What would cause Jesus’ followers to leave him and go back where they came from?

Jesus had been giving his disciples some “hard sayings.” They could not fathom the depth of their meaning, and what they did understand seemed to run counter to their expectations of Jesus claiming to be Messiah.

He confronted some of his followers by going straight for the jugular vein: “But there are some of you that do not believe”(John 6:64). It is hard for us to fathom that people actually followed Jesus day by day but still did not believe!

But this narrative in John raises for us a stark question:

Am I following Jesus forwards or backwards?

This had to be a hard day for Jesus. But this is the risk that love and freedom takes. He mentored for them day after day what the kingdom of God was all about. They had their ideas. When those disciples walked away, Jesus turned to the twelve and asked them, “Do you wish to go?”

It is hard to pour your life into someone—praying, caring, supporting and guiding them in the ways of Jesus—and then watch them just walk away. For me, as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, my heart is heavy for those I know who have chosen to walk away.

May God give us the grace and gentleness toward those who choose to follow Jesus backwards!

In Christian love, Curtis

John, the Apostle of Love

Are there any indications in his gospel about Jesus or his letters that bear his name, in which John the apostle learned sacrificial love as a servant?

I am reminded of a tender scene in which Jesus, with his dying breath, said to John…

John 19:27—And to me he said, “She is your mother!” And from then on I took her into my home.”

From then on, I took her into my home. Oh…how I wish that John’s gospel ended with a chapter on how John cared for this adopted mother. I suspect that at least the next three days before Jesus arose from the dead that he wiped many a tear from her cheek. He provided a place for her to grieve the loss of her son. He provided a safe place for her to express the depth of her despondent heart. He provided a safe haven for her heart broken with despair.

John models love for us and then tells us about it later in his first letter toward the end of the New Testament. John is very old by this time. He has seen a lot of Christians make sacrifices for others because of their love. He says…

1 John 3:18—stop saying we love people, and show it by our actions!

Show it by our actions. This is sacrificial love of a servant. Parents know this well. Staying up all night with a feverish child. Staying up all night with a child who has croup. Taking off work and driving your child to the doctor because they have broken an arm. The list is as endless as the love is deep! The love of parents just naturally includes sacrifices.

Wouldn’t it be a wonderful and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if we could sit at John’s feet and ask him about sacrificial love. I wonder what he would share?

Would he talk about Jesus’ becoming human? What a sacrifice!

Would he talk about the 12 disciples leaving jobs, family and livehood just to follow in the steps of Jesus? What a sacrifice!

Would he talk about Jesus’ spending time with the Samaritan woman at the well? What a sacrifice!

Would he talk about that embarrassing and silent experience of Jesus washing his feet in the upper room? What a sacrifice!

Would he talk about Jesus’ lonely and anguished walk to Golgatha carrying his own cross? What a sacrifice!

What actions of sacrificial love will define our day today? Are all our attempts at service motivated by this selfless love? A few years ago I experienced a silent retreat at Colombiere Retreat Center in Oakland County, Michigan. One afternoon I was in the hallway of the retreat center and saw this spiritual dictum in mosaic form on the wall:

"In the spiritual life...progress will be in proportion to...

surrender of self-love

and of self-will

and of self-interests."

No wonder my attempts at loving service fall so short! God, have mercy on me!

In Christian love, Curtis