Our Lenten Journey... Keeping covenant

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I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh.  
~ Genesis 9:16

In today's climate, where we talk about laws being broken and contracts being renegotiated, long before all of this there was a sacred agreement called, "Covenant."

God is not in the business of creating contracts with humanity.  When God makes a covenant with us, God says: "I will love you with an everlasting love. I will be faithful to you, even when you run away from me, reject me, or betray me." 

In the last few years, when I talk to a couple seeking to get married, I no longer focus on the marriage license purchased at the County Clerk's office, simply because if I talk about marriage as a contract, then I am basically telling the couple that when they enter into the contract of marriage; I am affirming that this marriage will remain as long as the parties involved will remain in contract as long as each person is fulfilling their part.  When you don't live up to your end of the bargain, then I no longer have to live up to mine.

Contracts are often broken because the partners are unwilling to remain faithful to the terms of the of the contract.

Instead, I talk to the couple about covenant.  A covenant is a faithful promise to one another, sanctified and holy, with God as part of the agreement.  

God does not make contracts with humanity.  God has created a covenant with us, and I believe that God wants our relationships with one another be reflective of just that.

Marriage, as well as friendships, our life in community, and our relationships with one another should reflect the language of entering into a covenant with one another.  The covenants that we create are the visible presence of God's faithfulness in our lives with one another.

Each day the covenants that God have created remain true.  Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2017 

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May our lives be reflective of the covenant that God has made with each of us; to never leave or abandon us, even unto the ends of the earth.  Amen.

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