12^th February 2013

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Covenant Sunday 3 February 2013

Lessons - Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30

In 1755 John Wesley first held a service 'for those who would enter into or renew their covenant with God'. Since then the Covenant Service has been a regular part of Methodist and Uniting Church worship.

The service focuses our thoughts on our vocation as servants of Jesus Christ in whom God's gracious promises to Israel have been fulfilled wonderfully and decisively. It is a time to be reminded of our calling as the 'people of God', to be renewed in gratitude for God's self-giving grace, and to let ourselves be reshaped as a community of faith, hope and love 'chosen' to share Christ's ministry and mission with all nations.

Belonging to such a 'covenant community' is not the same as belonging to a religious club that is devoted to upholding middle class or upper class or working class values. It does not exist to give comfort to the timid. The readings speak of being called to exercise a 'unique prophetic and often costly vocation' in and for the sake of the world.

Talk of a 'unique prophetic vocation' can sound very arrogant and exclusive - the language of pompous people who think of themselves, in contrast with the rest of humanity, as 'the chosen people'. This, emphatically, is not what is meant! Being 'chosen' to be members of this covenant community means being humbled, astonished, overwhelmed and terrified by an awesome responsibility for which we did not volunteer and for which we are ill-equipped. It is a very strange privilege indeed!

Rabbi Abraham Heschel describes the covenantal vocation - much of which is shared by Christians and Jews - as one that engages the community of faith, hope and love in 'a ceaseless shattering of indifference'. The prophetic community 'alienates the wicked as well as the pious, cynics and believers, priests and princes, people and false prophets'. A true prophet 'scuttles illusions of false security', empathises with the suffering of God and the nations, and demands personal and social change. (See Introduction and Chapter 6 of Abraham J Heschel, The Prophets 1962).

Is this what you and I think we are called to be and to do? Such a task flies in the face of our natural desire to be comfortable and well thought of in the community. It is unnerving, and certainly not a life-style we can choose for ourselves, as we might choose a career, sport or club.

As the case of Jeremiah shows, it is an inescapable 'calling'. 'I knew you and consecrated you and appointed you to be a prophet to the nations before I formed you in the womb.' (Jeremiah 1:4.) No wonder Jeremiah is
alarmed: 'Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak . . .(1:6)'

Being nervous about speaking publicly about unpleasantries is, however, no excuse for silence. The Word of God must be heard! About 600BC Jeremiah ran foul of politicians, priests and the populace for criticizing self- indulgent worship and unjust and immoral behaviour and for predicting defeat of the 'chosen people' by infidel foreign armies. 'Pro-choice libertarians' (who ignored the commandments and did their own thing) and 'conservative nationalists' (who were committed to God and country) were not amused. The faith, security and enjoyment of a community must not be undermined by such 'negative sentiment'!

Jesus also earned the ire of members of the covenant community who, without realising, had become complacent about being 'chosen'. Their initial praise of his wisdom quickly turns to scepticism and hostility when he tells his fellow Jews that he is the One chosen to fulfil God's gracious promises to Israel. He enrages them by implying that, if they refuse to see in him the very presence of God's love for all nations, they will miss out on the privilege of grace. In order to get them to see the scope of God's grace in his ministry, Jesus reminds them of two well-known stories in the book of Kings. The first tells how, during a famine in Israel, the prophet Elijah gave food and drink to a non-Israelite 'widow of Zarephath in Sidon'. The second tells how the prophet Elisha (against the orders of King Jehoram) cured Naaman - a commanding officer in the Syrian army which has just defeated Israel - of leprosy.

Generosity to outsiders was not the problem - the 'chosen people' were encouraged to be charitable. The shocking thing in these cases is that the prophets chose to heal 'outsiders' - including a military enemy - instead of Jewish widows and lepers. Jesus shows that being 'chosen' does not mean having a stranglehold on God's grace. He shatters their indifference to those who were 'outside' the covenant community - and therefore to himself.

Paul, too, speaks of the prophetic vocation of the covenant community, but as it applies to relationships between members. Contrary to popular opinion, his famous 'hymn of love' is not a comforting description of what comes naturally. It is a sharp response to destructive behaviour among the 'People of God', the Body of Christ, in Corinth. In particular, he is distressed by people who use their 'prophetic powers' to lord it over other members. The Church's prophetic vocation does not include bickering, arrogance and lovelessness! Indifference to others is exposed and the calling to bear witness to God's grace for all in Christ is reaffirmed.

Speaking the truth unflinchingly must be accompanied by deep empathy for those who ignore God's word. Jeremiah grieves over the self-serving religion, immoral behaviour and complacent politics of 'chosen people' who choose to ignore God's claims. Jesus grieves over the arrogance and short- sightedness of townsfolk who choose to disbelieve his claim to be the chosen prophet of God. He dies forgiving a criminal and praying for those 'who know not what they do'. Paul grieves over prophets at Corinth who choose to ignore the claims of the one in whom God chose to embody his grace.

The Church today is faced with tremendous challenges. As often before in history, there now is a deep antagonism to belief in Christ as 'the chosen one of God', who fulfils the promises made to 'the chosen people' and calls the Church to be 'the people of God'. Most people, in the community at large and in the covenant community, insist on choosing their own values and beliefs rather than opening themselves to the somewhat alarming possibility of being chosen by grace!

The social effects of preferring 'individual and group choice' to being chosen by grace are increasingly evident in widespread contempt for our
(God-given) human dignity and the absence of respect and restraint in our
relationships:

* The 'right to die' and 'abortion rights' now trump the 'right to life'.

* The right to instant (sexual) pleasure now trumps the privilege of 'glorifying God and enjoying him forever'.

* The right to freely practise Christianity and live out faith-based ethics is now trumped by the right not to be offended.

* The Christian affirmation - that in Christ, God's gracious self- revelation to all nations has been embodied uniquely - is increasingly being muzzled by advocates of 'unfettered choice' in matters of faith, belief and behaviour.

* In the Church the right to believe whatever we choose to believe often trumps belief in the Chosen One.

It is essential, therefore, that on this Covenant Sunday we remember why we 'come to church'. We are gathered together to exercise a prophetic vocation as the 'people of God' who, with the prophets chosen from among the chosen people of Israel, are humbled, astonished and terrified at being called to a responsibility for which we are equipped by grace alone.

In our time, we have been 'chosen' to resist the destructive ideology of 'choice' that ignores and despises God's claim on us all - as it has been enfleshed uniquely in Christ.

Instead of the self-chosen beliefs and practices that are so fiercely promoted in the general community and in many parts of the covenant community, our prophetic vocation compels us to 'shatter indifference to the Word of grace' which has been revealed to the world through the 'chosen people' and fulfilled in Christ, the Chosen One of God.

Living out this vocation calls for courage to resist evil, sympathy for those who suffer evil, and heartfelt grief over the consequences, for victims and wrong-doers alike, of allowing unfettered choice to be the dominant faith of our time. To turn away from our 'prophetic vocation' - and treat the church as a suburban religious club that caters for the diverse beliefs, life-styles and interests of members - is to settle for something far less than the fullness of God's grace-filled love supremely embodied in the incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended Christ. To 'enter into or renew our covenant with God' and to share in the 'new covenant of the body and blood of Christ' (the Lord's Supper) is to be upheld by grace. God's grace unsettles our comfortable lives and enables us to be engaged in 'a ceaseless shattering of indifference' to the magnificence of grace. So may we be a covenant community: a people chosen to celebrate the privilege of grace, to encourage one another to stand for what is right, and to treat one another as beneficiaries of grace.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.