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“Covenantal Life”
Sermon by Rev. Peter Dennebaum, FCC Chappaqua – March 1, 2009
God’s peace with you!
The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals
that God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, "Did God tell you not
to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?" The woman answered, "God said we
could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except the one in the middle. He
told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will
die."
We know how the story ended: The woman wanted the wisdom
that the fruit would give her. She picked the fruit, she shared it with Adam,
and they realized that they were naked. When God discovered their disobedience
he predicted the future of human man kind with the words:
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return."
Last Wednesday Lent started with Ash Wednesday; and who
ever got an Ash cross on the forehead heard this quote from Gen 3, verse 19:
“For you are dust and to dust your shall return.”
This sentence is used at funerals and sets the tone for the
40 days of Lent. Until Eastern we get reminded that we are human beings and not
God. We are admonished to be humble. This is the reason why many people chose to
abstain from something during Lent. But the six Lent Sundays are not counted
into the 40 days - as Sundays in general are for us Easter celebrations. So if
you abstain from meat during Lent – on its 6 Sundays you can eat so many steaks
and burgers as u want. J
The forty days represent the time
Jesus spent in
the desert where according to the
Bible he
endured temptation
by
Satan. I don’t
know where YOU assume this desert story happens in the second testament, but it
is NOT at the end of the gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the desert story
all immediately in the beginning after Jesus baptism. For Jesus the 40 days were
like a retreat and with these 40 days Jesus started his faith journey. And like
all faith journeys faith gets proved and tempted. Satan tempted Jesus as Satan
still tempts us today: with self-empowerment and the call to take over Gods
position.
And here you can see how smart Hebrew Bible and New
Testament go hand in hand. The snake in Genesis was still successful: Adam and
Eve got tempted and became mortal through their weakness. Jesus got tempted,
but resisted. He was therefore free for an own life. It didn’t avoid suffering
and death. But it allowed him self-respect. He was able to look until his end
into the mirror without getting ashamed. He had refused to become corrupted; he
didn’t accept bonuses he didn’t deserve. Jesus faith trusted Gods covenantal
promise and succeeded so over death.
How much Eve and Adam would have given afterwards, to get
their self-respect back? If they would have trusted Gods covenantal promise we
wouldn’t need Ash crosses and dust-to-dust exhortations.
But how MUCH, we need these ash crosses and how WRONG it is
to leave the markets by themselves we see in these days, where investment
bankers get bonuses as gratification for burning our all savings, for which we
all worked hard and with which we thought, we would have secured our retirement.
I still remember how I experienced in my former banker life the investment
banker department chairs I dealt with: Always the nose pretty much in the air
and explaining the rest of the world, why we all are stupid and only they the
new messiahs.
I mean: I don’t know if you are used to deal with stocks
already your whole life and if you are used to play with your retirement savings
like playing monopoly. In Germany many people usually still put their retirement
money more into pretty conservative retirement insurance plans or borrow the
state money. For the last mentioned papers you might get only 4% interest and
therefore by far not as much as many stock plans promise. We all are tempted by
the profit promises from banks and financial institutes. And don’t think that I
am somehow different: Where do u think I look to, when I get from the Pension
Board my retirement statements: Do you think I look to the left column, where it
says “This would be your monthly pension, if the market grows in average 2%” –
or do un think I look to the far right column, where it says “This would be your
monthly pension, if the market grows in average 8%”? Folks, it is the greed,
which tempts us. Satan had in the desert nothing else to offer than this greed;
Satan was waving with big profits from big share packages…
I personally have nothing to say against people who want to
take the risk. I believe in free choice. And I think I can proof this freedom
with the spirit of freedom in the Second Testament.
But I have something against 2 things:
…When people start to complain in bad times, after
they made their profits in good times. To these people I say: You took in good
times the advantage of the system, now stop complaining and carry the
disadvantage. Be consequent and don’t bother me now with lamenting!
…But really concerned I am about the people, who
never DID a choice … because they never HAD a choice. I know people in this
congregation, who lost a good portion of their retirement savings, because they
got told that investing in shares would be the only right thing to do and never
got taught or offered alternatives.
This week I got an email from the director of my former
Seminary and Prof of Theology, Prof. Dr. Peter Scherle, who wrote me: „Meanwhile
more and more people recall here old European values like 'solidarity’ and the
idea of a “social market system”, which allows the state to set the rules and
boundaries for the markets. The belief –and I use consciously instead of the
term „trust“ the religious term „belief“ – so: The belief in the alchemy of the
financial markets has been seriously affected. The old alchemists had tried to
make gold out of other material – the new alchemists tried obviously to create
out of nothing.” So far the quote…
I am pretty sure that there will be always people, who will
worship the golden calf. But the high priests of the golden calf have lost all
integrity by buying with money out of the economy stimulus package new company
jets or by cashing out or ACCEPTING big bonuses for losses. The game
“socializing the deficits” and “privatizing the profits” is indécent and
has to be slashed from each pulpit and each single Christian. Where a bonus
system, there must be also a malus system. Everything else is not fair and
should be clearly understood especially by the ones, who usually can proclaim so
loud the market. I am happy that it is the UCC-child Barak Obama, who has now
the courage to speak out, to name the powers of selfishness and to set
boundaries. I just would have wished that others would have had the courage
already before instead of just waiting that Obama does this job now for us all.
It is interesting that the sermon text for the Lent-start
today is about the covenant God has promised us. What has Gods covenant with us
to do with a preparation of the faith journey in the desert or in Chappaqua? And
what has this covenant to do with our pension system, our economy or our social
system inclusive healthcare, employee’s protection against dismissal or
maternity protection?
A covenant only can be formed between equal partners. A
covenant is NOT a contract between a powerful company and a weak single
employee, a covenant is NOT top-down, but between equal partners.
The congregational system is built on this covenantal idea:
The General Synod for example, which will hopefully elect end of June in Grand
Rapids our wonderful Geoffrey Black as new national UCC president, can never
decide for us as congregation. But the General Synod can advise our
congregation. And we are called to consider the Synods suggestions or votes
faithfully. The same is between u and me: When u called me in, u didn’t offer me
a contract. U asked me to sign a covenant.
Characteristic for a covenant is trust, is love, and if
love is not possible so then respect as minimum. A covenantal relationship has
always also the other person in mind. A covenantal relationship defines the own
need in relationship to the need of the other. A covenantal relationship tries
always to avoid injustice and to achieve a common sense with the other person
about what justice is. In a covenantal relationship no one can get lost.
If you take your bulletin and see the cover picture, you
see this group of people. Two are shaking hands. It seems to be that they just
get introduced to each other. They are open for each other and friendly, but you
also see a distance. And this distance is absolute not aggravating, it is
absolute ok. I imagine the two darker drawn persons on the right as a couple,
the two on the left side just as friends.
U see: A covenantal relationship does not mean that we have
to marry everybody. A covenantal relationship allows a lot of freedom and a
diversity of types of relationships – from close to distanced – but never
insensible for the destiny of any other creature.
Being in covenant with God and being so accepted by God as
equal partners, we have for example no right to ruin this earth. The ignorance
of the former administration according to our self produced environmental
problems is still embarrassing and I personally have no idea how u can go Sunday
for Sunday to church and then make such a creation damaging policy.
Gods covenantal relationship with us does not allow us to
leave this country to others. God’s covenantal relationship with us does not
allow staying isolated as congregation in Chappaqua. God’s covenantal
relationship calls us to form a wider church, so that our voice can be heard.
Our 150 families in our congregation are good, but honestly: Who listens to 150
families? Only together with our 1.2 Million UCC sisters and brothers nationwide
we even have a chance to get heard and to change therewith something. Obama
cannot do everything by himself. Our 150 families are an important stone in the
building of the wider church. But we must allow the wider church to build us
into the common Sanctuary – so that our common steeple can become a torch for
justice in our society.
Come to the New York Conference Annual Meeting at the YMCA
Camp in Silver Bay June 5 to 7!
Come to the General Synod in Rapid City, Michigan, June 26
to 30!
We have to meet the obligation, which results out of Gods
covenant with us:
Build together with many others the church, which can
answer the essential challenges of our time.
So let me close with the words of the hymn we sang in the
beginning of our service. THIS is God’s covenant with each of you. And this is
the reason, why we don’t need to be afraid at all, be it in life or be it in
death:
“I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when u r old. In the middle
ages of your life, not to old, no longer young, I will be there to guide you
through the night, complete what I’ve begun. When the evening gently closes in
and you shut your weary eyes, I will be there as I have always been – with just
one more surprise.”
Amen
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