October 9, 2011, The Rev. Ann Gillespie, You Make the Difference

Last week we heard the 10 commandments being transmitted to Moses on the top of Mt. Sinai. This was the establishment of the law of God and was given as a covenant with the Israelites. If the people follow God’s commandments, God will love them forever. Well, it doesn’t take long for Israel to break the covenant. Today we hear that while Moses is up there carving commandments into rock tablets, the people urge his brother, Aaron, to create a new god, one who won’t lead them into the wilderness, one on whom they can look and not die. They give Aaron their gold jewelry. He melts it down and he makes an idol for them, a golden calf to worship. So already a commandment has been broken: You shall not make for yourself any idols.

God is so angry he threatens to destroy all of them and start over making a new people from Moses. Moses talks God out of his desire for revenge by reminding God of the covenant that God made with all the ancestors, with Abraham and Isaac. 

It is the covenant that the people break and yet it is the covenant that stops God from destroying the stiff-necked people of Israel. Periodically in the Old Testament, God is on the edge of destroying Israel, but it is always the covenant that binds this people to this God that actually saves them. Let’s talk for a moment about covenant.

A covenant is different than a contract. A contract is designed to protect two parties from one another in their dealings. In a covenant, two parties, each respecting the dignity and integrity of the other, come together in a bond of love and trust, to share their interests, sometimes even to share their lives, by pledging their faithfulness to one another, to do together what neither can achieve alone.

Covenant is a kind of holy relationship, forged in faith, that transforms and makes more of those who participate. That is what God was doing in establishing the 10 commandments. Both God and the people of Israel can do more together than they can do alone. God will love us forever, but our part of the covenant is that we are expected to live lives of righteousness.

In the Gospel passage today we hear a similar message. When God throws a party, everyone, good and bad, is invited, but something is asked of the guests. Just showing up is in not enough, we need to live righteous lives and clothe ourselves with Christ. There is an expectation placed upon us, as followers of Christ, to use all that we have and all that we are to bring about the kingdom of God. Even if we fail, (or when we fail) we will still be loved, but we are asked by God to make a difference in the world.

As a faith community, we are bound together in a covenant also. We all share a kind of holy relationship, forged in faith, that transforms and makes more of those who participate. We have entered our stewardship month and there is an expectation on each of us. We, too, are expected to make a difference in the world by clothing ourselves with Christ.