This morning we have seen the power of covenant in action.
A covenant is a promise to God and to each other to act, and think, and dream, and be ourselves in certain ways in community.
In the covenant of baptism for infants, parents and godparents make promises on behalf of the children who are too young to make promises for themselves, until a time (usually in high school, or a confirmation class) that those young people have grown into an age of decision-making and they can affirm and choose to make the Christian covenant promises for themselves.
The baptism covenant includes the promises of living a life of Christian discipleship, following in the way of Jesus, working against the powers of oppression and evil, showing love and justice in all things, and witnessing to the word and work of Jesus.
It’s a beautiful tradition to take part in.
Here in Newman Church over many years and seasons of life I have seen Christian disciples made and lives changed. I’ve seen kind people who are smoothed in the spirit like stones made soft by the sea — people who commit themselves to living lives of devotion to causes and communities who transform the world for the better inspired by the love of Jesus — people who become spiritual guides and friends to the new people who walk through these doors looking for something new, and looking to begin a spiritual journey.
The tradition of Jesus, taking part in the Holy Spirit, with the help of God and each other — I feel lucky to be a part of it.
Why do we do this? What is the purpose of making covenants, like in baptism, and marriage, and church membership?
I’m always wary when the answers to my questions seem to come from my high school chemistry classes. I love biology and chemistry and physics, but have never mastered the finer points of any of them.
But perhaps the difference between the covenants of our faith, and the everyday promises that we make to each other is like the difference between covalent and ionic bonds.
When atoms have charges that are balanced by another atom them encounter, sometimes their electrons are shared.
If I’ve lost you in that sentence, have no fear — I’m with you. I’m going to bring us all back together in just a moment.
When atoms form ionic bonds, it means that one atom transfers an electron or electrons to another atom — they are bonded through the act of giving.
But in a covalent bond, two atoms find a comfortable balance by sharing the same electron or electrons — it becomes an active part of both atoms.
I think our faith covenants are like covalent bonds. If we can give an electron to God in the form of an intention about our own lives through baptism, or church membership, or other acts of discipleship, God will take part in this intention with us because we are bonded — through the promise we find a neutral balance with which to approach the world “with the help of God.” These words — “with the help of God” — make the covenant easier to carry. Through covenant, we take part in God; through covenant, we can do things that are otherwise impossible.
Since September here at the church we have been on a journey through the Bible — week-by-week in worship.
We started with the creation story in Genesis — with God jumping into action to establish a beautiful home for life to thrive in the vast expanse of space.
God later made a covenant with Abraham and Sarah that their descendants would become a people blessed by God — that through faith they could walk together. God was active through the covenant bond.
We saw that covenant passed on through the generations, through Rebekah and Isaac, and Jacob. The covenant was strong enough to send the descendants of Abraham into Egypt to avoid dying of a famine, and it was strong enough to draw them out of Egypt when the site of their salvation because a place of oppression. God was active through the covenant bond.
We saw how the covenant found expression when God called Moses and Miriam and gave them the confidence to act courageously. God was active through the covenant bond.
We saw the covenant tested when the descendants of Abraham were facing famine again during their travels in the wilderness. But God was active through the covenant bond.
And we saw the covenant change with the prophet Samuel and the shepherd boy David who defeated the behemoth Goliath. God was active through the covenant bond.
We have learned a lot about God’s covenant with humanity. Again and again, God is faithful to the covenants of God’s people — even if it’s not in the easiest or most efficient way, or the way we might hope.
We also see the covenant active in Jesus’s baptism in the Gospels too. From the waters of baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus is baptized by his cousin and a new covenant of is established between God and humanity through Jesus.
We ask the Holy Spirit to help connect us to Jesus’s baptism when we perform baptisms today — and through this connection we take part in Jesus’s new covenant again every time a baptism happens. All we have to do to find the right balance through this covalent bond is to live a life of discipleship. This is easier said than done — and it feels like no coincidence that Jesus goes from his own baptism into the wilderness for forty days — from water to wilderness — as if to prepare himself for the wonderful things that are about to begin.
A covenant is not a promise that we know how it ends, or that all will be well all the time. It’s a promise that no matter what comes, God and the community of Christ will be with you always.
As the baptism prayer says, the promise of the gospels is made not only to us but to our children — meaning the next generation, with whom we are tied in many ways. So for all the generations past, and all the generations to come, we are united through this covenant bond.
Thanks be to God. Amen.