February 28: Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
Today’s readings are all about covenant – the covenant between God and God’s people. In Genesis we find God promising Abram, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” The promise of land must have seemed extraordinary indeed to nomads like Abram and his people, people used to wandering with no place to call their own.
Psalm 27 continues upon this theme of covenant when the psalmist says, “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid? ” Here the psalmist proclaims the belief that with God on one’s side, there is nothing to be afraid of. According to the psalmist, we can fully and whole-heartedly rely on the God who loves us.
In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the theme of covenant is eloquently expanded upon when Paul entreats the Philippians to live as one transformed by the body of Christ. Paul speaks as one who knows that he can do nothing without the God who made him, who loves him and redeems him. Also Paul notes the ill effects we suffer when we do not live in right relationship with Christ. What better example of covenant could there be?
Finally in Luke, Jesus laments Jerusalem’s tendencies to live in defiance of her covenant with God. Jesus calls Jerusalem, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Jesus describes his love for the city of Jerusalem as that of a mother hen for her chicks. In Jesus’ portrayal of the nurturing, maternal role he wishes to have with the people of Jerusalem, he gives yet another example of God’s covenant with us.
To help me better understand this notion of covenant, I took a look at a commentary written by Herman Ridderbos on its meaning. What I understood by Ridderbos’ interpretation of covenant is that through God’s covenant with God’s people, God extends to us humans nothing less than the gift of Godself to us, a gift that we cannot in any way repay. Free and completely unconditional love.
No wonder Jesus laments Jerusalem’s inability to recognize this gift! Does God, too, mourn our all-too frequent refusal to see the gift that has been laid before us, the gift of God’s love to us?
Maybe this is what Lent can be for us, a time to open our eyes to the depth and breadth of God’s love for us, a time to allow the scales to drop from our eyes. We need to begin looking for the multiple and infinite ways God attempts to communicate Godself to us. Wherever there is love, there is God. Wherever there is peace, and joy, and hope, there is God.
But oftentimes we need help in order to see God’s gifts to us. We humans often do not possess the vision we need to see clearly all that God wishes to bestow upon us. Here again, we must ask for grace. We need a gift from God in order to see our gifts from God.
And God is sure to comply. When we come to God sincerely, humbly and with love to ask for the gift of new eyes in order to see all that God longs to give us, God in God’s infinite love and wisdom will surely respond. After all, God is a God of covenant, a covenant God shows to us over and over again through scripture, in the words from Genesis, in the words of the Psalms, in Paul’s words to his followers, and finally in the words of Luke and the other gospel writers.
We are gifted indeed.