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A living covenant

Deuteronomy 26.1-11
A living covenant
In Jewish worship God’s covenant with Israel  is never a dry as dust historical event from way back when, it’s a living reality, remembered and celebrated in the blessing at the end of every meal and in every act of worship. It’s a promise for the here and now. Every Jewish person is instructed to behave as if they had been there on Mount Sinai when the covenant was given, and to recite the story of how the covenant promise came about and was fulfilled. It is to be ingrained in the whole of life.

This tradition continues in the Eucharist. In the blessing after the meal we invokethe new covenant sealed by Jesus’ blood, shed on the Cross, and make it just as real for us as the old covenant is for Jewish people. The Cross is not just another event in ancient history. It’s not even just the defining event of human history, the turning point which forever reshaped the future relationship between humankind and God; it is both of those things, of course, but it is also far more, and once more the whole of salvation’s history is recited or remembered by the worshippers as we repeat the Prayer of Thanksgiving. 

Here and now God’s grace, revealed in Jesus, becomes real, and effective and filled with potential . It changes things between us and God because it’s as if we ourselves were there at those first Easter events, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the resurrection appearances of Jesus.

‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ The answer to the question is ‘Yes, it’s as if indeed we were actually there.’ The past is brought into the present for us whenever we share in the Eucharist feast.

At the end of the offering of the harvest in Deuteronomy the worshippers were commanded to go out and share their faith and put it into action. They were to sit down with the Levites, who were dependent on their charity, and the aliens - those living on the margins of society who had nothing of their own to share - and to invite them to be their guests at the table of the Lord’s bounty. The same injunction applies to us to bring our faith to life every day. 

Fred Kaan put it like this:
'Now let us from this table rise,
renewed in body, mind and soul,  
with Christ we die and rise again,
his selfless love has made us whole.  
To fill each human house with love, 
it is the sacrament of care;
the work which Christ began to do, 
we humbly pledge ourselves to share.’

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