Our Covenant Foundation

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My name is Wes Selke and this is my daughter Nora.

I'm an elder here at Christ Church and we're part of the Oakland community.

Today's scripture reading is from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 29 verses 1 to 6, 9 to 19, and 29 as printed in the liturgy.

Deuteronomy 29:1–6

These are the terms of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab

in addition to the covenant that he had made with them in Hora.

Moses summoned all the Israelites and said to them,

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land.

With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great wonders.

But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands, or eyes that see, or ears that hear.

Yet the Lord says,

It says,

You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God,

A covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath to confirm you this day as his people,

That he may be your God as he promised.

As he promised you and as he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I am making this covenant with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God,

but also with those who are not here today.

You yourselves know how he lived in Egypt and how he passed through the countries on the way here.

You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose hearts turn away from the Lord our God

and go and worship the gods of those nations.

Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

When such a person hears the words of the oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves,

thinking, I will be safe even though I persist in going in my own way,

they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever,

that we may follow all the words of this law.

The grass withers and the flowers fade.

The Lord our God stands forever.

Good morning, Christ Church.

If you're new with us, my name is Jonathan.

I'm one of the pastors here.

It's a delight to have you with us.

The question I'm asking myself a lot these days is,

where are we right now?

As we look at our own lives as individuals, as families, as a congregation,

where are we right now?

As we look at our city, our nation, our society, where are we?

It's an important question.

It reminds me of the story of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

They decided to go on a camping trip.

And after dinner, they enjoyed a bottle of wine.

And then they laid down for the night.

They went to sleep.

And some hours later, Holmes awoke.

And he nudged his faithful friend and he said,

Watson, look up at the sky.

And tell me what you see.

And Watson said, I see millions of stars.

And Holmes asked, well, what does that tell you?

And Watson pondered a minute.

He said, astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies

and potentially billions of planets.

Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo.

Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three.

Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant.

Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow.

What does it tell you, Holmes?

And Holmes was silent for a minute and then he spoke,

Watson, you idiot.

Someone has stolen our tent.

What do you see?

You know, you're probably going to get a different answer based on who it is

and their varying understandings and perspectives of things.

What do you see?

What do you make of all this?

Where are we right now?

You know, what I see is that we're coming out of 18 months of a ridiculously disruptive pandemic.

Amen?

12 of those months, we were in total lockdown.

The past six months, we've been reopening everything, including Christchurch.

We've been looking around for six months going, okay, who's even here?

What do we have to work with?

What are we doing now?

And I'm asking my question as a pastor, what are we going to do in the next six months?

Where are we headed?

And I hope that you'll come join us next Sunday for our congregational meeting

to get more insight into where we're going.

But what I can see over the next six months is a renewing of Christchurch.

A renewing of Christchurch.

And I think there's a quantitative renewal of relationships that has to happen.

All these connections to be formed among people that are regular, people who are new,

people who just don't know one another very well.

How do we make weak ties into strong ties relationally and quantitatively?

But I think that's actually the easier part.

The harder part about renewing Christchurch is this qualitative building up of our life with God.

And I'm so grateful today for Deuteronomy 29 because that's the theme.

If you were to open your pew Bibles in front of you, you would see at the top of this chapter,

the heading says, Renewal of the Covenant.

Renewal of the Covenant.

Another word for renewal is revival.

Revival of the Covenant.

A revival is a season where the ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit are greatly intensified

to renew our spiritual vitality.

And so I want to think together for a minute about the dynamics of covenant renewal,

the dynamics of spiritual revival.

And what I want to say this morning is that covenant renewal is relational, personal, and sacrificial.

Covenant renewal is relational, personal, and sacrificial.

I'm going to start with covenant renewal being relational.

Have you ever had an experience in your life where something was easy to start but hard to sustain?

Anybody experienced this?

Maybe you started a company.

Maybe you started a marriage.

Maybe you started a church.

Maybe you started a family and had some kids.

And yeah, there were challenges in that launching phase,

but you had passion, you had energy, you had sheer grit to kind of get you through those early stages.

But, you know, you get 10 years in, 20 years in, 40 years in, you start facing complexities.

You start facing challenges that you just could never anticipate.

And so businesses find it helpful to refresh their vision and their values.

Couples find it helpful to renew their vows of marriage.

Churches find it helpful to reaffirm their beliefs and their practices.

And that's really the situation here with the people of God.

It's been 40 years since they experienced the liberating power of God in being rescued from Egypt.

It's been 40 years since they were at Horeb or Mount Sinai and experienced God's covenant love.

It's been 40 years since they received the Ten Commandments and the Torah.

And 40 years is a long time.

I'm 43 years old.

And a lot has happened in that span of time.

A lot can happen in 40 years.

And here the people of God are on the plains of Moab, on the edge of the promised land.

And they're being invited and indeed challenged to renew their covenant with the living God.

And what we see here is that that covenant relationship is vertical.

The covenant is a vertical relationship with the Lord.

Look at verse 2.

It says,

Your eyes have seen all that the Lord did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land.

With your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs, and great wonders.

When you were experiencing an oppressive bondage, you then experienced me as your liberating God.

That's what it says.

And this tells us that the gospel is not merely a good idea.

The gospel is good news.

The gospel is news about historical givens, about the wonderful works of God, about the mighty acts of God's salvation for us.

And it shows us that this covenant relationship is initiated outside of us and above us.

That a covenant is created not by us, but by a prior reality of loving kindness that wants us in a relationship.

It goes on in verse 5.

And it says,

It says,

And so that's why when you get to verse 9, it says,

This assumes that Yahweh has already acted to save his people by his grace.

That they are a people grasped and held by the strong and caring hands of the Lord.

And so these terms of the covenant are not the condition of a relationship.

They're the consequence of a relationship.

They are not entering in to obey the Ten Commandments to get God's love.

They're entering in to obey those commands because they've already received God's love.

And they want to show God how grateful they are in their obedience.

Does that make sense?

You guys tracking with me?

This covenant relationship is a vertical relationship with the Lord.

But also the covenant is a horizontal relationship with the people of God.

Look at verse 10.

It says,

This is a detailed list of the members of the people of God.

In fact, it's the most inclusive list in all of the Old Testament.

It's got leaders and followers.

Men and women.

Old people and babies.

Those born in Israel and those who are resident aliens.

Those who are rich and those who do the lowliest of jobs.

Chopping wood.

Carrying water.

Everyone is included.

And no matter who stands above whom in daily life.

All of them are on level ground because they're in the presence of the Lord himself.

And it says in verse 14.

It says,

I am making this covenant with its oath.

Not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God.

But also with those who are not here today.

This covenant transcends time and space.

It includes future generations who are not yet born.

Which means that it involves you and me.

We're the ones not yet standing here today that are being addressed.

And here is the heart.

The essence of the covenant in verse 12.

It says,

You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God.

A covenant that the Lord is making with you this day.

And sealing with an oath to confirm you this day as his people.

That he may be your God.

As he promised you.

And as he swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

I will be your God.

And you will be my people.

That is the essence of a covenant relationship.

You will be my people of the promise.

You will be the children of Abraham.

You will be the heirs of that blessing through which all the nations of the world will be blessed.

And all of us are here in this covenant included together.

This reminds me of the words of John Donne.

That great poet and pastor.

He said,

No man is an island of itself.

Every man is a piece of the continent.

A part of the main.

Everybody is a part of this covenant.

It reminds me of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

When he wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail.

I think he was thinking in covenantal structures in terms of reality.

He said,

All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.

Tied in a single garment of destiny.

Whatever affects one directly affects all.

Indirectly, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

This is the interrelated structure of reality.

It's a covenant.

A covenant relationship.

And there's this organic, collective, holistic relationship that, yes, involves me, but really is about we.

Yes, it involves every little thread, but it's really about the whole tapestry.

Yes, it's about the different members of the body, but really it's about the healthy functioning of the whole body.

And you can see that here in verse 18.

Where it says,

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations.

Make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

When such persons hear the words of this oath and invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking,

I will be safe even though I persist in going my own way, they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

This covenant says,

Do not let there be a root of bitter poison that could destroy the whole tree.

Jesus and the apostles use the language of watch out for a little yeast that can corrupt the whole batch of dough.

This covenant relationship with the Lord can be negatively influenced by one person, one family, one group of people that thinks to themselves,

It's no big deal if I just go my own way.

It's no big deal if I kind of blend the doctrine and ethics of the scriptures with the ideologies and the practices of Canaan.

It won't be a big deal.

If I just kind of relax my grip on these inconvenient truths that make me a little bit uncomfortable from our faith, all will be well.

And what this actually says in this covenant, that is a complete disaster.

Not just for you, but for us.

And we need to think this way because the covenant, we're told, is relational.

Covenant renewal is relational.

You guys tracking with me?

Covenant renewal is not only relational, it's also personal.

Covenant renewal is personal.

In verse 10, it says,

All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord, your God.

This is a sober, serious, solemn moment of being koram deo, before the face of God.

They've been listening to Moses' final sermons in the last days of his life.

And in these sermons, Moses has been taking the Ten Commandments and he's been expounding them and illustrating them and applying them and saying,

This is the way.

This is the blueprint.

This is the guide for abundant life in the promised land.

And now it's time, having heard all of this teaching, to covenant together to live by the teaching.

And so every single individual here is going to take responsibility for their own relationship before God.

Their own relationship with God in the presence of God.

They're going to make an oath of allegiance.

They're going to swear their commitment to keep this covenant.

They say,

We are ready to be loyal to this gracious God.

We are fully aware of all the curses and all the disasters that will come down upon us for being disloyal to this God.

And so what do we see that God wants for us in this relationship?

He wants the relationship to be personal.

Listen to verse 17.

It says,

You saw among them, that is the Egyptians and all the nations they've just passed through.

You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations.

See, God wants the heart of each person turned toward him in worship.

And he's saying,

Look, you're entering into a context of endless distractions.

You're going into a land where you're going to be surrounded by attractive alternatives.

Silver and gold, shiny objects that are going to vie for your attention and turn your attention away from me and cause you to worship lesser things that are not worthy of your devotion.

Can you imagine living in a society, living in a place where there are these bright, shiny, luminous things wanting to control your attention and giving you a dopamine hit every time you pull it out of your pocket or off the shelf and do like this?

Can you imagine living in a society like that?

If you weren't at our August retreat, I said there that the average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day.

In contrast, the psalmist says,

I have set the Lord always before me.

What would my life be like if God touched my mind as often as I touch my phone?

Multi-billion dollar companies are asking themselves,

how do we consume as much of your time and attention as we possibly can?

One person said the tech industry is the largest, most standardized, and most centralized form of attentional control in human history.

So that continuous partial attention is now our new normal.

And don't get me wrong,

our technological devices are not the only idols in our lives that cause our hearts to turn away from the Lord.

They're just the most obvious.

They look around at everybody like this, bowing down, right, to their phones.

So Deuteronomy 29 is telling us how easy it is to turn our hearts away from devotion and love and worship to the Lord

as our highest good, as our sumum bonum.

And this is really a restatement of all the teaching of Deuteronomy.

That heart turn in verse 18 restates for us what we heard in Deuteronomy 5.

The Ten Commands.

What's the first of those Ten Commands?

You shall have no other gods before me.

But remember it says,

you, second person singular,

Jonathan, Barry, St. Clair,

you personally

should have no other gods

before me.

And then the next chapter,

and then the next chapter,

Deuteronomy 6,

is really a restatement of this heart turning away

or turning toward the Lord where it says,

hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord alone.

You,

second person singular,

you,

Jonathan,

Barry,

St. Clair,

you are to love the Lord your God

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your strength,

with all that you are

and all that you've got.

In the midst of this myriad of distractions

and all of these attention-grabbing,

attractive alternatives

that are telling you to put money

or sex or power at the center,

that are telling you to put your work

or your comfort

or approval

at the center of your life,

what we are being called to

in this covenant renewal

is for each person

and each family

and each group

to turn your heart toward the Lord

in worship.

One of the commentators

that I read this week,

he said,

Deuteronomy

is deeply aware

that Israel's faith

is in a context

of endless distractions

from covenantal faith.

The most likely candidates

for such seduction

are precisely those

who are comfortable

and complacent with God.

They are the ones

most susceptible

and most surely

to bring disaster

upon all of the community.

Seduction from covenant

happens among those

who turn a little bit

at a time

away from the Lord

because they are not vigilant.

What this is telling us

is that your personal

spiritual vigilance,

your personal habits

of the heart,

your personal engagement,

your personal quality

of life with the Lord

not only matters to God,

it matters to all of us

and our quality of life

as a church community.

And so the question

I'm asking is

how can I,

how can we

practically keep God

as our first love?

what are the predictable patterns,

what are the healthy habits

that will regularly

revitalize our relationship

with the Lord

so that He is my love supreme?

And I want to say

you've made a good start today.

You've begun the first day

of your week

here turning your heart

toward the Lord in worship

which is the fourth commandment,

right?

Observe the Sabbath

and keep it holy to the Lord

and that is a great start.

George Herbert,

the poet,

he says

seven whole days

not one in seven

I will praise thee.

And so my question is

how will we worship God

seven whole days this week,

tomorrow

and the next day

and the day after that

and my simple question is

how will you start

the day tomorrow

when you wake up

in the morning?

I love this quote

from C.S. Lewis

in his book

Mere Christianity.

He said this in 1941.

He said

the real problem

of the Christian life

comes where people

do not usually look for it.

It comes the very moment

you wake up each morning.

All your wishes

and hopes for the day

rush at you

like wild animals.

And the first job

each morning

consists simply

in shoving them all back

and listening

to that other voice

and taking that other

point of view,

letting that other

larger,

stronger life

come rushing in

and so on

all day long

he says.

Around that same time

a man

this

Lewis was in England

a man named

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

in Germany

wrote these words

and he would later be

taken and killed

by the Nazis

but he said

the morning prayer

determines the day.

squandered time

of which we are ashamed

temptations to which

we succumb

weaknesses

and lack of courage

at work

disorganization

and lack of discipline

in our thoughts

and in our conversation

with other men

all have their origin

most often

in the neglect

of morning prayer.

Decisions demanded

by work

become easier

and simpler

where they are made

not in the fear

of men

but only

in the sight

of God.

My goal

this week

is to move

some of you

from nothing

to something

to move you

from investing

zero minutes

in your personal

relationship with the Lord

to five minutes

and then ten minutes

and fifteen minutes

to investing

one day of your week

to three days

then four days

then five days

of your week

and if you're a guest

with us today

we're not normally

this practical

or this

this prescriptive

but I'm just realizing

as a pastor

after 18 months

of pandemic life

that we desperately

need to reestablish

healthy habits

and predictable patterns

that are gonna give us

a life with God

and so I've given you

this handout

called morning prayer

as your insert

this morning

and I hope it will

equip you

with a tool

to help

keep God

as your first love

in your life

which is what

Deuteronomy

is all about

tomorrow morning

you're gonna engage

in many habits

you're not even

gonna be thinking about

hopefully you're gonna

take a shower

we hope

hopefully you're gonna

put on clothes

we hope

hopefully you're gonna

eat and brush

your teeth

and I wanna invite you

to create some space

and time

to pray

at least a portion

of this

half of it

just the first words

of it

would be an absolute

victory for us

I think

if we began

this practice

of morning prayer

a revival

would break out

at Christ Church

amen

covenant renewal

is relational

and it's

personal

for each one

of us

but the last thing

I wanna say

is covenant

relational

covenant renewal

is relational

personal

and it's sacrificial

you know

the sad

and tragic

story of the Bible

is that

God's people

fail over and over

to be the

covenant partners

that we swear

to be

right

we persist

in going

our own way

as it says

in verse 19

but the sweet

and triumphant

story of the Bible

is that though

we fail

God's covenant

love

never fails us

the Lord

would send

his own

eternal

and beloved

son

Jesus

to be

this faithful

Israelite

to be the one

true

human being

to do for us

what we cannot

do for ourselves

Jesus is the

only one

whose heart

does not

turn away

from the Lord

he's the only

one

who rather

had his heart

turned toward

the Lord

every moment

of every day

of his life

and when he came

to the end

of that beautiful

life

on the night

before he was

to be

crucified

he offered

us these

gifts

of bread

and wine

and he said

this broken

bread of my

body

reveals what

I've come

to do for you

in my

incarnate

person

and this

outpoured

wine

of my

blood

is showing

you what

I've come

to do for you

in my

atoning

work

work

and what

is the

word

that Jesus

uses

when he

gives us

this meal

he says

this is my

blood

of the

new

covenant

covenant

Jesus

is completing

the covenant

renewal

that began

with Israel

on the

plains

of Moab

when he

says

this blood

of the

covenant

is being

poured out

for the

forgiveness

of sins

you see

the Lord

knew

when he

entered

into

a covenant

with human

beings

like us

that it

would cost

him

dearly

that it

would be

an absolute

bloody

mess

but he

did it

anyway

because

he loves

us

he did

it knowing

that he

would take

all of the

curses

of our

breaking

of the

covenant

so that

we would

get all

the blessings

of his

keeping

the covenant

as if

we

ourselves

had kept

the covenant

Jesus

is going

to enter

in to

be torn

to pieces

the nails

the spears

the thorns

are going

to tear

him apart

why

so that

we can

have

what Paul

calls

the righteousness

peace

and joy

in the

Holy Spirit

all of our

hearts

turning away

from God

all of that

root

of bitter

poison

that destroys

the whole

thing

all of that

disaster

that results

when I persist

in going

my own way

all of that

will be poured

out on

Jesus

on his

cross

and this

is why

the apostle

Paul

is telling

us

in Galatians

3

he says

Christ

redeemed

us

by becoming

a curse

for us

he redeemed

us that

blessing

that the

blessing

given to

Abraham

might come

to us

through

him

do you

realize

what Jesus

has done

for you

in his

perfect

life

he

completely

fulfilled

the terms

of the

covenant

and he

earned

the covenant

blessing

so that

God

could love

you

absolutely

unconditionally

and in

his

sacrificial

death

he

completely

satisfied

all the

curses

of this

covenant

so that

he could

remove it

from anyone

who would

ask them

ask him

to take

it away

from them

and friends

do you know

what Jesus

was doing

in those

final moments

on his

cross

as he

was dying

for the

sins of

the world

he turned

his heart

and worshipped

toward the

Lord

as he

was writhing

in agony

he cried

out

father

into your

hands

I commit

my spirit

father

into your

hands

I commit

my spirit

it's a

prayer

Jesus

prayed

thousands

of times

it came

straight

out of

his

prayer

book

from

psalm

31

verse

five

father

into your

hands

I commit

my spirit

you know

we spend

most of our

time attempting

to get

our lives

out of

God's

hands

and into

our

hands

and in

this

dialogue

deep

in the

heart

of the

trinity

with

Jesus

on his

cross

he does

for us

what we

cannot

do

in this

one

last

confident

reckless

act

of faith

Jesus

willingly

exuberantly

commends

the purpose

of his

whole

life

and his

whole

work

into the

strong

loving

hands

of his

father

father

into your

hands

I commit

my spirit

and that

I hope

becomes the

prayer

for all

of us

who know

the

depths

which

Jesus

sacrificed

himself

to renew

this

covenant

for us

may it

become our

prayer

tomorrow

morning

and the

day after

that

father

into your

hands

I commit

my spirit

in the name

of the

father

son

and holy

spirit

amen

he

to pour

him

together

to

me

am

in the name