Devotional - Covenant

On March 1, I started a journey with other lay people across the Annual Conference.  I'm leading a Conference Certified Lay Ministry Course.  It's a new thing - for me, for the students, and for the Conference.  I am spending  a whole lot of time planning, reading and coordinating.  I'm sure over the next few months  you'll see the course mentioned here, and you'll see posts about it (including book reviews - I already have three of those written).

We began our time together with a Zoom meeting.  I opened the meeting with the following devotional.

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

As I was thinking about the beginning of our journey together, and planning what the devotional would be, I was drawn to this particular lectionary reading from last week because of the word covenant in it.

 

We will talk about covenant in our time together.  We will talk about ministry covenants, but we will also – even if not directly – talk about God’s covenant with each of us.  So I thought literally beginning our journey with thoughts about covenant would be appropriate.

 

One of the things I hope you notice from this passage is that it is God who establishes the covenant.  This is not a contract where each side states what it will do for the other – God is declaring through this covenant that God will be “God to you and to your offspring after you.”  Abram and Sarai will be blessed to become the ancestors of the multitudes – of nations and kings.  This is all God’s action.  It has not been earned by Abram and Sarai – it is a covenant of Grace.

 

We should also notice that this covenant is based on relationship, God is not establishing a covenant with a people – God is establishing a covenant with Abram and Sarai.  The covenant extends to all who will follow – but it is established out of a relationship between God and these two particular people.  It’s amazing to think, isn’t it, that the creator of the universe knows these two people, promises steadfast loyalty to them, and that personal relationship will literally reconcile humanity.

 

Abram and Sarai receive new names in this passage – Abraham and Sarah.  What I did not know before I started planning this devotional is that God, too, is called by a new word.  This  passage is the first time in the Bible that the word El Shaddai is used to describe God.  We translate that as God Almighty, but it can also be translated as God of the Mountains. 

 

As we begin this journey together, I hope you will remember that while the covenant in Genesis 17 was with Abraham and Sarah, it was an everlasting covenant.  We to, the People of these Mountains are in relationship with God – we are recipients of God grace because of the restoration begun by God so many years ago.  We too have new names, beloved of God. 

 

Prayer:

El Shaddai, God Almighty, God the mountains, God of grace and love, walk among us tonight.  Gather with us in homes, at our desk, around our computers, and inhabit our work tonight and throughout this year.  Make your will known to each of us, and grant us the grace to move forward in your call.  I give you thanksgiving for each of those here tonight.  May we all live into the new names you have given to us.  In your son’s name we pray, Amen.