“Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die”
So, the question that I want you to think about this morning is “Did God really change his mind about those stiff-necked people… or did God remember a promise made long ago?” Let me tell you a story about two friends and a conversation they had many years ago. At the point where I pick up the story, the conversation was getting intense. “You gotta be there,” one girl said. “I will, “ the other girl answered. They were about fourteen years old and the best of friends. But the first girl wasn’t sure she believed her friend and her friend knew it. “I mean it. I really, really, really mean it, Sharon,” she said. “Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a pin in my very best eye.” Then, I smiled. When she said that, I knew. I knew. I knew that I could trust her. I knew that I could believe what she was saying. Because it was the truth: for her, for me, and for our relationship together. “Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a pin in my very best eye.”
It was an oath… a promise to do something. It bound her to a course of action. With that oath, she could not back out. She would not fail me. She would be there. Now, as I look back, I do not remember precisely where “there” was… but I knew she would be there. And that was all that mattered.
What kinds of oaths have you taken in your life… as a child… as an adult? Do you remember? Some of you here have taken an oath before God “to love and to cherish… until death do you part.” Most of us, like Sarah Darby, have promised “to reject sin and turn to Jesus Christ.” What other promises have you made? Some promises I made as a child began as just long conversations… on the phone… on the beach … at school… conversations we didn’t want repeated. If they were really important, we made our friends promise not to tell and added the extra line: “Cross your heart and hope to die? Stick a pin in your very best eye?” Usually, that was enough to guarantee their silence.
God made a covenant with Israel. Do you remember? We read in Genesis 17, that God promised Abraham that he would be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God." It was this covenant… this oath… that Moses reminded God about in our story today when God wanted to destroy the people of Israel for being unfaithful. God had taken an oath. God was bound by that oath. That oath, given to Abraham, changed the relationship between God and the people of Israel. It set expectations and, just like in my relationship with Beth, it created conditions that were predictable for all who were bound by the oath. After Beth and I had this conversation, we went our separate ways, but there was a bond between us that made us closer somehow. We were conscious of the change. To this day, even though I have not seen her in years, I consider her to be one of my closest friends.
What does it mean to be in a relationship like that? I don’t know what it means to you, but, for me, these were special friends. They were set apart. My relationship with them was different than my relationship with my other friends. For me – and, maybe, for many of you – many of these relationships have lasted my entire life, even after these people moved away, or got involved in other things. These are the people that I shared my essence with… the ones who know my deepest desires and my worst fears. These are the ones I trust… the ones I know will be there, even when the going gets tough. And, these are the ones that I will be there for… in joy… in sorrow… in pain… in hope… in celebration. They are special. They’re like family… only different somehow. I chose them. For them, the normal rules just don’t apply.
Loyalty oaths or covenantal relationships have been around for as long as humans beings have tried to live together on the face of the earth, because these oaths or covenants define some of the most basic principles of civilization. The earliest hieroglyphs that have been discovered illustrate the covenantal relationship between a king and his people… or relationships between people who are not related by marriage. We have covenants in our own country. In our Constitution, for example, we talk about how we will maintain relationships in order to “form a more perfect union… establish justice… insure domestic tranquility” and so on. We believe that, if we will do certain things, other things will accrue as a result. God had a covenant with Israel… a covenant that bound them in relationship to each other… a covenant that promised certain things: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” But Israel’s covenant was an unusual covenant.
You see, covenant agreements in ancient times had several prescribed clauses in them. They began with identification of the giver of the covenant… the name of the king and list of his titles. This was followed by a historical prologue… a litany of all the things that the covenant giver had done for the covenant people. This was followed by the stipulations… those things which were promised… and those things which were required in return. Then, there was a list of the blessings that would accrue if the covenant was upheld…and the curses that would follow if the covenant was broken. And finally, there was some ritual or feast that would commemorate the covenant.
God’s covenant with Israel was unusual in that when God made the covenant with Abraham, there were no conditions … no stipulations… for Abraham or for his descendents. This was a covenant between unequal partners where the more powerful partner promised something to the weaker partner… and did not demand anything in return. This was a covenant that stated that God… yes, the almighty… all-powerful… omniscient One… would give something of indescribable value to a people who did not deserve it… had not earned it … and could, in no way, repay God for it. Why? Why would God do this?
Because this was a people loved by God. Because, before the creation of the world, God chose this people to receive this gift… this covenant… that God promised never… ever… to take away from them… a covenant with no conditions… no stipulations… no requirements. And God bound Godself to that covenant in perpetuity… even when these people were impatient… disobedient… disloyal… and idolatrous. In our text today, when God informs Moses of his plan to destroy the Israelites because they have abandoned the worship of God and are worshipping a golden calf, Moses reminds God of the covenantal relationship and God upholds that covenant once again. Unbelievable!
Last week, we celebrated the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper… coming to the Table despite our unworthiness because God… in love… invites us to come. Two weeks ago, we celebrated the sacrament of baptism with Sarah Darby as a sign and seal of her covenantal relationship with God. What have you seen in these two sacraments? Have you seen that we come together in worship to praise and adore our Creator… because we must? Have you seen that we have been claimed in the waters of baptism… because we deserve it… or have earned it? Have you seen that Christ died for us… that his body was broken for us… that his blood was shed for us… because of something that we have done for him? No. What we have seen is the face of a God who has loved us… and loves us still… unconditionally… despite all our disobedience… our disloyalty… and our lukewarm, wishy-washy commitment. To this day, God remains faithful to the covenant that God made with Abraham… a covenant that has been renewed in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. God is still our God… and we are still God’s people… with no conditions… no stipulations…and still no ability to repay the debt.
You see, it was not a monarch… a geographic area… or an ethnicity… that made the Jews Jews. It was the covenant they had with God. The covenant gave them their identity:.. they were the people of God. And, through the centuries, that covenant has been confirmed and renewed time and time again. In the waters of baptism, we are claimed by God and enter into that covenantal relationship. When we remember our baptism, we remember who we are, and whose we are.
We are God’s people. God has chosen us and it is in our baptism that we claim that covenantal relationship… that we witness to the world that we belong God. So now, I invite you to come. Come to the font. Come knowing that you are a child of God… that you have been claimed by God in the waters of baptism. Come because it was God who, in love, chose you… just as it was God who sought Abraham and made a covenant with him for all eternity. Come remembering what God has done for you… what God is doing for you… and what God will do for you… because this is an everlasting covenant for you and for all your descendents. So, come. Come to the font… dip your hands in the water. Remember your baptism… and renew your covenant with God… a covenant of promise… a covenant of love... an everlasting covenant of the God who loves you unconditionally. It is a covenant born of water and the Spirit… and sealed in Christ’s blood. And it is a covenant that is, as Randy Travis would say, “forever and ever. Forever and ever. Amen.”