Forgiven and Forgotten, to be Remembered
a sermon based on Jeremiah 31:31-34
Rev. Randy L Quinn
  
At first glance, this passage seems to say that God is giving up on the Law as it was given to Moses and the people of Israel:

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt--a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

It seems that God is giving up on the Law. It seems God is giving up on the covenant relationship with Israel that is based on the Law.

Certainly it was nearly impossible to completely fulfill the Law. We like to think of it as a simple set of rules for living, summarized in what we call the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:1-17; Dt 5:6-21) or in the Great Commandment that Jesus gave, to “love God will all your heart and all your strength and all your mind and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk 12:29-31). And most of us think we can comply with these ‘simplified’ versions of the Law.

But there is much more to the Law than that. At the core of the Law is an understanding that the people of Israel are distinct from the world around them. They eat differently. They dress differently. They observe rituals and traditions that reinforce the fact that they are not like their neighbors.

For most of our lives, we have fooled ourselves by saying that we live in a “Christian” nation, thereby allowing us to think that to be Christian is to blend in and be the same as our neighbors.

But we have neither understood our culture nor have we taken seriously what it means to be a “peculiar people” (1 Pet 2:9, KJV).

To completely fulfill the Law was nearly impossible then – and is still today.

So it’s easy to read this passage and assume that God is giving up on it. God is starting over. God is erasing the stone tablets that were put in the Ark of the Covenant and writing a new Law in the hearts of people everywhere.

But to read it this way is to miss the point.

In the ancient world, a Covenant was akin to what we would call a Treaty. It was an agreement between two parties in which there were physical symbols of the commitment that was made between them.

Often, the Treaty – or Covenant – was between two nations or between a foreign ruler and the local people. And the terms of these agreements included taxation schedules and rules for citizens to follow.

When God made a Covenant with Israel, there were physical symbols of the commitment that was made between them. The people had Laws to fulfill, a way of life that was distinct in their world; while God had obligations as well, including being present among them and blessing the people.

When Jeremiah writes these words, it seems as though the ancient Covenant has been utterly destroyed. The people have failed God. They have turned to other Gods and have made a mockery of the Law given on Mt Sinai.

The result was their exile. Foreign nations came and took the people away from their home, from the “Promised Land” which was the symbol of God’s faithfulness to them. Jeremiah, himself, flees to Egypt after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

There were no more physical signs of the Covenant to which people could look and see that the relationship between God and God’s people existed. It was a time of heartache and heartbreak. It was a time of mourning and depression.

But Jeremiah offers a word of hope. Jeremiah offers words of encouragement.

Jeremiah says the physical signs of the Covenant do not end the relationship. Just because the people have failed God does not mean that God has failed them. God can – God will bless them. All they need to do is recognize the Law as it has been written on their hearts.

Jeremiah is saying that the Law as they had known it, began from the outside. Now it will work from the inside. The Law as they had known it told them how to act, the new Covenant would tell them why to act.

It is still the same God; the same God who brought them out of Egypt. It is still the same Covenant; the Covenant between the God who created the heavens and the earth and the people God chose.

What this passage implies is that God yearned for a day when the people of Israel would obey the Law, not because they were obligated to do what God told them to do but because they wanted to do what was right. God yearns for the time when we will do what is right because we want to do what is right, not because we are looking for a reward – whether that reward is membership in the Covenant Community of Israel or becoming an heir with Christ in the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven.

God’s desire has always been that we will desire the things of God. The Law was an attempt to change us from the outside in. Now, Jeremiah says, it’s time to try changing from the inside out.

Melissa was sick most of last week. She spent many, many hours just sitting. She didn’t have energy to play with her toys. She didn’t have an appetite. She just wanted to sit and to be held.

I went home early on Wednesday just to hold her. Our babysitter had started a movie for Melissa; so we watched Disney’s Beauty and the Beast while I held Melissa on my lap. As we watched the movie, I was reminded of the subtle yet profound ways that hearts change.

How many of you have seen the movie? How many of you know the story?

As is the case with most of Disney’s movies, the movie doesn’t follow the traditional story exactly, but it does capture its essential elements.

Disney’s story is based on a folktale, most of which is retold in the opening scenes of the movie. There once was a rich and handsome prince who had all that he needed – and then some. But his things were more important to him than relationships.

One day an old beggar woman came to the prince and asked if she could stay the night in the castle. When he refused, the woman reminded him that things aren’t always what they seem, but still he refused.

The woman then transformed into a beautiful fairy who cursed him for his lack of hospitality. She changed him into a beast and told him that until he learned to both give and receive love he would remain a beast.

Disney’s movie is primarily about his transformation from a beast that only knew how to be bitter and angry into a man who knows how to love.

Along the way, there are a few marvelous scenes in which the Beast is being coached in how to treat his guests, but he is a slow learner. I’d like to show you one of those scenes now. This particular scene takes place shortly after “Beauty” comes to the castle. Beast is waiting to have dinner with her, but she is late coming to eat.

[Show a three-minute clip where Beast is being coached. Clip ends when Beast goes into a rage and tells her she can starve.]

Did you se how his heart wasn’t really in it? He was simply going through the motions of being polite – and not doing a very good job at it, either.

When “Beauty” – who is named “Belle” in Disney’s version – escapes, the Beast rescues her from near death. But it’s clear that he rescues her because she is his only hope of removing the curse. It isn’t out of love for her, but self-preservation.

By the end of the movie, however, he no longer needs to be coached. He has genuine compassion and love for Beauty. His actions no longer come from an external set of expectations; they come from within.

His transformation happens in the same way that counselors suggest change takes place in troubled relationships. He acted his way into loving.

When a marriage is having difficulty, I often suggest that the two “act” as if they loved each other. Do things you would do if you were in love. And often we find that we act our way back into love.

God’s hope for the Law was that we would ‘act our way’ into a changed heart. Jeremiah’s word of hope is that it can work the other way around, too. God’s acceptance of us will work from the inside and change the way we act.

God is willing to forgive the past. God is willing to forget the past. God is willing to plant the seeds of love within us that we might begin to act appropriately.

For us, the essential message is to remember that God’s action of forgiveness is not to be forgotten. The sins of our past are to be forgotten, but God’s action must be told and retold so that we might change from within. We begin to respond to God’s marvelous gift of grace.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the LORD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

Thanks be to God.

Amen.