Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 (NIV)

 1 There is a time for everything, 

       and a season for every activity under heaven:

 2 a time to be born and a time to die, 

       a time to plant and a time to uproot,

 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, 

       a time to tear down and a time to build,

 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, 

       a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 

       a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

 6 a time to search and a time to give up, 

       a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, 

       a time to be silent and a time to speak,

 8 a time to love and a time to hate, 

       a time for war and a time for peace.

 9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.

Matthew 25:31-45 (NIV)

31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

 41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'

 44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'

 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

Message

These passages we read this morning come from the Lectionary readings for New Year’s Day.  We read them on the Sunday before the New Year and consider this passing of time.

Time.  Before having children I could be more in denial about the passing of time.  Now that they are in my life, it is like time is ever in my face.  You who have children, grandchildren, grown children, nieces, nephews, or teach Sunday school, you know this experience as well.  Another year has passed.  Christmas has passed and the eve of a New year is upon us.

Listening to KQED this week I heard that News Year’s Resolutions are good for us.  Sure most fail.  That is that something like 54% fail.  Now, think about that.  It means that about 46% succeed.  That’s not bad. Actually, that is enough of a success to say, “Why can’t we be part of that?” 

Consider, what is it that we as a church will resolved to be and do this coming year considering the past and looking toward the future.

From the Book of Ecclesiastes, we hear an old man, a teacher, a person of wealth, who had been on the Earth a long time.  He looked back on his life.  When you live long enough you realize that things were always changing.  When you live long enough you watch the planting and the harvest times come and go and come again.  When you live long enough you see relationships  you embrace and reframe from and embrace again.  When you live long enough you see wars and peace time come and go and come again.  Having lived long enough, the old teacher sets himself to answer the age old question “ What, then, is the meaning to life?” And in truest wisdom that comes with age, he concluded that he didn’t know and could not know.  What he determined was that he could know was that we are to do good and be happy in our labor. 

From the Gospel of Matthew, we heard a text that we might at first think was a “scare you” passage about how if you don’t help others, God will condemn you for eternity. While that preaches well in many settings, it was probably not Matthew’s first intent in writing it.  This chapter taken in context with the rest of the Gospel, was the writer  efforts at comforting the believers who were certain that Jesus was delayed in his return.  Matthew was writing to tell them that while the time was late, a believer was not to sit back and wait.  Believers needed to use their time well on this Earth.  Continue to live after the example of Jesus no matter how late the time seems.

Another surprise of this passage was that Matthew was writing to Christians, believers in this way of Jesus, about how they were treating other Christians.  I understand how difficult this is for many of us, but the early church was not in perfect unity and harmony.  The church struggled from within as well as struggled with forces from outside the congregation. There were those within the community who had in mind the things of God and those who had in mind the things of personal success, gain, and power.

In that early church, there were those who were divisive, setting up one group as better than another.  There were those who gossiped and there were those who really did try to live after the example and teachings of Jesus.  These are Matthew’s sheep and goats. 

Did you notice what separated the sheep and the goats from each other was not what they claimed but rather what they had done?   It was not confessing Jesus. It was not grace. It was not forgiveness that opens the way to heaven.  It was not even baptism.  It was their actions.  Most specifically, it was their actions toward the marginalized.  There were in those early churches people who do not take care of their own poor, sick, and imprisoned. For Matthew, the way of life in the congregation was to be one where we unite in a shared way of life.  We are not a people of creeds.  We are a people of covenant.

Creeds are shared, and dare I say, required beliefs.  Covenants are shared and yes, required, behaviors.

We Congregationalist know that we are not a creedal church.  We are proud to be a covenantal church. And yet we know so little of what a covenant is, what the expectations are that come with covenant, and what we do when we or others fall out of covenant.

What is covenant?

Consider the covenants you experience in everyday world.  The covenant of marriage, political office, medicine, membership in clubs, membership in churches, the covenant of parenting and citizenship. 

A covenant is more than a contract, it is more than an agreement. A covenant is a vow.  It may be an agreement of how to live, for example the covenant of God with Israel that God would be their only God and they would live as God’s people.  Or consider the rite of baptism or reaffirmation of baptism, the vow is taken to live as a disciple, learning the scriptures, seeking to do justice and living in peace, praying and continuing to follow the way of Jesus Christ.  And when you affirm your baptism and become part of a local congregation, you also make a pledge to join in relationship to the members of that congregation.

 A covenant is a life in relationship.  It is a promise, and obligation to live in a particular way in relationship with another person and/or with God.  To live in covenant with another is to live in a dynamic growing relationship.  A covenantal relationship means that you will journey through this life with the other and experience changes along the way...   Covenant is an agreement to live in a relationship with another and to act in ways that express the dearness of that relationship.  To act outside of this agreement is to break the covenant.

Expectations of Covenant:

1. Fidelity: Every covenant includes and expectation that the partners in the covenant will be faithful to their common purpose. 

2. Commitment to build up the relationship: Every covenant expects that the partners in the covenant will work together to improve the common purpose, improve the marriage, improve the society, improve the church.

3. Commitment to unity rather than destruction and division: Every covenant expects that those in partnership will communicate with one another in a way that leads to understanding rather than separation.  In a marriage, talking to others about your spouse sets up and us and them situation that is divisive and destructive to the marriage.  It happens in families where members of the family say a daughter confides in the mother about problems with the brother and the mother goes to father who goes to the brother who has allied with the Uncle against the mother, well, you see the problem.  In covenant we work toward unity and it is work.

4. Commitment to be a fully human in relationship with other fully human people: It is expected in covenant that we will need to be enlightened by one another about how we are living in our covenant.  In our relationship with a club it may be the enlightenment that comes with a letter reminding us to pay our promised dues.  In our relationship with God, it may be in the enlightenment of what it means to be Christ’s body in the world today. The expectation is that in covenantal relationship, we will change and we we learn. 

And when we do not meet these expectation, we are out of covenant and need to be reminded who we are and whose we are.

What do we do when we fall out of covenant?

Remember in the passage about the sheep and the goats, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew was seeking to give hope to the early believers who were suffering divisions and conflict.  Here is part of Matthew's guidance about what to do when we are out of covenant.  Consider it for all the covenants we have in our world today.

Matthew 18:15-17 .

15"If your brother sins against you,[a] go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. 16But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' 17If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.

Matthew’s first step: Talk face to face. It works in every covenantal situation where there is no violence.  This does not work in the situations of  domestic violence or neighborhood violence.  There, he covenant is already broken and relationship requires outside intervention.  In a marriage or a family this may be a therapist.  In a church this may be the larger conference.

Matthew's second step: Talk the the person again but with a witness. In Matthew’s time, this was important to cover legal ground of having proof that you tried to communicate.  Today, it can have another effect of being more like what AA calls an “Intervention.”  This is when the family and friends of one who is acting out of covenant  is confronted by a group  and shown how that person’s behavior is a problem to the unity and health of the entire body.

Matthew’s third step is one we really don’t like.  We modern congregationalists are good with the program, although uncomfortable, up to this point. And step 3: If the person continues to act in a way that is out of covenant, tell entire church body.  Ask that person to leave until  they are ready to return to the covenant where they practice fidelity, building up the body, unity, and the ability to learn and change. In the church this means that we actually take away a person’s membership.  With grown children, it may mean they are out of the house. In marriage, it means separation and maybe divorce.  In political office, it means a recall or even impeachment.

So, this New Year’s Eve, I invite you to consider what you will resolve to be in 2009.  I invite you to resolve to be a covenantal people.  I invite you to a life practice of fidelity, commitment to building one another up, shunning divisiveness, embracing unity, and committing ourselves to learning and to change as we continue becoming Christians.