{"id":708,"date":"2015-03-26T13:06:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T18:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=708"},"modified":"2015-04-12T23:37:18","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T04:37:18","slug":"on-keeping-a-covenant-with-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=708","title":{"rendered":"On Keeping a Covenant With God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 4<\/span>th<\/span><\/sup> Week in Lent<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

Gen 17:3-9; John 8: 51-59<\/span><\/h2>\n

Deacon Larry Brockman<\/span><\/h2>\n

When will we learn!<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>When will we learn what it means to keep God\u2019s covenant.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is one thing for sure.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>There is no question but that God has promised us everlasting life and happiness.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>He has done it in the Multiple Covenants he has made with his people over the millennia.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>First Adam and Eve, then Noah, then Abraham, and then Moses.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The message was simple each time:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cI will be your God and take care of you forever.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, I will do one better than make a contract with you.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>I will make a Covenant with you.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You see, a Covenant is an everlasting agreement as opposed to a contract which has escape clauses and finite lengths.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>There is always just one thing about God\u2019s covenants.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>It is very accurately summed up in our first reading as:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cOn your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>That means keeping God\u2019s word.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And yet, despite those four covenants between God and His people; the people broke the covenants by straying from God\u2019s word.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And so, God sent His only son, Jesus, to us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>He sent him in the form of a man, that\u2019s what we call the Incarnation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cThe Word became flesh\u201d as St. John put it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We didn\u2019t have to listen to third party prophets; rather, we had only to listen directly to the Word of God speaking to us in the flesh.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>His Gospels, the Good News, recorded all that he did and said.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That brings us to today\u2019s Gospel.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The Jewish leaders hung up on Jesus assertion that:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cAmen, amen, I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never die.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They still didn\u2019t understand the covenant being offered by God: everlasting life for those who believe in God, His Son, and His Word.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because people of this world focus on this world; they are skeptical of anything beyond this world.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, there was the clincher.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because later on in today\u2019s Gospel Jesus tells us a mindboggling truth:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cAmen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some Catholic commentators on the Gospel say that these words are beyond comment, because they tell us unmistakably, in Jesus own words, that he is God.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>That means the New Testament Covenant words were spoken with the ultimate authority.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You know, we are not just observers in all of this history.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We are part of it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The Gospel was written for our benefit. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>God so loved us that he gave His son and the Covenant promise to all of us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>The question is: are we skeptical and looking for worldly solutions?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Or do we believe in and live God\u2019s Word?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Are we keeping His covenant?<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Just like the cynical Jewish leaders of Jesus time, our world is full of cynics and unbelievers.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They demand proof in human terms rather than accept on Faith; they apply humanity\u2019s limited logic and reason to divine law rather than accept that God means what he says; and they value and glorify only things that are of this world; rather than value the Covenant promise of life everlasting.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some of them claim alternate revelation from God that denies Jesus is both God and man.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>They \u201cstone\u201d those who believe by persecuting them, ridiculing them, bullying them, and even putting them to death.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, when are we going to learn what it means to keep God\u2019s covenant?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>When we learn to believe; and to follow God\u2019s word no matter what happens to us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 4th Week in Lent Gen 17:3-9; John 8: 51-59 Deacon Larry Brockman When will we learn!\u00a0 When will we learn what it means to keep God\u2019s covenant.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is one thing for sure.\u00a0 There is no question but that God has promised us everlasting life and happiness.\u00a0 He has done it in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[340],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":720,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}