April 13, 2008
Jeremiah 31:31-34

This is a very short reading, and there’s no specific story being told.

Yet the reading is significant, because it foreshadows Pentecost. It speaks of a new, direct, personal relationship with God that no longer needs a mediator.

So my sermon would have to cover two concepts – covenant and mediation. The stories will have to come from elsewhere in the Bible, or from real life.

We don’t have covenants between people any more. Marriages end in divorce. Business partnerships include a shotgun clause, enabling parties who can no longer agree to buy each other out. Children walk out on their parents, and vice versa.

The only legal covenants I know of apply to property, not people. Real estate covenants promise that this land will never be subdivided, will remain agricultural, will become a park, whatever...

But even those covenants are not permanent. A court can rescind them.

Except that there is no higher court than God. I would trace the series of covenants God made:

• with Noah, and with all creation (Genesis 9).
• with Abraham, and all his descendents, including the offspring of Ishmael, the Arab nations (Genesis 17).
• with Jacob, and his tribe (Genesis 28:10ff).
• with David, and his lineage as part of that tribe (2 Samuel 7).
• finally, a new covenant, proclaimed by Jeremiah, with the houses of Israel and Judah.

But this one is different. It’s a direct personal relationship with God.

Which leads me into mediation. Some of the congregation will have experienced marital breakup – the bitterness of needing a mediator because they were no longer able to communicate with their partner.

Some creative people could do a clever family-based skit: “Please ask your father to pass the salt.” “Would you remind your mother I’ll be late for dinner tonight.” “Mom, would you tell my brother to quit following me around?”

Mediation is obviously second-best to direct communication. Yet religion has stressed that priests mediate between humans and God for so long that, despite the Reformation, most people still believe that they need ministers/clergy/leaders to discern God’s will.

A few older people may remember having to go through an operator to call a telephone number. (Does the local museum have an old pre-dial telephone usable as a visual aid?)

Jeremiah says God is now on direct dial.

Yes, it’s a dream. But Martin Luther King Jr. also said, “I have a dream...” (text, audio, and video clips available at <http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm>) If enough people share a dream, it can come true.

JIm's full List of suggestions for preaching these stories