Loving God, you come to us in baptism, adopting us as your children and making your covenant with us.  By the power of your Spirit, fill our hearts with the gifts of your love and forgiveness, that, continuing to live in your covenant, we might experience life in all its fulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    Those of you gathered here today – how often do you use the word “covenant”? [responses] During our confirmation classes, it’s actually a word that comes up quite often.  Those of you who are being confirmed today - do any of you remember what a covenant is? [kind of like an agreement between two parties - except, in biblical covenants, God is always one of the parties involved] And so, in confirmation we talked about God’s covenant with Abraham, and the covenant that was given to Moses, and God’s covenant with David.  The only one of those covenants that could be broken was the one that was given to Moses - and only by the people, not by God.

    Jeremiah, who was a prophet who lived a long time after these covenants had been initiated by God, speaks about the covenant given to Moses and how it had been broken.  However, Jeremiah also speaks some amazing words of hope.  Today, we hear about a new covenant that will not be carved in stone.  Instead, this covenant will be written on people’s hearts, so that all of them will know God.  This covenant has love as its main response – love for God and love for one another – as well as the promise of God’s forgiveness.

    As Christians, we believe that this new covenant came into being through Jesus, and we’ll hear the word “covenant” used in two different contexts today.  We’ll hear about the covenant God made with us in our baptism, and we’ll hear “this cup is the new covenant in my blood.”  God has made a covenant with us, too – one that God is not about to break!

    Those who are affirming this covenant with God today were asked to think about what life is like when you believe in Jesus and how that is different from life for those who do not believe.  I’m going to ask them to come and share their responses now.
[Mary, Brittney, Lauren, Haley, Candace]

Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Reformation Sunday (Confirmation)                    Jeremiah 31:31-34
October 28, 2012
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2012 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved