A People of the Knife

Genesis 17

Joe Kutter

April 6, 2008

Symbols are powerful things. For example:

• You see a person in the uniform of a policeman or woman. How do you respond? Why” That uniform is the symbol of the law and the power to enforce it.
• You see man wearing the collar of the priest. How do you respond? That represents the power of tradition and faith or perhaps a tradition in which you do not participate.
• You see an American flag. It represents the core identity of our nation.
• You see a Nazi swatzika. How do you respond?

Symbols are powerful. Now imagine this:

• You see a video of a policeman accepting a bribe.
• You see an image of priest being sentenced for child abuse.
• How do you respond? When the core meaning of a symbol is violated
• You see the American flag flying upside down. How do you respond?

When the core meaning of a symbol is violated, we often become enraged. We are disappointed. And ultimately, the symbol is stripped of its value.

We are in a series of worship experiences that focus on the covenants that God made with different people in the Bible. Last week, Matt talked about the covenant that God made with Noah. God promised Noah that the world will never again be destroyed with a flood. And the sign of that covenant was the rainbow. Every covenant has its sign.

Today, we are looking at the covenant that God made with Abraham. It too has a sign.

First the covenant. Genesis 17:1-6 (NIV)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. ² I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

³ Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, ⁴ “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. ⁵ No longer will you be called Abram ; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶ I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.

A covenant with God binds or bonds the person with God in a special agreement. God agrees to do certain things if the person will do certain things. It is a deal that  unites the person with God and the deal is dependent upon the person keeping up his or her end of the bargain. 

Let’s look at the agreement that God offered to Abram:

1.      God identifies Godself. “I am El Shaddai.” I am God Almighty.”

2.      What does God require of Abram? “Walk before me and be blameless.”

3.      What does God promise to Abram?

a.       I will increase your numbers

b.      You will be the father of many nations

c.       Your name will no longer be Abram which means “Exalted Father” but it will be Abraham which means “Father of many.”

4.      And what is the sign? Genesis 17:10:

This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised.

Is this an agreement exclusively between the individual Abraham and God? No. The sign is to be applied to every male descendent. God is forming an agreement between the community of Abraham in which the community agrees to “Walk before me and be blameless” and God agrees to multiply their numbers.

The circumcision is a sign of membership in the community and a sign of promised faithfulness to God. But, what happens when the community looks for multiplication without faithfulness? What happens when the sign become empty of its meaning?

Let look at the New Testament, at Romans 2: 28 and 29.

²⁸ A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. ²⁹ No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

Paul believed that the symbol had been destroyed by unfaithfulness. He believed that the failure of the community to be faithful to the way of God had emptied the symbol of all of its meaning.  Here are some other things that Paul said.

1 Corinthians 7:19 (NIV)

¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts.

Galatians 5:6 (NIV)

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

Galatians 6:14-15 (NIV)

¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.

Colossians 3:11 (NIV)

¹¹ Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

We believe that Paul was following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when he declared that the symbol had died and therefore did not matter any more. And what is it that really matters?

• . Keeping God’s commands is what counts.

·         The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

• What counts is a new creation.

·         But Christ is all, and is in all.

God seems to have said, “You have forgotten the covenant. Let’s forget the sign.”

We Christians have some profound signs and symbols. Some of us were raised in traditions in which we were baptized as infants and then were invited to confirm the faith of the church at a more mature time in life. We Baptists baptize, theoretically, when the person is old enough and mature enough to speak for himself or herself.

In both traditions, the baptism is a sign of a covenant in which we accept God’s faithful love as proclaimed in Jesus Christ and in which we promise to walk faithfully with God as disciples of Jesus Christ. It is a covenant agreement. God will be faithful. God has already been faithful. And, in baptism or in baptism and confirmation, we promise to respond to God’s faithful love with our own faithfulness. And when the covenant is destroyed by our own faithlessness, the sign is emptied of its meaning.

The second sign that marks us as disciples of Christ is The Lord’s Supper. God’s eternal faithfulness is proclaimed as we remember Christ’s broken body and spilt blood. God has showed his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Here is the proclamation of God’s limitless love.

And our part of the covenant is this, as we take the supper, we declare our faithfulness in that Christ is alive within us. The spirit of Christ lives within us, both individually and as a community of faith. The supper bears living witness when we speak truthfully of God’s faithfulness and our own.

As we prepare to receive the supper, I invite you to renew your faithfulness to God. Invite the living Christ to live within you. Ask him to make of you a new person, a new creation. I plead with you that together, we will live as a community of faith, centered in the presence of Christ among us.

As we sing, I invite you to prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper.