Why God Creates Covenant Communities

In the letter from Paul to the Church at Ephesus, Paul addresses the biggest controversy facing the infant first century Church: whether you had to follow "the Law" in order to be a follower of Jesus.  The controversy was usually framed around the issue of whether male converts to Christianity, if Gentile, had to be circumcised.  However, the real crux of the issue was whether Gentile Christians were bound by all the commandments found in the Pentateuch; the first five books of the Bible that formed the basis of Jewish belief and practice.

Paul's short answer was no, which created conflict with most of the earliest leaders of the Church; particularly Peter, who took the opposing view.  Paul's rationale is instructive not only for the ancient community, but for us as well.  For Paul, in Christ, God has created a New Israel; a new covenant community, and what makes the new community "new" is not only an awareness of what God has accomplished in Jesus, but an entirely new covenant; we are no longer parties to the old covenant and are thereby not bound by its terms, including, but not limited to, circumcision.

Paul's answer is also instructive about what why God creates covenant communities.  Both the old and new covenants were designed to make those bound by it holy.  The entire purpose of the law was not to create arbitrary rules, like circumcision, but to create a system of practices that would make Israel holy.  Particularly, to reinforce God's sovereignty over Israel and Israel's submission before God.  The same is true of the new covenant community; the Church.  The Church gets bogged down in the details, when all that really matters is living under the Lordship of Christ; being a holy people who live under God's sovereignty.

Driving God Out of the Village

There is a story in Mark's gospel where Jesus enters his hometown, Nazareth, and the residents reject him.  The Nazarenes simply couldn't believe that the one in whom God was revealed had been in their presence all along; Jesus had grown up with them, his family was still there, including his mother, brothers, and sisters.  Nazareth was also conscious of its insignificance in Israel, not to mention the larger world; Nazareth was little more than a speck on the map; a village of thatched huts and no more than 100-150 residents.

There is a powerful metaphor here that is enormous good news: God is already here in our midst and always has been.  This is God's default position: we don't have to do things to draw God in: God is already here and always has been.

But the bad news is that we also have the free will that enables us to reject God's call and symbolically remove God from the village.  And like Nazareth, there have been systems that have rejected God's call, whether they are nations, families, churches, or communities.  You can easily recognize them, because they are filled with anger, hatred, discord, and abuse.

But even in those places that have rejected God's call, God is still trying to get back in, through showering grace on those who have rejected Him.  Even as God is being thrown out, God's only desire is to reconcile with those who have rejected Him and to get back in the village so that God can continue the work of redemption.  No matter how far a system has abandoned God and is trapped in a cycle of violence and hatred, it is never too late for that system to repent so that God can transform that system and the system can return to what it was meant to be: God's Kingdom of love and light.