September 17 - Covenanting Sunday/Creation Season II

Friends

On Sunday we covenant together. What does that mean?

A covenant is a sacred promise for how we will live in relationship. It assumes mutual responsibility but also vulnerability, growth, forgiveness, and grace. Unlike a secular contract bound by signature, a covenant is sealed through worship and so we will both celebrate and ‘sign’ our covenant this Sunday. And after worship we will gather for our Welcome Back Lunch, with thanks to the Heavenly Hospitality team.

In the United Church of Canada, the minister and congregation participate in the covenant, but so does the governing region. And, of course, so does God, not only as witness, but as active participant and source of this covenant, because we are a covenant people.

Our scriptures tell the story of God making a covenant, again and again: with creation, Abraham and Sarah, with Israel and with the whole world through in the life and way of Jesus. As a people, we often stray, but God’s patient grace and steadfast love carry us through.

In worship, we consider Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), a story of grace and having enough. We’ll read this alongside Robin Wall Kimmerer’s wisdom about gift and reciprocity. Can we receive our covenant together in the same way: receiving one another as gifts, grateful for what we all bring, and trusting that what we have been given is enough?

Folks, it is early in our relationship. I am getting to know you a little (thanks for wearing your name tags!), and you are getting to know me a little too (thanks for the reminders to ask you to be seated!). We know that, like any congregation, we will journey together through times of joy and despair, triumph and challenge.

My prayer is that our covenant relationship be one of grace, honesty, and openness to Spirit. May we keep our hearts open to the world, partnering together to live out God’s call for a world of justice and peace.

Peace to you,

William Brook