Let’s make a deal, God said to the people. I will be your God, and you will be my people. That is essentially the story that is told in the Old Testament.

Let’s make a deal. I will be your God, and you will be my people. Throughout the 39 books of the Old Testament, we read about the deals, or covenants, that God made with the people. We read how God always held up his end of the bargain, keeping the promises he had made. And we also read how the people, time and time again, failed to keep up their end of the bargain. Yet each time they fall down, God is there to pick them up, and to help them try again, with the offer of a new and better covenant.

During the season of Lent, we have looked at a series of these promises that God has made, but before we move forward to see what God has in store for us next, let’s look back, for just a moment, to refresh our memories about the promises that God has made and kept.

We began with the promise that was made to Noah and his family. After the great flood, God promised never to destroy the earth again. God put the rainbow in the sky as a reminder of that promise. The human race had another chance, a chance to start again, a chance to live without the fear of being utterly destroyed. They could live in confidence under the sign of that rainbow, rather than in fear under the dark cloud of doom. God had made a covenant with the people, an unconditional covenant, a covenant that was dependent only on God’s action, a covenant that God kept.

Next, we learned about Abraham’s encounter with the living God. Eons after Noah, God came to the aged Abraham, and promised him that he would be the father of many nations. Even though he and his wife, Sarah, were way beyond the age of child-bearing, God promised them a son, with generations to follow. Against all odds, God kept this promise, too. Abraham became the father of many nations, and of three great world religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God’s promise, or covenant with Abraham was like the covenant made with Noah—it was an unconditional covenant, dependant completely on God to keep the promise, which once again, God did.

Generations passed, and through a series of circumstances, some of Abraham’s descendants wound up as slaves under Pharaoh in Egypt. God heard their cries for deliverance, and through Moses, God freed his people, and led them out into the desert to worship him. But the people had forgotten how to do that, and so God cut another deal with them. This time, God laid down the Law.

God said; I will be your God and you will be my people, IF you learn to live as people of God should. God gave them Ten Commandments that spelled out his expectations. Now the covenant had some conditions. For the first time, the people had responsibility for keeping up their end of the bargain. The Law served two functions, as Luther later wrote. It showed the people how they should behave, but it also showed them their sin. Now the people were aware of their wrong-doing. But that didn’t seem to matter. They continued to do it anyway. In fact, they seemed to prefer doing evil to doing good.

Last week, we saw God get a little upset with the people’s constant rebellion. In the desert, the people found out that there were consequences for their bad behavior. God sent poisonous serpents to bite them, and the people repented of their sin. Not wanting to condemn them, God gave them an out. God had Moses lift a serpent of bronze up on a pole, and whoever looked at it would be saved. Then in the Gospel, we heard Jesus say that he would serve the same function—those who looked to him, lifted up on the cross, would also be saved. Despite our continuing sin, Jesus reassures us that God did not send him into the world to condemn it, but to save it. God loves the world that much.

What we have seen during these weeks of Lent is God’s repeated attempts to get human beings to be covenant partners with him. Over and over, we have seen God keeping up his end of the bargain, while we failed miserably to fulfill our end of the bargain. Yet God did not give up.

You might think of the Bible as one long record of God’s determination not to give up on us. God came to us, through the patriarchs and matriarchs, through the prophets, through the Law given to the Israelites. Time and time again, we turned away, disappointed God, broke God’s heart. Still, God kept returning to us. God refused to be defeated by our sin, our constant turning toward the wrong.

In today’s Old Testament reading, we hear the prophet Jeremiah speak of a day when God will write a new covenant, God’s law, God’s relationship with humanity, upon our hearts. Not on tablets of stone, as God did on Mt. Sinai before Moses and the Israelites, but upon our hearts.

In order for this new covenant to be effective, it must be written upon our hearts, for the heart is the real challenge here. Think about it—we can will what is right, and we can decide to do it. But then the heart takes over, and we cannot do what is right. Until something can be done about our character, our continual, inner disposition toward the wrong, we cannot do what is right. Changing us requires changing our hearts. And so that is where this new covenant must be written.

The New Testament book of Hebrews begins with these words, "In many and various ways, God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets; but now in these last days, God has spoken to us by a Son." Jesus is the bearer of the New Covenant. At the Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus said; "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you and for all people, for the forgiveness of sin."

In the past, we had a covenant of old, written on tablets of stone. Now there is Jesus, the risen Christ, by whom God’s will for us is written upon our hearts.

When Jesus came forth from the tomb on Easter, he not only rose from death, but promised that we would, too. New life really is possible for us—even for people like us—who find it terribly difficult to change, to start over, to begin again, to be new people.

We believe that even as Jesus is raised from the dead, so are we. In this resurrection, God writes a new relationship with humanity—not on tablets of stone, but within our hearts. Therefore, we are not permitted to give up on ourselves. We are not permitted to give up on ourselves, because God has refused to give up on us. God keeps creating us, and creating new hearts within us.

Today, we leave Lent behind, and move toward Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter. In just a little while, we will gather in great joy to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. The day is surely coming, says the Lord. God’s new covenant draws near. God’s greatest promise of all is about to be kept. AMEN