“Renewal”
Deuteronomy 31:9-13
2 Chronicles 34:29-33
Jeremiah 31:31-34
1 Peter 1:13-25
Matthew 25:31-46
Many years ago when I lived in the poor immigrant ghetto of Syracuse, New York, I had the privilege of walking six blocks to and from my elementary school. I’m not sure why God put me in that place…but He certainly blessed me by doing so. You see…at that elementary school I encountered a teacher…Mrs. King…who instilled in me a very strong love for reading. I can still see her standing next to me…quizzing me on what I had read…and showing great emotion as I told her about my latest reading experience…then putting a silver star next to my name on the chart at the front of the classroom. Luckily…halfway between our small apartment and the school…was the public library. The library was open in the late afternoon as I walked home. Instead of going to our empty apartment I often stopped in the library…to find a good book and read it. On a good day…a day when I had a penny…I’d stop in the candy store next door and buy a root beer barrel to put in my mouth while I read. After a couple years of doing this I became old enough to check books out and take them home with me. It was then that the librarian explained renewal to me. She said that I could check the book out for a week at no charge. If at the end of that week I hadn’t finished reading the book I could take it to her to have it renewed for another week…to be able to keep it for another whole week so I could finish reading it. My guess is that some of you have done the same thing…renewed a book at the public library…because you didn’t get to read it in the time originally allotted. Life does get in the way sometimes. Or, maybe you wanted to read it again…it was so good. John Wesley was a man of the people…and highly educated. He knew the importance of the covenant with God…and he also knew that life sometimes got in the way…and that the people didn’t do the best job of keeping their part of the covenant. Wesley had read the story from Second Chronicles about the king of Judah…who called together the men of Judah…the people of Jerusalem…the priests and the Levites…all the people from the least to the greatest. They went to the temple and there the king renewed the covenant with the Lord. Wesley also knew the promise from Jeremiah that God would put a new covenant on our hearts. He also knew that sometimes life touches our hearts in such a way that despite the promise of God’s forgiveness and forgetting our sins…we don’t feel worthy…we don’t reach out to the least among us…we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves. But…it wasn’t just reading…study and observation of others that convinced Wesley of the need for renewal…and God’s willingness to give it. He experienced it…personally…more than once. Like the librarian…Wesley reminded us that the story in the book doesn’t change…and we can renew our reading and our following. While God does not forget or back away from his covenant promise God has given us the ability to renew… renew our promise of covenant with God. Because of this gift of forgiveness and forgetting …and the opportunity for renewal we have shared the words we have spoken today…and now we come to the Lord’s Table to be with each other and with Jesus Christ…remembering and renewing.