In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This week, beloved in the Lord, is the week of the covenant. I have in mind to speak to you this morning about the covenant. The biblical word for covenant is beriyth. Beriyth begins with the prefix be-, which is the first Hebrew consonant. It’s the most basic sound, isn’t it? Be, be, be. This is the letter of the first two words in the Bible: Bereshit bara: In the beginning created, bereshit bara. Be- is also the first letter of the word for “covenant, beriyth.”

Now what should we make of this? It’s as though “covenant” was the initial component of God’s language to us, as though God, in the very act of speaking to man, had “covenant” in mind all along. And in fact this is true. God does not reveal himself to human beings for their information. It is not as though—and I certainly heard this when I was younger—we would not know that God was Father, Son, and Holy Spirit unless he spoke to us, and he gave us that information—to which I say, “Big deal. Who cares? It has to be much more than that! It can’t be just information.”

You see, God speaks to us in order to join us to himself. God speaks to us for the purpose of atonement. This joining to himself, this con-junction, is what the Bible means with the word beriyth. Indeed, if you look at it closely, this is the same sense of the English equivalent, “covenant.” Covenant: look at that word. Obviously a Latin word, although that’s not the Latin word for “covenant”—foedus, f-o-e-d-u-s; you get the word “federal” from that: that’s the Latin word for “covenant,” but nonetheless the English word, “covenant,” comes from a Latin root, doesn’t it? Con-venire: to come together: atonement. Now observe that the substantial root of this noun, “covenant,” is a verb, venire, to come. Anybody hear any Christmas hymns in there? Venite adoremus… “O come, let us adore him.”

A covenant is less an object than an action. Indeed, a covenant is an ongoing event. In fact, the word “event” comes from the same root: venire, event. The covenant is an ongoing event. Because the verb is what determines this word, today I have in mind to share with you the three verbs that holy Scripture uses for the making of a covenant. Holy Scripture provides the material in three; there are three verbs in the Old Testament associated with “covenant.” I didn’t make that up; just grab a concordance and look. Because it is the case that the word, beriyth is associated with three words, and those will be the three points we’ll cover this morning.

The first is karat. Karat: you might want to spell that k-a-r-a-t, karat. The second is natan, n-a-t-a-n, natan. And the third is heqim; you might want to spell that [h-e-q-i-m], heqim.

Let’s start with karat. Karat beriyth or karat ek beriyth is the most usual word employed for making a covenant in the Bible. It’s the most universal and basic verb of which beriyth serves as an object. In the Bible, one “cuts” a covenant. Indeed, if you think about it, we still use that idiom today, don’t we? We still speak of “cutting a deal.” Still use that word, the biblical word. If someone’s entering into a contract and we want to be part of it, what do we say? “Cut me in,” or “I would like to be—I’d like to get a cut of that.”

Karat in the Bible is associated with the sacrificial animals. That’s what you cut. A covenant in the Bible is invariably accompanied with blood sacrifice, even ordinary associations of human beings. Think of the beriyth Abraham and Abimelech had with one another back in Genesis. They karat beriyth; they cut the covenant. That is to say, they offered sacrificial animals in connection. You see, the Bible knows nothing about a bloodless covenant. A covenant is a bloody thing in the Bible. We have been told this truth nearly every Sunday morning for the past six weeks of Lent as we’ve listened to the epistle to the Hebrews. For the past six weeks we’ve sat here and listened to Hebrews. It’s all about the blood quality of the covenant.

Sometimes the ritual in the Bible is described. For example, in the first account of the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, you have this—what apparently… seems to us a strange way of making the covenant: Abraham slices a bunch of animals down the middle. He puts them on altars, a series of altars, except the birds he puts one bird on one side, one bird on the other, because you don’t divide birds—but he has all these sacrificial animals. Then God comes down in the form of fire, and he walks with Abraham through those sacrificed animals. Very elaborate description.

You see, because a covenant with God always involves a shedding of blood. The two ideas cannot be separated. This is the entire argument of the epistle to the Hebrews, that without the shedding of blood there is no atonement. God always had in mind—when he first made his covenant, God always had in mind to pour out his own blood in a covenantal sacrifice. The problem is God did not have any blood, so he had to take on human blood. The life is in the blood. The chaim, l’chaim b’dam, l’chaim, the life is in the blood, says the book of Leviticus. In order for God to do this, he sent his own Son to take on our flesh and blood so that he would have the blood of the sacrifice to pour out, which he did on the cross, making peace. In this morning’s epistle we heard about the eloway shalom. That was the last line. “May the eloway shalom, may the God of peace…” That is, the biblical God, the God of peace. He makes peace through the blood of his covenant.

When the priest turns around and greets you in the service and says, “Peace be unto all”—it sounds much better in either Arabic, where it’s “Salaam” or in Hebrew, by the way, “Shalom,” than it does in English. The word “peace” in English sounds like an attack. [Laughter] That long “e” and that “p-” sounds like a knife coming down the center of the aisle. We should probably do that in Arabic. That’s probably what we should do. [Laughter] Although Greek would work: “Eirini.” That’ll work as well. As I have mentioned before, Latin is even worse: Pax. [Laughter]

But when I turn around and say, “Peace be unto all of you,” what peace is that? That’s the peace God made with us, in the blood sacrifice of his Son, who became the peace offering and the sin offering for us on the cross. There’s your first word, karat.

The second word, natan, to give. You may hear some names in this one: Nathan, gift; Nathaniel, gift of God; Netanyahu, the gift of the Lord. [Laughter] I just note the meaning of the name; I’m not saying I approve. [Laughter] See, all these names are derived from the root natan, to give. This is the verb used in Genesis 17, which is the Bible’s second account of the covenant with Abraham. In Genesis 17, you may recall, when God promises to give a covenant with Abraham, natan, do you remember what posture Abraham has when God tells him that? Anybody remember? Anybody? Oh, you won’t forget after today. He’s prostrate before the Lord. He’s lying full length, prostrate, face in the dirt, before the Lord. And God promises he’s going to give his covenant in the form of a son.

Now, since Abraham is 89 years old and his wife is 79 years old, Abraham thinks this is a bit much. So when God says he’s going to give the covenant, what does Abraham do? He starts to laugh, right down in the dirt, on the presupposition that God can’t see that he’s laughing, because his face is turned away, down to the dirt. [Laughter] Now he’s facing the dirt, and he’s going: “Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, yeah, yeah right!” This was the occasion that God promised to Abraham and Sarah, now well advanced in age, that they would have a son. In fact, as Abraham lay prostrate before God, he was laughing. He was laughing, and what did God say to him? “Oh, you think it’s funny, do you?” [Laughter] Rather free translation from the Hebrew. [Laughter] “Are you amused? Well, guess what! You’re going to call that boy Isaak!” Isaak: Isaac. The meaning of “Isaak” in Hebrew is: “He laughed.” He laughed: imperfect verb. He laughed.

Remember in John 8, when Jesus says of Abraham, “Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and he laughed!” The verb natan emphasizes that the covenant is a gift from God. It’s not something we can arrange. God and man are not equal partners in the covenant. And this is what we mean when we speak of the primacy of grace. The work of redemption is a human work only in the sense that it is the work of Christ. It’s not our human work; it’s the work of Christ. The covenant is, in short, a pure gift from God. It is full of grace.

And our third verb is heqim. Now, this verb is a little more complex. It means to establish. The root of that word is the word to stand up or to arise: qum. Remember what Jesus says to the little girl who’s died, Jairus’s daughter? “Talitha qumi; little girl, arise.” In fact, Gabriel, I’ll bet next week, a week from now, you’re going to be using that very verb in its Arabic form: “Al Massih qam!” Right? Everybody got that? Same root. Al Massih qam; El Meshiah qam in Hebrew. They’re almost identical in Hebrew and Arabic. It means to arise, to stand up, qum. So where do we get heqim? Heqim is what in known in Hebrew as the causative form of qum, called the hiphil form, the causative form: to cause to arise, to raise up, to establish, to cause to stand: heqim.

Ezekiel, writing during the Babylonian captivity, was very partial to this verb when he spoke of the covenant. This was the verb that insisted that Israel’s exile in Babylon would soon end. The covenant, the beriyth, Ezekiel wrote, could not be abrogated. Israel’s in captivity in Babylon, and Israel’s been unfaithful to God and Israel’s been unfaithful to the covenant, but God is not unfaithful. God is not unfaithful. Ezekiel is saying he still has a covenant with us and he will be faithful to it. Remember that St. Paul makes the identical argument in the ninth chapter of the epistle of the Romans. He makes the identical argument when he asks, “Are the Jews still God’s people?” He says—“Obviously so!” he says. “Obviously they are!” To anyone who would suggest the Jews are not God’s people, St. Paul says, “Mi genoito! Far be it away! It can’t happen!” Because the promises of God, the fidelity of God is without fail. God never backs off from a covenant. The covenant is permanent.

Thus, this is the verb used in Genesis 9 for God’s covenant with Noah. Heqim: I will establish my covenant forever. That “establish” is heqim. “My covenant” is beriyth eti. Beriyth eti, my covenant. And how long does it last? Lo halam, forever. “I will establish my covenant forever, between me and all flesh.” God has no more abrogated the covenant with the Jews than he’s abrogated the covenant with humanity. That covenant is still in place, and it’s being worked out in history. God still has this covenant with all of the human race. And what was the sign of the covenant that God made with the whole human race in Genesis 9? [A rainbow!] I suspect that the youngest people— You’re already yelling it. You can tell me that, can’t you? What was the sign of the covenant? A rainbow! “I will put my bow in the heavens as the oth beriyth, as the sign of my covenant, which I have between me and all flesh which is upon the face of the earth.”

God has a covenant with creation and especially with human beings. This is why we say that God will never turn his back on what his hands have made. His covenant with the human race, like the covenant with Abraham and David is fulfilled and reaches completion when God sends forth the Messiah. God’s covenant with us in Christ is established. This is the supreme covenant toward which all the other covenants look: the covenant that he has with us in Christ. We pray God to remember his holy covenant, to look upon the oth beriyth, the sign of the covenant: look down and remember.

That’s why we call the holy Eucharist a zikkarion, a remembrance. After the bread and wine are consecrated into the body and blood of Christ, what is the first thing we do with that? The deacon takes the body and blood of Christ, and he elevates it so that God can see it, and God will remember the covenant that he has with his people. “Thine own of thine own we offer unto thee, on behalf of all and for all!” We hold the body and blood of Christ out before the eyes of God the Father and say, “Remember your holy covenant,” because the covenant is fixed. The epistle to the Hebrews uses exactly the same word. Beriyth le holam, the covenant forever. And this, says the epistle to the Hebrews, is the meaning of the resurrection.

Remember the closing blessing in the epistle to the Hebrews? The closing blessing, the resurrection blessing? I suspect most of you know it by heart. “Now may the eloway shalom, now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant, the dam beriyth adoham, the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be glory and honor, forever and ever. Amen.”