We prepare to enter another celebration of the Advent of the
New Covenant. God dwells among us in this new Covenant in a way so
full of promise, that after centuries of celebration we are still
compelled to call this "new." Table fellowship and feet washing
are THE heights and depths and breadth of divine presence. God is
no longer watching "from a distance." The veil has been lifted and
all the barriers are down. Being human has changed for us because
God has taken flesh and lived among us. God has appeared, not with
power, privilege or strength, but as a helpless, homeless, infant.
God, in redeeming and calling Israel, prepared for the time
when the covenant was to be open to all. This was the desire of
God from the beginning. In order to approach us, God called a
particular people and entered into their history. After freeing
them from their bondage God invited them into a continuing
relationship, expressed in the Sinai covenant. Again and again and
again God offered a covenant to them and through the prophets our
ancestors were taught to long for salvation. Every generation was
a recipient of the promise.
Later prophets described this promise in idyllic terms. The
word appears, coming gently from God, never intending to remain
suspended like a cloud in mid-air, but to soak the earth and to be
drawn back toward God like plants and trees. God's spirit is
planted within a human heart where it bears fruit. God's word is
less a message and more an event. All the world, all of creation,
breaks into song as God brings home the people, as God brings back
the nations, as God makes room even for us. The curse of darkness
is removed forever, and in its place grow the trees of paradise
that join in the song and clap their hands in the rhythm of the
celebration (Isaiah 55:12).
Love is no longer distant and abstract. The covenant between
God and human beings is no longer a legal contract. The new
covenant has now been written in human flesh and blood, recorded on
every heart. Everyone, from the least to the greatest, is the
beneficiary of this gift (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The new covenant is
now a communion of the whole of life; it is now this person, this
friend and companion, this beloved, this family, this community,
these children.
This vision has borne fruit in the person of Jesus, and in all
who bear his name. Flesh and blood now becomes the vehicle for the
real presence of God. All those who once were considered to be far
off, or simply far out, have been brought near by the Blood of
Christ. Every person of flesh and blood, given a heart of flesh
(Ez. 11:19), now can become a witness and missionary of the
Incarnation. And as Israel became witnesses and missionaries of
the Sinai covenant, so God has called each and every person who
reads this to become Missionaries of the Blood of Christ.
"You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living
God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal
gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the
righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new
covenant, and to the blood that speaks a better word than the blood
of Abel (Hebrews 12: 22-24)."
"The Sonnino Notebook" Vol 2, No. 2., November-December 1993
no permission needed to reproduce,
Congregation of Missionaries of the Blood of Christ
The Sonnino Mission House
2800 Milvia Street
Berkeley, CA 94703-2209
510/841-CPPS
