Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 3, 2023
by Madison Johnston, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: In God, we have a robust history behind us and a hopeful future in front of us.
One of the greatest advertising lines in history is “Coca-Cola: It’s the Real Thing.” So explicit. So in-your-face. So direct about how important authenticity is, and how simple authenticity can make everything else.
It’s kind of funny to think, then, about how many different ways that Coca-Cola has come to the consumer since it hit the market. The bottles have looked different year to year, and now of course, it comes in cans. For a while, you could look for a can that had your name on it! Or your friend’s name. There are specialized Coca-Cola Christmas campaigns with polar bears. There are low sugar and low calorie options—CokeZero and Diet Coke—and a ton of different flavors, too. Lime. Cherry. In recent years, we’ve even seen the terrifying mix of Coca-Cola and coffee!
All of this begs the question: if Coca-Cola is the real thing, why do we have so many versions of it? Can the real thing be so varied and so eclectic and still be the real thing? Authentic?
The very same question lies in our scripture this morning. These verses from Jeremiah are often referred to as “the New Covenant,” because in them, God relays to the prophet that God is working within a set of historical promises to do something new. It seems like there will be portions of this new covenant that seem familiar and that relate to things that God’s people already know. But it seems, too, like portions of this new covenant will have to be experienced and learned for the first time.
When Jesus asks his disciples who people say that he is in our second text—our reading from Mark 8—we see this kind of tension. It’s clear that people associate Jesus with the Hebrew tradition in which they are versed. It’s clear that they view him as connected to prophetic wisdom and work. Some even go so far as to recognize him as the messiah. But the full meaning of that term involves some newness that none of them could possibly have understood, because though it was foretold, it had never been experienced. God’s new covenant in Jesus is a beautiful example of God working through historical promises to do something new.
It’s nice to be able to remember that God can connect with us through many promises all at once. It’s comforting to know that God’s promises don’t have to be mutually exclusive. God speaks to different people in different ways, but stays authentic through it all. Our promise this morning is that God can be experienced in many flavors, but God is still the real thing every time.
The first Sunday of Advent is known as the Sunday of “hope.” As we enter into a season of anticipation of the new things God is doing, we look to them with hope instead of fear. With humility instead of confidence. With curiosity instead of insistence on the familiar. New covenants do not make old ones moot; they simply beautify the complex web of ways that God seeks to connect with us and work through us.
