From the Old Testament reading for today I refer you to Jeremiah saying “…there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."

         Elsewhere Jeremiah speaks in Chapter 31:  “This is the covenant which I will make with Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will set my law within them and write it on their hearts."
 
         As you know, for many years the cartoon characters, created by the late, beloved Charles Schultz, who gave us Charlie Brown and Lucy, who were having a continuing episode with his football.  Lucy tells Charle Brown she will hold the football on end, so he can kick it off.  Every time, just before Charlie Brown kick, she pulls away and he falls flat on his back.  Worse, she even pokes fun at his trust in her, as much as to say, “April Fool!”
 
         One year a television special revealed a new dimension in Lucy.  She gave Charlie Brown a signed document declaring she would not trick him while holding the football.  With grateful excitement, Charlie Brown took a running start and approached the football. Once again, Lucy jerked the football away at the last moment.  When the signed document floated to the ground from fallen Charlie Brown’s hand, Lucy picked it up and laughingly told Charlie that it had not been notarized!
 
         Across the centuries man has repeatedly demonstrated the failure to keep his word, both in relation to his fellow humans and in relation to God.  How many times you and I have been in the role of Lucy, using frail excuses for failing to be faithful to our commitments!  How many times we have been in the role of Charlie Brown, looking in the wrong places for security and affirmation!
 
         Examples are endless.  A grading contractor once related an experience he had.  In the midst of a big job, the owner wanted additional work done that was not in the original agreement.  The contractor made a verbal agreement to do the work for a specified sum of money.  When the job was completed, the owner refused to pay the additional costs.  He said that their original contract did not require him to pay anything extra.  The owner added that he had prayed about the matter and now felt that the contractor was responsible for the job and must assume the loss!  With no legal leg to stand on, the contractor had to absorb a financial loss of thousands of dollars, all because a so-called Christian found some means to weasel his way out of his moral responsibility.
 
         We just as readily violate our agreements with God – as did the people in prophet Jeremiah’s day.  Never before in the history of Judah, it seemed, had there been such open-faced ignoring of God’s laws as during Jeremiah’s time.  The people broke God’s covenant and felt little responsibility to fulfill God’s expectations of them.  They wanted what THEY wanted when THEY wanted it.  They sought security through military alliances; they were unwilling to put their complete trust and dependence on Yahweh, the God of their covenant.  Those ancient Jews viewed their lives and their religion in terms of the Land they possessed and the temple they had built.  They would not even admit that God could come to them or be with them beyond that country, even though that very God had been with them and led them out of Egypt!
 
         It was in this setting that God spoke through Jeremiah – at a time either during or shortly after the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 587-586 B.C.  Surely this passage is one of the most moving and profound of all biblical texts!  Some scholars have called these four verses “The gospel before the gospel,” for this new revelation of God is the closest Old Testament approach to New Testament faith.  In an era when people ceased listening to God, Jeremiah sounded forth an emphatic declaration of divine authority, in essence saying:  LISTEN, THIS IS REVELATION.  God was telling the people they would not be forsaken, even in exile.  He was also promising them a NEW covenant.  This new covenant was necessitated, not because of any failure on God’s part, but because of the repeated failure of the people to keep the OLD covenant.

         The new covenant Jeremiah declared for Yahweh had both similarities and differences.  Like the Old covenant, the new one was to be rooted in God’s initiate, and based on a dynamic relationship between God and man.  The teachings of God, the Torah, would still be at the center.  A crucial difference, though, would be that now the individual became a focal point.  The new covenant included the entire nation, and yet there was a particular emphasis on the responsiveness of the individual.
 
        Another departure from the old was that a promise was incorporated into the new covenant – a promise of a forthcoming salvation.  This salvation involved the creation of a new person through God’s divine act.  Unlike the previous covenant, God would write the law, revealing his order of living on everyone’s heart, in everyone’s inner being.  This new relationship would not be dependent upon externals, but on a first-hand personal knowledge of God.
 
         There are two transforming keys that enable god to write on the heart.  First, there is a dynamic fellowship with God.  Not a formal, ceremonial, religious exercise – but a personal, intimate fellowship of an obedient, regenerate, pure, loyal heart in which God is in control; that’s what it means to know God!  Second, there is life-transforming fellowship through forgiveness.  Those who share in the new covenant are able to obey because their natures are changed.  The covenantal relationship is not fully established until forgiveness is experienced – forgiveness from God that enable us to forgive ourselves and to forgive others.  Forgiveness, the vital remedy for poisoned relationships, is part of the new covenant.
 
        How often we are ready to enter into a new agreement that will bring us more benefits, pay, gifts, or opportunities, but we do not want to assume the responsibilities involved.   Benjamin Franklin wrote in his Autobiography about a man who bought an ax and was dissatisfied that the entire metal did not have a bright shine like the sharpened point.  The blacksmith offered to grind the whole ax head and make it shy if the owner would turn the hand-operated grinding wheel.  Fine.  But the man would turn the wheel for a while and then stop and examine the ax.  The blacksmith urged him to keep turning and stop looking so much, because the metal was now speckled – neither dull nor bright.  But soon the man gave up in weariness and declared that he like the speckled ax better than a shiny one!
 
         People who use religion for the wrong reasons become discouraged and frequently settle for less than God intended – due to lack of dedication, commitment, and obedience.  But Jesus said the one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit to enter the kingdom.  One who is milking his professional religious beliefs for what he can get out of them does not have the covenant of God written on his heart!
 
         Just as in Jeremiah’s day, people now seek to purchase their security and life’s meaning from what they have, who they know, or the contacts they have made.  Many people embrace religious beliefs, and yet they refuse to allow God to possess their lives and orchestrate the full potential of the music implanted within their lives.
 
         Once the great composer and organist, Mendelssohn, visited a cathedral in Europe and requested permission to play.  The organist refused his request, saying that amateurs and strangers were not allow access to this great instrument. But, finally, the visitor prevailed. And as the overpowering sounds issued forth from the organ at the touch of the artist’s hands, the organist timidly inquired who he was.  Hearing his identity, the shocked man declared, “To think…I almost refused to allow Mendelssohn to play on my organ!”  How many of us, in our pride, refuse to give our hearts and lives to God and realize the great melodies that can be played within God’s new covenant!
 
        The power of God’s grace and forgiveness means that our sin is no longer held against us.  In place of guilt and overpowering sin, God gives the boldness and courage to face persecution with a warm witness to the new covenant written on the heart.
 
        In the 1960’s, a science fiction film entitled, “Fauhrenheit 451,” was produced.  The film told how a certain government assumed total control over the thoughts and behavior of all citizens.  No books were allowed.  All books were burned and any person with a back market book was guilty of treason. The redemptive element in the story was a community of people who were committed to the preservation of the great literature of their heritage.  The old people read entire books to their children and grandchildren until the words were memorized.  Then it made no difference if the books were destroyed, for the words written on the heart would be there for a lifetime!
 
        This continues to be the powerful truth of the new covenant God announced through Jeremiah.  The genuine relationship with him that is written on the heart will not wear off or wash off, despite the storms of life or passing of time.  Similarly, our baptism is permanently etched on our bodies and souls and cannot be removed.  Once you are a Christian, you are a Christian until you die.  A good one?  A lukewarm one? A lapsed one?  Who knows???   Well, we all know who knows and He is the final judge!
 
        External trappings or ceremonial religious practices will pass away, but not the faith in God that is written on the heart!
 
        And now, since I have done a rare thing here; that is, speak to you from an Old Testament text.  However,
 
        Another prophet, whose words you may remember from a Bible Study, ties this in very well.  From the prophet Micah, Chapter 6, Verse 8…”and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humblywith your God?”  As it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:31)