May

I am listening to a sermon by a pastor from at a church called the Village in the Dallas Texas area. I am literally listening right now. Okay, I turned it off to write better. He was saying that many people developed an understanding of Christianity that was based around the idea that if you act as a good Christian by wearing the right clothes, avoiding certain words and going to church then things would go good for you. Then, he explained that people with this notion would loose their job, get dumped, loose a loved one, or something and their idea was shattered. Then they would leave church, stop praying, and possibly begin hating God. The pastor then said how really our relationship with God is not a contract because we have nothing to offer God. Everything we have is his already. We can’t make him owe us a good life by our actions. Instead of contracts God gives us a covenant which is more of an interactive relationship.

I guess that another way to talk about this is that a covenant is, like friendship, a dynamic experience. It exists in times of variety such as pain, pleasure, distance, intimacy, and so on. A contract in comparison seems more fixed. It seems to be unconcerned with contextual changes.

Mmmm interesting...