"Promises, promises." Usually these words are spoken with a voice of resignation and a healthy dose of skepticism. The expectation is that promises made will not be kept. "I'll come back and take care of that mess later, I promise." "I'll never do it again if you just forgive and forget one more time ..." "I'll clean up after the puppy and feed him EVERY day, you'll never have to do ANYTHING. I PROMISE."
Oh yeah. Promises, promises.
Human beings are notorious for their inadequacies in keeping promises. But scripture assures us this is not true of the promises of God. When governments seethe with corruption, neighbors violate covenants, friends vanish in times of trouble, lovers' hearts grow cold, and even a mother's bond with her child fails ... God's promises remain.
At Vespers this last Sunday night our discussion of treasured covenants led to comparisons between the legal standing of dependent and independent covenants. (It is a University congregation ... law professors show up sometimes. What are you going to do?) As it was explained to us, the basic difference is that in a dependent covenant each party has made a promise "if you do this, I am obligated to do that." In an independent covenant, the responsibilities of each party in the covenant are NOT dependent on the behavior of the other party. "I said I would do this as landlord, and regardless of the tenants' behavior, I will do as I said." That sort of thing. You see where this could get one into trouble, don't you?
We like to have guarantees in writing that everything will be fair and recipricol. I will pay you rent AS LONG AS you keep this apartment safely heated, and water running, and no rats in the walls. I don't want to be obligated to pay you when you aren't providing what you promised anymore. And by the same token, the landlord doesn't want to properly care for a building where tenants regularly ignore their obligations to use the premises properly and pay their rent on time. The same is true in business relationships, neighborhood zoning regulations, even family dynamics. At what point do you say, "Enough is enough! This is not what you promised."
God's promises of grace, love and forgiveness, not to mention the gifts of abundance available to us from the good earth God entrusted in our care ... are far beyond what any measure of fairness would allow. The prophets testify to this again and again. Our grieving, rejected, taken-for-granted-again God turns toward us continuously with a heart filled with love. Not because of our promises kept, but because the holy covenant God chooses is of the independent kind. It is God alone who loves us with a "love that wilt not let us go." And that's a promise.
