Berith - Covenant

“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my berith, you shall be my own possession among all the peoples; for all the earth is mine. And you shall belong to the realm of my royal lordship as the first who are at the right hand of the king and as a consecrated people.” (Ex 19.4-6a)

This is the covenant God will make with Israel.

Balthasar makes two points about this covenant.

“And the manner in which this divine ‘I’ addresses and lays hold of the people that stand before him at the mountain of God shows two things: first, the fact that this living God enters upon a relationship with this crowd of human persons in a special manner that sets a mark of distinction upon them, is in an elemental manner … pure one-sided grace. Second [this relationship]… lays claim to them in a total and unconditional way: what is at stake here is not something that is merely ‘interior’ and ‘ethical’ or ‘cultic’ but at the same time the whole external, ‘legal’ and ‘political’ existence of the group.”

He goes on to make the point that this idea of an all-encompassing covenant that includes the ethical as well as the spiritual aspects of their lives was not a radical idea for the Israelites. Their cultic leaders were their political leaders as well. We have lost this idea. We have made our spiritual lives divorced from our political lives. We are fearful of religious expression in the public square. Living a life of conviction and integrity, the desire to form a community that is able to live in accord with their beliefs, is frowned upon and labeled intolerant. We now live in a place and time when we cannot take pride in the mark of distinction God has graciously bestowed on us without being ostracized.

Our more radical Muslim brothers and sisters take this idea of an all-encompassing relationship with God to violent extremes and thereby give it a bad name. The more modern and moderate Muslim reformers are struggling as well. They are attempting to come to terms with the modern world and still hold on to their belief that their God is what drives their entire life and this adherence to God in all aspects is the integrity God asks in response to his covenant with us.

This we have in common with them.

This post has taken an entirely different path than when I began writing it.