The witness to covenant love – the Bible, Waitangi and Today
4th February 2024 SERMON
Mark 1:29-39
This reading from Mark’s Gospel today is a witness to something new happening.
God has come in person and is forming a new relationship – a new covenant …of love.
Mark has written this as a witness to this amazing new relationship,
and today I want us to look at how a witness to covenant love is evident in three ways:
There is the witness to covenant love
1. of Bible (this passage announcing Jesus);
2. of Christians in history (shaping the Waitangi Treaty covenant);
3. of us today (belonging and sharing gifts)
Last Sunday I offered some suggestions why standing for the Bible as we come to worship here together signifies something meaningful:
We recognise that the Word of God is authoritative – at the centre of our worship –
and that we participate in the presence of God.
After the service, someone came up to me and pointed out I had missed a very important point – and when they told me, I completely agreed with them!
I didn’t talk about the meaning of us standing as the Bible is taken out of the worship space.
We do this recognising that the Bible leads us out as we continue our ministry and mission.
We are led and guided by the witness of the Word of God.
And this idea of ‘witness’ is at the centre of Christian faith.
This is what motivated Mark to write his Gospel, as a witness of what had happened.
In his Gospel – in this passage we’ve heard today –
Mark pushes Jesus on to the stage without a word of introduction.
No origin story.
No family background.
No Christmas backdrop.
The curtain shoots up, and there on stage is the central figure;
no prelude, no apologies, no explanations,
there is the Son,
the beloved.
The message Mark passes on – including on to us today – is centred on this man.
Mark bears witness to him and the transformation that comes through him.
Mark bears witness to a changed state of affairs.
This is a press release from the palace,
which has changed the political climate,
which has changed the regime.
This is a deeply serious story, a world-changing story,
whose ramifications extend well beyond the villages of Galilee.
And it’s not just Mark.
There are other witnesses in history.
Mark’s Gospel, and the other stories of Jesus told by the first disciples are passed on.
In recognition that this covenant love is momentous and life-changing – for every person, everyone who hears it has the chance to become a witness.
And so there were those who had experienced this covenant love who brought the Gospel story to these shores.
They became witnesses of this covenant love,
and their lives shape the identity of those of us who live in this land.
As part of how the Christian missionaries to New Zealand witnessed to the covenant of love for all people, they emphasised literacy for Māori.
So they could read the Bible for themselves.
(You’ll recognise this is a strong principle of the Protestant Reformation – that each person can read the Word of God for themselves.)
William Colenso printed the New Testament letters of Ephesians and Philippians in te reo Māori in 1835, and then just a few years later the full New Testament in Māori – translated from the original Greek.
The witness of the covenant of love in the Bible, is made accessible by the witness of these missionaries to New Zealand,
and it transformed the lives of Māori. They gave up utu, for peace.
And this witness to covenant love had another massive influence on this country.
Do you know the name: James Stephen?
Sir James Stephen was the Permanent Undersecretary of the Colonial Office, and a member of the Clapham Sect (an evangelical humanitarian community).
His influence was huge in defining the British-Māori relationship by the covenant of love God has shred with us.
“Covenant” is the central concept within the biblical witness.
The Bible tells the story of God the Father’s love for His children and His plan to fashion all people into one holy family.
God unfolds this plan of salvation through a series of covenants, culminating in the New Covenant He makes in Jesus.
The covenant of love is the God-initiated, binding, living, relationship with blessings and obligations.
What does that mean? What does that look like?
Well, Christian Marriage is undertaken with this understanding of covenant.
God-initiated, binding, living, relationship with blessings and obligations.
For the Christian witnesses who had a hand in brokering early British-Māori relationships, they believed that this divine covenant relationship might offer the basis for partnership.
A partnership that could be documented as an agreement between people –
God-initiated, binding, living, relationship with blessings and obligations.
On Waitangi Day in 1934 (90 years ago) the Governor General Lord Bledisloe called upon God in recognition of the meaning for us of the Treaty of Waitangi:
“Let Waitangi be to us all a Tatau Pounamu – a symbol of peace and unity…”
Lord Bledisloe was the one who (in the 1930s) purchased the site where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and gifted it to the people of New Zealand.
He knew the history and those who were witnesses to covenant love.
This Waitangi Day the Rt Rev Rose Luxford (Moderator of the Presbyterian Church) will be involved in the services at Waitangi alongside Rev Tamiana Thrupp, the Moderator of Te Aka Puaho (the Māori Synod).
Side by side, they are witnesses to the covenant love that the Church proclaims;
in the belief that this is momentous and life-changing – for every person.
This brings us to the witness of us today.
We have the witness of scripture, and the witness of Christians in our history…
…what is OUR witness to covenant love?
We here are a community that strives to bears witness to God’s covenant love – by what we say and what we do.
We believe in inclusion, in belonging, and in sharing gifts.
Let me repeat that… we believe in inclusion, in belonging, and in sharing gifts.
We welcome all to become followers of Jesus;
to join us in the journey of faith.
Our Mission Statement is
‘God gathers us to worship and grow our faith,
so we can live and share Christ's hope for our world.’
This covenant love is the context for encouraging each other to be involved in our life together as a Church whanau,
hearing God’s call to fully discover and share the gifts you have been given.
So, let me give you this question to take with you today:
What is YOUR witness to covenant love?
Later on, when we stand as the Bible leads us from this time of worship, let us stand in expectancy. Expect God to guide you in the world as witnesses to the goodness of God,
sharing this goodness - as Jesus shares –
and embracing the goodness that others share with us.