As For Me: This Is My Covenant With You

This meditation is based on a passage for January 1, 2011 in the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).

Text: Genesis 17:1-12a, 15-16

Reflection and Question: I was chatting with my sister-in-law this past summer about the amazing outpouring of rainbow scarves knitted as gifts for people at the General Assembly, saying there are two unconditional covenants in Scripture, the rainbow with Noah and the Word made flesh in Jesus. She corrected me by pointing out the covenant God makes in this Genesis passage with the now old man, Abram, renamed here Abraham. The marks of Abraham’s faith — circumcision or his willingness to sacrifice his son, Isaac — are yet to come in later passages. So I stand corrected. How is God’s covenant with Abram unconditional?

Prayer: Great God of our mothers and fathers, like Abram, we would walk before you and be blameless. Resting upon the witness of our ancestors reaching all the way back to Sarah and Abraham, we fall before You in joyful awe at Your love for us. Amen.