It seems the two of them had managed to drag the neighbors skateboard ramp from down the block back to their concrete driveway and that the younger had dared, taunted with words like chicken and sissy until the older took the bait.

            All went well as the dirt bike came speeding down the driveway up the ramp and like Evil Kenievel, Josh went flying into the air and managed to do an almost 360°

But like most takeoffs, it is the landing that is the proof in the pudding. .

            The landing did not go well and Josh ended up with a broken collar bone.

It seems that there is a lesson to be learned and Josh has assured his mother that he has learned it. We have a parallel of sorts in the OT lesson today.

            The words of Jeremiah where uttered at a time that his country was about to be overthrown by a pagan king .  The Covenant that God had made with Abraham and Moses on Mt. Sinai seemed but a distant memory.

There was trouble everywhere and the blessings where long gone…

That is the place where the OT reading picks up: vs.32

            The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the             house of Israel. It will not be like the  covenant that I made with their ancestors               when I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt…

He TOOK THEM BY THE HAND..  like mom calling her young’uns home for supper.

            But what did they do? They tarried, dillidallied, meandered… took a few detours. They did not come home… and neither did the tribes of Israel.

They too tarried, dillidallied, meandered, and took a few detours.. To be specific

             “They set up their abominations in the house that bears my name and defield             it… they turned their backs to me not their faces. They built the high places of             Ba’al to offer up their sons and daughters to Mo-lech, though I did not command             them. 32:33,24.

            Actually God says “It never occurred to me that they would do such a thing.” I can just hear Josh and Jacob’s mom – “it never occurred to me that they would do such a thing.” That they would drag the ramp three blocks down a dirt road and set up in the driveway and try to use it as a launching pad for their bicycle.

            It doesn’t end there. Jeremiah told his congregants that since they could not be             faithful to God and keep the covenant which is spelled out in Deut. 30.5

            “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you             obey the commandments… then you shall live and become numerous and the             Lord your God will bless you… but if your heart turns away and you do not hear,             I declare to you today that you shall perish. I have set before you life and death,             blessings and courses, chose life so that you and your descendants may live”.

            That was then, by the time of Jeremiah – the “kids” had long forgotten the conversation between themselves and mother YAHWEH..

So Jeremiah, as God’s spokesman, tells the children of Israel that God is about to make a new covenant.. not new in the sense that God changed the rules that he gave them on the tablets but new in the sense that they would no longer be written in stone.

            After those days… I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts. I             will be their God and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one             another, or say to one another “Know the LORD”  for they shall know me from    the least to the greatest says the Lord.. and I will forgive their iniquity and    remember their sins no more.

No more memorizing bible verses. No more imperatives “know the Lord.”

For they shall know me…

So how will we know when this happens?

How will the writing of the Law on human hearts happen?

First we must acknowledge that the human heart is in mess.

It is to use Jesus words “evil from day one.”

Or on another occasion Jesus said “ It is not what goes into man that defiles him but what comes out of him..”

So, before God can write on our hearts he must first of all erase the gibberish and nonsense that is there – That’s called forgiveness.

            To quote Jeremiah “ The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with a diamond             point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts..”

Judah and Israel where real paces, but by the time these lines where penned by the Prophet they also stand for all of us who follow in their footsteps.

Judah becomes – Joshua and Jacob, Jim and John, Hartmut and Mary Jo…

Remember those scryptographs, that we had as kids and you could draw and write stuff and  then with the swish of lever you erase it all and start over.

That is what happens when we come to God. It begins with Jesus..

Listen to the words from the Gospel of Mark 14.24

He said to them

             “this is my blood of the covenant which is  poured out for many”

Or in Luke “ then he took the loaf of bread.. he broke it and gave it to them saying

this is my body given for you … and he did the same with the cup after supper saying

this cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.Lk.22.20.

            Some  Greeks came to Philip and said “Sir we wish to see Jesus” Philip went and told Andrew and Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.

            Then Jesus gives this enigmatic reply about the Son of Man being glorified and wheat that falls into the earth and dies, only to bear fruit after it dies and sprouts…

Followed by that well known aphorism “Whoever loves their life will loose it  and those who hate their life (in this world) will keep it for eternal life.”

            In Baptism we were drowned in the water of Life..

It was in that moment that God wrote his law into our hearts.

 It was in that moment that we were made children of a New Covenant  as we are reminded in the sacrament:

            In baptism our gracious heavenly father frees us from sin

            By joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

            We are born children of a fallen humanity;

            By water and the Holy Spirit we are

            Reborn children of God and made members of the church,

            The body of Christ.

So what is our response?  “Thank you Jesus..”

I’m reminded of the time I was driving down a rain soaked highway and hit one of those puddles.. I hydroplaned. The car flipped over and I landed in the grassy median upside down. I was a bit shaken but ok. The Car behind me stopped and out came a woman who looked at me and said that when she saw the car go air born “ I knew you was a dead man.. and then I saw you crawl out of the car and I said “thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus…”

You see all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Only the King Himself can do that.

So  when you come to take his body and drink the wine of his blood… say it, say it, sing it, pray it, live it! Thank you Jesus!  “Thank you Jesus…..!”

 Amen.