The Call and the Covenant

Throughout history God’s Covenant with His people begins with the simple yet earth-shaking command, ‘Leave what you know and go into the unknown.’  The command is united with a promise of blessing: ‘Leave what you know and go into the unknown, and I will be with you and I will bless you, but you must act in faith in response to my word.’

The Lord said to Noah, ‘Because of the violence in the world caused by humans I am going to destroy them with all the earth. Make yourself an ark according to my instructions and fill it with your family and pairs of all living things, male and female at my command.’ Noah acted in faith in response to God’s call and did all that God commanded him.

And when the flood was over Noah and his family survived as promised and God made a further Covenant with Noah and his descendants and with every living creature … that never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth, adding “this is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature.  I have set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

The Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you, I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Abraham acted in faith in response to God’s call and went as the Lord had commanded him.

Time and again the Lord promised the people of Israel when they responded in faith, 'I am the Lord, obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey'.

And then God made a new covenant with all people giving us His Son who died for our sins on a cross on the Hill of Calvary, and that “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Kybartai UMC and Trinity UMC have been called by God into a covenant partnership to build a relationship and to rebuild the church.

After 60 years in exile into Babylon the people of Israel, when given their freedom, returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the Temple that had been destroyed by their suppressors.

Kybartai Christians, achieving independence after 50 years of Communist atheist domination, have been called to rebuild the Kybartai UMC that had been destroyed by their suppressors. The Kybartai Methodists are acting in faith in response to God’s call. With this call, we believe God has promised that He will be with them and bless them in this endeavor.

We also believe that Trinity UMC and this Trinity Mission Team have responded in faith to God’s call to ‘Leave what you know and go into the unknown.’ When asked why we have come to Kybartai, the heart response is simply, “because we just have to, God has called us.” For we as representative members of Trinity UMC have been blessed abundantly and our heart-felt response is to share ourselves, and that abundance, with those in need through, and with, our partner church to reach out to the community of Kybartai and to rebuild the church there.

Throughout history God’s people have built altars to God to commemorate significant events in their lives where God has been recognizably present or instrumental in the event.

After the flood and the waters subsided, Noah and his wife and their family went out of the ark, along with all of the animals and birds and creeping things, and everything on the earth that moves went out of the ark by families … then Noah built an altar to the Lord.

When they had come to the land of Canaan to the place at Schechem to the oak of Moreh the Lord appeared to Abraham and said, “to your offspring I will give this land” … so he built there an altar to the Lord.

The Israelites built many altars to the Lord in their travels and travails with the Lord in settling the land of milk and honey.

The early altars of Noah and Abraham and Israel were simply mounds of earth or mounds of stones adorned with hand made objects. The altars were built, not to commemorate what they had done, but in recognition of what God had done for them.

In keeping with that tradition, we of Trinity UMC in partnership with Kybartai UMC dedicate this cross on this earthen mound in recognition of God’s recognizable presence with us, and of His blessings in all that we are and do, and with the leading of the Holy Spirit in our partnership with Christ to rebuild the Kybartai UMC as part of the Body of Christ in Lithuania.

Christ promised his faithful followers that when we knock the door will be opened, and when we ask in His name we shall receive.

So let us pray … Our Father, in the name of your precious and holy Son Jesus Christ, we ask your abundant blessings on the people of Kybartai and on this partnership in the rebuilding of the Kybartai UMC.   Amen
                                                                                     - by Mike Lowe