“Cutting the Apron Strings” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

From the time we are born until the time that we die, it seems as if we are always aiming for the future.  Think about it . . . when we are babies, we want to be children . . . when we are children, we want to be teenagers . . . when we are teenagers, we want to be adults.  As adults . . . we want to be married, parents, grandparents . . . we want to move from unemployed to employed, poor to rich.  We are always looking to a bigger, better, and brighter future.  Even as the followers of Jesus, we trod through our journey of faith with our eyes on the future . . . that heavenly reward.  We are future-oriented.  It is in our DNA.

And, that’s okay.  That is what we are supposed to do . . . we are to grow up, become independent, and live life on our own terms as individuals.  Thousands of book have been written on this process of individualization.  A big part of that individualization is that we become people who stand on his or her own two feet making the decisions that we need to make based on our own experience, knowledge, and wisdom gained from living.  That we are our own person.

Part of my job at the university is to coordinate a program for high school students with disabilities that helps them transition from high school to either college or the workforce.  Like many children they have grown up with their parents taking care of them, making decisions for them, and providing for them.  Thus they are pretty dependent on their parents, and probably more so than others because of their disabilities.  Or, as we like to say, they are tied to their mother’s apron strings. Unfortunately, children have to grow up and move on with their own lives . . . even children with disabilities.  Which is pretty scary for these kids.

The program is designed to help these kids make that transition.  Through mentorship from college students with disabilities, these kids are given the opportunity to begin exploring their independence as individuals.  They learn about things like self-determination, life management, life skills, and how to stand up for themselves through self-advocacy.  The program helps them to become who they are as individuals . . . who they are as God created them to be.  It is scary work, but in the end they begin to discover their selfhood and independence.  No longer are they so dependent upon their parents.  The apron strings are slowly being cut.

Which is what the parents want despite the fact that it is pretty scary for them too.  It is not easy letting go of someone whom you have loved since the day he or she popped into the world kicking and screaming.  Yet, it has to happen if the child is ever to realize his or her personhood as an individual.  Thus it is that the parents hope and pray that everything they have done will be remembered by the child as he or she transitions to independence.  That all of those life lessons will be remembered.  We call this “cutting the apron strings”.

Now, I may be wrong about how I understand the words of Jeremiah in our reading this morning . . . but, I hear Jeremiah talking about some apron string cutting in this passage.  Jeremiah is sharing a new covenant from God . . . a change in the relationship between the people and God . . . the way things are going to be.  In this God talks about no longer relating to the people as God always has.  No longer is God going to hold the people’s hands . . . no longer will the focus be upon the whole group . . . nor will it depend upon what the whole group does.  No, the relationship is about to change.

Now God is moving away from the whole and going to the individual.  God is cutting the apron strings and demanding that the relationship move to one between each individual and God.  That relationship won’t depend upon the whole group, but the individual.  The decision will be upon the individual.  God says, “No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”   And, to make this possible, God tells them: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

With this covenant the proof of the relationship comes down to the individual . . . to his or her decision to come into relationship with God.  No one else can make that decision . . . not the house of faith . . . not the community . . . not the parents or family.  No one, but the individual can make that decision based upon his or her life experience and knowledge of God.  It cannot be done while hanging onto the apron strings.

I might be wrong, but I think all of us believe that when it comes to stepping into a relationship with God through Jesus, that it has to be done as individuals.  It has to come from our personal experience . . . from our personal knowledge . . . from our own hearts.  It cannot come from another person’s experience.  It cannot be based on someone else’s knowledge.  It has to come from ourselves.  No one can make that decision for us. 

Thus it is that we are called upon to cut those apron strings that keep us from fully becoming independent as who we are created by God to be . . . to be ourselves.  Within in our lives those apron strings are represented in our dependence to rely upon others to make up our minds for us . . . to allow the church to tell us what to believe . . . to let books speak for us . . . to quote the words of the preacher or teacher as if they were our own words.  During the season of Lent that has been a part of our journey towards the promise of Easter . . . going through and snipping those apron strings that keep us from fully embracing God in our lives.

It all comes down to us . . . each and every one of us as individuals who have been created in the image of God.  Individuals who have had the love, compassion, and grace of God imprinted into our hearts and mind.  Individuals whom God desires a relationship that comes from the person him or herself . . . that comes to God through his or her own heart.  As freely chosen as it has been given.

That is what God desires as God strikes out on this new covenant.  God desires that we will be God’s people . . . God’s children, not because we have been told to be by the church or anyone else; but, because we chose to be as individuals.  With this relationship, the future no longer matters because we will have discovered the Kingdom of God.  Amen.