Mission Moment

Dear Covenant Families,

With seven years and seven weeks under my belt as your Head of School, I have come to deeply appreciate some great Covenant traditions that are central to our culture and to our very identity as a unique community of faith and learning. While I have always explored ways to bring positive change to our programs, operations, and physical campus, consistent with Covenant’s mission and culture, the traditions to which I refer are, in my thinking, immutable.

I could name many, but fresh on my mind is the history Timeline Song that our Explorers performed at last week’s Grandparents Day. For all of its cuteness, it is much more than that. This is an experience that each child will remember well into adulthood. And every Covenant student that was here as an Explorer remembers fondly which part he or she played in their class’ Timeline presentation. The tradition stands as a kind of living Ebenezer that connects current Covenant students to one another and to hundreds of alumni who have gone before them. It is a tradition that cannot disappear, in my opinion, so long as Covenant is Covenant.

Another beautiful Covenant culture-keeping tradition is the Flowering of the Cross at Grammar School Easter Chapel, which took place this morning. While many recognize the beauty of this solemn ceremony, few may know the deep Covenant-culture significance that is only evident upon reading the faintly carved message on the back of the cross that is flowered in this lovely pageant. You will read there that the cross was handcrafted for Covenant by Craig Leslie, father of former student Carson Leslie for whom the Carson Leslie Center (in which the ceremony takes place!) is named. In this case, not an Ebenezer but a cross (the very symbol of Jesus’ passion and sacrifice) stands as a monument connecting Covenant’s past to Covenant’s present. That just gives me chills! Again, this can never disappear.

I hope another Easter connection of the past to our present will also continue as a “forever Covenant tradition” - namely families living every day in the power of the resurrection. 

As believers, it is actually easier for us to live in the power of the cross than in the power of the resurrection. That is to say that we often rejoice in what the beautiful Getty hymn proclaims: “This is the power of the cross, Christ became sin for us, took the blame, bore the wrath - we stand forgiven at the cross.” This, of course, is glorious! But if Good Friday is “enough Holy Week” in our daily lives, St. Paul says “we are of all people most to be pitied,” (1 Corinthians 15:19), because “if Christ be not raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins”(1 Corinthians 15:1). Granted, still in our forgiven sins, but nonetheless still not free from the power of sin.

Through His crucifixion, Jesus accomplished forgiveness for all of our sins (if we belong to Him). That is life-saving! But, through the resurrection, He made it possible for us (if we belong to Him) to actually choose to not sin. That is life-changing! Through His resurrection, Jesus restores us to a relationship with our Heavenly Father just as it existed before the Fall, when our spiritual ancestors forfeited the ability to live without sin.

“Good Friday Christians” may be prone to feel free to sin, resting in the assurance that their sins are forgiven through the power of the cross. But St. Paul’s warns against this in Romans 6; “Are we to continue is sin that grace may abound? By no means!” “Easter Christians” understand that they have been raised from the dead with Christ through His resurrection - to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4).

That’s the resurrection power I pray Covenant families will live in every day. Faced with the opportunity to sin, we choose not to sin. We choose the good. We choose the right. We choose to be “Easter Christians” not just “Good Friday Christians.” We resist temptation and choose what our loving Heavenly Father wants us to choose because He has made that possible through the resurrection. Not just forgiven, but freed from the power of sin. Thanks be to God!

I hope your Easter this year will be glorious, and that you make it a Covenant tradition to live each day in the power of the resurrection.

He is risen indeed!

Non Nobis,

Robert Littlejohn, Ph.D.
Head of School