Genesis 6: 16-22;
9:8-15
This year I will
be preaching from the Narrative Lectionary, which is a four year cycle of
readings that shows the breadth of voices from the Bible. Both the Old and New Testament readings
are texts that proclaim what God is doing in human history. The stories tell of
hope and disappointment, suffering and redemption….it is here we find God
dealing with the complexities of human life. Stories from the gospels differ
each year, avoiding repetition and highlighting what is distinctive about each
gospel’s telling of the story of Jesus.[i]
Designed by Brian Saphr
We are familiar
with the epic of Noah that spans a whopping three chapters in the book of
Genesis. From the ‘Arky Arky’
children’s song to Bill Cosby’s memorable Noah monologue and then the
subsequent one, even funnier, to cute little replicas of the ark and pairs of
animals, Noah’s ark is a beloved story of the Judeo-Christian faith.
But there are
other flood myths that are critical to
other peoples
identities too. Myths of great floods that wipe out civilizations are not
new. Navajo, Ojibway, Inca’s you
name it, it seems most cultures have a story of a flood, brought on by a deity
or deities, and some sort of vessel is built saving a remnant of the
people.
Most famous
probably is the Epic of Gilgamesh
from Mesopotamia where, in his successful effort to find immortality
encounters Utnapishtim who tells him the story of a great flood that the gods
sent to destroy all of the city
and about how the god Ea (a yah) told Utnapishtim to build a boat and populate
it with male and females animals.
Well it follows the story line of Noah to a certain point but there is
no pretty colorful bow hung in the sky in the end. It continues into a longer tale.
Today our
scripture for reflection is from Genesis, the story of Noah, of God and a great
big flood. Somewhere between the
beginning of Genesis where God created the earth and the heavens, the stars and
the moon, the creepy crawly insects and animals, us humans in God’s image; male
and female alike, and pronounced it all good, somewhere between that and the
story of Noah things went horribly awry.
The people went
bad and God got miffed.
Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to
a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower,
second, and third decks. For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on
the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of
life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my
covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife,
and your sons’ wives with you.
And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two
of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and
female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to
their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two
of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you
every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food
for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
Then God said to Noah and to his sons
with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your
descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the
birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as
came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all
flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a
flood to destroy the earth.”
God said, “This is the sign of the
covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with
you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall
be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over
the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that
is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters
shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
We could spend
hours asking a few questions here but the big one, why in the world would our
loving God do such a thing? What
was this divine God that we worship thinking? Why would God do a major ‘reboot’ with creation like that? Well we don’t know the mind of God if
in fact we read the story in this way.
It appears that God changes, or our understanding of who God is
changes. And what we also see is
that in this story of failure and crisis is that God’s relationship with Noah
and creation deepened as God called Noah to repopulate the earth. A broken relationship is restored and a
covenant is made visible through one of the most beautiful acts of nature, a
rainbow.
Now if there
wasn’t a big meeting after church about a topic near and dear to my heart I would
love to explore more fully this beloved story that we tend to gloss over and
make pretty for children. What I
want to take from this story is how God’s relationship deepened with humanity
and how our relationship could deepen through redevelopment, and covenant.
You, as a
congregation, are at an exciting juncture. You have made the commitment to call a redevelopment pastor
which indicates to me that you are wanting, willing, perhaps even longing to
become something much more than who you are presently.
Not that there is
anything wrong with who you are presently. No! There is
not. I have experienced you in
these last 20 months, almost two years, as a loving, giving, caring, and
yearning congregation. But I also
sense that you are longing to ready yourselves and prepare for future
generations to experience the love and acceptance that you have found
here. You are ready to be open to
where God is calling you next and who God is calling you to be.
I believe that
we, together, have already stepped onto that yellow brick road into the
future. The great ministerial conundrum
of our day is what will the future church need to be, and that is our biggest
question too. What will we look
like twenty years from now or even ten years from now and still be church and
how do we position ourselves?
Inherantly redevelopment means change, to reboot the system so that the
softward can be updated and enhanced.
This is
covenantal and sacred work. These
next four years will be holy territory that we will navigate together because
of the call God has placed upon us together.
And God will be
with us. God expressed covenant
with Noah and God’s covenant of grace and mercy will be upon us too. Let us open ourselves to all future
possibilities. Let us call upon
our still speaking God to nudge us from complancey into the great and future
church that we can be.
Amen.
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