July 28, 2019
(Because this week's reading is so long, the reading and sermon are split up into 4 sections.)
Reading #1: Genesis 6:5-8, 13-22
Reflection #1
So right off the top,
I wonder why the story of Noah’s Ark is so popular when decorating babies’ nurseries
or Sunday School classrooms. Sure,
animals two-by-two marching into a boat is a cute image, even though it was
likely very noisy and smelly in real life.
But the story begins with God’s heart grieving the wickedness of
humanity.
We are only 6 chapters
into the book of Genesis, and we are told that God is already regretting the
humans that were created in chapters 1 and 2.
These humans who were created in God’s image; these humans who were
formed of dust and brought to life by the breath of God; these humans who had
been tasked with caring for the rest of creation – these are the humans who
have now reached a point where we are told, “God saw that the wickedness of
humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of
their hearts was only evil continually.”
(Genesis 6:5) What has happened
here?!
If we were to flip
through the chapters that we skipped over, in chapter 3 of Genesis we have the
original humans wanting to be like God, choosing to eat the fruit of the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil, and being banished from the garden. Then in chapter 4, we find the next
generation, Cain and Abel, and a story of jealousy and murder. And then we have Lamech, the
great-great-great-grandson of Cain and the father of Noah, and we are told that
Lamech is also a murderer, murdering for revenge this time. It didn’t take long for humanity to stray
from the original vision of a creation that was very good in God’s eyes.
And so God decides to
destroy all of creation – not just the humans but the birds and the animals and
the reptiles. It’s almost like God wants
a fresh start, a do-over if you will.
But I have some
questions here for God…
OK God, why are you
punishing the innocent along with the guilty?
Surely there were babies who died who hadn’t done wrong. And what about all of those animals – surely
they weren’t contributing to the evil in the world?
And if you really
wanted a do-over, why preserve anyone or anything? You are offering to save Noah and his family,
but we just saw that Noah is directly in the line of the ancestors who have
done so much harm in the world? If you
save Noah and his family, aren’t you just going to have the same problems all
over again when the floodwaters recede?
I have so many
questions for God, and honestly I don’t have any good answers for them.
Reading #2: Genesis 7:17-21
Reflection #2
And now we come to the
heartbreaking part of the story.
In this part of the
world, we know what it is like to watch the water levels rise. We know what it is like to watch the water
come up, and to know that there is absolutely nothing that we can do to stop
them.
Now imagine watching
the waters continue to rise. Rise up to
the rooftops of all of the houses, then keep on going. Rise up until the very tops of the trees are
underwater. Rise up until even the very
tops of the hills are under water, until there is nothing but water as far as
the eye can see.
And my heart breaks if
I let myself imagine it. Imagining all
of the people desperately seeking higher ground and then even that going under
water. Imagining all of the animals who
didn’t get a spot on the boat swimming until they couldn’t swim any longer.
So much death. So much destruction. And still I don’t have any good answers why.
Reading #3: Genesis 7:24-8:5
Reflection #3
And now our story
turns to Noah. Noah who received
instructions from God to build a boat.
Noah who invited the animals to enter the boat in pairs. Noah who entered the boat, along with his
wife and his sons and his sons’ wives – we don’t know what happened to his
daughters – presumably they were left behind to drown.
So here we have Noah
and what remains of his family, mourning the loss of their friends and
neighbours and family members, busy with the care of all of these animals –
keeping the carnivores away from the herbivores, feeding them and giving them
water to keep them alive, and think of all of the poop that they would have had
to shovel every day!
And the days and the
weeks and the months stretch on. The
waters rose for 40 days and 40 nights, but we’re told that they stayed high for
150 days before they started to go down.
As we know from floods in this part of the world, it takes a lot longer
for the waters to go down than it does for them to rise.
And there we have Noah
and his family waiting. And grieving. And waiting.
And shovelling some manure. And
waiting some more.
And 150 days later – 5
months later – God remembers Noah. I
wonder why it took so long for God to remember Noah? Did it just slip God’s mind that Noah had
been given these instructions about building the ark and calling all the
animals? I wonder if it took so long for
God to remember Noah because God was also grieving – mourning the loss of all
of the animals and the people; mourning the destruction of all of creation.
Noah waits. And waits.
And waits. And finally God
remembers Noah.
And here we have the
turning point in our story. “But God
remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were
with him on the ark. And God made a wind
blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.”
(Genesis 8:1)
Remember back to our
scripture reading a couple of weeks ago; remember back to the very opening of
the book of Genesis. “In the beginning
when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and
darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the
face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:1-2)
And now again we have
that same Hebrew word, ruach, meaning
wind or Spirit or breath. In the
beginning, the ruach of God swept
over the face of the waters and creation began.
Now, the ruach of God blows
over the flooded waters, and a new creation can begin.
A new creation is
beginning.
Reading #4: Genesis 8:20-22, 9:8-13
Reflection #4
Now we come to the
part of the story that makes us happy. I
still don’t have any good answers to all of the questions that I had at the
beginning, but our story ends at a place of hope. The floodwaters dry up, the people and the
animals get off the boat, and God makes a covenant not just with Noah but with
all of Noah’s descendants and with all of creation. God promises to never again destroy
creation. And God seals the covenant by
laying down her weapons – God hangs his bow up in the sky, and whenever we see
a rainbow, we can be reminded that God will never again destroy the earth.
This begs the
question, what exactly is a covenant? At
its core, a covenant is a treaty.
Different nations could seal a covenant with one another. Each party would make their promises – for
example, country A will pay taxes to country B; and country B’s army will
protect country A. Covenants in Ancient
Near East culture would usually be sealed with a sacrifice to whichever gods
were worshipped in the areas covered by the covenant, there would be witnesses
to the covenant, both human and divine, and there would be symbols exchanged so
that each party would be reminded of the deal.
So here we have God
making a covenant with all of creation.
God promises never to destroy creation.
We have Noah offering the sacrifice required to seal the deal. And then the symbol of the covenant, God’s
bow hanging in the sky, is presented.
The only thing that is missing is that Noah, on behalf of all of
creation, doesn’t make any promises to God that are recorded in scripture. This is very much a one-sided covenant.
I wonder though. I wonder if the implied human
responsibilities in this covenant are the same as God’s responsibilities – to
never destroy the rest of creation.
Especially in this time in history when we have the ability to do so
much damage, how are we called to live into this covenant that God made with
Noah, with all humans, and with all of creation?
God has promised never
to destroy the earth.
What about us?
A Double Rainbow outside my house a couple of weeks ago
God is laying down her weapons - hanging his bow in the sky
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