Introduction:
Today we hear the story of Noah and the covenant God made with the human family, marked by a rainbow. Most of us are familiar with this story, and this reading comes toward the end of the narrative, as the water subsides. After a long wait, the occupants of the ark, people and animals, are allowed to disembark. At which point, God says something that almost sounds like an apology:
“I will never again curse the ground because of humans, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done…”
God goes on to bless Noah’s family, but also to name some ways the flood has altered the created order forever. (We’ll talk about this in a minute). But finally, God utters a covenant promise between humans and animals that will last forever. And we hear the reading from verse 8:
Hebrew Scripture Reading: Genesis 9:8-15
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you 10 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. 11 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.” 12 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: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant…
Sermon
- The story of Noah and the flood is one of four creation stories in Genesis that trace the relationship developing between God and God’s creation and people. (I’ll be asking you about how you hear these four stories later, so pay attention!)
- A short review: The first creation story is about Adam and Eve:
- the first humans willfully disobey God and are expelled from the garden,
- God protects the humans with clothing and gives them a plot of ground to grow their own garden.
- But the first crack begins to form between humans and God, humans and animals; male and female;
- The second creation story is about Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve’s children,
- In a fit of jealousy, Cain kills Abel and invents murder
- God allows Cain to live and protects him, but his punishment is that he’s sent even farther away, into a nomadic life in the land of Nod.
- So again, a deeper crack between brother and brother, parents and children
- The third creation story is of the Tower of Babel – humans decide they are so clever they start building a great tower to see how far their ingenuity will take them;
- But God interprets this as competing with God’s power;
- So God manipulates the situation by introducing different languages and confusing everyone;
- the people end up dividing themselves by language and wandering off to create separate territories.
- So, another story of division, the cracks getting deeper
- Finally, God gets so frustrated with human sin that She decides to wipe the slate clean and start over.
- Banishment isn’t enough anymore; only destruction will satisfy God!
- It’s as if God the Parent erupts with anger and beats the child.
- And then there is so much death, everywhere, at the hand of God.
- A short review: The first creation story is about Adam and Eve:
- A lot of things change after that:
- You can see how the separation between God and creation keeps growing wider, and even after the flood:
- Before the flood, the humans were apparently vegetarians, but God now gives in and lets people kill animals for meat
- Naturally, then, the animals acquire a new fear of humans
- God decrees that, if a human commits murder, they can be murdered in retaliation.
- And the word “dominion” –human power over nature– is repeated
- Bit by bit, the original peace God established in Eden is being eroded.
- And now, this horrific scene: the flood subsiding and uncovering the stench of death; bodies human and animal bloated and lifeless, plants uprooted and decaying;
- How could the Creator not grieve for such a massive loss of the beautiful thing they had created?
- How, after this, could peace ever be restored?
- But then, something happens:
- Noah makes a burnt offering to God
- God smells the scent of the offering and remembers that She loves the little humans;
- The people have shown they cannot be punished into submission,
- But maybe, God thinks, they can be loved into relationship
- God doesn’t say, “I’m sorry”, exactly, but does say “Never again.”
- And God decides to continue the relationship in loving self-differentiation: As for me, God says, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you. (no matter how sinful you might be)
- God models a sort of self-correction;
- and widens the arms of grace for the little humans who cannot seem to get it right on their own.
- God’s covenant is NOT contingent on the people “being good”; it’s a one-way covenant of love.
- “As for me,” God says. I’m not going to stoop to the human level of doing violence anymore.
- Now, we know the humans, keep turning to alienation, hate, violence and murder;
- But God keeps God’s promise not to give up on us.
- So we really can’t give up on ourselves.
- I would like to believe that humans have learned something from God’s practice of self differentiated love, patience, grace and peace building
- Most people of faith at least aspire to practice peace and dream of the kind of peace God intends for Creation.
- We have tried and sometimes succeeded in restoring peace after horrific conflicts and division through history.
- But these creation stories seem to suggest that we can’t do these things without God’s help.
- The inclination of the human heart is evil from youth!
- Today is the first of a few weeks of reflecting on our causes of division in different spheres of our lives, and the paths to peace
- This is not my area of expertise and I don’t know what I will be preaching about going forward!
- But these creation stories give me hints:
- Adam and Eve teach us that humans are made curious, free-willed and free wheeling; we cannot easily by tamed;
- even the Creator was surprised by that, I think!
- But also we’ve learned that having some boundaries to our behavior can be healthy.
- The story of Cain and Abel leads me to wonder if there aren’t some times when separating ourselves from each other can help all parties to self-differentiate, to discover who God wants us to be separate from others before we try to come together to make peace.
- The story of Babel also suggests that maybe separating groups from each other can form healthy boundaries that lead to peaceful borders; like how nations with their languages and cultural practices can form pride in being who they are and how they’re different from others.
- Yet, at the same time, maybe we can learn each others’ languages in a highly diverse and divided society to gain respect for our different world views.
- This is not my area of expertise and I don’t know what I will be preaching about going forward!
- The story of God’s rainbow covenant with Noah shows the literal dead end we hit when we resort to violence.
- We kill ourselves by trying to control and dominate others and the earth God created for us;
- I wonder which parts of these stories resonate with you?
- Have you lived in a story of reaching for forbidden fruit?
- or of being kicked out of a family or tribe?
- Do you know a story of people trying to play God by manipulating their world?
- Have you lashed out in anger like a frustrated parent of a toddler?
- Or struggled to forgive someone who can’t seem to self-correct their own behavior?
- What pops out to you from these stories?
- Whatever these stories bring up for you, I encourage you to take your insights into your own spiritual practices of building peace wherever your life touches the lives of others.
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