Sermon - Covenant with Noah

Noah

“A New Creation”

            The story of Noah’s Ark is one that most people know, whether they attend Sunday School or not.  It is a story that has found its way into our childhood, whether through the cute ways in which we design a baby’s nursery, or the toys our toddlers play with.  Noah’s Ark is cute and fun because it is filled with animals and a rainbow and children love animals and rainbows.  But that might be the level of understanding we have for this story.  God instructed Noah to build an ark, he does.  God tells Noah to gather two of each animal, he does.  And it rains and rains and rains for forty days.  Noah and these animals are all safe from the flood waters until the water recedes and God sends a rainbow and promises never to flood the world again.  Cute story. 

            But there is so much more to this story.  This is a story of God’s grief, of God’s loss, of God wiping the slate clean and trying once again to create.  God creates the world, and sees that it is good, but over time, God sees less and less that is good.  People seem to be doing whatever they please and there is a loss of goodness, except for Noah and his family.  And so, instead of just wiping the world clean of all living things, this is a story of second chances.  Noah and his family and a boat full of animals are given a second chance to be what God intends them to be: good. 

            And so, just like in the first creation story, the world becomes a chaotic void of water until God is ready to separate the water from the land.  Water cleanses, water brings new life, water is used by God to mark the end of one way of living and bring God’s people into a new way of living.  In the Noah story, water wipes away a world that had forgotten God and had forgotten their purpose. 

            This is a story of what it means to be faithful to God.  What must it have been like for Noah?  For his family?  In their day to day living, not conforming to the influences of everyone else’s behavior?  What did Noah do differently that gained God’s attention?  That God realized that there still was a person of faith in the world?  In the book of Hebrews, the writer names Noah in the list of those that were faithful to God and states:  By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. 

            He condemned the world, Noah seemed to be able to see what was right and what was wrong and chose to live his life focused on righteousness. 

            Just in this much of the story there is so much we can learn and apply to our lives today.  Noah was part of a new creation, we too are a part of a new creation.  Our scriptures tell us that in Christ, we are a new creation, the old is gone.  We use water in baptism to represent the washing away of the old, and how the church is called to nurtures us in the new.  But do we live with the faith of Noah?  Are we able to see the rights and wrongs of this world and discern what faithful living is?  Or are we so blended into our culture that we have a hard time deciphering through the grey and where we should draw a line? 

            Noah was protected by God, was able to float through the chaos that consumed the rest of the world.  The ark was a protective shell that kept this family from harm.  Although I do not believe we should isolate ourselves from the world, we do, at times, need to enter into God’s protective ark and allow ourselves to be safely carried from one chaotic moment into God’s peace.  Do we have those places in our lives?  Places that allow us to leave the wrongs of the world behind and find a moment to embrace God’s presence in our lives?  Do we have those places that remind us that in Christ we are a new creation, that the old is gone? 

            God gives us the Sabbath as a weekly ark, as a weekly reminder that the chaos of the world does not have to overwhelm us but that we can be in a place of sacred presence and holy peace, and as a weekly reminder that in God there is a new creation, a weekly reminder that there is still good in the world despite the negative we hear.  \

            Noah was not just faithful in listening to God and building an ark, but God places the future of God’s creation in Noah.  Talk about a big responsibility.  The future of God’s creation rests in the life of Noah.  After the waters recede and Noah and his family are able to walk on solid ground once again, God makes a promise.  God gives a covenant.  First God blesses Noah and his family and tells them to be fruitful and multiply, an echo from the creation story.  Then God gives God’s covenant:  I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. ¹¹ I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”  And with the covenant comes a sign. 

Covenants and signs go hand and hand.  God’s covenant to Noah is marked with the sign of the rainbow.  And all these years later, a rainbow manages to stop the crowd.  Time after time, I have seen people busy doing whatever it is they are about just stop and look up into the sky at the beauty of a rainbow.  Covenants and signs.  When we see a rainbow God calls us to remember the covenant with Noah, the promise to never destroy the world again with a flood, but do we also remember that this is a covenant given to all creation?  This covenant involves the animals too.  Some view this covenant with Noah as a call to sacred stewardship in today’s world.  That we must find better ways to care for our world, for our planet, for all living things.  God did not just create us people to be a part of God’s plan, but God created all living things and we have a responsibility to ensure that all living things have a viable future. 

The covenant God establishes with Noah is an eternal covenant and is one sided.  Some covenants, as we will see over the summer, are agreements between two parties, but this one is from God, with no clause with how we humans can nullify it.  Because we hold it as an eternal covenant, we should spend time discerning what it means to us today, how we can be faithful like Noah and how, just possibly, the future of God’s creation rests in us.  

sermon - The Body of Christ

1 Corinthians 12

“Community in a culture of Independence”

            I was once told that God has provided every congregation with the Spiritual gifts that it needs to serve its purpose for God.  God equips God’s people.  Paul is helping the early church understand this as well.  These early congregations are just learning what it means to nurture their children in the faith, or to go out and make sure others are fed.  They don’t have CE or mission committees, they don’t have curriculum to choose from, and there are no non-profit agencies for them to volunteer with.  But they know they are called to be a part of something.  So, as they struggle with how they are to be a part of this new thing which Paul calls the body of Christ, he uses a simple illustration to help explain it. 

            The Spirit gives us each gifts to be used for the common good: these gifts include:  wisdom, knowledge, healing, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, miraculous powers, and faith.  Now, these early Christians were not college educated, and most did not even have the equivalent of a high school education.  Many could not read.  And yet, and yet they gathered, created community, and sought how they could worship and serve God. 

            In today’s world, we have all kinds of books on Spiritual gifts and if you go on-line, you can find numerous Spiritual Gift inventories.  The last time I did a comprehensive study of these inventories, I was disappointed that the Presbyterians don’t have one, but the Evangelical Lutheran one is very good.  The list of Spiritual gifts has grown to include compassion, prayer, teaching, hospitality, generosity, to name a few.

            Each of us should spend time discerning what our gift or gifts are.  Am I called to teach or maybe I am called to sing in the choir.  Am I called to be on the prayer chain, or maybe to serve on the mission committee.  As you discern your gift or gifts, consider what your interests are, what your passions are, and how those might intersect with serving God.  Maybe you have used your gift for years and you are ready to do something different.  Perhaps it is a time to refuel yourself with a season of learning or faith conversation with others.  Our Bible Study groups are a perfect way to come together and ask faith questions, share prayer concerns, and seek to gain some insight through study. 

            Together, we are the body of Christ.  We are all part of the same body and yet each of us has a different gift that can be viewed as a different part of the body.  Some are hands, some are feet, some are eyes others ears, and some are the heart.  Together, we work for the common good. 

            Growing up, I was encouraged to play team sports.  I was told that in playing a team sport I would learn to work well with others and gain leadership skills.  Being a soccer player, each of us on the team had different skills and abilities.  I had speed but not endurance, others had endurance but not speed.  I had a strong kick and could clear the ball while others had precision and were skilled at scoring.  Together, our team worked together to make it to the State finals all four years of high school.  Now, although we worked amazingly well as a team, there were a few that stood out as the stars of the team.  It was hard not to be envious.  It was hard not to desire getting the same publicity and news coverage.  We were a team, we worked together, but yes, we had a star that put us up and beyond just the usual team. 

            Soccer, team sports, they are all a part of culture.  And we live in a culture that seeks out stars, that despite our best efforts to try and work together as a team, still lifts up the individual within.  In no other time in history has culture become so individualized as ours seems to be.  I was raised to be a strong and independent person, to learn to take care of myself and not depend on anyone else.  But the church is not to be confused with our culture.  Unfortunately, we bring our culture into church instead of bringing the church out into culture.  Within the church, we are not to seek out self-gain, we are to work for the common good.  We are to be a team, we are to work together for no one else but to serve God.  We need to leave the concept of impendence and individual strengths at the door, and share with one another our struggles, our concerns, our joys, and our dreams. 

            Yesterday, Habitat had their Hammer for Heroes event.  To me, this is a perfect example of coming together to be the body of Christ in the greater community.  All people were invited to come together and frame a house.  Young, old, experienced, and unexperienced, we were all welcomed and given a chance to help.  Do I know how to frame a house?  Absolutely not.  But to each is given a skill, and the experts had everything prepared, and showed us where to place the nails, and together, group by group, person by person, nail by nail, the framed walls of a house began to appear.  No one group built the house.  No one person framed a whole section, but those that took twenty hammer hits to get a nail in or those that took three hits, together, we built the frame for this house.  That’s the body of Christ.  That is how the church should work.  We should walk patiently alongside each other, encouraging and building community.  Yes, we do need leaders, but our first focus should be building community and sharing our Spiritual gifts for the common good.  In using our gifts, in building community as the body of Christ, we are participating in worship.  In using our gifts we are praising God, we are responding to what God has given to us, and we understand that it is to be used within the body of Christ. 

            Within our presbytery, we are seeking ways to partner our churches together.  We are a connectional church.  We often think of ourselves as individual churches, but in reality, we are one church with many locations.  I heard one person refer to our congregations as mission outposts for God.  Once again, our culture influences how we perceive ourselves.  We are not an individual congregation, congregation upon congregation are also a part of the body of Christ.  And each congregation is a part of that body. 

            Just as we would like people to live out their faith within the church, within a faith community, so too would the presbytery like our congregations to live out our calling within the greater community of the Presbytery.  Habitat could never have framed a whole house in one day if many individuals had not come together for the common good.  Imagine what we could do for God’s service if we brought numerous congregations together to serve God.  So many positive things happen in the world around when people work together for the common good, such as Souper Bowl of Caring, Faith Kitchen, Family Promise, and, next week, you will learn more about Heifer International through the voices of our children and youth.