February 18, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: “Noah and the Ark”
Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17
(Other lectionary choices include Psalm 25:1-10, I Peter 3:18-22, and Mark 1:9-15.)
Genesis 9:8-17
8Then 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, 10and 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. 11I 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.” 12God 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: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I 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. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Harlane suggested that I open this sermon about Noah and the Ark this way: “Unfortunately, the unicorns missed the time the ark left!” You may have heard or seen several explanations as to why we don't see unicorns or other animals that we've heard about but don't see anymore. I saw one such joke on a greeting card. It showed two unicorns seeing the ark pull away from the shore, with one of them exclaiming, “Oh shoot! Was that today?” And you may have heard THIS one: “Couldn't God have left those pesky mosquitoes behind?”
The story of Noah and the Ark is a great story. Is it true? Did it really happen? Those are actually two different questions: a story could have some truth to it regardless of whether it actually happened. So maybe we should ask THIS question: What is the MEANING of the story of Noah and the Ark? (There was a man named Joseph Campbell who urged us to ask what the MEANING of a story is, not whether it was “true” or not.)
First, something sweet, as far as I'm concerned: When God sets his bow in the clouds, He is making a promise to his children (US!) that he will never again destroy the earth by a flood. WE may destroy it through nuclear war or something else, but GOD will not. Isn't that neat? God is promising to us that GOD will never destroy us by flood. WE might do so through global warming or whatever, but GOD will not!
And something else.......Both the ancient Hebrews and the Babylonians had a Creation story and a Great Flood story. The accounts have some similarities and some differences. The Babylonian creation story is called Enuma Elish, and their Great Flood story was called the Gilgamesh Epic. In the Babylonian stories, violence exists. For example, in the Babylonian creation story, the world is created when the great god Marduk destroys the monster Tiamat. Our Genesis story doesn't have that kind of violence. There is darkness and there is chaos - but the Hebrew God separates the dry land from the dark waters, and we get the idea that God did all this out of his creative love. And something else: God saw all that God had created and it was very good!
After the Great Flood and the Noah's Ark story, we have GOD placing his bow in the sky as a sort of peace sign and a promise. The bow could have been used for shooting arrows and for violence - but God in His great love for us is laying down his bow and placing it in the sky so that we may know that God is renewing the covenant with us. Such activity on God's part is very moving for me. Just as GOD will lead his people out of Egypt later on, here is GOD taking the first step toward reconciling with his children.
The Flood story in Genesis along with Noah and the Ark is a strange story. It's strange because BEFORE the Flood, Noah is thought of as a decent man, a good man. But right AFTER the Flood, we are told that Noah, who tilled the ground and grew grapes, got DRUNK and passed out NAKED! Two of his sons cover up his nakedness. But what now is different? I can't think of anything, and I wonder if God changed his mind, perhaps thinking it was NOT a good idea to have had the Flood in the first place. I don't know; I am simply wondering out loud. But the fact that God set his bow in the clouds makes me wonder. It's as if God was repenting of his action against his children - and he says he'll no longer destroy the earth with a Flood.
I am reminded by the commentator John C. L. Gibson that what we see in the Flood story is the mercy and grace of God. Says Gibson, “God would be no less than just if he here and now made an end of this corrupt earth and its corrupt inhabitants. But in his grace, he does not.” Look at that: the grace of God in the Old Testament!
Gibson says there is something very serious here. Mankind is so evil that God would be justified in ending it all right now. But “His grace and providence will overshadow sinful humanity as surely as the rainbow follows the storm. It is only in the story that the rainbow is created now. The Hebrews knew and we know that it has always been there.” Amen.
Pastor Skip
