Never Again

Scriptures:         Genesis 9:8-17; I Peter 3:18-22,  Mark 1:9-15

 

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, that 40-day season of repentance and refocusing on God, in preparation for the events of Passion Week, for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Lent is based on the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness following his baptism, fasting and praying and being tempted by Satan.   During his time in the wilderness, Jesus was prayerfully trying to discern the kind of ministry to which God was calling him, and Satan was offering some options that would have derailed Jesus’ ministry.  Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels give us more information on the details of Jesus’ temptations – to make his ministry primarily about serving his own needs by turning stones into bread to satisfy his hunger following his 40-day fast, to make his ministry about spectacular displays of power by jumping off the pinnacle of the Temple, and to receive power over all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worshipping Satan.  But Mark’s account – the Gospel reading for today – is very lean, very spare on details:  “

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. “He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

The Revised Common Lectionary – the cycle of Scripture readings followed by the Roman Catholic and many mainline Protestant Churches – pairs this reading with our reading from Genesis 9, which immediately follows the great flood, when the waters finally subsided and Noah, his family, and those on the ark set foot on dry ground.  Remember that, according to Genesis, the flood was God’s response to human wickedness, when God elected to save a small remnant of humanity, wipe out the rest, and start over – as Genesis 6 tells us,

 The Lord 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. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord…Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, ‘I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. (Genesis 6:5-8, 11-13)

“The thoughts of humankind was only evil continually.”  Really strong words – ‘don’t hold back, God, tell us what you really think.’  God was on the verge of giving up on humankind and indeed even all the plants and animals he had created, though at the very end we’re also told that “Noah found favor in his site.” So the flood was a sort of a divine re-boot of creation, though at calamitous cost.  Following such a calamity, those who survived the flood needed God’s reassurance – from their point of view, they had to be terrified that if they messed up again, God might throw another divine temper tantrum and wipe everything out, including them.  So God offered reassurance.  Let’s hear these words from Genesis once again:

“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. When 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." God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth." (Genesis 9:8-17)

Parents and teachers know that often, when instructing children, it’s necessary to repeat things a number of times, perhaps in various ways, so that the children can remember.  Our passage from Genesis is like that, very repetitive, as if God is really trying to make sure Noah and the survivors of the flood get what God is saying.  Notice how many times the word “covenant” appear – seven times, as it happens, which in the Old Testament is a number signifying completeness. And three times – the number three is also significant in Scripture – three times the words “never again” – “never again will there be a flood to destroy all flesh.”  It’s almost as if God himself is sorry for what he had done.  And he gives Noah and his family a sign – the rainbow.  “When 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."

I want to go back to that word “covenant”.  What is a “covenant”?  A covenant is an agreement, with promises involved.  In the legal world, a covenant is, in fact, a contract based on promises that are legally enforceable – if the parties fail to uphold the provisions of the contract, there are adverse consequences, often the payment of money damages.  And while the analogy to the legal world doesn’t hold exactly, we can understand that God is not just making casual statements, but solemn promises – solemn promises never again to send a flood to wipe out all flesh - to which he will hold himself accountable.  And the rainbow is, in effect, the witness and guarantee of the covenant.

What does all this have to do with us?  What can we gather from this strange but striking story in Genesis?  As we begin Lent, here are a few thoughts:

Human sin, especially corruption and violence, really angers God.  Ours is emphatically not a God who says, “If it feels good, do it!”  We worship a God who is not only powerful, but just.  As persons created in God’s image, while we lack God’s power, God also expects us to act justly.  Note that, when God speaks to Noah, God isn’t speaking about just any old sin, but corruption and violence.  Corruption.  Violence.  Corruption is mentioned three times, and violence is mentioned twice.  We’re not given details on the nature of the corruption – economic corruption?, social corruption?, sexual corruption?, all of the above? – we just don’t know, though I think it’s safe to say that the kind of corruption that leaves a few with great power and wealth while the multitudes starve is greatly displeasing to God.  Any uncertainties about corruption aside, the concept of violence, that I think we can wrap our minds around.  We know what violence is – one-on-one assault and murder, as well as oppression and war.  These are not just unfortunate, but sinful.   And corruption and violence, on a global scale, characterize all the great national powers, most especially our own country.  And, as an old confession of sin puts it, “God for our sins is justly displeased.”

God will not give up on us.  Here’s the second thing we learn from our reading in Genesis.  God made a covenant never again to wipe out all flesh on earth.  And, throughout Scripture, we see the importance of the saving remnant – when humanity’s sins threaten to become overwhelming, when humanity has painted itself into a corner by its sin, God always finds one or a few people with whom to start over.  In this case, Noah and his family were the remnant.  Just a bit later, the Tower of Babel debacle unfolds, and humankind has again painted itself into yet another corner – but then we’re given the geneology of Abram, starting a new cycle of deliverance.  When God’s people are once again in a dead-end situation, in bondage in Egypt, God raises up Moses, and then Joshua after him.  In the time following Joshua, God raises up various judges, including Samuel, the last and greatest of them.  When the kings of Judah and Israel sinned, God raised up the prophets.  Later, God allowed God’s people to go into exile in Babylon, but a remnant returned to rebuild Jerusalem and its Temple.  God won’t allow us to destroy ourselves, but steps in to save us.

The work of Jesus Christ is central to God’s plan of salvation.   On one level, Jesus of Nazareth was another one of those whom God raised up to deliver God’s oppressed people.  But on a much broader level, Jesus Christ provides salvation to humankind on a global scale.  Just as the disaster of the flood destroyed on a global scale, Jesus Christ saves on a global, even cosmic, scale – remember those words from the beginning of John’s gospel:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was  God…..and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.”  And it’s really something for me to wrap my head around, both the transcendence and the particularity of God’s work through Jesus.  Jesus saves on a global, even cosmic scale, but his work on earth took place in a particular place, among particular people – in Israel, in towns like Bethlehem and Nazareth and Capernaum, which were under Roman oppression in Jesus’ day and are patrolled by soldiers with machine guns even today – In Jerusalem, where the Via Doloroso, the way of the cross, winds today through the narrow, winding, sometimes fragrant in pleasant and unpleasant ways streets of Old City Jerusalem, amid the shops and souks owned and run mostly by Christian and Muslim Arabs, with the sign “Via Doloroso” in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, and little but Roman numerals to mark the various stages of Jesus’ passage.  The earthly events took place in these humble, sometimes out of the way settings, but they have cosmic significance in God’s work of salvation, to the point where our reading from I Peter tells us not only that our own baptisms trace their lineage to Noah’s flood, but that even after the crucifixion, Jesus preached to the spirits in prison, those who had died in their disobedience, so that nobody is left without a witness to God’s saving work.

As we look at our world today, in which the privilege of so few results in the suffering of so many, and the ability of planet earth to sustain life seems threatened, it can easily be said that

“the earth is corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth is filled with violence” and  “the wickedness of humankind is great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts is only evil continually.”  Humankind has really made a mess of things, and, having sown the wind, we may well reap the whirlwind.  But we have God’s promise that, even now, God is working to turn us from our foolish ways and to save us.  The rainbow is the sign of God’s promise of deliverance, and the cross is the sign of  God’s salvation.

To quote from an old Good Friday hymn:

“O love of God! O sin of man! In this dread act your strength is tried.

And victory remains with love: Jesus, our Lord, is crucified!”

Amen.