Sermon text: Genesis 9:8-17
There are certain stories in Scripture that it seems everyone, regardless of how diligently or not they read the Bible, seem to have some passing knowledge of. We all know in this secular age that many people, inside the church and out, have little understanding of what the Bible actually says. But regardless, there are some tales that seem to be unavoidable. Even if your only encounter with Christianity or the Bible is to walk past the windows of a Lifeway bookstore, you still might have learned a tiny bit about some of these tales.
The story of Noah and the flood is one of these. Maybe because it seems so marketable to children. Hey, it’s got cute animals. The fact that the story is really about the genocide of nearly the entire human race seems to get overlooked to those who build Noah’s Ark playsets and pop-up books. Truth is, it’s really not a very nice story.
But with its popularity comes a certain scholarly scrutiny. Biblical scholars of all stripes have picked over this tale and are, not surprisingly, divided about what it’s all about. There are those, of course, who take this story literally. That at some point in our distant past history, God flooded the entire planet to destroy the wickedness of the human race, with one small exception. Others say this cannot be so, that it is scientifically impossible to flood the Earth. There is neither enough water nor enough time to accomplish such a feat as the story is presented to us. But these are likewise divided as to whether the story should then be read as entirely metaphorical or whether it is a theological treatise on some flood event that did, in fact, take place but is somewhat smaller in scale than what the Bible presents to us.
For my part, I lean towards the latter of these options. There is some geological evidence of multiple flood disasters in the ancient middle east, any one of which (or perhaps all of them fused together) formed the basis of a memory that lead ancient priests and mystics to wonder about God’s role in it all. (Not all that different from the musings we do in the face of natural disaster.) In the end, it is their wisdom that I believe is the most important piece of this story. They came to understand a vitally important piece about God and his way of interacting with the world. They came to realize that if God is love and that if God (because of love) wishes to rid the world of evil and suffering, it cannot happen through destruction.
That is why God makes the promise he does at the end of the flood story, which is what we have as our first lesson this morning. “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 will never again destroy the Earth to rid it of evil.
Ah, some might argue, it only says the world will not be destroyed by a flood, not that it will never be destroyed. But that’s the sort of hair-splitting argument that I’d expect of some ambulance-chaser in an American courtroom, not the sort of thing a God of compassion and mercy would do. Throughout the Scriptures, God makes even clearer his intention NOT to destroy evil, but instead to save it.
The first example is what happens a few chapters after the Noah story in Genesis. God makes another covenant, this time with Abraham, where he promises a coming blessing that will be for “all the families of the Earth.” Note the word “all.” It shows up a lot in these passages.
Later still, we have Jesus teaching Nicodemus in the 3rd chapter of John, a text we heard read and preached on this past Wednesday. In that, Jesus says openly that God loves all the world, that he sent his son to save it, NOT to condemn it.
And still further on in the Scriptures, we have the vision of John of Patmos in Revelation. John witnesses a great multitude of those saved by God, greater than anyone can count, from every tribe, race, and language. All of the world standing before God, lauding him for his salvation.
Time and again, we see the Scriptures map out God’s intention. Destruction does not work. God seems to conclude at the end of the flood story this simple truth. He cannot rid the world of evil without destroying everything. Yet God wants fellowship with humanity. He wants to be with us. That’s his greatest desire. He tries, the flood story tells us, to have it both ways: death to evil and salvation for the “good.” But Noah is only good in a relative sense; he may be better than the rest of the sorry lot of humanity, but he’s still a long way from perfect. And once the dry land is back and Noah and his family sets foot upon it, sin begins again almost immediately.
The flood did not accomplish what it was supposed to. It failed to rid the world of evil. So God had to figure out another way.
And his new way is redemption. Instead of destroying evil utterly, he will transform it into good. He will change the world. He will show mercy and compassion and patience and love. And it is with this in mind that he speaks his covenant to Abraham, that all families will be blessed by God through him. It is with this in mind that he becomes incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth, the promised blessing made manifest. It is with this in mind that he goes to the cross and declares from it forgiveness as he breathes his last. Life instead of death. Mercy instead of punishment. Redemption instead of destruction.
This is what it’s all about. For many people, there is hunger for God to come down and smite all the unworthy sinners: the unbelievers, the poor, the rich, the lazy, the sexually different, the people of other nations or political beliefs. They want the fire-and-brimstone. They want the lake of fire for pretty much everyone else who isn’t like them. I get the feeling they’re going to be very disappointed when we’re all standing before God’s throne at the end of time and we’re all rubbing shoulders with gays, liberals, foreigners, and the soldiers of ISIS.
Now I’ll admit I don’t know if that’s precisely how it’s going to play out, but I do know that’s how God wants it to be. We’re all sinners in our own way. We all have our vices and mistakes, all have our ways of looking the other way in the face of evil. But despite that, God wants to save us all. God wants to redeem us all, regardless of what kind of sins we commit.
That’s why Jesus came, the blessing for all the people of the world, the one who came because God so loved the whole world, the one who came so God didn’t have to condemn the world. He’s came to save us all. He came to die for us all. He came to give us life, not death. He came to forgive, not to punish. He came to save the world, not to destroy it. Amen.
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