Sunday, January 12, 2020
God created the world. He put his special mark on human beings, the
animal created in God’s image. Of all
that God made, humans are God’s image-bearers.
Men and women were granted free will.
God brought us into existence and then allowed to choose to follow,
worship, and love Him, or to choose
not to. From the beginning, humans
sometimes chose not to.
God said do not eat from that
tree. Adam and Eve ate from that
tree. God created us to be in
relationship and even warned Cain, “Sin is lurking at your door; its desire is
for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7).
Cain didn’t master it. Instead of
thriving in relationships with God, with his parents, and with his brother,
Cain disrupted God’s created order. He
murdered his brother.
God creates. People rebel and sin. God punishes.
But, God also protects. Adam and
Eve had to leave the garden, but they didn’t die. Cain was banished, but also marked with God’s
protection (Gen. 4:15). We traverse
these opening chapters of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, until we come
to chapter 6. At that point, the world
is filled with people who have repeated Adam and Eve’s rebellion, and Cain’s
violence.
The first question to help me
organize my thoughts around the story of the flood and Noah is what do we learn
about God in the flood story? We learn
that God took to heart every single sin.
A world full of hundreds of thousands of people, or today, billions and
billions of people; God feels a rip in his heart every time one of the billions
turns away from his love and care and instead tries to live apart from him. Genesis 6:5-6, “The Lord saw that the
wickedness of humankind was great in the earth … and the Lord was sorry that he
had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” We see God has feelings and how we act, what
we say and think and do, affects God.
God
in the flesh, Jesus, wept as he rode into Jerusalem knowing crucifixion was
ahead of him. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the
city that kills prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I have [longed] to gather your
children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not
willing! … If you this day, even you had
only recognized the things that make for peace!
But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up
ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and
your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another;
because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (Matthew
23:27; Luke 19:41-44).
Before
the story of Noah’s ark is a story about a guy and two of every animal afloat
in a flooded world, it is first a story about God heartbroken that the world
he’s made has rejected him.
What
did God do?
He
destroyed the world in a flood and started over with one family. We pick the action up on a hillside – Mount
Ararat. When the waters receded, the ark
came to rest there (Genesis 8:4). Noah
and his family and the animals exited the ark.
His first act on dry ground was to worship God (Genesis 8:20-21). It is the most noble of all human
activities. Worship is our highest
calling. In the flood, the world was
unmade, and through Noah’s family, God re-created the world. Humans continued to be God’s image-bearers. The flood didn’t change anything. God made the world and saw that it was
good. After the flood, the world was
still good and humans were still the unique ones in creation made in God’s
image. The first post-flood human act
was worship.
Still,
we linger on our questions: who is the
God in the flood story and what did this God do?
God
is a personality that loves. God feels
the deep heart wounds that come with love.
God flooded the world. God
started things all over again. Noah’s
family began creation 2.0.
Now
look at what God did next, today’s reading.
What’s God first action? Genesis
9:1: “God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and
multiply, and fill the earth.” Noah and
his family was to come off the mountain and go into the world, to the very
farthest reaches on earth, filling the world with God’s people, God’s image
bearers. God’s creation design is
fulfilled when His image bearers live in loving community with him, with one
another, and with the earth.
In
Genesis 9:1-7, God makes it clear that on earth, human beings are in
charge. God has entrusted the management
of His world to us. The hillside mandate
is that we fill the earth with communities that live God’s way. How have we done?
Numerous
animals are hunted to extinction, not because humans need those animals to die
for our survival, but because rich people desire some aspect of those animals
as a status symbol. In some circles it
is consider a sign of wealth to eat gorilla meat; ground up rhinoceros horns are
said to cure hangovers and act as an aphrodisiac. Whales are killed for their blubber and oil,
even though other oils can be used.
These and many other magnificent creatures are dying just because we
humans possess the ability to kill them, and lack the discipline to curb our
cravings or meet those cravings in less destructive ways.
Genesis
9:2-3 is easy to understand. God said,
“The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal. … Every moving thing
that lives shall be food for you.” Being
a vegetarian is not particularly virtuous.
It might be healthier, but from a Biblical perspective eating meat is
sanctioned by God.
However,
this passage also contains limitations.
Verses 4-6 forbid eating the blood of animals. At first this appears to be a completely
ritualistic prohibition related to the way ancient Israelites worshiped God
through blood sacrifice. But it seems to
me there is something more significant going on. God gave humans the earth, but not to do
whatever they pleased. Women and men are
God’s partners; we are God’s agents on the earth.
If
we see that God made the world and saw that it was good, then we too must see
that it is good. We cannot destroy this
good thing God made. In Job chapters
38-41, God displays his holy majesty by expressing his care for the created
world. In Matthew 6:26, Jesus says birds
live worry-free knowing that God feeds them.
God cares for the world and so must we.
Our
destruction of the atmosphere through unchecked air pollution and carbon
emissions is a rebellion against God and a lack of gratitude for what God has
given. Destroying natural habitats
wide-scale is an affront to our creator.
Every time we eat meat or used the materials of the earth to make our
lives tastier, more comfortable, and easier, we must raise a voice of
thanks. God has given us good things. We need to work with Him to take care of his
world.
All
this that has been said about creation care and environmental sins could be
repeated in terms of how we care for one another. As humans kill each other and dehumanize one
another in countless ways, we reject God’s command to love our neighbor.
We
stand atop the mountain with God’s hand on us.
We’ve discovered who God is. God
is a loving creator who is emotionally invested in each and every one of
us. We’ve looked at what God did. God started over with Noah and ultimately
with Jesus. With the flood, God
uncreated in order to re-create His good world.
Now,
God has set his mission before us. Fill
the earth with communities in which the people love and worship him, love and
help and serve each other, and love and care for the earth. That’s the mandate. We can’t just stay on the hill. Where do we go from here?
We
respond to our creator by loving what He loves.
With God a simple act of love is to obey. We go out.
We go into the world seeking to help people. We go in kindness. We know the world is a
place of chaos and pain. God knew it the
moment Noah set foot on dry ground. He
becomes passed-out drunk and his son Ham gawks at his slumbering naked body;
this right after worship! The world is a
messed up, hurting place. We go into the
mess carrying the love of God and the message of salvation in Christ. We obey by going.
We
also imitate our creator. “Just as I
gave you the green plants,” God told Noah, “I give you everything” (9:3). God gives out of God’s generosity and
grace. So, as we go, we project kindness
and give grace generously. Because we
have been blessed, we strive to bless the people we meet.
And
we keep this in mind. Going and
imitating, we at the same time stay connected to the God who created us, who in
the sacrifice of Jesus saved us, and who now sends us. God sees all that happens on earth. We’re never out of God’s view. And God’s doesn’t watch from a distance. God comes into close relationship with every
heart that opens to him in repentance and need.
Obey
God. Imitate God’s loving heart. Stay connected to God. That’s how we fulfill His hillside mandate
for us.
AMEN
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