Loving God, you never allow our sinful nature to get in the way of your nature to save.  Thank you for your steadfast love and compassion, shown to us most fully through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            It might be possible to hear the story of Noah’s Ark and get the wrong idea about God.  Depending on which parts of the story catch your attention, you might see an angry God who has a tantrum and destroys everything with a flood. However, the focus of the story is not on the death and destruction brought by the flood, but the mercy of God.

         Genesis tells us that “the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth” (Gen. 8:21).  God saw this evil and wickedness before the flood, and God sees the same evil and wickedness after the flood.  Any of us, being in God’s position, might have just gotten rid of everybody and been done with it.  After all, why save anybody when the evil and wickedness are simply going to continue?

         God, however, sees something in humanity and also in creation that is worth saving.  And so God chooses Noah and his family in order to make that happen.  The result is, in fact, a new creation and God’s covenant with the whole creation.  This covenant is in the form of a promise that God makes to every living creature on earth.  Never again will there be a flood that covers the earth.

         So if you are God (and this requires a little bit of imagination), what are you going to do about the sin and wickedness that seems to persist among human beings?...  One possible solution might be to destroy almost all of them with a flood, save the best people you can find and the living creatures who will repopulate the earth, and start over again.  This, however, does not result in any significant change among the humans.

         Thus, God chooses a different tack that begins with the call of Abraham and Sarah to form a nation and a people who will tell God’s stories.  In fact, God chooses a means of salvation that will take many years and will involve many people.  You see, the thing is that God is all about relationships.  It seems that this is why God created human beings the way they are. We have been given the freedom to worship God or not, to believe in Jesus or not, to listen to God’s Spirit or not. God seems to seek people who will love freely, rather than people who have been given no choice in the matter.

         As a result, God works through many people over the years who all point to the coming of a Saviour, the Messiah.  And then, to further the possibility of relationships with the humans, God sends his son, Jesus, who is born and lives and dies just like every other human being, but who does not sin.  Because he is fully human and fully divine, Jesus is able to bridge the gap between humans and God that is created by sin.  He is also able to break the power that death has over us, for even though he died on the cross, God raised him to life.  And so, because of Jesus, we are promised that all those who put their trust in him will have eternal life.

         It is also because of Jesus that we are able to love freely and to have a life-giving relationship with God.  We are able to do this because we do not have to earn God’s favour.  God already loves us and has already saved us through Jesus. Once we have put our faith in Jesus, everything we say and do flows out of that faith.  The good things we do are not to earn God’s favour, but a reflection of God’s love for all people.

         Although talking about God’s love through Jesus Christ might seem pretty far removed from Noah’s Ark, the two are connected when we look at the rest of the Scriptures.  Isaiah refers to the flood and to how God promised that it wouldn’t happen again.  In the same way, says God through Isaiah,

I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you.  For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you (Isa. 54:9-10).

Isaiah sees God’s steadfast love, and God’s covenant of peace, and God’s compassion when he looks at the story of Noah.

         Similarly, in the New Testament, Noah’s Ark is viewed as a story of salvation.  First Peter connects the flood with Christian baptism, and says that just as eight people were saved through water in the time of Noah, so now we are saved through the waters of baptism (1 Pet. 3:20-21).

         Of course, today, we heard a different story of salvation from Matthew (8:24-27) that also involved a boat on the water.  Jesus’ disciples get caught in a storm and are certain that the boat is going to sink, and they are all going to die.  Jesus, however, is sleeping.  They wake him up and ask him to save them, and Jesus obliges by rebuking the winds and the sea.  Obviously, the power of God works through him, for only God can control the winds and the sea.

         This is one of the best stories to remember whenever we are feeling anxious or have trouble sleeping. We can imagine ourselves in the boat with Jesus, as he says, Peace!  Be still! And then we can rest in the presence of God just as Jesus slept in the midst of the storm.

         Today we have encountered the God who saves and the God who has a covenant of promise with all of creation. We have also encountered the God who is all about relationships, and who made it possible to have a relationship with us through Jesus.  For our part, we are free to go our own way or to unite ourselves with the Source of all Life through Jesus Christ.  And for God’s part, we have already been chosen and loved and redeemed through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Pentecost 16 (NL 1)                        Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-12; 9:8-17

September 9, 2018                         Matthew 8:24-27

St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2018 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved