Lent 1, Year B, RCL

March 1, 2009

Genesis 9:8-17

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."

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of God Almighty: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In preparing for today’s sermon, I noticed that the word “covenant” is used seven times in the Old Testament reading. A covenant is usually defined as a type of contract. In the ancient world is was often an agreement made between nations where a strong nation would demand loyalty from a weaker nation in return for protection. For them, a covenant was a way of formalizing an alliance. But, bear in mind this was never an alliance between equals.

At the end of the story about Noah and the Great Flood, God enters into his first covenant with humanity. I say first because, over the course of salvation history, God makes several covenants with humanity, culminating in the New Covenant that was created through Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross.

When I think of a covenant as a contract I expect that both party’s entering into the contract have to agree to certain conditions. I can easily identify the condition that God commits to in our OT lesson. However, the only condition that I can find for Noah is that his “descendents [are] to have many children, so people will live everywhere on earth.” (Gen. 9:6) God doesn’t make an obedience requirement for Noah like he does in covenants that come later. That is probably why the Contemporary English translation of the Bible uses the phrase “solemn promise” instead of “covenant” to describe the new relationship that God is forming with humanity through Noah at the end of the Flood Story.

Once the floodwaters recede and the earth is again inhabitable, God makes a solemn promise that he will never again send a flood to destroy the earth and all living creatures and he says that each time he sees a rainbow he will remember his promise. And, if I am literal and cynical, I can come to the conclusion that it will be by some other means that God will destroy the earth next time, like by raining down fire and brimstone on a global scale. Or, if I view this promise through my lens of God as benevolent, I can see that God is promising never again to respond to violence with violence. The reason that God gave for destroying all living things through the flood was because:

The LORD saw how bad the people on earth were and that everything they thought and planned was evil. He was very sorry that he had made them, and he said, "I'll destroy every living creature on earth! I'll wipe out people, animals, birds, and reptiles. I'm sorry I ever made them." (Gen. 6:5-7)

Humanity was “cruel and violent” (Gen. 6:11) and so God decided to start anew with Noah and his sons.

I often hear Christians describe how cruel and violent the people of our world are now. They talk like it is the days before the Flood all over again. And they expect that God will soon act to wipe out the evil in a way that can only be described as an act of violence. They will be disappointed to find out that God will never again use violence in response to violence. That is what Genesis says that the rainbow represents—acceptance of us for who we are because simply wiping out those that are violent does not heal our human inclination toward violence. Through his promise to Noah, God is saying that he will not trade violence for violence, but instead, will smother violence with love.

This is exactly what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount—those that are violent can only be redeemed through love. And that is the truth that is intended to be conveyed through the story of Noah.

==Amen==