June 1, 2008

Wash It All Away

by Rev. Dr. Jim Carlson

Genesis 6:9-22

Genesis 6:9-22

Opening Illustration – Emma’s Noah Blanket Set

How did the world get so screwed up? How can we talk about God’s kingdom in the world when things are so crazy?

Author of Genesis tries to provide perspective on those questions. Most of us know the details of the story, or at least we think we do.

Author weaves two different stories of the flood together. Here’s how we know this is the case. Slide

One story is concerned with God’s action in the world – how God acts to deal decisively with sin and the destruction of the created order. Slide

The other source is more concerned with what specifically people should do in order to avoid punishment and please God. Slide

Story edited into final form after Judah was exiled by Babylonians. Reflects their attempts to explain why an all powerful God allowed gentiles who follow lesser gods to destroy Judah.

The answer: We didn’t follow God’s laws closely enough, and God acted decisively to punish us for sin by allowing other nations to invade and defeat us.

There are still preachers who would take this interpretation at face value. God expects people to follow God’s laws. If they don’t, they are sinful, and God will act decisively to punish them for their sin.

Acts of nature are evidence that God is punishing people for their sin. God doesn’t punish good people. They are protected while all the sinful people are punished, just like Noah in the ark.

Number of problems with this interpretation. First – Not only did Noah not follow God’s laws, but God does not expect Christians to follow God’s laws either. In know. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.

God’s laws were revealed to Moses hundreds of years after Noah died. Noah didn’t know what God’s laws were. The Bible doesn’t tell us why God thought Noah was righteous. But it’s obvious he wasn’t righteous because he followed God’s laws. God hadn’t revealed them to us yet.

Also, from the Christian perspective, we are not required to follow God’s laws. God abolished God’s laws by sending Jesus to teach us the difference between right and wrong. Think I’m kidding? Slide.

Second: It’s problematic to say that a flood or an earthquake or a cyclone or a tornado or a volcanic eruption are God’s punishment on humanity for sin.

Those are all natural processes, just like human birth, the tidal cycle, and the earth’s rotation. How do you know whether or not the earthquake is God’s punishment on the people of China? At what point does it cease to be a natural process working just as God created it to work to being something more, sent by God as a punishment for sin?

There is no answer to that question. Some people say you have to take it by faith. Well, I take it by faith that such a claim is untrue.

Third, lots of good righteous people suffer in these kinds of catastrophes. This story has all the bad people dying and all the good people surviving.

If we say that something like Hurricane Katrina is a punishment on the people of New Orleans, as some prominent preachers have said, was everyone who died bad? Was everyone who survived good? Of course not. So it’s pointless and irresponsible to make such direct comparisons between our context and Noah’s.

What can we say while being faithful to the scriptures and our own experience? What does this passage tell us about living the Christian life?

First, it affirms that no matter how bad things are, God is still God over this world. And we know that because eventually good triumphs over evil.

Bodies are made to heal. Ecosystems balance themselves out when tings are out of balance. All creatures adapt to their surroundings over generations.

Evil in this world does not go unchecked. Just as God washed away the evil in Noah’s time, so we as God’s creation overcome evil constantly.

Nazis; Apartheid, Racial and sexual discrimination. Passage observes that Good overcomes evil in this world – it’s a reflection of the goodness of the world’s creator.

When dealing with evil situations in your life, remember that this is God’s world – that good overcomes evil. Nasty situations at work won’t last forever. Illness is only temporary.

When we suffer at the hands of unjust financial policies, eventually someone does something about it. Loan companies are going to have to reform because the world demands it.

People worried about gas situation. I have faith that we will solve this problem. Anything and anyone engaging in injustice is ultimately subject to God’s own justice.

Secondly – When you are obedient to God, your behavior and life tend to be very different from the lives of the people around you.

The people around Noah kept doing what they were doing. Noah just did what God asked.

Genesis doesn’t say anything about the people making fun of Noah, or him asking them to join him on the ark. It just says Noah did what he was asked.

When your life is dedicated to God, it will probably look a little different from the lives of the people around you. Don’t be surprised.

That doesn’t mean we’re better, or that God loves us more, or that God hates them. Don’t worry about those questions. That’s up to God. Just do what God calls you to do, even if it isn’t what everyone else is doing.

Final Illustration – Junta in Burma holds up foreign aid. The European Union aid chief said Friday May 16th that Myanmar's junta still would not budge on accepting foreign relief workers, two weeks after the cyclone tragedy that has left more than 71,000 dead or missing.

The regime, which has long been suspicious of the outside world and any influence which could weaken its control on power here, would not explain why they refused to issue visas for disaster emergency experts.

The junta has said that the country will welcome aid shipments but has steadfastly refused to bow to international pressure to let in most outside workers, saying it can manage the disaster on its own.

Junta finally approved visas of foreign aid workers this week.

Same Junta chased our refugees into the forest and ultimately into Thailand.

Our congregation helped resettle them here. Face of Jasmine reminds us that good overcomes evil because God is good.

The flood reminds us that God is active in a mysterious, indefinable, but unmistakable way in this world. It reminds us not to despair, even when it seems there are no answers to the world’s problems.

The answer to the evil in this world is God’s own righteousness. That righteousness has kept the earth alive and made it flourish for billions of years. If God can do that, then none of the problems that we see in this world seem all that formidable. Relax. God is in charge.