Noah

Noah’s Ark, a story that even people with limited church background know.

You can get Noah’s Ark toys, wall stickers and baby mobiles – and you don’t need to get to a Christian shop to buy them. You would think this was a delightful story of a fun sailing adventure one afternoon.

But it isn’t a delightful story. It is a story full of death and destruction.

Someone asked me a little while ago if the Bible is true. To me that always seems like a trick question. The expected answer is yes; but does that mean everything in the Bible happened exactly how it is written about.  For me, every detail is not necessarily true. The parables of the Gospels are unlikely to have actually happened. They are stories to teach a truth.

Is the story of the flood true – I don’t know

Does it contain truth – yes, I believe it does.

So, did this flood happen, quite possibly. Many cultures have ancient flood stories.

The whole world flooded – more likely the whole known world. Without TV and Radio and telephone, people’s awareness of the world was much more limited.

A more important question for me is not did this happen, but what is the point. What does this story tell us about God and about people?

In one of the commentaries I read this week:

the biblical text uses the same root word (sh-kh-t) for the “corruption” that human beings bring on the earth before the Flood (Genesis 6:11-12 [3x]) and the “destruction” that the Flood itself brings (Genesis 6:13).¹ In other words, the destruction of the earth is the direct result of the violence and corruption of human beings, the violence and corruption that fill the earth long before the flood waters cover it.[i]

Basically, we reap what we sow.

Reading this passage, and looking at the first 11 chapters of Genesis, we have this ongoing sense of people making bad choices.

We see it with Adam and Eve in the garden, we see it when Cain kills his brother, then the ongoing violence, and not just violence, but pride in being violent.

Then after the story of the flood, there is the Tower of Babel. People had the technology to make bricks, and decide to build a great city, with a tower that reaches the heavens.

And God saw this as a haven for evil. And dispersed people.

Why does evil flourish, or why does God allow evil to flourish?

But what if evil does not exist??

For example:

Cold does not exist, cold is the absence of heat.

Darkness does not exist, darkness is the absence of light.

Maybe evil is the absence of God’s love in the heart of people.[ii]

What happens when people stop loving as God loves?

Selfishness

Violence

Greed

Pride

Amongst other sins.

“This is a story that teaches us that God takes sin seriously, their sin and our sin. This story challenges us to look within ourselves and our communities for the “wickedness” that causes God’s heart to hurt.”[iii]

Where do we see the consequences of our lack of love – love for people and love for creation?

·         Climate scientists are telling us, and have been for many years now, that our use of fossil fuels is causing harm to the earth.

·         Scientists who study waterways have been telling us that plastic waste is killing fish and birds.

·         we see news reports of what happens when people get impatient and selfish on our roads

·         and we know what happens when violence is used to try and solve problems.

·         Our lack of love and concern for humans means some people lack food and medicine and basic education, some don’t have anywhere to live.

·         What other things might cause God’s heart to break?

o   Behaviour of some businesses

o   Treatment of asylum seekers

o   Domestic and family violence

What do we allow to happen?

Sin is not only about what we do, about the times we disobey God, the times we live as less than God calls us to be. Sure, sin is when we are unkind, or gossip. But sin also allowing the creation to be damaged,

Allowing people to be treated as less than human.

What do we allow to happen, in our relationships and our community and the world?

Often the consequences for living in the fullness of God’s love,

the consequences for living in a way that shows the fullness of God’s love, is that we will have to give up something –

maybe pride, or selfishness, or greed,

maybe acting like you don’t need God

maybe treating God’s good creation as expendable

What if “We are punished not so much for our sins as by our sins.”[iv]

Maybe we get the society that reflects our choices or reflects our hearts?

After God despairs of the people, comes the flood, then comes a rainbow. A rainbow looks like the bow of a bow and arrow.  It has been likened to God hanging up the instruments of violence.  The rainbow is a sign of the promise of God to never wipe out the world by flood. But notice it isn’t only a reminder to us, but also to God.

I have heard parents talk of how they like looking at their child when he or she is asleep, because it reminds them of how much they love their child, especially on those days when their child is testing every limit.

I wonder if that is why God also needs to see the rainbow, to remember that even though people continue to sin, God will not wipe us all out.  

We are a lot further ahead in the story than when Genesis was written.

God has tried giving messages to the prophets, with limited success; and finally, Jesus came to earth, to show us the way to live,

the way to live in love,

the way to share and

the way to bless

I think this story invites us to look past the pretty pictures of animals in the ark and rainbows, to see the consequences of sin, and the way God will keep seeking us out, prodding us and challenging us to live in the fullness of love, love that drives out hate and apathy.

What are you hearing anew about this story?

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[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3780

[ii] http://www.integrity-authenticity-love.com/genesis-6-16-22-9-8-15-noah-and-the-flood/

[iii] https://spiritandtruthpublishing.com/blog/noahs-ark-september-9-2018/

[iv] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3780

Sin and Sight

This week I have been wondering about the way people try to name us, and put us into neat boxes. Last week, we heard about the transformation of a woman who was an outsider in so many ways. Transformed because she was accepted as she was. Loved and renewed.

This week I have also completed my annual report for Presbytery. It is 12 pages of tables and questions – how many worship services each week, how many baptisms, am I up to date with safe church training, what continuing education have I done……    

This week we also saw on the news about the attack in London. People wanted to know is it terrorism or something else. Can we put a label on this incident?

Once we have a label, we think we know what is going on.
Once we have a label, we know where to file the information in our brains.
All we need is a label.

The thing with labels is that often we allow other people to label us.
And we label other people:

-           Druggie

-           Dole bludger

-           Nerd

-           Redneck

-           Do-gooder

-           Idiot

And labels are rarely positive.

In our story this morning, the art teacher expects a certain picture, but Luke sees the world differently.  The teacher says: “why do you do this, what’s wrong with you boy?”

Just because something is different doesn’t mean it is wrong.

In the gospel readings for the past 2 weeks, we have heard about encounters with Jesus, firstly Nicodemus, then the woman at the well. In today’s gospel reading we also read about an encounter between a person and Jesus. But in this meeting, the two men barely speak to each other. Most of the story is about the reaction of others.

The gospel reading this morning also asks about sin:
whose sin caused the man to be born blind?
Is Jesus a sinner for healing on the Sabbath?
How could someone who is a sinner work such a miracle?”
The Pharisees tell the man: “You have been a sinner since the day you were born! Do you think you can teach us anything?”

If I have a label on like this [paper plate with sinner in large writing over my face] what else do you notice about me?
Would you listen to me?
Would you help me across the road?

In this mask, I cannot see.
I cannot see other people,
or the world around me,
but I also cannot see myself.

The gospel starts with asking about sin, and there is a thread about sin woven through this passage. When we think of sin as something that is easily defined - such as questioning authority or working on the Sabbath; we can begin to think more about rules than about people.

Jesus saw the person who was begging,
he didn’t see the result of sin,
he saw a person.
A person who needed healing,
who needed to be made whole,
a person who was a social and religious outcast.

When we look at the healing miracles in the Gospel,
we see inclusion and compassion.

There is another thread running through the readings today, it is about sight and seeing.

How would you choose a king?
 - The tallest?
 - Strongest?
 - Best looking?
 - Brightest?

Saul was King, yet he no followed in God’s ways, so it was time to anoint a new king.
The prophet Samuel, does as he is told, he goes to Bethlehem and meets with Jesse and his sons.
And in turn, Samuel asks God if this is the one.
And each time God says no.
David, the youngest is called in from minding the sheep, and is anointed. David will become the king.

God told Samuel: People judge others by what they look like, but I judge people by what is in their hearts.

When choosing a leader, we have expectations, but God sees us differently, God looks at our hearts, not our bank balance or our body mass index.

I wonder if the sin in this story,
is the sin of not seeing and valuing ourselves,
and others, as God sees and values us.  

Sin, suffering and bearing fruit

If something bad happens to you, it is because you deserve it if your crops fail, it is because you have displeased God; same with illness, untimely death, any sort of disaster – it is because of something you have done, it is God’s judgement upon you.

Ever heard anything like that?

Blaming the victim was common in the time of Jesus, and it still persists today.

Except, it isn’t true. When illness or disaster or suffering comes, it isn’t because we are being judged as more sinful than anyone else. It is not a form of divine punishment.

Jesus tells the people that those whose blood was mingled with the sacrifice, were not any more sinful than anyone else. The reason their blood was mingled with the sacrifice is because they were at worship, when Pilate’s soldiers came and killed them.

The same with those who were killed in an industrial accident. They were not more sinful than anyone else. The tower of Siloam is thought to be part of a building project that was being built with money taken from the Temple treasury.

There is a certain level of comfort for us in thinking that those who suffer in what appears to be random events, must be more sinful or bad than we are. Otherwise how do we know it won’t happen to us? We want some reassurance that we are good enough, special enough, important enough that such things won’t happen to us, that God is judging those people.

It is easy for us to think that some people are more sinful than we are. I am talking about sin, that which separates us from God. There isn’t a list of sins where some are worse than others. In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes:  since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23 NRSV]

 Slide:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208854356625120&set=a.1357499066439.2052303.1500378791&type=3&theater

  

Sin does a have role in suffering.

·      Pilate’s brutal reign was sinful - God calls leaders to be shepherds, not murder their own people, or line their own pockets.

·      Villages live with polluted water when the environment is not cared for.

·      Workers are injured or killed when profits rate higher than safety – such as in Bangladesh a few years ago, when a building collapsed. Over 1,000 people died and another 2,500 were injured. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22476774

 We want to think that we are immune from seemingly random events; so it is easier to say that such events are judgement from God. But now, as then, cyclones, tsunamis, workplace accidents and murder are not the fault of the victim.  

We all sin, we all need to come to God, to repent, to turn our lives around. And Jesus tells another story:

..“A bloke had a fruit tree planted on his property. One day, after finding that the tree had still not produced any fruit, he ran out of patience with it. He called his gardener and said, ‘I’ve given up on this tree. It’s been here for three years and has produced nothing but leaves. Chop it down! It’s a waste of good soil.’ But the gardener replied, ‘Boss, let’s give it one more year. I’ll loosen up the soil and keep the fertiliser up to it and we’ll see if it gives us a crop next summer. If it does, great; but if there’s still nothing, we’ll take the axe to it then.’” [©2001 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net]

 The parable of the barren fig tree turns our attention away from judging others to looking at our own lives.

It certainly sounds like it has branches and leaves, it doesn’t sound like it is dead, just not bearing fruit. If it was dead there would be no reason to keep it at all.

From a song  The Tree Song: Chorus:

I’ve got roots growing down to the water,

I’ve got leaves growing up to the sunshine,

and the fruit I bear is a sign of the life in me.

http://azharclass2012.wikispaces.com/file/view/The+Tree+Song+Lyrics.PDF

“…the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.” [Galatians 5: 22-23 GNB]

What fruit does your life show?

The parable is a reminder to us that we need to not only stay alive, but to bear fruit. I wonder how often we are even aware of our lack of fruitfulness, we appear to be going OK, nice leafy branches providing shade, strong sturdy trunk to withstand storms, yet a fig tree that doesn’t bear figs, no matter how healthy looking, is just not doing what it was planted for. The tree gets another chance, and we too get another chance, and another – not because we are particularly worthy, but because God is gracious and merciful to us.

Lent is a time for us to think about the things that tempt us away from God
the false idols,
the things that demand our time and attention and energy,
the things that slowly kill our spirit,
those things that mean we don’t bear fruit.  

The parable is left up in the air at the end, we don’t know if the tree bears fruit next year, if it gets another chance, or if the gardener finally pulls it out.

I wonder will we bear more fruit this year than last.
Will we live up to our high calling as the people of God?
At times it seems that disaster and illness tests our faith, but from this passage judgement is not about disaster or illness, but whether we bear fruit that shows our repentance, our trust in God, our living as the body of Christ in this place.

The gardener says he will loosen the soil, get rid of the weeds and feed the tree with manure. What would it take for you to bear fruit?

Slide:

·         What sort of fruit would you like your life to be producing by this time next year?

·         What help will you need to realise this dream.

Reflection time

A Poem: in this life

~ Copyright © 2007 Thom M. Shuman. Posted on Prayers4Today. http://prayersfortoday.blogspot.ca/