NEVER AGAIN. NEVER?

A sermon for the first Sunday of Lent, 2024

So what is your favourite bible story? Many for whom a Christian Church has not been part of their upbringing or first-hand experience will say something like “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat” or  “Jesus Christ, Superstar”—and what would we do without Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Point of personal interest and claim to fame; I studied music theory with his father, William Lloyd Webber.)

Some might suggest the “Parable of the Good Samaritan,” or the story of “Moses leading the people of Israel through the Red Sea,” or later receiving “The Ten Commandments” (aided by the film version by Cecil B DeMille).

More than a few might have learned the story of “Noah and the great flood” in Sunday school—some in this church may recall flannel-graph presentations back in the day. In case it is new to you, here is a truncated version of of a four-chapter Hebrew Bible saga:

1. After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth. 
2. The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
3. I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.
4. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.
5. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
6. By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth.
7. THE PROMISE — “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
8. THE SIGN — Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you.
9. PREDICTION — Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

So I must ask, why so much space and attention to this particular story? It dwarfs all other early Hebrew Bible narratives. It is a way to deal with the presence and problem of evil by providing a resolution facilitated by annihilation (itself highly problematic for a God of love). It describes a righteous human response to Creator’s graciousness—it combines justice with mercy. That said, the promise to never again destroy the earth nags at me—I am unsure about the future of earth as we know it.

One does wonder what physical, geographical, meteorological catastrophic event inspired the story of Noah and the flood. In today’s climate crisis we face a similar cataclysm. We think of floods, rising sea levels, fires, drought and famine, failed harvests, pollution of air, ruin of natural elements in the ground—and more. If these signs are possible, even probable, has God changed God’s mind? And whatever will befall this and following generations? What story will next be told? How will Creator support and enliven creation—including humanity—through such trauma, for this is what we require—spiritual accompaniment, the ability to hope, to cope, and to thrive?

Where are “the powers” in all this? And finally, what about us, seated here in this church, this morning? Will inspiration, courage and comfort come from above (the cosmos, or heaven, or the spirit-world), or from below (from each other, from mystics and contemporary prophets, or from sources of inspired earthly wisdom—science, theology, or the arts). For insight and inspiration, I often turn to Richard Rohr who writes:

“Often the best insights are going to come from below: from people, that is, whose life experience means they understand how power works, not because they exercise it but because they are subjected to it. That’s why frontline communities in places where global warming’s devastation is already increasingly obvious often produce such powerful ideas and initiatives. We need to stop thinking of them as on the margins, since they are quite literally on the cutting edge.”

Lest we think that God-in-Christ places impossibly heavy burdens on each of us, Fr. Richard continues:

“(The genius of those on the cutting edge) is not their own; it is borrowed. They understand that we are moons, not suns, except in our ability to pass on the light. Our life is not our own, yet, at some level, enlightened people know their life has been given to them as a sacred trust. They live in gratitude and confidence, and they try to let the flow continue through them.”

One word: Gratitude. Along with humility Lent fosters gratitude in us, in our relationships and decisions, in and through love. Despite whatever happens, we can still live, in gratitude, with each other, with creation, with God, inspired by the role and witness of Jesus.

As the psalmist encourages us, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)