Gen 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19 for Sun., June 1, 2008

Translation:

(9)These are the generations of Noah:  Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, Noah walked with God. (10)Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.  (11)The earth was marred before God and the land was filled with violence. (12)God saw the land, how marred it was because all flesh ruined its ways upon the earth.  (13)God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me.  The earth is filled with violence because of them I now am going to destroy them along with the earth. (14)Make for yourself an ark from gopher trees.  Make cells in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch.  (15)And this is how you will make it: the ark will be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high. (16)Make a roof for the ark and finish it to a cubit above and put a door in the side of the ark.  Make lower, second and third [decks].  (17)And I am bringing a flood of waters upon the earth to ruin all flesh which in it is a breath of life under the sky, everything on earth will die.  (18)I will establish to my covenant with you and you will enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your son's wives with you.  (19)And al that lives, from all flesh two from everything you will bring to the ark to preserve with you, male and female they shall be.  (20)Those that fly according to their kinds, and from the animals according to their kinds and from all creeping things of the land according to their kinds.  Two of each will come in with you to be preserved. (21)And take for yourself every food which will be eaten and gather up for yourself and it will be for you and for them food."  (22)And Noah did everything which God commanded him, thus he did.  

(7:24) And the waters prevailed over the earth 150 days.

(8:14)And in the second month on the 27th day of the month, the earth dried up.  (15)God spoke to Noah saying: (16)"Go out from the ark with your wife, your sons and your son's wives with you.  (17)Every living thing which is with you, all flesh and all flying things and all animals and every creeping thing which creeps upon the earth will come out with you to swarm on the earth and multiply upon the earth." (18)And Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him.  (19)All living things, all creeping things and all flying things and all those which creep upon the earth came out from the ark by families.

I recently attended Godly Play training, where I learned to tell biblical stories in a new way.  Our instructors told us many biblical stories for us to reflect on.  One of the stories was the story of Noah and the flood.  There were about 30 adults in the room when the story was told and when the story was over, several were in tears.  In a time where the images of Katrina, tsunamis, cyclones and earthquakes are all still very fresh, it is hard to hear a story of destruction.  Especially a story of destruction initiated by God.

The story of Noah is one of the first stories in the Bible that illustrates how things have really gone wrong since the creation that God called "good."  The violence and corruption of Genesis 6 is over and against the goodness of God's creation in Genesis 1.  It seems that it is not just people that are corrupt, but everything has gone wrong.  It is all flesh (which indicates to me, even animals and other parts of creation).  God has to do something.

I think we often read this story and think that God must have been experiencing some kind of divine depression.  God looked down on earth and disliked what God saw and in a fit of depression decided to end it all.  Maybe this is how it happened.  I like to think that God saw the earth and realized that things were not going the way God had intended.  The creating was incomplete.  God needed to have some form of redemption, some way to wipe this slate clean.

The flood was obviously a destructive way to cleanse the earth from it's wickedness, but I think God was searching for answers to "fix" the corruption on the earth.  Short of saying God made a mistake with the flood, I think God was still creating and still finding the best ways to offer newness in a somewhat wrecked world.  Obviously, God's plan was not to completely destroy the earth (he did preserve two of every species), but rather to wipe out the tendencies for corruption.

In the end, I think God discovered that the flood was perhaps not the ideal solution.  Kind of in the same way none of the animals paraded before ha adam (literally "the earth-dweller") were the solution to his singular existence (Gen 2:18ff).  God promises never to flood the earth again, and God does find other ways to offer redemption to the earth that do not involve mass destruction.

This Sunday, we will hear a sermon entitled "It All Belongs to God."  In some sense, that fact may frighten us because the divine Creator, especially in this story, has the power to end all creation.  On the other hand, the divine Creator makes a covenant with Noah and all creation to never again destroy every living being.  God makes a solemn oath and we can rely on that.  It doesn't mean that bad things will never happen, but it does mean that everything belonging to God is secure in God's covenant.