As I prepared todays sermon the first though that struck me
was we just read this Gospel a few weeks ago.
The second thing that hit me was No one wants to reflect on this reading
in the context of the first Sunday of lent because we just read this Gospel a
few weeks ago. Many of the commentaries
want to reflect upon the story of Noah which is the old testament reading for
today.
Genesis 9:8-17 The Message (MSG)
8-11 Then God spoke to Noah and his sons: “I’m setting up my
covenant with you including your children who will come after you, along with
everything alive around you—birds, farm animals, wild animals—that came out of
the ship with you. I’m setting up my covenant with you that never again will
everything living be destroyed by floodwaters; no, never again will a flood
destroy the Earth.”
12-16 God continued, “This is the sign of the covenant I am
making between me and you and everything living around you and everyone living
after you. I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between
me and the Earth. From now on, when I form a cloud over the Earth and the
rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll remember my covenant between me and you and
everything living, that never again will floodwaters destroy all life. When the
rainbow appears in the cloud, I’ll see it and remember the eternal covenant
between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth.”
17 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I’ve
set up between me and everything living on the Earth.”
Reverend Kathryn Mathews who has retired after serving as
the Chaplain of Armistead chapel reflects
One might think that our theme for this First Sunday in Lent
would be something like "We Keep Sinning," or "Why We Need to
Repent," instead of the tender claim that "God Loves Us."[1]
Many people would look at this as a time to reflect on our
brokenness or how we may have turned our back on God or all our faults. But what if we look at our relationship with
God as we understand it Today?
We, the United Church of Christ, proclaim an all loving,
Creator God who calls us children and knows each one of us before we are even
formed in the womb. We believe in a God
who walks with us in our time of despair and dances with us in our time of Joy.
We believe and proclaim God Loves us. Isn’t that a great way to sum up the
Lenten season? As we do our best to
improve our personal relationship with God.
God is always waiting for us and ready to engage us if we seek God out.
“Yes, we know that the story of Noah has a lot to do with God
judging humankind and finding it wanting--very, very wanting, so much so that
God decides on a do-over (would our technological culture say a
"reboot"?) of creation itself, back when water and land had been
separated and new life brought forth. In the larger story of Noah … God chooses
one man and his family, establishing a new Adam and a fresh start for humanity
(and, once again, telling humanity to "be fruitful and multiply").
God begins the story again, with this offer, this gift, of the very first covenant
between God and humankind.”[2]
The story of Noah is a horrible story. It is a story of anger, sin and
destruction. Yet it is also a story of
redemption. This is the story of God’s
own redemption. Did you ever hear we are
created in they image of God? Did you
ever get so angry you just wanted to knock everything down and maybe you did
but then the regret lies heavy? We often
regret our own impulses and, in this case, well God kind of does just
that. Right?
God sees this destruction and mess that comes out of anger
and makes a promise. God makes a
covenant. To never take out all living
things again. God makes a covenant and that should ring a bell in a few ears,
especially if you are UCC for we are a covenant people.
God makes a covenant with Noah before he gets on the Ark and
;
“God fills out that first slim covenant, going far beyond
the rescue of Noah and his descendants but also ‘with every living creature…all
future generations…” and even ‘between me and the Earth’ to these all, god
promises an ever lasting Covenant.’ God even places the rainbow as a Divine
Post-it note to remind God of the Promise. This covenant is purely
God-Initiated and God Committed. Nothing
is asked or demanded of Noah or the earth creatures or of the earth
itself. This is Purely God’s covenantal
promise.”[3]
God late makes a covenant with Abraham and that covenant is
passed on to Isaac
In exodus 2:24 hearing the cries of the enslaved Israelites
God “remembered his Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” and delivered them.
The story of covenant and how bad Kings and people are at
keeping them are woven throughout the Hebrew writings and then when we move
into the new testament well…
“the very title “testament” for the two parts of Christian
scripture witnesses to the importance of the notion of covenant in our
scriptural tradition. When the Hebrew
bible was translated into Greek, the translators chose to translate berith (The
Hebrew word for covenant) with the Greek word diattheke, which means literally
“will” or Testament, to indicate that covenant is always about Gods’ initiative
and will. Then when the Greek Bible was translated into Latin, diatheke became
testamentum and scriptures became known as Old and New Testaments – or old and
new Covenants.”[4]
As Christians we are covenanted to God, as a congregation we
are covenanted to one another, as a church we hold covenants with our local
Golden gate association and with the conference and then with the denomination.
Whether you realize it or not we are covenanted people, and this goes way
beyond scripture. But that first and
primary covenant of God to all creation, that first time when God looked back
upon Gods wrath and makes a covenant never to destroy all life by a flood again
truly moves me because it tells us that God can be moved and often is moved as
we hear again and again throughout the scriptures.
God Loves us, God is moved for and by us
“And yet, and yet...we are especially prone, in the church,
to concentrate on what we are doing or failing to do (right) in our
relationship with God or, for that matter, what we are doing (or not doing) in
the world. We don't focus so much on the primary actor in the long story of
faith: God. (Perhaps this is because we, deep down, think that everything
really is up to us?) This one episode in that story is a dramatic example of
God at the center of things: God is the One who speaks, acts and, one might
even say, feels. God is actually the one who "turns away" from a path
(the thing we're supposed to do during Lent when we "repent") and
makes a promise never again to destroy humankind and the earth with a flood.”
Even more so one thing to remember is we did not cause God
to turn from this action this covenant comes from the heart of God, if you
will, God makes a covenant and continues to covenant with life.
“Indeed, this week's text is about remembering and
reminding, and about relationship. It is about a covenant, a promise.
Apparently, even God needs to be reminded, in this case by a beautiful bow
(ironically, an ancient weapon) in the sky, of a promise God makes out of
tenderness and compassion.”
“So what do we learn about God--and what God is about--in
this story? William Loyd Allen describes a God who is "adaptable, touched
to the heart by creation, and willing to accept hurt to keep hope alive."
God refuses to give up on us, Allen says, because "God's heart is touched
by creation's suffering. The God declaring this covenant is not an objective
judge meting out a just sentence, but a lover grieved to the heart at the
beloved's violence, yet still seeking reconciliation (6:6, 8:21). Readers will
find divine regret throughout this covenant, but will look in vain for
anger" (Feasting on the Word Year B Vol. 2). Thus, our theme: God Loves
Us.”[5]
It is with that theme of God loves us that we enter lent
marked by the beginning of the New Testament, the new covenant, and we open
with Jesus baptism
“In a few swift strokes of the pen Mark sets the stage for
all that is to come. Our attention is focused precisely on the man Jesus and
the message he brings. This clearing away of extraneous detail, this forcing
our attention on Jesus is just what Lent can be about for believers who are too
absorbed in their own projects to focus for themselves. Mark's opening verses
invite us to re-focus in Lent.”[6]
We are to turn our focus back to our relationship with God
as it is manifested in the life, the life and sayings of Jesus. This invitation
to refocus comes in Jesus own words; "repent and believe in the
gospel." “We might translate these familiar words "re-focus and trust
the good news." Mark leaves us in no doubt about the good news that Jesus
calls upon his hearers to trust.”[7]
Last week we were told too listen to Jesus this week Jesus
is reassured by God that he is beloved and God is pleased. One commentator
points out this about Marks gospel
“First it is specifically "good news about God."
And that news is all about timing: "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom
of God is at hand." Both verbs (is fulfilled/is at hand) are in the
perfect tense. Something has already happened and the implications of that
happening are emerging in "those days," the very same days referred
to in verse 9. The time is ripe, and the kingdom has come near. No wonder
Mark's gospel is marked by brevity. His message is urgent -- no time to spend
on unnecessary words.”[8]
If we look and listen to Mark closely we can find ways to
move away from the old concept of Easter and Lent as a time of sadness,
deprivation and sorrow.
“The time before Easter has long been associated with
penitent self-abnegation. That befits Jesus’ preparation for his own sacrifice,
to be detailed in coming Sundays. Along the way, however, the church has
sometimes extended Passion Week into six weeks of mourning and has confused
surrender with easy self-deprivation (“giving up chocolate for Lent”).
Mark points us in a different direction. “The time is
fulfilled” (1:15a). This time is not chronos, measured by calendar or clock. It
is kairos -- a time of critical decision: not every day, but D-Day (Ezekiel
7:12; Dan 7:22; Gal 4:4; Ephesians 1:10; Revelation 1:3b). This kairos is filled
to fullness: the cup has been topped up, its contents brimming to overflow.
Lent is to Easter as Advent is to Christmas: God has set the kingdom into
motion, which will soon go into turbo-drive. As with Advent, so also with Lent:
the suitable response is to “repent and believe in the good news” (Mark
1:15b).”[9]
This explains Marks urgency and brevity. The time is now, God Kindom is at hand. Jesus
is reassured by Gods love and then Hurled out into the wilderness he is tempted
by Satan…but we need not worry ourselves about the details at least mark
doesn’t think so. He does give us a
quick glimpse into the kingdom. He was with the wild beasts, now for any
listener at this time with images of the garden of Eden would pop up because
this is the only time man was supposedly safe among the wild beasts. Then with
the added imagery that he was waited upon by angels is just top mark the
awareness that this is truly a man of God.
The son of God!
“Jesus’ experience in the wild, out in a boundary setting at
the threshold between civilization and untamed places, is supposed to capture
our imagination. Served or protected by angels, Jesus is “with the wild beasts”
(Mark 1:13). Just what’s going on out there in the wilderness?
“Our answer will depend on what other biblical texts we have
in view.
One perspective says that Mark evokes hopes of a restored or
new creation coming into being. If the wild beasts pose no threat to Jesus, if
he sleeps with his head on a lion’s back and with a Komodo dragon alongside him
for warmth, then creation -- at least this outpost within it -- has been
transformed. It is (again?) at peace with itself. Through Jesus, as a result of
victories he will win over powers of chaos and destruction, harmony will come
to earth.
may tell about a transformed creation made harmonious, or it
may hold out the promise of keeping at bay all the still-dangerous elements of
creation. In either case, the imagery contains a sense of reconfigured boundaries.
Old rules and expectations no longer apply in the same way when Jesus is
present. Other passages will confirm this with respect to religious practices
(e.g., Mark 2:18-22), and Jesus’ healings will repeatedly confound our sense of
what’s possible. The empty tomb in Mark 16 will make this point even more
forcefully.”[10]
Professor Matt Skinner tells us that ;
“Jesus’ focus is temporal, not spatial. That is, he
announces the dawn of a new era and a new state of affairs, one in which God
rules; with the expression kingdom of God he does not speak of taking people
away to a new place in a far-off land. He tells those who listen that God is
bringing new realities into existence; Jesus himself demonstrates what these
realities look like through his actions and words.
This “reign” is about more than people’s spiritual
existence. Jesus will call people to new understandings about what all of life
is like. Family, society, political allegiances, economics, wellness, purity
and acceptability -- no facet of life remains unaddressed.”
Jesus message and is that God loves up. And that Love calls
us to a higher way of being as God’s kingdom is at hand! To this day we are still, as a people,
learning and discovering what that means, how we need to treat each other and
what we need to do to continue to be Gods children living in Gods love and
letting that relationship of us to God be expressed in our love and care for
each other and all of God’s creation.
As we set out on our Lenten journey, what lesson, and what
comfort and strength, do we draw from this story? How do we see ourselves as
creatures dependent on God's goodness and grace? How will we allow ourselves to
be changed by the promises of God, unfolding in our lives and in the life of
all creation?
This is for you to discover and answer I will warn you if
you are actively seeking out that deeper relationship with God during the
Lenten season. You will probably end up with more questions than answers. But often that is the way a good relationship
with the loving God works. Amen.
[1] http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_february_18_2018
[2]
ibid
[3]
ibid
[4] http://uccfiles.com/pdf/Hoffman-on-Covenant.pdf
[5] http://www.ucc.org/worship_samuel_sermon_seeds_february_18_2018
[6] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=250
[7] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=250
[8] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1219
[9] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3566
[10] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2342
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