Scripture: Genesis 6-9, especially Genesis 6: 9-22 and Genesis 9: 8-17
Video of the sermon here from around 33 minutes.
Audio of the sermon here
It would be fair to say that not many Bible stories capture the imagination like Noah’s ark. David and Goliath, maybe. Joseph with his technicolour dream coat (which, spoiler, we’ll look at in a couple of weeks after the United Service), possibly.
The story of Noah’s ark intrigues children, theologians, historians, and modern-day ark seekers. Even Marco Polo wrote about seeking the ark.
When I was child there was a children’s TV series called Noah and Nelly who lived with the animals on board the Skylark! Even now you can get children’s toys with Noah’s ark, not just in Christian shops, but in mainstream toy stores. Which is odd, cos it’s quite a dark story and you’d have thought it would cause nightmares!
Two replicas of Noah’s ark exist today. One sea-worthy replica built by Johan Huibers in 2013 is anchored in the Netherlands. The other opened in 2016 in Kentucky.
Noah in the ark was not the only such flood story in the ancient Near East. In one a gang of gods unleashed a catastrophic flood as a personal vendetta against some noisy people who kept them awake at night.
When we read stories from the Bible they can sometimes seem primitive and barbaric, and maybe they are, but we can often fail to put them in the context of the world in which they were written and we might come to see them as a step forward.
The Jewish version of the flood story is found in Genesis 6–9. As we continue our time in The Community Bible Experience that’s where we land today. But looking back over my records I realise this is third time I’ve spoken on this story in little over 2 years. Once was on this Sunday a year ago. And as I prepared, I’m not sure I had a huge amount I wanted to add. So for those with long memories, some of this might sound familiar. But quite a few of you wouldn’t have been around and if you were… well, reinforcement can also be good!
But let’s be honest. The story of Noah is not an easy read. It is a story of salvation, but it also a story of huge judgement and death.
That said, when we see real evil in the world we ask why doesn’t God do something about it? We want it sorted now. And what do we expect that would look like? Noah is a story of what would happen if God ever left us entirely at the mercy of our own folly and evil.
It’s a story of a world that had utterly rejected God and was descending into chaos. Last week we looked at the story of creation and saw that we were invited to be part of the ongoing work of creation. To shape the world so that it is more and more as God intended. But as we join the story in Chapter 6, it seems very few were taking God up on the invitation. Rather than joining God in his ongoing work of creation, people seem hellbent on destruction. Violence, the very opposite of creativity, fills the earth.
The idea of the world getting so bad that God would be so grieved that he regrets putting us on the earth can be hard to read.
Maybe we need to stretch our imaginations.
I mean, imagine a world where violence is the preferred solution to most problems;
or where racism and prejudice run rampant;
or where people would enslave other human beings;
or where people are valued largely on their ability to produce. Some expendable, others valuable.
Or a world where children are used for sexual pleasure of adults.
Or where the greed and interests of small groups, normally the rich and powerful are given prominence and the more vulnerable get ever more vulnerable…
Yes, it may be difficult to imagine such a world…
Or maybe we just have to switch on the news.
Imagine how it must feel to be God who invested his image in us, gave us immense power and responsibility, but also gave us free will, and we used it for such destructive ends?
Well, whether we recognise it or not, that’s the backdrop to the Noah story.
We find his story in the early chapters of Genesis. Genesis 6 begins with a story of a world descending into chaos. The whole earth has corrupted its ways.
I used that word chaos quite deliberately. For chaos was precisely what creation had emerged from Last week we looked at Genesis 1 and 2. In the beginning the earth was formless, empty, chaotic. The Spirit hovered over the waters, which in the ancient world was a symbol for chaos.
In the creation story we see God rein back those forces, gathering together the waters so that dry land can emerge. The implication is that on the land at least life will continue so long God holds those forces at bay.
Yet the darkness and chaos are being ushered, welcomed even, back into a world consumed by violence. In the end God gives the world over to what it has chosen. The waters restrained at creation break free. A world so welcoming to darkness and chaos finds itself consumed by them.
But at the same time, there’s another story going on. Just when it looks like we’re ending the end of the road, we find a moment of hope. God hadn’t given up on us. It’s a story of faith.
This is not just the story of a flood. It’s the story of a man. Noah. The story begins This is the account of Noah and his family.
It’s not just a story of massive destruction. Through Noah it becomes a story of rescue and redemption.
It’s a story which reminds us however messed up things are, with God a new future is still possible. With God one person is enough.
Sure, if you believe in a God, you can probably believe that such a God could save the world. And he does.
But how? Through one person who chose a different path, who chose the right path, and because of him what could have been the end opened up to a whole new possibility. With God one person was enough.
It all turns on a couple of verses in Genesis 6.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Whilst the rest of the world seemed to be heading towards destruction, Noah was walking a different path, writing a different story. Whilst this seemed an utterly hopeless story of death and destruction, a story of new creation was being written.
But Noah is hardly an obvious choice. He may have been blameless amongst the people of his time, but tradition says that people thought he was mad. He spent forever warning people of the coming flood, but no-one would believe him. They mocked the mad guy with his warnings of coming disaster and his weird boat.
It’s said he was blameless in his time, but he was far from popular. Hebrews says he condemned the world… What does that mean?
It doesn’t mean he was self-righteous, fault-finding, judgemental, went around tutting and saying I told you so.
No, he was just different. His life stood out from those around him. And because of that people didn’t want him around. His life posed a challenge to those around him, because he lived by a different standard.
He refused to be dictated to by the standards of those around him. He was considered extremist, overly idealistic, not quite in the real world.
You know, community can be a powerful thing. We can achieve far more together than we ever can part.
But it has downsides too. Do you know you are less likely to do something heroic when you see yourself as part of a group? When we see ourselves primarily as just part of the group, it can be easy to think that somebody else might do it.
And groupthink can drag us down. People will do things far worse when they see themselves as part of a group than they ever would if they were entirely by themselves.
The life of faith can be lonely. It can mean standing for the right thing, even when no-one else will. Saying this is where I stand. Even if it is lonely. Even if others think I’m mad.
But the world depends on people like that. Pretty much every piece of social progress, stuff that we take for granted, it’s hard won. It starts with one person, one group, who say no to what is considered normal.
Often they are mocked, disparaged, ridiculed, slandered… sometimes they’re killed.
But they still say no.
And the world moves forward because they did.
Noah was one such person. And because of his no, God could rescue his creation.
Noah was a man whose faith resulted in action. Noah believed in God’s promise, even when it seemed foolish to everyone around him. And he acted.
Yes, disaster was coming, but no-one could really see it. No-one was listening. It wasn’t obvious. But Noah was ready to obey and his faith prompted him to take action. To build an ark to protect his family from a storm nobody believed would ever come. That was the proof of his faith.
You know, sometimes faith is seen presented in such a way that we’re almost telling God what to do. If you had more faith, you’d be healed. If you had more faith, you’d get that job. If you had more faith, you’d solve that problem. But from Noah we see a different angle. There’s one phrase which crops up in his story twice which is very telling. Noah did all that God commanded him.
Even when it seemed like madness.
Even when everyone mocked him.
Noah staked what he had on God’s promise and warning. He believed that God had plans for him, and could be trusted with what he committed to him. Faith isn’t about telling God what to do. Its about trusting in what God wants to do.
But it didn’t come as a one-off. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Noah was able to rise to the big occasion because he walked with God in the everyday.
Have you ever watched somebody do something and though I could have done that better. I mean a real professional. A chef, a painter, a sportsman. But you know, ultimately you probably couldn’t.
You could give me Rory McIlroys clubs, caddie, his money even, and I still wouldn’t make that big putt. Because you know, those are not the things of a moment. They are the end product of a lifetime spent preparing for it.
We might think when the crunch moment comes we would be the person we wanted to be, the person we were meant to be, the person who would be what God called us to be.
But it’s not a given. And we’re very unlikely to prove trustworthy in the big moment, if we’re not doing in in the everyday.
Noah was who God needed him to be when the big moment came, because he had lived a life of what Eugene Peterson called Long Obedience in the One Direction.
Even when others thought he was mad. Even when no-one listened.
Even as everyone around him seemed hellbent on destruction, Noah chose a different path, the right path, Noah chose to be the person God called him to be. And even in the midst of the greatest of messes, because of the obedience of the one man, Covenant History continues.
Actually we’re going to find this time and again in this series. In the midst of messiness, one person or one group steps up to keep the story going.
You know, I doubt we’ll be asked to build a boat to save humanity. Trust me, if I build it, don’t get on it!!
But each of us, in our own way is called to be God’s instrument in ushering in a different future.
I came across this cartoon last week. One person says to another, aren’t you terrified of what 2024 could be like. Everything is so messed up.
But the other says I think it will bring flowers?
Really? says the first one. Why?
Because I’m planting flowers, comes the reply.
In a world of so much despair, to offer a glimmer of hope.
In a world of so much destruction, to be bearers of a God of rescue and redemption, who is writing a different story. Building a different Kingdom. And a God who writes that story through a people who will allow a new story to be written.
That’s what means to be people of God’s covenant, of God’s promise. Of God’s great love for the world.
All too often we can find ourselves asking who we are and what can we do? Well, those are the perfect qualifications. It’s the norm of faith. The world has always turned on one person who would say no to what everyone else considered ‘normal’; Who would listen to that voice guiding them towards something new that God wants to bring about.
It needn’t be anything huge. It always starts small. With a simple act of obedience and trust. But a long obedience in a single direction in the small things means that when needed we are already the people we need to be, because it’s who we’ve been becoming all along.
In a world of so much despair, Noah reminds us that there is always the possibility of a new story being written. For God hasn’t given up on us. And all he needs is one.
It’s the story of Jesus, the story we are called to follow. The story of the one through whom we are reconciled to God.
He has committed himself to us. And invites us to step into relationship with him.
Oh, we will face the storms of life. No-one escapes them. They will come and go and sometimes we will doubt and question. And won’t be able to trace the rainbow in every cloud.
But sometimes we do.
And in those moments, take note and rejoice.
Remember the covenant.
A covenant of hope that God has not finished, this too shall pass.
He will not give up and will never let us go. And if we join him, well, all he needs is one.
paper dolls 