After the News - 7PM
Sermon series: Creation Matters
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you from Jesus Christ who loves us and frees us from our sin. Amen.
The do-over. Most of us are first introduced to the do-over on the playground in elementary school. It was the quintessential way to save face after tripping over a chalkline while playing hopscotch or air-balling a free-throw on the basketball court. The do-over is a kid’s best friend. Yet, the do-over has never been limited to the realm of failed attempts in kickball and video games.
Many a grownup golf score has been significantly lowered by the liberal usage of the mulligan. And on the grand scale there is of course, the government bailout of the country’s financial system. Which regardless of your take on the situation, functionally served as a giant do-over for the financial system.
Friends, the do-over is alive and well. From playgrounds to boardrooms the do-over offers those who avail themselves of its services the opportunity to chart a different course into the future. The do-over gives us freedom from the baggage of the past and an occasion to do better next time.
Tonight we read from Genesis chapter 9. It’s the bible’s accounting of the aftermath of the great flood. It comes after Noah and the Ark, after the animals two by two, and the dove heading out in search of the olive branch. But before we dive into what comes after the 40 days and 40 nights of rain, and the months on the open water, I want to draw our attention to what comes before it.
Genesis chapter six sets the stage, for what is to follow in chapters seven, eight and nine. God takes a long look at creation, God sees the people that God fashioned for partnership in this world, the people that God made in his image. God looks at his partners in mission and God is disgusted. God is filled with regret. Listen how the author of Genesis tells the story in verses 5-7 of chapter six.
5The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
God says, “I am sorry that I made them.” God looks at humanity, the work of God’s own hands and God is filled with remorse for what he has made. God is grieved by the course that humanity has taken. God is grieved by the very inclination of the human heart. God is grieved and God wants a do-over.
Then we get the flood. Noah, his family, plants and animals are spared, they spend some time on the boat. The waters recede and Noah and his family are reminded again who they are supposed to be as God’s people in the world. It would seem as though God’s do-over has worked. But then there’s verse 8:21.
At the end of chapter eight, God says, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.”
On the basis of this verse it would seem as though God’s do-over didn’t work. In bringing the flood God sought to re-create humanity into the people, the partners that God was seeking since the moment the world was created. But even after the flood, the inclination of the human heart remained bent on self-service, instead of embracing the self-giving love of God. So God’s do-over failed.
And it is precisely here that we pick up tonight’s reading. It is here, in the midst of humanity’s relentless rejection of God’s call that God issues a covenant of promise. In spite of a fail do-over God promises to never again destroy the earth. Humanity hasn’t changed but God has changed towards humanity.
No longer will total annihilation be an option for God, God has limited God’s own self so that a do-over, a starting over from scratch with this world, is no longer something God will entertain. Does that mean that God no longer cares that the human creation is bent towards self-service and self-destruction? No, of course God cares, it still grieves God, but God must explore other options and avenues to repair the fractured relationship between humanity and their creator.
God has made a commitment to working in and through our brokenness to bring about the world God longs for. God’s self limitation is a gift for us.
Yesterday my wife and I spent the day at Abbott Northwestern Hospital at a childbirth preparation class. We were there for seven hours learning about the mechanics of labor and delivery, the pain medication options, and all the ins and outs of the birthing process. It was exhausting and overwhelming and to be honest, I don’t really feel any better prepared.
I mean how does one get ready for all of that. How do we get ready for all the possible contingencies, the difficulties, the pain of labor. How does one prepare for something so difficult and so unpredictable? It seems impossible.
But then there are time where if I squint, if I crane my neck I can barely glimpse what is to come on the other side of my wife’s labor, on the other side of my fear and trembling. If I close my eyes I can see the joyful reality that awaits on the other side of this terrifying present, and I’m able to stand, even somewhat confidently, in the midst of this unnerving uncertainty.
It’s no accident that Paul employs birthing and labor imagery in his letter to the church at Rome which we read a small snippet of tonight. Paul says we know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains... That is, in Jesus this world has glimpsed a different future, one that is characterized by God’s self giving love, and as a result we long, we groan, we labor for that future, for that world which God intends for us.
See, God’s promise, God’s commitment to this world, was cemented in God’s promise to Noah. There are no more do-overs for God. This world will carry on, it will thrive. For it is in Jesus that we become heirs, children of that promise. In the midst of uncertainty, in the midst of the unknown we cling to God’s promise, we cling to God’s commitment to always be at work in and through this world, so that together we might give birth to God’s promised future. Amen.
