It was Kermit the Frog who famously queried “Why are
there so many songs about rainbows?” And
we might want to ponder why the story of Noah and the ark is so
captivating. Every church nursery has an
ark play set and when we renovated our nursery last summer we placed wall
stencils of Noah and the ark around the room.
Children, I think, are drawn to the animals and the imaginative
possibility that all could get along in tight quarters. As we grow older other themes emerge from the
story: Noah’s faithfulness in the midst of ridicule and his courage in the face
of danger; God’s anger at human wickedness and swift judgment of the entire
world; and God’s desire to redeem what is good and make a new beginning.
The elements of this story that are historical are
hard to determine. So many different
cultures have flood stories that it seems likely it has a basis in fact. The ice age 10,000 years ago dramatically dropped
ocean and inland lake levels. As those
massive sheets of ice (over mile thick) began to melt that water went
somewhere, well, in fact, everywhere.
Did it cover the whole earth?
Probably not. But it certainly
made an impression of clusters of people living in various locations around the
globe some 7,000 years ago. Surely their
stories and myths are based in a historical event.
The quest to find Noah’s ark is, for some, the search
for the Holy Grail. For them, if found,
it would validate everything the bible says.
A Dutchman
by the name of Johan Huibers has gone so far as to build a replica of Noah’s ark
that welcomes 3,000 tourists a day. His
enormous attraction features life-size plastic animals to show (in theory) how it
all might have worked. For folks like these, faith is in the details. If the details are accurate, then the faith
is reasonable.
But not for me.
For me, faith is in the meaning.
What does the story of Noah and the ark say to us? What meaning should we take from it? Is it only a cuddly story that should be
consigned to church nurseries? Or is it
a litmus test for biblical relevance? Or
does it say something important about who we are to be in God’s world?
In this morning’s Old Testament reading we hear the
heart of the ark story. After the floodwaters
have receded and after all is said and done, God establishes a covenant with
Noah. It is, in fact, the first covenant
in biblical history. A covenant is a
kind of contract between two people or parties.
It speaks of a deep desire to be in a committed relationship. That is why we understand marriage to be a
type of covenant and reflective of God’s love for us. God establishes with us through Noah a kind
of marriage relationship, if you will.
But notice that God’s covenant is not just with Noah and not just with
his family and not just with the human family, it is with all of creation. God desires to be in covenant relationship
with all that has been created and thus tasks Noah with preserving every
specious on the face of the earth.
How should this covenant inform the way we live out
our Christian faith? It says to me that
we Christians have the highest possible reason to care for the health and wellbeing
of all life on this planet because we are heirs of God’s covenant with
Noah. Beyond the motivation of
naturalists, members of the Audubon Society, and tree-huggers everywhere, we
have a spiritual and theological mandate to preserve life in all its forms.
Did you know that based on geological records, our
planet is now in the midst of its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals in the
past half-billion years? It is the first
mass extinction since the loss of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. And unlike the others that were initiated by
a massive volcanic eruption or an asteroid strike, this one cannot be traced to
a single naturally occurring event.
It is typical to lose one
to five species a year, but we live in an age when we losing 1,000 to 10,000 species
a year. Think about that for a
moment. On this First Sunday in Lent
alone, it is likely that several hundred plants, animal, insect, and aquatic
species will disappear from the planet forever.
By the year 2050, it is possible that half of the species now alive will
be gone.
Here is where we stand
today:
· 12% of
all bird species worldwide are considered threatened.
· 21% of
all fish species are at risk of extinction.
· 21% of
all reptiles are threatened.
· 50% of
all primates – our closest relatives on the planet – are endangered.
The numbers truly are
staggering and the size of the problem is numbing.
Those of us within the
Christian family have been involved in an on-going discussion that mirrors the
national debate on climate change and global warming. In spite of this week’s frigid winter
weather, that the planet’s temperature is rising is an irrefutable fact. Numbers don’t lie. What is up for debate is the cause of this
warming and what human action can do to make a difference.
Here is something else that
is irrefutable for us Christians: God loves all creation for the bible tells us
so:
· Psalm
145:13: “The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has
made.”
· 1
Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory
and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.”
· Luke 12:6: “Are not five sparrows sold for two
pennies? Yet not one of them is
forgotten in God’s sight.”
· Colossians
1:15-16: “Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all
creation. For by him all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for
him.”
The bible also speaks powerfully regarding God’s displeasure at the
misuse of creation:
· Leviticus 18: 28: “If you defile the land, it will
vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.”
· Numbers 35:33-34: “You shall not pollute the land
in which you live.... You shall not defile the land in which you live, in which
I also dwell.”
· Hosea 4:1-3: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no
acknowledgment of God in the land. There
is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all
bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who
live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the
fish of the sea are dying.”
The bible also speaks hopefully regarding the restoration of creation:
· 2
Chronicles 7:13-14: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble
themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Each Sunday in the season of Lent the Lectionary readings will expose us to
one of the biblical covenants. The
Worship Committee has come up with a plan to create a visual image that will
develop over the course of our Lenten journey.
We begin today with an image of the rainbow. It is a visible reminder of God’s covenanted
love for us and for all of creation. And
it is a reminder of our Noah-like role to care for this world.
I said earlier the statistics around mass extinction, along with the
ferosity of the debate about it, is numbing.
It tempts me to bury my head in the sand and pretend that it is not my
problem and to believe there is nothing I alone can do about it. I wonder if Noah himself ever felt that way.
Throughout Lent, with each Sunday’s covenant, I am going to give you some
time to reflect. I am going to ask you
to make a commitment that will be held between you and God. On the last Sunday in Lent I will give you
time to gather your thoughts, to commit them to writing, and to make a tangible
offering to God that describes things you will do because you want to be in a
faithful covenant relationship with God.
Today I invite you to ponder what you are already currently doing to care
for God’s creation and I invite you to a prayerful discernment about something
you are not currently doing, but might do.
One thing. What is one thing you
will do to be in relationship with God by caring for God’s creation?