GOD’S COVENANT
GOD
COVENANTS WITH US TO PRESERVE AND RENEW LIFE
And God said
to Noah, "Make yourself an ark.” . . .
God
remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were
with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters
subsided; the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed,
the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters gradually receded from
the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters had abated; and
in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest
on the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to abate until the tenth
month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the
mountains appeared.
At the end
of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out
the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the
earth. Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided
from the face of the ground; but the dove found no place to set its foot, and
it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the
whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark
with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the
ark; and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a
freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the
earth. Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not
return to him any more. . . . Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,
‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after
you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic
animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the
ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut
off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy
the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me
and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations:
I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between
me and the earth.
~
Genesis 6:13a, 14a; 8:1-12, 9:8-1
Do we feel,
sometimes, in the church, as if we have been hit by a deluge? Trampled by a tumultuous storm? Submerged in
the depths?
Everything
has changed.
Our culture
used to be a culture in which, for Christians, church was front and center.
Stores closed and it seemed that everyone went to church on Sunday.
Our city
used to be a booming little city in which people all had jobs during the week,
whether in industry or at home, and thronged to places of worship on Sunday
mornings.
Our
congregation used to be a lively home for hundreds of people, where children
learned about faith and adults sang in the choir and all enjoyed regular
fellowship.
Our numbers
used to be high: 1,000 people in worship on Sunday, two services, filled
classrooms.
Our funding
used to be a given. Run a stewardship campaign and the pledges poured in.
Did we even
ask questions about what and who we are as a church? Not so much, I think. Our successes were obvious; our future,
assured.
And then the
skies darkened. The wind blew. And the
rains came pouring down.
The culture
changed. The congregation changed and
dwindled in number. The money began to dry
up.
Does it feel
as if a storm has hit? As if we are
rocking back and forth and side to side in a leaky ark?
And yet: God
offers us a rainbow, a sign of promise.
God calls us out of the ark and into a new world, a world longing for
God’s promises of life and love.
Conversation
Question: What does
God promise us when the storms come?
RESURRECTION LIFE
OUT OF
DEATH COMES RESURRECTION LIFE
But on the
first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices
that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but
when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about
this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were
terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why
do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
~
Luke 24:1-5
At the core
of Christian faith is a great mystery: out of death comes life. After a flood,
a rainbow forms in the sky. After all seems lost on a cross, light shines forth
from a cave.
We usually
hear this story, about the first day of the week at early dawn, on Easter
Sunday itself. And then we kind of
forget about it. We get busy with our
meetings and our meals, with our finances and our food, and we forget.
So let’s
remember for a moment. The heartbroken
women at the tomb, as we are heartbroken when we ponder what seems to be the
death of the church. The women perplexed
by the rolled-away stone and the vanished body, as we are often perplexed by
the church: What happened? Where did
everyone go? The arrival of the unexpected: two men in dazzling clothes, who
terrify the women. How do we respond
when it seems that we are confronted by the unexpected? Are we anxious, afraid? Terrified, even?
And then the
question: Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has
risen.
We forget,
when we are busy with our meetings and our meals and our finances and our food,
that we are called to live resurrection lives.
We forget to look for the living not among the dead, but among the
living. We are so accustomed to being
hobbled by loss and dismay that we forget that we have been set free by love.
If we feel
discouraged and disoriented by changes in our church, then we are right at the
heart of Christian transformation. And
at the heart of Christian transformation we are called to peel off the
trappings of death and turn toward the light of new life.
Conversation
Question: What would a resurrected church look like to you?
CALLED TO MISSION
IN
RESURRECTION LIFE WE ARE CALLED TO CARE FOR OTHERS
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes,
Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second
time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes,
Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to
him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt
because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him,
‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed
my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten
your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will
stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take
you where you do not wish to go.’
~
John 21:15-18
Do you know what the word ‘mission’ means?
We tend to think of a mission as a plan, or an assignment:
something we are supposed to DO.
But the word mission comes from the Latin mittere: to send. To be on mission is to be sent.
The Bible is one long story of mission, of sending. God is always sending people out to serve
others. The Hebrew Bible is filled with
narratives of people called and sent.
The prophets, sent to call the people back to God’s justice. Moses, sent to lead his people to freedom. Noah, sent to build an ark and prepare for a
new world.
And then: God sends Jesus, to love God’s people and to
trounce death. And God and Jesus send
their Spirit, to energize the people to proclaim the God news: The Kingdom of
God has come among you! And God keeps
sending: the apostle Paul, the other disciples, other people across the
centuries, and yes, even: us.
Our final passage today is about sending. About Jesus sending, starting with
Peter. Jesus is with his disciples on
the beach, in one of his many appearances to them after his resurrection. And
what does he say? Feed my lambs, Jesus tells Peter. Tend my sheep; feed my sheep.
Rainbow-covenant life and resurrection life are not only
about us. We are not called to mind only
our own business, tend only our own field, mind only our own sheep. This might mean some radical changes for us
as a church. To Noah, God did not say:
Build and ark and then live there. To Peter, a fisherman, Jesus did not say:
Build a new warehouse and a shop on the beach, buy a new boat and some new
nets, and get back out there to do what you did before. To us, Jesus is not saying: Save the
building, buy some curriculum, and invite people to come in and do with you
what you’ve always done. Jesus says:
Feed my sheep. Get out there and look
for my people – that would be all people – and care for them. Be a people in mission!
Conversation Question: What sort of service to others
excites you?
WRAP-UP
Today we are all about: a storm, an ark, a rainbow ~ a grave and a resurrection
~ and a sending forth. As we continue with
today’s gathering, think about what we have before us:
You all have
animals on your table, who represent the storm, and the ark, and hope for the
future. We have a rainbow, which
represents God’s promise of new life. We
have an empty cross, which represents resurrection life. And we have a
question: how do we respond? Take your
animals home with you and remember to ask: How are we going to feed God’s
sheep? Amen.
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