Genesis 9: 8-17 (links validated 2/5/24)

The Super Bowl is probably the only day of the year that people genuinely tune in to watch the commercials and discuss them. Marketing executives pour in the best of creativity for the largest television audience of the year to get people to talk about their advertisements and hopefully generate buzz for whatever they are selling. Once again, this non-profit organization, whose purpose is to “share the life and love of Jesus in thought-provoking new ways,” sponsored an ad that generated a lot of discussion. For the last few years, the “He Gets Us” campaign has taken out ads during the Super Bowl, and this year, they had a spot called “Foot Washing.” With a remake of the INXS song “Never Tear Us Apart” playing in the background, they showed still image pictures of different races, classes, genders, and religions washing one another’s feet – even across some obvious ideological divides. One of their spokespersons explained that the goal was quite simply: that Jesus loved and cared for anyone and everyone – as the commercial echoed ending with four sentences that went across the screen saying: Jesus didn’t teach hate. He washed feet. He gets us. All of us...

Sally Lloyd Jones has a beautiful rendition of God’s promise to Noah in her children’s book, The Jesus Storybook Bible. She writes: “The first thing Noah did was to thank God for rescuing them, just has he had promised. And the first thing God did was make another promise. ‘I won’t ever destroy the world again.’ And like a warrior who puts away his bow and arrow at the end of a great battle, God said ‘See I have hung up my bow in the clouds.’ And there in the clouds — just where the storm meets the sun — was a beautiful bow made of light. It was a new beginning in God’s world. It wasn’t long before everything went wrong again but God wasn’t surprised, he knew this would happen. That’s why, before the beginning of time, he had another plan — a better plan. A plan not to destroy the world, but to rescue it — a plan to one day send his own Son, the Rescuer. God’s strong anger against hate and sadness and death would come down once more — but not on his people, or on his world. No, God’s war bow was not pointing down at his people. It was pointing up into the very heart of heaven.” A poignant uniqueness of Jones’ children’s Bible is the way she brings to life her subtitle: Every Story Whispers His Name. And the story of Noah and the Ark is no exception.

On January 30, 2018, cnn.com noted, “Rachel Den Hollander was the first woman to accuse Dr. Larry Nassar of sexual abuse. However, she was the last of more than 150 women and girls to confront him in court during Nassar’s sentencing hearing for criminal sexual conduct.” While Den Hollander’s statement lasted nearly 40 minutes and was delivered in a court of law, parts of it could be delivered in any church. After all, they powerfully speak to both the mess people have made of the world and God’s gracious determination to address that mess...

An old poem that bears repeating when we are in the midst of life's storms. It was written by Annie Johnson Flint, a Christian woman well acquainted with hardship. Her mother died when she was a little girl. She was fortunate to be adopted by the Flints, a wonderful Christian couple––but both Mr. and Mrs. Flint died when Annie was in her late teen years. As a young woman, she was diagnosed with a severe form of arthritis that left her physically incapacitated. But Annie experienced two saving graces––her talent for poetry and a deep-rooted faith in God. So in the midst of her hardships Annie was able to write this poem––reminding us to look toward the light, even when we are in the midst of a storm––reminding us that the rain is followed by the rainbow. This is what she said: "God hath not promised Skies always blue, Flower-strewn pathways All our lives through; God hath not promised Sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, Peace without pain. But God hath promised Strength for the day, Rest for the labor, Light for the way, Grace for the trials, Help from above, Unfailing sympathy, Undying love."...

The wilderness comes in many ways, in many places. There is the wilderness of a doctor’s office and a frightening diagnosis; there is the wilderness of grief, there is the wilderness of depression. The wilderness is not geography, it is theology. The wilderness is where we feel abandoned, lost, wandering, in danger. There are so many more wildernesses. The wilderness is where we are alone and overwhelmed. How can we deal with the wilderness? How can we live in the wilderness?...

Sam wasn't make much headway with his diet. He was one of those folks who could resist everything but temptation. One day he came into the office with a whole box of freshly baked Danish. When his friends questioned him about his diet he explained that really wouldn't have gotten the Danish if it hadn't been for God. "What do you mean"? one of his friends asked. "Well", he said, "as I was about to pass the bakery I prayed that if it were God's will for me to have these Danish today I would be able to find a parking place in front of the building. Sure enough I found a space right in front on the eighth time around the block"...

C.S. Lewis wrote a little book after his wife’s death exposing the raw edges of grief and asking, “Where is God?” He goes on to say that it’s easy to find God when we’re happy; we readily turn to him with praise and gratitude when we feel welcomed into his open arms. He goes on, “But go to him when your need is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After the silence. You may as well turn away. The longer you wait, the more emphatic the silence will become” (A Grief Observed). Remember this man is looking for God through the bitter tears of grief, and he can’t see God’s closeness. Lewis is not alone in these kinds of situations...

("In Commandments a film released a couple of years ago the protagonist Seth Warner (Aiden Quinn) feels that God has broken the Covenant in this mornings first reading. He is a contemporary Job...")

("Just as supper was being served, one of the students began to shout. 'You guys! Come here! You gotta see this!' We all came to the living room window and beheld the biggest, brightest, rainbow I'd ever seen. There I was: wearing a woman's bathrobe, in a home full of people I'd never met before that day, staring at the wonder of God. Unfortunately, the rainbow moments in life are only temporary. I soon found out that, at age 22, I had a lot more growing up left to do...")

("Years ago Princeton Seminary professor Daniel Migliore related a story of something that happened one summer when he was helping to run a Vacation Bible School program for a bunch of innercity children in a run-down part of a large New Jersey city. As part of the program, Migliore taught the kids one day the story of Noah and the Flood...")

There are a lot of situations where people aren’t inclined to think of “rainbows” these days! I don’t care what anyone says; there are two things that should never appear in the same sentence: they are the words “school” and “shooting!” On Wednesday of last week, for the EIGHTEENTH time in 6 weeks, in the USA, police were called to a school because of gun violence. On Wednesday, 17 people died at a High School in Florida in one of the worst school shootings in modern history. The words of a police chief from New York are sobering, for Americans, I am sure: “School shootings are the new normal.” Now, even in Canada, in addition to the required “fire drills,” students practice what to do in a lock-down situation, such as would happen if a shooter was in or near the school. Of course, this most recent shooting was not in Canada, but we are not immune from such events! We will all probably remember the shooting in Taber, Alberta and the one at École Polytechnique in Montreal which left 14 young and promising female engineering students dead...

The difference between a contract and a covenant can be likened to the difference between a pre-nuptial agreement and a marriage. The pre-nup is a contract that is enforced by law. The marriage is a covenant that is held together by vows. To break a pre-nup is to violate the terms of the contract. To break a marriage is to violate the trust that made the promises. Breaking a pre-nup only breaks a law. Breaking a vow often breaks a heart.

The Dominican order began the rebuilding of the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio in Milan, Italy, in the 13th century, and it served as the seat of the order in Milan. Between 1460 and 1468 the Portinari Chapel was added to the Basilica. Commissioned by banker Pigello Portinari, the chapel was designed by an unknown architect, though the style has some similarities to Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel. One of the aspects of Portinari Chapel that differs wildly from Brunelleschi's earlier chapel is in the decoration of the dome. Both domes show the pattern of ribs dividing the dome and reaching up to an oculus in the center of the dome. But where the ribs of the earlier dome separate sections of undecorated plaster, the Portinari dome is filled with a rainbow-colored scale pattern: red on the outside, then yellow, then green, with blue next to the oculus. These are the four colors of the rainbow identified centuries earlier by Aristotle.

("Scott, Eldon, Lanny, and Pete live in the rural town of Elk Ridge. They are members of the 'Buttercream Gang'. We find out how they got their name from the local grocery store owner: many generations ago, most of the town's men-folk were off to war, and the widows in town were having trouble churning their butter. A gang of young boys were founded to help them. Yes, a gang whose charter was to help people...")

("The good news in this story is salvation. So the preamble, which is not part of the story in other, earlier, cultures, may be wrong. The Rainbow Finale is the proof of God's steadfast intentions, the proof Mary Oliver writes about: 'Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast terrible shadows, that each of the so-called senseless acts has its thread looping back through the world and into a human heart...")

Names switch three times in this passage: the familiar Abram to Abraham; the less often remembered (but more impressive) Sari to Sarah; and the seldom noted YHWH to El Shaddai. The name changes in this passage seem to coincide with what is going on with the character...

As most of you will remember, earlier this summer a soccer team and their coach were trapped in a cave in Thailand when heavy rains came and the cave flooded. The team went missing on June 23. Divers began searching for them on June 25 but had to suspend their searching for hours and even days at a time when rains came and flooded them out. Nine days after being trapped, the boys were located by a British diving team. The next day, seven Thai Navy Seals, including a doctor, made the 6 hour journey to the boys, bringing supplies. Four of them, including the doctor, stayed with them underground for the rest of their time in the cave. They were the very last to exit. The soccer team was trapped about 2 ½ miles from the entrance, at the end of what one diver called an underground obstacle course of rocky chambers, half-flooded canals and fully submerged sections. One of those fully submerged sections was 350 meters in length, more than 3 football fields, and the water was so muddy, he said it was like “swimming in coffee.” Experts said that realistically, given the shape they were in, they expected that if all went well, 60% of the boys would make it out alive. But the odds were decreasing all the time, and more heavy rain was on the way. So they made the difficult decision to go forward with the rescue...

Daniel Migliore has done a lot of work with inner-city kids in Trenton, New Jersey. One day in re-telling the Noah story to some children, he asked them where they saw rainbows. “In the street!” several replied. Migliore thought they misunderstood the question, but he found that they understood perfectly. These kids lived in high-rise tenements and there were not a lot of open spaces around. About the only place they saw rainbows was in street puddles that had become slicked with oil from cars with leaky engines. There’s something sad about that, but there’s something hopeful as well. In the midst of daily life, in the midst of the difficulties and hardships around us, there is grace. These children need to see a rainbow in the greasy puddles of their everyday world...

There was talk at Grace Church. Sam Waters had come home. Sam is Tom and Betty’s son, and even as a child he had been a handful. Veteran church school teachers suddenly decided to take a year off when it was their turn to teach Sam. Betty and Tom also had trouble with Sam. Once he and some other boys broke windows around town, including windows at Grace Church. The church did not press charges and Tom and Betty replaced the windows. Just after Sam turned 18, he was driving some friends around one night. He waited while they stole a bottle of whiskey from a liquor store. He didn’t know they had a gun. They emptied the cash register and shot and wounded the owner. Sam went to prison for 8 years. When Sam got out of prison he moved away, but he could not get work. He came home to live with his parents. They were thrilled to have him home again and tried to make life normal. Sam spent his days looking for work and helping Tom on the farm. On Sundays, they came to church.

The great American preacher Phillips Brooks once preached a sermon called “The Egyptians Dead Upon the Seashore,” in which he noted that the Israelites had been oppressed by the Egyptians for many years before they were finally able to overcome their enemies and escape from captivity. He used the example of the Israelites to show how even the most long-standing enemies can be defeated and how even seemingly interminable periods of suffering can come to an end. “When we are in the thick of an experience,” he explained, “we find it hard to believe or to imagine that the time will ever come, when that experience shall be wholly a thing of the past

("At bedtime I sometimes read to my five-year-old daughter the Dr. Seuss classic The Lorax. The story takes place in a bucolic setting of heavily fruited Truffula Trees, Swomee-Swans, and Brown Bear Bar-ba-loots; it is a place where 'from the rippulous pond[s] / comes the comforting sounds / of the Humming-fish humming / while splashing around...")

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