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God Could Have Just Got a Dog 1 Genesis 6.5-14 (chapter 6, 7, 8 and 9) God Could Have Just Got a Dog Week #1 09.14.2014 – First UMC St. Cloud Note from Pastor Mike: I want to encourage our church family to look deeper into what God speaks to us through the Message. Here at First United Methodist Church of Saint Cloud we believe that God speaks to us through the Message. One way for all of us to hear from God more clearly is to read the Scripture verses and the Message again during the week. I would really like to hear your comments and how God is challenging you through the worship service and the Message. It would be great to hear your discussion ideas. Please feel free to send me your discussion points. Your friend on the journey, Pastor Mike Contact Pastor Mike at: [email protected] OR First UMC St. Cloud 1000 Ohio Avenue Saint Cloud, FL 34769 (NIV) Genesis 6.5-14 − 5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground— for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family. God Could Have Just Got a Dog 2 Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. Introduction: Deeply Committed 1. Now, I love my dog, Zoe. Zoe loves me. 2. When you read the first chapter in The Story, at least for me, I can't help wondering how much easier it would have been for God if God just got a dog. 3. Humans have made a mess of the creation. Humans have resorted to violence against each other. Humans have rejected God. The “Big Idea” – God is deeply committed to humanity. A. Inclination Towards Evil We begin with God's stewards, with God's participants, in cultivating and reigning over God's good creation having turned from loving God towards violence. 1. This is a rather difficult story to hear and it should be. The narrator does not ease into the depths to which humanity has descended since the Creation. We continue in (NIV) Genesis 6.5 [page 8, top] − 5 The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The contrast is surely intended with the Creation of humanity in (NIV) Genesis 1.27 [page 3, top] − 27 So God created mankind [humankind] in his [God's] own image, in the image of God [God] he created them; male and female he [God] created them. This beginning, this creation, if you recall in (NIV) Genesis 1.31 [page 3, center] − God saw all that he [God] had made, and it was very good. God saw "all" that God had created, including humans, and proclaimed it "good" and now in the human heart, the very depth of our being, is only evil "all" the time. The Hebrew word translated "wickedness" indicates sinful actions and the consequences. The text does not point out some specific set of sins (as we might like, especially if they are not the ones we are currently engaged in). We are not to understand this as simply the act God Could Have Just Got a Dog 3 of sinning but as a deeper, more pervasive (all-encompassing) rejection of God and the life-of-God. a. The Hebrew word translated "inclination" denotes the conceiving of possibilities for thoughts, words and actions. The word "every" denotes the depth and breadth and width of this rejection of God and disregard through violence of other human being. Every possible thought, word and action is towards violence. 2. God then reveals God's own heart (NIV) Genesis 6.6 − 6 The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. God, the Creator, is deeply troubled. You might even translate this as God's "heart was filled with pain." The vision for what the world might have been has been dashed away by the self-centered human vision - a constant tendency toward violence. 3. (NIV) Genesis 6.7 − 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” God is not an arbitrary and spiteful deity, smiting people with smirking abandon. The Creation, humanity, has descended to a depth of violence from which there is no return; the Creation is in danger. God is not indifferent but personally enters into the broken Creation to bring hope where there is no possibility of hope. 4. God finds a reason for hope in (NIV) Genesis 6.8 − 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. B. Judgment and Reconciliation Hard as it might be for us, this is a story of judgement. 1. A Short Side Trip-"We interrupt this message to bring you some important news": So, we can very easily get caught up in the details of the story. How big was the flood? Could the flood really have been worldwide. Many people are more concerned about this than with what God is seeking to tell us through this part of the Bible; through this text. A rather conservative commentator writes on the Book of Genesis, "Any solution must take the text seriously, but be willing to see the text in ways the original author and audience may have seen it. It likewise needs to take logistics seriously." For example, one possible explanation for the flood is that the word "all" in this ancient world does not always mean "absolute" as in our modern understanding. a. If the original audience understood the earth to extend to the farthest mountain ranges and no farther because those mountain ranges held up the heavens, then a flood coving "all" the earth could well have been a God Could Have Just Got a Dog 4 devastating but local flood. There is evidence of such ancient floods in areas around the world. You see, the text and God speaking to us through the text, does not ask us to accept a worldwide flood just a flood of such magnitude that all humanity in this region, the only known world to Noah, was covered in such a way that all human and animal life was destroyed. 2. "Now, back to our message already in progress." The text wants us to see two things: judgment and reconciliation. This is a story of judgment. Somehow this does not fit our image of God. We ask how could a God whose overarching character is that of love could also be a God of judgment? Or, we are convinced that God is a God of judgment against all those who are not like us or do not believe in a certain way. We want this account to either be a Disney like cruise for Noah and a bunch of furry animals where everyone has fun. Or, we want to be Noah on the ark and all our enemies get washed away. 3. The text, the account, though, wants us to see that God is in control even as humanity, of which we are still a part, has descended into chaos. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. There is a repetition of the word "corrupt" which carries the idea of ruin, decadence or decay, the end result of a culture that thrives on the use of violence. The word we have translated as "going to destroy" is from the same Hebrew root that is used for "corrupt". Humanity's corruption of the "good" Creation of God leads to God allowing the "corruption", the utter destruction, of the creation. 4. We would want nothing less out of God. Think about it. We want judgment to be passed on sin and evil. The story of Noah reminds us that God loves humanity so much that God will not tolerate evil to go unchecked and eventually unconquered. Here, evil and its main force, violence, is overcome with the flood waters; evil is wiped away. 5. Then, recalling the original creation where (NIV) Genesis 1.2 [page 1, top] − 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit [in Hebrew, the wind or breadth] of God was hovering over the waters. Then, in (NIV) Genesis 8.1 [page 10, upper middle] − 1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he [God] sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. With our God there is no arbitrary judgment, for which none of us could with stand. God Could Have Just Got a Dog 5 C. Wrath of Love Now, hard as this might be to grasps, God's wrath against sin is God's wrath of love, for us, the surest sign that God deeply loves you. 1. Like judgment, we often have a difficult time with God's "wrath". Some have tried to make it less than personal so as to protect God's good name. Yet, the reconciliation we as humans so desperately need presupposes, that is presumes or assumes, God's wrath. Listen to (NIV) Ephesians 2.1-10 [page __, ___] − 1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air [that is Satan or the Devil, a force or a real entity with real power to opposes God], the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh [that is our human nature apart from God's Spirit] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 2. Reconciliation and justification do not issue from some mushy sentiment that, in the face of evil, shrugs the shoulders and turns a blind eye. Reconciliation is not "inclusion" of the enemy, the enemy being evil itself; justification is not "acceptance" of injustice and of the unjust. Essential for reconciliation and justification is the twin belief that (1) restoration of communion with the evildoer does not rest (cannot rest!) simply on the justice done (more violence) but that (2) evil must be condemned and overcome. For Paul, God's unconditional grace toward sinners is unthinkable without judgment. 3. A God of most radical grace must be a God of wrath - not the kind of wrath that burns against evildoers until they prove worthy of being loved, but the kind that resists evildoers because they are unconditionally loved. (See Volf, ) (NIV) Ephesians 2.4-5 − 4 But because of his [God's] great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 4. And this is where God's wrath comes in. For God's wrath is nothing but God's stance of active opposition to evil. The God who would not oppose evil would be an indifferent demon who would condemn men and women to the power of evil's destructiveness. In Jesus the Christ, God enters our world and faces the forces of evil. Jesus faces our violence. Jesus leans into the evil which humanity has chosen over the good. On the cross, Jesus faces its fury with his life. Jesus allows it to kills him as the only means to defeat evil, not temporarily but for good. God Could Have Just Got a Dog 6 5. God does not save Noah because Noah deserves it. Oh, Noah is a righteous man, he lives in a right stance toward God but that is not what gets him a ticket on the ark. Noah and his family and the animals are saved because God sees humanity and the Creation and God still sees it as good - humanity is worth saving. (NIV) Ephesians 2.8-9 − 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. D. Yes, to a Reconciled Relationship Finally, the flood waters have receded and not much has changed, so God comes even deeper into the mess to tell you and me, "Yes," to a reconciled relationship. 1. Now, when the waters receded and Noah and his family and all the animals disembark for the ark, (NIV) Genesis 8.20-21 [page 10, upper middle] − 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, and here is the part that is maybe the most troubling, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 2. God knows that even this judgment of the flood will not change the heart of the matter - the human heart, which as John Wesley said, is "bent" toward sinning. Yet, God remains passionately committed to humanity and to the creation. The account of Noah and the ark and the flood is a story of judgment which is God saying "no" to human sin and evil. But, more importantly, this is a story of God's "yes" to a reconciled relationship with humanity that is bigger and more powerful than sin and death. 3. Like the flood cleansed the earth from evil and violence, Jesus shedding his blood on the cross cleanses us form sin and evil. God knows full well the condition of the human heart, of your heart. God also knows that because of Jesus and in a relationship with Jesus there is something new in your life that was not there before, before when you lived your life on your own power and direction. 4. The story of the flood reveals God's commitment to reconciliation with humanity, with you! God creates humanity, then recreates humanity after the flood even through nothing has really changed, Noah and his family will carry on the legacy of sin. Yet, yet, the new creation of the flood looked forward to the new creation that you are because of Jesus, the new creation you are in a relationship with Jesus. And in this new creation, (NIV) Ephesians 2.10 − 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. God Could Have Just Got a Dog 7 5. On the cross God gets God's hands dirty, God enters God's creation, becoming like God's prized creation - humans - so that God could get at the root of the problem, the human heart. God in Jesus knows your life, the sin and evil, and finds it valuable, immensely valuable. God recreates your life because you were created to be a participant with Jesus in God's work in our world. God in Jesus, Jesus on the cross, Jesus walking out of the tomb is God saying "Yes" to a reconciled relationship. You are saved from the consequences of your sin, which is death, for ministry and service.