First Mennonite Church
February 2, 2014
A Profile of A Life-long Calling: Noah
Genesis 6:5-18
6:5 The 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. 6:6 And the LORD was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 6:7 So 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.” 6:8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD. 6:9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 6:10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 6:12 And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 6:13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 6:14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 6:15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 6:16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 6:17 For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
We should also know that there are some other ancient stories about a world-wide flooding. These stories share common themes as those we find here in Genesis. The gods are displeased with human activities and therefore decide to destroy them. Someone escapes destruction and therefore becomes the
survival seed of humanity. In one of these stories, humans become extremely noisy and therefore the gods decide to eliminate them through a world-wide flood.
In the story of Noah and the flood, there still lingers some language used during the creation. When God sees humanity and its condition, He designs a plan for it. In the Creation narrative, God saw all he had created, including Adam, and saw that everything was so, so good. And God ordered mankind to toil the soil, to multiply and co-create their world.
But when humanity had multiplied and its footprint was all about, God came down again to visit his creation and humanity. And what happene?:
The 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. And the LORD was sorry that
he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his
heart.
In Noah’s time when God came down to take account on the condition of humanity, God lamented that he had created humankind. His crown creation and what had given him joy because it was good, now grieved his heart. God grieved in his heart because every plan, every intention there was in the mind and heart of humankind dripped with evil. Violence and blood stained the earth.
And even today evil has not disappeared from the face of the earth. God has found and still finds blood on the hands of humanity. Wars have only intensified in some parts of the world. Starvation is sometimes killing as many as the wars that have brought human displacement. Many people suffer abuse–domestic, political, religious, racial or institutional.
But in the Noah-and-the-flood story, we are told that God came to visit humankind. And what he saw prompted him to take action.
So 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 determined to bring judgment. God took action and here it seems He went against what would become His way of dealing with his people, Israel. After the flood, when Israel disobeyed God, He sent them prophets to warn them. When Israel turned away from Yahweh, they were warned and called to turn back to God. But here in Noah’s time God designed a plan to wipe away not only evil on the face of the earth, but also every living creature outside the Ark.
The agent used to cleanse the face of the earth from its evil was water. Water was used in judgment and cleansing. Water was used both metaphorically and literally as the cleansing agent; it blotted out not only the wickedness of human action but also, except for those in the Ark, human life.
It was in the midst of the critical moment of judgment that someone found grace before God—Noah. But Noah found favor in the sight of the LORD…Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God (6:8-9b). This brief description of Noah describes, according to biblical figures, some 400+ years of godly life. Noah’s righteousness and godliness were not overlooked by God when he decided to bring judgment upon humanity.
It could be this saving of Noah and his family that Abraham used as an argument with God when He was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham said: “Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25)
But Noah’s righteousness and God’s gift of grace to him did not come without responsibility. God did not say to Noah, “Noah, now that you have found grace before my eyes, I will miraculously save you from the flooding I will bring”. No! Instead God said: Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch (6:14). God gave him a job. Grace comes with responsibilities. God gave Noah a –long-time calling. It is calculated that the ark Noah had to build took him 120 years. Imagine you are called to build something; nobody understands what it is and regardless of what you tell them, they still do not understand. Noah and his project likely became the joke of his people. His message about the impending judgment was not taken seriously either. They thought Noah had gone nuts. He was getting senile, some might have suggested. His screws were loosening. But there was Noah, year in and year out. He kept busy.
I remember one night I attended the wake of Hermano Flor in Belize. Hermano Flor was one of the founding members of the mother church that planted the church I grew up in. The night of the wake when stories of Flor were shared, someone shared about a conversation he had heard between Flor and another church member. This other member had strayed away from the church various times and had come back to church after his runs. And every time he had come, he came with great enthusiasm. He organized a prayer meeting in the early morning when most people had to go to work. He called on others to go out into the village to share the gospel. He prayed in tongues, and so on. So one day Flor and this other member were talking.
The other man said to Flor, “Flor, you have always remained here in church, but you never show enthusiasm, you never glow with fervor. You are like a dull burning coal.” Flor answered, “Exactly. I’d rather be a burning coal that is always keeping the fire going, than a strand of grass that flares up and dies.”
The life of faith, the journey of faith, is a lifelong commitment. Flor stood firm regardless of the fact that the first church building was burned down because his villagers did not want a Christian church. Flor shared in grief when their missionary was gunned down. Flor kept going firm even when others left and when his loving wife died. Flor was there until he breathed his last breath.
In the book of Hebrews we read:
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy
fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned
the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in
keeping with faith.
My dear brothers and sisters, to some your faith might seem like nonsense. To some, your desire to live a godly life might seem like unnecessary trouble. To some, your calling to live according to Jesus’ teaching of giving forgiveness, loving those who despise you, of not repaying evil with evil, might seem like foolishness. To some, giving to the church might seem a waste and burden too heavy to bear. To some, coming to church might seem relatively unimportant compared to other activities of their choice.
Like Noah, we also have found grace before the eyes of the Lord. And just like it was for Noah, it is for us. We are given a charge. And because what is coming ahead is something unheard of, and never before seen, people cannot understand it. Yet, we believe it by faith.
Once more, here are the words of Hebrews:
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy
fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned
the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in
keeping with faith.
Amen!
Pastor Romero