Out of Destruction — Hope
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
10th Sunday a. Pentecost, 2024
Text: Gen 9:8–17, Mark 6:45-56, Eph. 3:14-21
In the name of Jesus, Amen!
Water can be a blessing or a curse. Water sustains life. We call it water of life. When you have too little water, you will be thirsty. If you don’t have it for too long, you will die of thirst. On the other hand, you can get too much water around you like during flooding or when you fall into the sea. Without help, you will be drowned, eventually you will die of drowning. So, water can bring destruction as well. The people in Noah’s time experienced destruction from water, too much of it, so much so, the Bible says, “the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered”. The first worldwide flood in human history was the overwhelming display of God’s power at hand as only eight persons were sealed up in the ark. It’s God’s wrath against wickedness and sinful indulgence that brought the world to this moment. However, after death and destruction, God blessed Noah and his family who by God’s grace through faith survived. Our Old Testament lesson tells us that God said to Noah, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you” (vv 9-10a). Today’s text tells us that out of destruction, God initiates the covenant and gives us signs that always remind of the eternal hope He provides in Christ Jesus.
“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” Inside the ark was safety and security. Outside the ark was death and destruction. Inside the ark was life and provision. Outside the ark was darkness all around. Initially, there were sounds of crying for help and knocking on the walls of the ark… but eventually silence, dead silence. And then came the waiting, and some more waiting – waiting for dry land to appear. How long, O Lord, for how long? Noah and the inhabitants of the ark spent roughly 370 days inside! In the end, Noah sent out a raven and then a dove to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark. Then they waited patiently for a little bit more time and sent forth the dove again, and this time she did not return to him. It’s time to get out. With the command of God and the opening of the door, out came Noah, his family, and every animal that had been brought inside. I cannot imagine the eerie silence of the world around Noah and his family. The total absence of life that existed prior to the destructive flood. Imagine how troubled their hearts could be. They might ask with great fear: Could this happen again?
I think that’s why the first thing they did after they came out of the ark was to build an altar to the Lord and make sacrifices of burnt offerings that foreshadow the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Then comes the beginning of our text. God said to Noah, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you” (vv 9-10a). So, what exactly is a covenant? Simply put, it’s an agreement between two parties –- in this case, between God and his creation. We are most familiar with covenants that go something like this: “You do this … I will do that,” For example, “If you remain faithful, I will bless you.” However, this covenant God is about to make with Noah and the creation is very different. God said, “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And 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 cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth…” Out of the death and destruction of the flood, God was about to bring hope and peace. Never again, shall there be a worldwide flood that wipes out all life. God promised that a worldwide flood would not happen again. And this was going to be a unilateral covenant. That is, God would be the one to establish the covenant, and he will oblige Himself to the terms of this covenant. God would require nothing from the people, meaning his promise to them was unconditional. This was a great comfort to their troubled heart. Never again would Noah and all his descendants, including you and me, have to worry or question God’s promise, He chooses a sign that reflects the light and glory of His creation: the rainbow. We can see the rainbow in a droplet of water or in the moments after a storm subdues in the sky above. A rainbow is simply the white light of the sun shining through water reflecting outward on the other side in a spectrum of colors, not just seven colors, but a continuum of over one million colors, beautiful colors that take your breath away. It is a full measure of God’s creative power on display in a sign to remind you of His faithfulness, mercy and love.
Water can be a blessing or a curse. God’s Word contains Law and Gospel. The water of Noah’s flood represents the law of God, the destruction against sin and unbelief. The Bible says, in those days before the flood, the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. They probably ridiculed Noah when he was building the ark because the Bible says, they “did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” In today’s Gospel lesson, the wind and the sea of Galilee also represent death and destruction but Jesus overcomes them by walking on the water and calming the storm. He is the One who created all things and put the rainbow in the sky. So, water represents the Gospel as well. The living water that Jesus brings to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, the overflowing water that Jesus declares concerning Himself when the priests poured the water of Siloam from the temple, and the regenerative water that Jesus makes you a child of God when you are baptized… they all point to Jesus, the embodiment of the Gospel, the Water of Life.
In recent years we have been having a lot of destruction of various kinds. You know this by personal experience yourself, or when you turn on the television, scroll through social media, look out the window or look around you, you witness and feel the effects of other people’s struggle: COVID, vaccine side effects, wars and conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, Africa, and Haiti, rumors of war in the Taiwan strait, literal floods in many places, inflation that causes families to struggle to make ends meet, and of course, the destruction of traditional Judeo-Christian culture… However, today, God reminds us of His covenant with us – a covenant born out of destruction and giving us hope and peace. As today’s Psalm sings, “We give thanks to God, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.” God’s faithfulness and love sent His only Son into the world and accomplished the gracious salvation on the cross to save anyone who should believe like Noah and his family did. He also made a unilateral and unconditional covenant with you in the water of the holy Baptism, not requiring anything from you, but giving any troubled heart peace and hope.. Whenever He sees the sign of the Baptism sealed by the Holy Spirit, never again will He remember your sins and destroy you in the destruction of eternal judgment, for God promises: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
Speaking of the rainbow, Martin Luther states, “This sign should remind us to give thanks to God. For as often as the rainbow appears, it preaches to the entire world with a loud voice about the wrath which once moved God to destroy the whole world. It also gives comfort, that we may have the conviction that God is kindly inclined toward us again and will never again make use of so horrible a punishment.” Out of destruction is born a covenant giving us hope and peace. We pray that the Holy Spirit move us to always remember His promises when we see a rainbow, and always trust His unilateral and unconditional covenant of hope and peace in Christ Jesus, the water of life, and His regenerative water of the Holy Baptism. Therefore, we give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.
In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen!
