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Built on Faith
Genesis 6:11-22, 7:24, 8:14-19
Matthew 7:21-29
Betty Berghaus
The story of Noah’s Ark is so well known that those who are not even particularly faithful know it well. And many of us may have in our homes Noah’s Ark toys with many pairs of animals, or Noah's Ark cookie jars, or night lights, or wall hangings, or any of the many Noah’s Ark items that are available in stores. If you think about it, though, it is very interesting that people would remember so fondly a story where most of the people and creatures on earth are wiped out by a massive flood. It is, in many ways, not a sweet story. For those who have experienced floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes like the most recent ones across our country, it could be very scary to hear this tale of a devastating flood.
Studying this text is actually very interesting, because there were many ancient stories and myths of floods. We could spend a lot of time on these other flood stories, like the Indian story of Manu, who washed his hands in the river, and a fish jumped into them, begging to be saved. Manu put the fish in a jar, then a tank, a river and the ocean, as it continued to outgrow each container. Before it left, the fish warned Manu of a great flood to come. So Manu built a boat, and he and “the seeds of life,” as the story called them, re-established life on earth. Or we could talk about the story from the Andaman Islands about the creator God Puluga, who quit visiting his people because they were not obedient. He sent a devastating flood, and only four people survived, two men and two women. There are other stories and myths from these ancient cultures that we could relate. They are fascinating, and they may well have influenced our flood story. But it is perhaps more helpful to reflect upon how the author of our text took what was needed from these other stories and created a new story that centered on the one true God. Our Genesis text is certainly not an historical story, and it is also obviously not a scientific or provable story. Nor is it just another myth about the beginning of the world. Like any other text of our Bible, this story is about God, and about our relationship with God. Walter Brueggemann says that this text is “proclamation, the announcement of what God has done in and about the fractured world” (WB, p.75). It is, he says, a proclamation of warning, letting us know that God has powerful ways of bringing the world into order and unity. So we should look at the story with an eye towards God, rather than just towards ourselves.
If we look at the first part of chapter 6 of Genesis, we remember that the text tells us:
“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 his heart.” (Gen. 6:5-6)
And again in the text we read earlier, “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth.” (Gen. 6:11-12).
So we find that God was very grieved by what was going on with the humankind God had created. People had failed to be and do as God intended. And this very dismayed Creator decided to erase what had been done and to start over again. Kids nowadays might call this a “do-over!” Compared to the rest of the society, Noah found favor with God because he “walked with God” (v.9). So the story tells us that God told Noah to build an ark and occupy it with pairs of animals and with the people of Noah’s household. And then the floods came and wiped out the earth, and the ark survived the devastation. They waited for the waters to recede, and then began to re-populate the earth. After all of this, Noah built an altar to God, and worshiped God. God was pleased and decided to never again destroy the earth (8:21). The rainbow in the sky was the sign of this covenant in which God again asked humankind to “be fruitful and multiply” (9:7).
Taken literally, this story speaks of a very angry God, wiping out everything in sight a little bit like an angry toddler might topple a pile of blocks. But taken as a story relating the heart of God, we find a very grieved God, disappointed with the failures of God’s own creation. Science has for years tried to prove or disprove the occurrence of such a huge flood. Scientists have actually found evidence of a tsunami in the Mediterranean Seas around 1630-1600 BC. And they have hypothesized about an asteroid crashing into the earth around Madagascar, causing torrential rains and flooding. But these facts do not really matter if we are looking at the story to tell us more about God, rather than to give us facts.
And so we see this very disappointed God wanting to start over. The flood relates a way that God might wipe out the creation to start over again, using the more righteous Noah and his family and these saved pairs of animals to re-populate. It is perhaps, says Brueggemann, more a story of God’s revelation about humankind than about devastation. And God’s conclusion at the end of the story is very striking. We read (in chapter 8 of Genesis):
“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.’” (Gen. 8:20-22)
Though some interpret this covenant to apply to floods only, I have always interpreted this text to say that God would not destroy creation ever again. When hurricanes and tornadoes destroy property and lives, when people send disaster upon one another with such horrors as the Holocaust or 9/11, some preachers attribute these to God’s wrath. But this text in Genesis says to me that God covenanted to never act in such a destructive way against God’s own creation. If this text is truly about God, God made an important decision to never destroy creation. So the evils that happen are either natural, or inflicted by humankind ourselves. That, at least, is my interpretation, and I offer it to you for your consideration (and would be glad to discuss it with you at any time). The text tells us that God decided that “the human heart is evil from youth.” (That makes me think of that old radio show opening that I have heard, “What evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!”) I interpret this part of the text to say that by the time we are teenagers, we have discovered sin! Little children are perhaps more innocent, though they may be self-centered by nature of being dependent and needy. But by our youth, we are capable of thinking for ourselves and making more informed choices. This is why this church has Confirmation Class starting with 8th graders. By that time our youth can learn through the classes what we as Presbyterians believe and can make a decision for themselves whether or not they want to align their beliefs with ours. We are all, by nature, just as capable of choosing the wrong things to do and believe as we are of choosing the right. And the temptations to choose wrong are great in today’s world. So the text tells us that God recognized the limitations of God’s own creation, and decided to embrace us anyway. God made the decision to stick with the imperfect creation (us). And God remains faithful to us always. We, of course, are the ones who fail to be faithful to God.
The New Testament text takes this matter of being faithful to God a bit farther, but again, concentrates in part on the fact that it is our choice to follow God, or not. Jesus told the story at the end of the Sermon on the Mount of two men building houses. One built his house on solid rock. And when the floods came, the house stood. But the other built his house on sand, and it washed away in the floods. Jesus said that those who hear God’s words (the previous 3 chapters of the Sermon on the Mount) but do not act upon them, do not live them, are like the foolish man who hurriedly threw up a house on the sand. It seems very obvious that Jesus means that we have to work on building our lives of faith, that faith is not just something that we can call up when needed. We all know this. If we wait until times are tough and then turn to God, we will probably be confused and angry, and perhaps disappointed. But if we work on our faith all the time with regular Bible study and prayer and attendance at worship and Sunday School, then when the tough times come, we readily pray, and we readily know that God is with us. And there is a peace about us.
So faith, though a gift from God, is something we must work at building. We are, as God acknowledges at the end of the Noah story, inclined toward sin from a young age. So to be faithful requires work, steady and diligent work. As Kathleen Norris says in her book, Amazing Grace, “Faith, then, is fragile, something that needs tending” (Norris, p. 170).
Frederich Beuechner says:
“Faith is better understood as a verb than as a noun, as a process than as a possession. It is on-again-off-again rather than once-and-for-all. Faith is not being sure where you’re going but going anyway. A journey without maps. Tillich said that doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith” (Beuchner, Wishful Thinking, p. 25).
So from our texts today, we can learn two very basic but important things. One, God decided very early in our relationship to be “for” humankind no matter what! God is exceedingly faithful to us. God is with us always. God’s love for us is everlasting. It will not end.
And two, we must work at being faithful to God. We have to build our houses of faith on God’s word and God’s way. And we have to work hard to do that. Perhaps we need to admit that we are, as God determined, inclined towards sin from an early age. We do this every Sunday morning in the Prayers of Confession. And so it must be a conscious choice to incline ourselves towards God, and it will take effort to live in such a faithful way.
So perhaps the best encouragement comes from words like the last verse of the children’s song that we sang earlier: “So build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. Build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessings will come down!”
Thanks be to God! Amen.