Scripture: Genesis 8: 20 – 9: 17
Sermon: God’s Covenant with Creation
Topics: Covenant, Creation, Pope
Preached: August 16 pm 2015 Woodlawn CRC
Rev. Mike Abma
Genesis 8: 20 – 9:17
20 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. 21And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odour, 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.
22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’
9God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. 3Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
6 Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
God made humankind.
7And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ 12God 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: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ 17God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Pope Francis is quickly gaining the reputation of being the Green Pope.
Earlier this summer he released a public letter entitled Laudate Si, Mi Seignor –
Praise be to you, my Lord – the first words of the Canticle of St. Francis.
The letter is an open invitation to begin an earnest dialogue on the health of the planet.
The letter is also a challenge to see certain patterns –
like the drought in California
and the many tornadoes in the mid-west
as part of a larger more serious problem due to changes in the earth’s climate.
In addition to this Letter,
just last week, the Pope announced that September 1 would become an
Annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.
His hope is that through prayer,
we might become better care-takers of creation.
In both actions —
His letter and his declaration of a Day of Prayer for Creation —
the Pope roots his theology
in God’s delight in his creation
and in our covenant responsibility to care for God’s creation.
COVENANT
We belong to a tradition that often uses that word covenant.
When we think of covenant,
we often think of key human figures
like Abraham,
Moses,
David.
What we tend to forget is the covenant given in Genesis 8 and 9.
The flood is over.
Noah, his family, and all the animals on the ark have been spared.
This is a new beginning, a new start.
With echoes of Genesis 1,
God blesses Noah and his family
and encourages them to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth.
God also places all creation at humanity’s feet,
so that humanity might care for creation
the way the Levites will later care for the Tabernacle.
God then makes a covenant with Noah and all his descendants (us)
as well as with every living creature of the earth.
Take a note of that – with every living creature.
The sign of this covenant is a Rainbow.
But notice how our NRSV simply has Bow.
That is because the Hebrew word is simply Bow —
in Hebrew this is the same word for the weapon – Bow.
It is almost as if God is hanging up his Bow,
declaring that the war is over
and calling a truce.
Never again will he send a flood.
Never again will he destroy the earth
and all the living creatures of the earth.
Notice how this covenant has a universal dimension —
It is a promise to all the living – both human and non-human.
Notice how gracious it is:
It is unconditional
It is unilateral
It is everlasting.
No matter what, Never again.
Humanity is given the task of keeping that truce,
keeping the peace, the shalom.
But we have never been very good at peace-keeping.
Noah will fail at keeping this covenant,
Just as Abraham
Then Moses
Then David
Then Israel
Will fail at keeping the covenants made with them.
EFFECT OF THIS COVENANT
That we humans keep failing is not a surprise to God.
At the end of Genesis 8, God says “Never Again”,
even though he knows humanity has not changed one wit.
Our hearts are still inclined to evil.
Nevertheless,
He makes this gracious covenant
knowing full well
that we will fill his heart with pain once again.
Knowing full well that he will be grieved.
He also makes this covenant knowing full well
that he is entrusting his creation to care-takers who have a track record
of abusing and exploiting and causing his creation to groan.
It reminds me of parents who own a brand new car
and who also have a teenager who is a terrible reckless driver.
The parents graciously give the keys of the car to that teenager.
Who is this hardest on?
Well it is hardest on the parents, who own the car,
but it is also hardest on the car itself.
And so it is with this Covenant.
God hands the keys of creation, the care of creation, to us.
It is hardest on him,
and on creation.
After years and years of failure,
after years and years of failing in covenant-keeping,
in living out God’s shalom,
God decides to come himself.
And again, the cost of peace,
is grieving, is groaning, is pain.
Christ comes to enter the flood of our misery.
He comes to give us a new beginning, a new start.
The one who made all things,
is now remaking all things.
The ministry of reconciliation that we are ambassadors of
is not simply the reconciliation of Humanity with God through the
redeeming work of Christ;
it is not simply the reconciliation of all humanity with one another —
Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free – by the fellowship
of the Spirit.
It is also our reconciliation with Creation,
our ability to truly delight in Creation and care for it
as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
also delight in Creation and care for it.
DELIGHTING IN CREATION
We have been taking care of the Hoekstra family’s dog while they are vacationing.
The dog’s name is Baily.
Baily and I go for a walk most evenings at around 10 pm.
Have you walked around at 10 pm lately?
The trees are alive with a choir of tree frogs, all chirping away.
It is lovely.
The other week Shirlene and I flew into Vancouver.
It was a slow descent on a clear day.
We were approaching from the south along the coast.
There was the ocean to the west,
there was the Frasier River meandering in the east.
To the north, a ring of mountains.
And there, nestled in the mouth of the river,
was the city.
The view from several thousand feet was spectacular.
Centuries and centuries of human beings could only dream of such a view.
And here I was, looking down at such an absolutely beautiful sight.
Delighting in Creation.
The New York Times website has short videos.
At least once a week there is a “Science Take” video – amazing little videos that show some scientific discovery or area of research.
I have learned
that ants are in fact very, very clean creatures;
that hummingbird’s are able to hover over a flower even on a windy day,
because each wing is independently controlled;
and that an 8-armed octopus, with a body like spaghetti, is able to glide
through the water by using one of its arms as the lead.
The more we delight in Creation,
the more we realize that
not only are humans fearfully and wonderfully made
but that every creature is fearfully and wonderfully made.
The theologian Ron Vallet writes about once seeing a double rainbow in the sky,
a double rainbow from horizon to horizon.
He writes that the 2 rainbows reminded him of the 2 key parts of this
Genesis passage:
The first rainbow reminded him of God’s promise to care for creation,
and never again to destroy it.
The second rainbow reminded him of our human responsibility to care for
creation on God’s behalf, and as his stewards.[1]
CONCLUSION
Speaking of the rainbow,
the rainbow mentioned in our passage was probably not the first rainbow there ever was.
There were probably many earlier rainbows.
God probably took something that was known,
that was familiar
and filled it with new meaning,
covenantal meaning about a new beginning,
a new start after the death and resurrection of the flood.
In that way, it is similar to what God did years later,
when he took something known, something familiar,
bread and wine
and filled them with new meaning, covenantal meaning about a new beginning,
in the death and resurrection of his Son.
Amen
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In Ron Vallet, Congregations at the Crossroads: Remembering to be Households of God. Eerdmans. ↑
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