“After the Disaster” Mount Olive Lutheran Church Season Of Pentecost Sunday Sermon July 28, 2024 – Genesis 9:8–17

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday July 28th 2024: Season of Pentecost / Genesis 9:8–17 “After the Disaster”

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “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, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 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. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I 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. When 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.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. When disaster strikes whether it is a fire or a tornado or an ice storm or a blizzard or a major accident, those who experience it go through a kind of mini-apocalypse. It can be the end of many things, it can be the end of a house, the end of cherished keepsakes and possessions, and most tragically it can even be the end of the life or lives of loved ones. It can be especially harrowing if you escape by the seat of your pants, by the skin of your teeth and you’re left with virtually nothing when compared to what you’ve lost. Many people in the town of Jasper Alberta have just experienced this and, thanks be to God, they are receiving help in their time of need. Our Old Testament reading finds Noah and his family on the tail end of the Flood which whipped out not just their town, not just their county or rural municipality, not just the corner of the world in which they lived but everything. After the Flood there was no one else left in the whole world but Noah and his family.         

Moses in the Book of Genesis tells us, “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, [how] 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 [just as the Lord had warned would happen].[1] On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded [Noah]. And the LORD shut [Noah and his family] in. [And after that] the flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.”[2]

Out the window of that wooden ark which Noah built following the directions provided by the LORD there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see, water and sky and that’s it. Every living thing with breath in it that was left alive in that moment was with Noah and his family in that boat on those waters. An unthinkable calamity unlike anything that had ever happened had happened, a calamity unlike anything that will ever happen again until the very End had happened and the promises of the LORD, once it was over and they all left the ark to repopulate earth, were as much for them that day as they are for you. The LORD promised them and us, “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.” This is good news; the guarantee that this promise is true is the sign of the rainbow that He sets in the sky when the rains subside. And when God sees the rainbow, in amongst the clouds, the LORD promises to remember this covenant that He made between Himself and Noah and his family and you and me and every living creature of all flesh. And as devastating as any flood may be, it will not be as devastating as that Flood was. As devastating as any natural event that brings destruction may be it will not be as devastating as that one was. As devastating as any personal event might be it will not be as devastating as that one was, at least not until The End.           

Jesus makes reference to these events in the life of Noah and his family when He teaches us about the future cataclysm which will be part of The End of all things, “But concerning That Day and hour” Jesus says, “no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the Flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”[3] Jesus says His return will be part of the cataclysm at The End of all things, and His arrival will be as unexpected as the Flood was for those living life without a care for their eternal salvation in the days of Noah. On That Day it will be crystal clear that The End has come, in the mean time when everything has is suddenly washed away, when everything is unexpectedly reduced to ashes slipping between your fingers, when all your hard work is at once gone in a heartbeat and you are tempted to look around and think ‘this is it, this is The End?’ what are you to do? What are you to think? Whether your hardship is personal or financial or both, as hard and devastating as your loss is in that moment, it never is the end until it is The End. And The End is not yet. Life will carry on until Christ returns.

In 1912 the city of Regina was almost completely wiped off the map by a F4 Tornado and yet after that cyclone those people carried on, picking through the rubble of their lives and community to rebuild. There was a new morning and a day after that and a day after that. The words from the Book of Lamentations that we heard at the end of June, where Jeremiah says, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;” would have been as true and comforting for Noah after the Flood as they are for you in your life, as they would have been for the people of Regina after the 1912 Cyclone when around 2,500 of them were left homeless and half of all the commercial buildings and businesses were destroyed; and these world can be a comfort to the people of Jasper as they pick through what’s left of their town. And what does Jeremiah says of the LORD after these words of comfort, he says, “great is Your faithfulness,”[4] and that is God’s faithfulness to us, God’s faithfulness to Noah and his family, His faithfulness to all those in need of mercy in their distress, His faithfulness to you.  

As bad as any disaster might be in our lives how are we to know when it’s a regular ending, the kind of thing where we are left with the mercies of God and a new chapter in this life as compared to no regular ending? How are we to know but when it truly is The End? We don’t watch for a flood like the one Noah experienced. So, if The End won’t come with water as the Lord God promised Noah and all of us following that Flood; and if the various disasters that befall us in these days are not The End but are only signs that The End is nearer and nearer every day; does the Bible then tell us how The End will come? Echoing Jesus Saint Peter in his 2nd Epistles tells us that, “The Day of the Lord will come like a thief [catching the World unaware], and then,” Saint Peter says, “the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”[5] On The Last Day it will not be water, on The Last Day it will be fire.

When we know this what are we to do? Noah knowing that the Flood was coming had something to do while he awaited the Flood? God gave him a plan to follow, a path that brought Noah and his family safely through the other side of the calamity. What about us?

First when any kind of trouble befalls you remember who you are, you are a Christian and you belong to Jesus, therefore He says to you, “be not afraid.”[6] If it’s not The End, and the disaster that has befallen you in not the end of everything, then you will either be the one helping in the face of it or you will be the one being helped. But if it is The End, and the refiners fire of That Day has swept through all of creation,[7] you will not be expected to roll up your sleeves and help in the disaster clean up, you won’t be seeing to burn victims or anything like that, because after that Fire sweeps through you and all things will be made new and God Himself will wipe away every tear from your eyes replacing them with joy. It will be better for you on That Day than it was for Noah and his family following the Flood. On That Last Day the promises of the LORD, guaranteed in Jesus’ death and resurrection will all have come to pass in a definitive and final way. Until That Day, as Christians, we watch and pray but we don’t only watch and pray.    

The second thing for you to consider also comes to us from that same section in Saint Peter’s 2nd Epistle where Peter teaches us saying, “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of The Day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! [This is a good question to ask ourselves as Christians, Saint Peter continues,] But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, [Peter says] since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace, counting the patience of our Lord as salvation,”[8] dear ones remember what Jesus says about being found in Him, He says, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Therefore in these days as we await The Last Day we live our lives to the glory of God and the good of our neighbour, bearing the fruits of good works as we go, not for ourselves but for our neighbours. Jesus also warns, “If anyone does not abide in Me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.”[9]

When Noah built the ark and went in two by two with all the animals who was it who closed the door of the Ark? Did you catch that detail? Was it Noah? Moses in the Book of Genesis tells us that it was the LORD who shut Noah and his family safely into the ark. Noah didn’t do that for himself or for his family. And when The Fire on the Last Day comes and everything is burnt to ash in a blinding flash, who will it be that make the branches new? Does the branch burnt in the fire make itself into a new branch with green leaves out of the ashes that it has become? No. As The End unfolds are you able to do this for yourself? No. If That Day should come long after your physical body is dead and buried and is no more than dust and ashes will you have the power in you to bring yourself back to life? No. Saint Paul tells us that on That Day “we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”[10] This is the Lord’s work. He does this for all people, this includes Noah and his family, this includes you and me, and this includes even those who were swept away in the Flood. The Flood came as a judgment and so will The End, and we confess in the Creed that when Jesus returns He comes to judge the living and the dead on That Day. As a Christian your life is now in Christ, you are the living, you are not the dead, God is the God of the living;[11] it was the mercy of God that Noah and his family were saved in the face of the Flood, and it is the mercy of God that you and they have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus, by the cataclysm and calamity of Jesus’ cross and passion by His death and burial, and by His resurrection, therefore it will be the mercy of God on The Last Day that saves you from the Fire of That Day and from the Eternal Fire which is to come for those with no faith in God. It will be no work of your own on That Day that saves you.  

Saint Peter makes the connection between Noah’s ark and your faith and baptism and life in Christ Jesus when Peter says how in those days the patience of God was extended to everyone while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons [Noah and his family], were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, [Saint Peter says] now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him.”[12]

Dear ones patience is an important part of the puzzle of what we are thinking about today. When disasters befall us in these days we need to be patient in the face of our hardships and struggles, it seldom happens that everything after a disaster or calamity is set right immediately, even the disciples had to wait for three days before Jesus was risen from the dead. And when they saw Him ascend into heaven they then waited the rest of their natural lives without seeing His return. Noah and his family, as they lived out the rest of their natural lives, would have had to patiently wait with trust in their hearts for the rain to stop and the rainbow to appear after it finished raining to know that the covenant God made with them was still active and in effect.

With this in mind consider what Saint Peter says about patience, he says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”[13] There may be some of you who look at the state of the world and think, ‘Lord have mercy, come now and save us from this! Lord even if it is with a Holy Fire that burns it all down in a blaze unlike the world has ever seen I am ok with that, just come and come quickly,’ each new day we are given, each fresh start that we receive after a calamity or tragedy, after a trouble or accident, each of those new fresh starts is the Lord being patient with you and with those around us. Over and over again He extends His mercy to a world in need, and ultimately that Mercy is Christ Jesus His Son.

God gave the wicked people of the world in the time of Noah 120 years of patience before the rain drops began to fall, before the waters of the deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened. That is a lifetime of patience: and after the Flood God extended His patience to Noah and his family for the rest of their natural lives. The Lord is ever patience with you, remember this when disaster befalls you and you are going through your own mini-apocalypse and you are tempted towards impatience and frustration toward your fellow man and God; dear ones in those days extend that patience that you receive from God to others remembering what Saint Paul says about patience, when he says, “Love is patient and kind;”[14] dear ones rest on the promises you have received from the LORD in the words of Scripture, rest in them along with men like Noah and his family, trusting in the faithfulness of the one who makes the promise, Your heavenly Father in Christ Jesus your Lord, Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Genesis 6:17, when He said “I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.”
[2] Genesis 7:11–17
[3] Matthew 24:36–39
[4] Lamentations 3:22–23
[5] 2 Peter 3:10
[6] Mark 6:45-51
[7] Malachi 3:2-3
[8] 2 Peter 3:11–15
[9] John 15:6
[10] 1 Corinthians 15:51b–53
[11] Mark 12:18-27
[12] 1 Peter 3:20–22
[13] 2 Peter 3:9
[14] 1 Corinthians 13:4a