"Grab Bag: Me and You, Noah" Genesis 9: 8-17; Isaiah 54: 6-10

I liked this sermon, although I stumbled a couple of times in its delivery in the Sanctuary.  The transition to the baptism point might have been a bit forced since I was trying to make a connection to baptism.  I liked the way it played off of the week before, both in content and tone.   The final illustration from Archie Bunker was abbreviated in the actual preaching of the sermon. 

“Me and You, Noah”  June 30, 2013; Grab bag series Genesis 9: 8-17; Isaiah 54: 6-10

Move 1: The lightning and thunder come and go, but the rain never stops.  We awaken in the morning to rain and go to sleep at night with the rain still coming from the heavens.  Will it ever stop? A sense of hopelessness pervades the ark. Where is God? 

The rain has stopped, but water surrounds us in every direction.  We actually saw the sun peeking through the clouds.  Now the people and the animals are getting even more stir crazy.  They want off the boat, but there is no dry land to be found.  The optimism brought by the ray of sunshine gives way to a new sense of hopelessness that we are stuck in the ark with no place to dock. Where is God?

Ten months have passed and we can finally see the tops of the mountains.  Can we survive until we can leave the ark? Where is God?

A dove goes out to find dry land.  A sense of hope tentatively emerges.  The dove returns.  No dry land.  The nightmare continues.  No longer looking for God, because God has surely forsaken us.

The earth has dried.  God sends us out onto the dry land to be fruitful and multiply.  After surviving the ark, anything seems possible.  God has saved us.

a.      Make no mistake – the story of Noah’s ark is one of devastation and hopelessness.

1.      You have seen the photos from Hurricane Katrina.

2.       You have read the accounts of people racing to the highest point possible only to have the flood waters rise to them and beyond.

3.      The flood destroyed creation as humans knew it. 

b.      and there is no one to blame but themselves.

1.      their sinfulness had brought about this devastation.

2.      Imagine how bad it must have been for God to want to destroy the very world God created.

3.      Actually, we can easily imagine it – just look at the world around us with the wars, the violence, and the unfaithfulness.

4.      I suspect the pre-flood world in Genesis was no worse than what we know now.

move 2:  But in the midst of the devastation, God remembers Noah, and his family, and all of creation.

a.      Last week we heard Bill Cosby’s comedy routine where he envisions what Noah might say to God.

1.      As the rains begin, Noah is in midst of his long litany of complaints.

2.      But as he hears the thunder and the rain, he cries out, "me and you, Lord, right?"

b.       Now we hear God in the face of the devastating flooding crying out, "Right! Me and you, Noah."

1.      “I remember you.”

2.      “I will save you.”

3.      In fact, God spreads a rainbow across the heavens to announce that God will always remember God’s people.

4.      No matter what we do, God will remember us and offer us the hope of salvation, instead of the utter devastation.

5.      As Walter Brueggemann notes, "the gospel of this God is that he remembers. the only thing the waters of chaos and death do not cut through (though they cut through everything else) is the commitment of God to creation Brueggemann,Interpretation: Genesis, 85.

6.      God remembers.

Move 3:  We find refuge in the God who remembers

            a.  Isaiah passage

1.              The Israelites are in exile.  They are a defeated people banished to a foreign land.

2.              Not forty days of flooding, but generations of exile.

3.              They wonder where God is. They cry out for help.

4.              And the prophet Isaiah reminds them – the God who remembered Noah, will remember you.

5.              They can dare to hope for a future.

b. Our hope today is in the God who remembers.

1.            In a war-torn world where our prayers for peace seem to go unanswered, we can dare to hope in the God who remembers us.

2.            In our lives of broken relationships, we can dare to hope for healing and wholeness because God remembers us.

3.            In a world where we battle addictions and struggle with our inner demons, we can dare to hope because God remembers us.

4.            In a world where tragedy and death arrive unexpectedly, we can dare to hope because God remembers us.

Move 4:  Baptism

           

                        a.  In our theology, the sacrament of baptism builds on the images of water and covenant.

1.  We baptize even infants because God claims us as part of the covenant in the waters of baptism, even if we do not know much about God.

2.  God’s covenant does not depend on us, but on God’s love and promise.

b. This week I was reminded of an old Archie Bunker TV show that revolved around baptism. 

For those of you who do not remember Archie Bunker, he was an old, somewhat bigoted white guy, whose daughter had married a liberal atheist.

After returning from church one Sunday afternoon, Archie’s wife Edith's recount of the service prompts Archie to ask when their grandson, Joey, will finally be baptized. It turns out Joey will not be baptized because his dad does not believe in God.

Laughing him off, Mike and Gloria leave. Archie then tries to persuade Edith to assist him in having Joey baptized at Edith's church, on the sly. Edith will not consider such a thing, however, and Archie goes as far as to try to trick her into taking a walk in the park, with the intention of stopping by the church on the way. In the midst of their argument, the telephone rings, and Edith tries to give directions to their house for a clothing pick-up to the driver on the other end. While Edith is in the midst of her explanation, Archie takes advantage of her distraction and grabs an old sweater from the charitable donation pile, and also Joey, who is sleeping on the porch in his baby carriage. By the time Edith makes the discovery that they have left, it's too late.

Once at the church, Archie is dismayed to find out that the Reverend Felcher is not available to perform the baptism, but rather the ethnic Reverend Chong. After a series of politically incorrect gaffes on Archie's part, Reverend Chong assures Archie that he is perfectly capable of giving Joey a Christian baptism, but that he (Reverend Chong) is beginning to sense that Joey's parents are against the idea. After lying to the minister initially, Archie finally offers him a bribe, which the minister refuses.


Daunted once again in his efforts, Archie stops the stroller on his way out beside a station of holy water, before leaving the church. He proceeds to pray, opening a dialogue to God with the line, "A. Bunker here" and asking God not to forsake Joey just because "his old man's a dopey atheist." Archie then lifts Joey from the stroller and sprinkles water on his head, adding, "I hope that took Lord, 'cause they're gonna kill me when I get home." http://www.tv.com/shows/all-in-the-family/joeys-baptism-38238/recap/

Conclusion:  Archie’s theology of baptism may not stand up to our Presbyterian theological standards, but he did understand that his hope, and his grandson’s hope, rest in the the ?God who remembers us, the God who claims us, the God who saves us.  Amen.