Reflections on "When God Makes Covenant, Then...." Genesis 9: 8-17; Mark 1: 1-9

We kicked off Lent with a sermon series reflecting on the statement, "When God does....then we...."  the idea is that each week we will explore something God has done and how we ought to respond.  I'm not sure how the series is going to hold up through Lent, but today started out with the story of God making covenant with humanity after the the floods.  the sermon went in directions I had never gone before with the Noah story because of the using the Lenten lens for this year.  If good preaching it. 

 The final section about the Ash Wednesday image of the woman with the cross on her forehead was very powerful.    I had someone ask if I had just added that part on the spur of the moment because when I got to that part of the sermon I decided I would look directly at the congregation and not look at my notes throughout that section.  I ended up finishing the sermon without looking at my notes, so I'm not sure if the notes below match what I actually said.

”When God Makes Covenant, Then….”   St. Andrew, Denton; 2/18/18; Lent 1; Genesis 9: 8-17; Mark 1: 1-9

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, 10 and 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.[a] 11 I 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.” 12 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: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 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. 16 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.” 17 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.”

Introduction:  We will spend Lent reflecting on how we respond to different things God has done.  

The idea grew out of the covenant language we encounter in some of this year’s texts for Lent, although covenant language typically begins with “If….then”

But, Lisa and I decided that when talking about God, it’s not really and “if God does something;”  it is “when” because God has acted, continues to act, and will far into the future.

We begin this week with “when God makes covenant, then….”

A few thoughts….

Move 1: When God makes covenant, we better be thinking globally.

a. We know the Noah story.

1. God looks down on the creation that God had called good, and God is none to happy.

2.  God decides to do something, so God picks one family, in this case Noah and his extended family, and gives them a way out of the destruction from the raging waters.

3.  Then, God starts anew, if you will.  A fresh start with Noah and his family.

4.  Not a surprise — we see in the biblical story this pattern of God choosing a certain person or people:  Abraham and Sarah are next; the Israelites as a people to a light for other nations; Jesus choosing disciples

5.  It might be easy to think of God as always choosing a small subset with whom to be in relationship.

b.  But notice how the Noah story unfolds.

1. Depending on how one counts the recurring phrases of “every living creature,” “all flesh,” and “all the earth,” there are at least six different iterations.  The Politics of Saving Everybody—Genesis 9:8-17 (Timothy Simpson) Lectionary, The Politics of Scripture https://politicaltheology.com/the-politics-of-saving-everybody-genesis-98-17/

  

2.  Gives the unmistakable impression that there is no living thing anywhere that will ever exist anywhere that is not covered under the scope of this covenant.

3. Reveals Gods desire - to love and save not just me; not just you; not just St. Andrew; not just Presbyterians; not just Protestants; not just Christians; but God’s desire to love and redeem all of creation.

c.  When God makes covenant, then it shapes how we approach the world.

1. it is not us and them.

2. it is all of God’s people; all of God’s creation.

3. the covenant God makes demands that we are global in our outlook and our outreach.

Move 2:  When God makes covenant, the we better be humble

a.  We tell the story of the flood and talk about God’s covenant and Noah

1. We are reminded that covenant was a common concept in that time.

2. Covenants cemented relationships of mutual obligation.

3.  Often, a covenant was between two parties where one had more power than the other.

4. For example, a conquering kingdom might covenant not to destroy a losing kingdom, as long as the losers promised to fight against the conqueror’s enemies and to support the conqueror with troops and supplies.1 The obligations are indeed reciprocal, but the power dynamics are not often equal. (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2375, Cameron B.R. Howard, Assistant Professor of Old Testament

Luther Seminary St. Paul, MN

2.   In this case, however, all of the obligations rest with God.

3. This covenant is about what God promises to do, regardless of what we might do in response.

4.  God reaches out to the world, and God does all the heavy lifting. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2375, Cameron B.R. Howard Assistant Professor of Old Testament

Luther Seminary St. Paul, MN

b. how humbling to realize that this covenant is not about us, but about God.

1. of course, as you heard the story you might have noticed how often the word “I,” is part fo the story.  “I” being God.

2.  This story, this covenant, is about God and what God will do, not about us and what we can do.

3.  In a world when we have so much emphasis on ourselves, what we can do, what we can achieve, this story of God’s covenant is a powerful reminder that it is not about us, but about the God who chooses to love and redeem us.

Move 3:  Finally, when God makes covenant, then we better be looking for Jesus!

a.  sounds kind of convenient that the sermon on the first Sunday of Lent ends up with Jesus.

1.  We had to get to Jesus in the desert somehow, right?

2.  But really, I promise, it’s more than just a segue to Lent.

3.  When God makes covenant, then we look for how Jesus because we know that God is going to live into the plan to redeem the world.

4. The person we discover in Christ, the person who is baptized in the River Jordan when the voice from heaven announces, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased;” the person who goes to the desert and turns away from temptation and then begins his ministry; this person is the fulfillment of God’s covenant.

b.  that truth is more than a theological point.  It is our hope and promise as we live in our world today.

1.  Ash Wednesday.

2. Some of you gathered here in worship.

3. Sign of the cross in ashes from last years palm branches - “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return.”

4. A reminder of our mortality and sinfulness and God’s saving grace.

5. For us was a ritual.

c.  Ash Wednesday was also the day a shooter killed in cold blood 17 high school students in FL.

1.  I know it was Ash Wednesday, because the reports came out as we were headed to Super Wednesday and we remembered the dead and their families in our prayers together after dinner.

2. But I also know it was Ash Wednesday because of a photo I saw again and again on the Internet.

3. A woman in anguish, tears flowing, presumably a mother of one of the students killed.  

4. and on her forehead was the unmistakable sign of the cross marked in ash.

5.  For her, more than a ritual.  Her hope in the face of death; her promise in the midst of chaos; her comfort in the face of the unimaginable.

6.  When God makes covenant, then God will be true to that covenant. 

7. in fact, God has been true to that covenant in the coming of Christ and by the power of the resurrection; and God will live out that covenant when Christ comes again.

conclusion: 

Reflections on "Transfiguration Re-Imagined"

This sermon was part of our "jazz" service, which means jazz music filled the sanctuary.  We had a jazz ensemble of drums, trumpet, sax, string bass, and piano.  They did a terrific job accompanying the hymns, playing the prelude and postlude, the offertory, and the anthem.  The sermon incorporated the jazz ensemble.  Each move, as noted below, set the stage for about a 2 minutes improv from the jazz ensemble reflecting that mood.  It was really cool, although i'm not sure how to evaluate if it actually led to those gathered experiencing reflections/insights about what God is doing in their lives.

St. Andrew does music really well, and yesterday's service was an example of that high quality of music.  We will continue to work to find ways to highlight music as part of our worship experience.

“Tranfiguration Reimagined”   SAPC, Denton; 2/11/18; 2 Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9: 2-9

As you listen to the text I am about to read and you hear the sermon preached and played this morning, I invite you to imagine what it means for you to follow Jesus Christ.  

Close your eyes; breathe; listen to the words; breathe some more; listen to the music; tap your toes; breathe some more; and imagine - imagine a God who comes in Christ to be part of your life; imagine Christ in all his glory; imagine the Holy Spirit shaping you in this moment

Mark 9: 2-9:  Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one[a] on earth could bleach them. 4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings,[b] one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved;[c] listen to him!” 8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Move 1:  Peter, James, and John - the inner circle of the disciples - follow Jesus up to the high mountain.

Step by step.  they slog up the hill.  Each foot forward  moves them one step higher on the mountain.  

they look down at their feet to pass the time.  the rhythm of their hiking hypnotizes - step, step, step, step One right after the other. One right behind the other.  No stopping until they reach the top.

their breathing grows heavier with the exertion of moving up the mountain; they keep climbing.  No time to stop; there is still much of the mountain before them.

the weariness of the morning climb comes to them, and still they go on, one step at a time.

Their weariness is accompanied by a sense of expectation.

they are going up a mountain.  they know what  Barbara Brown Taylor tells us:   “…. every mountain, no matter where it was, was a ringer for the mountain that towered in the Hebrew imagination. Once the people of Israel had seen Mount Sinai smoking with the presence of the Lord, there were no "a" mountains anymore. Every mountain was "the" mountain, the place where the fiery God might be encountered again.

They climb the mountain with Jesus wondering if they will discover smoke, the presence of God, or something they have never imagined.

Each step brings them closer.

What is waiting for them at the top?  

Music expresses weary disciples, but tinged with expectancy - they know that on the mountain things happen; but it could be scary or incredible

Move 2:  Jesus transfigured

Suddenly, Jesus appeared dazzling white with Moses and Elijah.

the All-star team for Israel stands before the disciples.  Moses, arguably the greatest leader in Israelite history; Elijah,  one of the great prophets.  If those two were one your team, anything could be accomplished. And add Jesus to the mix, the high mountaintop cannot contain the possibilities.

Being disciples could be pretty tough.  A lot was expected of them.  It is terrifying in that moment to find themselves in the presence of such greatness and wonder, “What is expected of me?”

But the challenging task of discipleship seems more doable in the presence of  Moses and Elijah.

With Moses, Elijah, and Jesus in their midst, anything is possible for Peter, James, and John.

their imagination runs wild as they consider what they can do.

A dazzling white Jesus stands before them with unlimited possibilities.

Music expresses the dazzling white of possibilities

Move 3:  Have to head down the mountain, back to work.  

they want to stay on the mountaintop and build booths.  As if they could stop time and settle into that one moment forever.

they linger in this perfect moment.  If only they could stay.

But they know, they know that the exhilarating possibilities imagined on the mountaintop can only be lived out in the world below them.

Back where people flock to Jesus to learn, to be healed, to be set free; to have their lives changed forever.

They have to go back down the mountain.

Mood - Longing for the moment they just had mixed with determination for the mission ahead of them

Move 3:  Mystery of Christ – don’t tell anyone

their steps are lighter on the way back down the mountain.

they feel energized by the mountaintop experience, but also puzzled by the Jesus’ demand that they tell know now what they had seen until after he had been raised from the dead.

the questions bubble up each step of the way down.

“Raised from the dead?”

“Does that mean Jesus will die?”

“how can someone we raised from the dead?”

“why can’t we tell everyone what we have seen?”

the mystery of who Jesus is increases each moment.

the voice from the heavens echoes in their minds, “This is my son, the beloved.  Listen to him.”

Peter, James, and John cannot fully comprehend the God who sends Christ, God’s Son to live alongside them.  

Nor do they understand the mystery of this incredible, mystical, cosmic Christ. 

Or even why he commands them to “Tell no one.”

But they know the one who has called them to follow.  They have seen him heal and teach.  

they have given their lives over to him.

Now they go down the mountain ready to follow him into the world.

Mood - mystery of the incarnation

Conclusion:  

Reflections on "Who Will Find Me?" Psalm 139; Romans 8: 31-39

The sermon was written because our community has had three suicides in the last two weeks, two of whom were high schoolers connected to some of the youth in the congregation.  The hymn after the sermon, "There Is a Longing in Our Hearts," was a new hymn to me and fit very well with the sermon and mood of the service. Finishing with "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," also worked well.

Either of these texts is worthy of its own sermon, or maybe even sermon series.  I have loved Psalm 139 for years, but only preached it at funeral.  Preaching it felt right today.

“Who will find me?”   SAPC, Denton; 1/28/18; Psalm 139; Romans 8: 31-39

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

    you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down,

    and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

    O Lord, you know it completely.

You hem me in, behind and before,

    and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit?

    Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

    and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

    and the light around me become night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

    the night is as bright as the day,

    for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

    Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

    My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

    all the days that were formed for me,

    when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

    How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

    I come to the end —I am still with you.

As some of you may know, our youth, their parents, and those who work in local schools have been dealing with two suicides in this new year.  

These deaths cut to core of who we are as they expose our vulnerability; 

they reveal the challenges and fears that youth face as they move through a time in life that seems so full of possibilities, yet often lead to despair; 

and they remind each of us of the difficult times we too may face.

Today, I do not speak as a medical expert or counselor, although I would quickly commend the importance of proper medication to deal with mental health issues and the critical role a counselor can play in the life of someone who is struggling.  If you need a referral, please see Lisa or me, and we can help you find medical help or a counselor.

 I speak to you this morning as someone who asks the question, “where is God?” in the midst of our vulnerability and distress.

I ask this question not as one who has pat answers, but as one who has held a grieving mother as I told her news, news she already knew in her heart of hearts when she saw me waiting on her doorstep that night, news that her adult son had committed suicide.

I ask this question as a parent, who knows the vulnerability of watching my daughters experience the trials and pains of growing up; the helplessness of not being able to control their every thought or action.

I ask this question as one who continually discovers that when answers do not satisfy, our only hope is in the God whose story shows that again and again God has been there to comfort and guide through difficult times.  

Move 1: My first reflection - being connected to God does not make us immune to difficult times.

a.  Consider the biblical characters.

1. Job - whose story of anger and anguish is played out before us in the biblical text; whose pain leads him to challenge God, and then to affirm that he cannot know God’s ways, but that God has been with him.

2.  Or King David - whose life of great triumph also reveals sin against God and pain and anguish in his personal life; 

3. Even Jesus, who on the cross repeats the words of the 22nd Psalm - “My God, my god, why have you forsaken me?”

4. Consider the powerful words Paul shares with the Romans about how nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus - Paul would not have to write those words if he were not dealing with people who felt separation.

5.   The Psalmist - we heard powerful words from the Psalmist who speaks of God knowing us in the womb and finding us wherever we go, even we try to hide from God or feel forsaken by God.  Those words bear the mark of someone who has experienced separation from God and has wondered who even cares about him.  The Psalmist’s affirmation of God grows out of the psalmists own soul-searching and questioning. 

b. I suspect most of us can point to a difficult time in our own life.

1.      Battling with a difficult, perhaps even debilitating illness.

2. Going through an unexpected job loss.

3.  dealing with grief.

4.  Struggling to find friends who build you up, instead of tear you down.

5. Difficult time in a relationship.

6.  Or just an overwhelming time in life.

c.  And, as we have been reminded in recent weeks, youth can have an incredibly difficult time as they deal with the pressures and challenges they face.

I have a friend who tells the story of a difficult time in his life the summer after high school.  the youth among us, Summer before college; friend headed to college; pretty good family life; rough summer with relationships with friends; wrong end of a break-up; still, a young man with opportunities and the world before him; worked until fairly late in the evening some night; would drive home, and near his home was a hill;  would accelerate up the hill while driving down the middle of the road; fortunately, he never met a car coming the other way late at night.

d.  What all these situations have in common is the temptation to believe that we are alone, separated from God.

1. Unable to see beyond the helplessness and hopelessness we feel.

2.  If hell is, as some would describe it, separation from God, then these situations can feel like hell, even for those who have an ongoing relationship with God.

3. We wonder - “who will find me in the darkness of my life?”

Move 2:  Hear the good news - if you do not hear anything else this morning, hear this:  God desires to be with you.  God desires to be with you so much, God is going to find you wherever you are.

a.  This truth finds itself at the heart of our Reformed understanding of God.

1.  The great theologian Karl  Barth tell us this truth about who God is.

2.  God does not have to be in relationship with us, but God wants to be with us; 

3.  God chooses to be for us;

4.  God desires to be our partner, our almighty and compassionate Savior….(Barth, The Humanity of God, 50-51)

5.  Barth reminds us that “God is the father who searches for his lost son, the king who does the same for his insolvent debtor, the Samaritan who takes pity on the one who fell among robbers… (Barth, 51)

He could also have mentioned the shepherd who looks for the one lost sheep or the friend who will go into Lazarus’ tomb to bring him back to life.

The biblical stories again and again point to the God who will go anywhere to find us and save us.

b.  Barth goes on to say, ”God takes to heart the weakness and the perversity, the helplessness and the misery” but instead of despising humanity, God chooses to join with humanity and offer Christ to stand up for us (Barth, 51)

c.  who will find me when I find myself in the hell of feeling forsaken and forgotten?

1.  God will.

2.  Each time we affirm our faith through the words of the Apostles’ Creed, we say the words “descended into hell” to describe what Jesus has done.

3.  I have found through the years that the most commonly asked question about the Apostles’ creed is “why do we say Christ descended into hell?”

4. In fact, some church’s take out the “descended into hell” part of the Apostles Creed.

5. Years ago, when I went to KY to interview with the PNC and preach at a neutral pulpit, one of the committee members was going over the service where I would lead worship.  He asked me, “do you descend into hell or not?”  

6.  I had to admit I had not idea what he was talking about, to which he informed me that some churches in that presbytery took the “descended into hell” out of the Apostles’ Creed.

6.  I do not want to take it out because I have learned to appreciate, in fact sometimes cling to that phrase.

Tt means that when the Psalmists exclaims, “if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there” it is true to who God is and is lived out by Christ who even descends into hell to join with us.

7.  It also means that when we find ourselves alone, forsaken, seemingly forgotten by the world, when find ourselves in a place where suicide might seem like the only answer, when we wonder is there anyone who will find us in this place - our hope is in the God who promises to be with us, the God who sends Jesus Christ to find us wherever we are, even the depths of hell.

Where can we go where God will not come for us?  Nowhere.

Move 3:  As we describe this desire of God to find us, we also discover our task as the body of Christ.

a.  To find those struggling and be the presence of Christ for them.

1.  AS the body of Christ, we are called to be the presence of Christ in the life of someone who feels lost.

2.  I say that not to provide a tool to beat yourself up if someone around you succumbs to their sense of forsakenness. 

3.  Ultimately, we cannot make decisions for others or control the decisions they make.

4. I mentioned telling a grieving mother about the suicide of her adult son.  Full disclosure - he had been in my office a few days earlier talking with me about his struggles, and somehow I missed or he did not give off the signal that he was suicidal.

5. I had reminded him of how God was with him, but he did not hear it, or did not believe it, or somehow it did not change his course of action a few days later.

b.  but we must continue to offer through words and actions the presence of God in people’s lives, particularly when we see people struggling.

1.  I suspect we can seldom win a debate with someone who is hurting if we argue with them that God is present or God loves us.

2.  But our own stories of how we have discovered God’s love and presence in our times of vulnerability may offer a word of hope.

3. Our being there with someone who is struggling may be the presence of God in their life at their particular moment of desperate need.

4.  When I read Barth’s words about God sending Christ to stand up for us, I was reminded of this congregation’s tradition of standing up for those being baptized. 

5.  Hold that image before you as you look and listen for those who are hurting — how can you stand with that person and be the body of Christ for them.

Conclusion:  Paul writes to the Romans and to us a powerful statement about the God who will let nothing separate us from God.

Claim those words for yourself. 

Live those words out for someone else.

Amen.