Noah 1

This is the first of a 9 part series on the story of the Biblical character Noah. 

Genesis 6:1-12

Matthew 2:1-12

 “But as for Noah, the Lord approved of him.”

A depiction of Noah found on the wall
of the youth room at St. Paul UMC. 

How did Noah find favor with God? Of all that was going on in the world that made God want to destroy humanity what was it about Noah that he was the one chosen?

The question really is: what do I have to do to find favor with God?

Sometimes we can set really high standards for ourselves. When I turned 30 I thought, “Jesus died at 33.  I better get going on this ministry thing.”  When I turned 40 I thought “Martin Luther King Jr. never made it to 40 and look at the impact his life had on this world, I better get going on this ministry thing.”

Not to compare myself with them but to understand that our time I limited and to make the most of it while we are here.

In my office, if you were to look above the door I have 3 pictures, 3 images. The one in the middle is an image of Jesus Christ with the word hope at the bottom of it. Jesus is at the center of everything for me. I have two more images of men that I admire and hope to emulate.  They also held Jesus at the center of their lives.

We should all be about the imitation of Christ.  We should all seek to love, heal, and reconcile and there is so many ways we can do that, so many interpretations of the Christian life based on our gifts and talents.  There are so many application based on our community and the era we live in.

Who in our time sets the tone for our behavior?  Too often it is people who have selfish motivations for power. Do we look to the President of the United States or other national leaders? Do we look to the General Secretary of the United Nations?  Do we look to people like Joel Osteen or Oprah Winfrey? Or maybe it’s folk like Katie Perry and Pharell that are the prophets of our day.

But as for Noah, the Lord approved of him. Why? If you look at the context of the passage it comes after Genesis chapter 5, which gives the Genealogy of Noah and his sons. Then in the beginning of Chapter six the passage I that I read we get the context of what was happening in the time of Noah.  And the context of what was before. V5 says “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” But before that there were heroes.  There were giants. V4 says “there were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”

There were great people on the earth, but as for Noah, the Lord approved of him.  Why? Why in a world where there are mighty men, popular heroes and giants in a world of wickedness and evil intent in the hearts of people, would you pick the guy in the neighborhood? The guy down the street.  Why choose Noah, the regular guy who had a wife and 3 sons to be the one to carry the burden?

How does anyone find favor with God?  What does Jesus say?  “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.”

I am reminded of this passage this time of year as I see the smoke of burning tree branches from the pruned fruit trees. The only way to produce fruit is to stay connected.

Abraham was declared righteous not because he was such a great guy but because he was willing to do what God asked him to do. 

King David is a man after God’s own heart but he was a terrible sinner.  What made him useful was that he was willing to listen to God’s correction and follow God’s command. Remember when David was young, the faith that he had? He was there on the battle field to watch the battle with the Philistine army and the Giant Goliath was taunting the Army of Israel. He wanted to fight this seasoned warrior who stood over 9’ tall. Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

 It is that close relationship with God, which God can use.

God used Noah because Noah stayed connected.  It’s not the Heroes, it’s not the famous people and it’s not the giants that will be chosen but it will be those of you who abide in Jesus and lead by his Spirit. Chosen for what?

To bring order in the midst of chaos.

To bring a message of hope in a time of hopelessness.

To deliver good news in a time despair.

War, terrorism, global poverty, how can you remain faithful in these circumstances? What in your house hold can you do to bring the power of Christ to things that are out of your earthly control?  God has gifted you in a particular way to be his worker. God has called you to be part of his family this morning. God has Chosen you.

In the Gospel lesson today I read about the visit of the wise men to Jesus and Herod’s desire to find the threat to his earthly rule. Herod seemingly had all the power.  Yet he is a minor character in the story of history.  The Glory of God fills the earth.  Jesus is Lord over everything.  If little Herod had any idea who that baby really was he should have given up everything and traveled with the wise men to worship at the feet of the newly born Son of God. 

God is moving.  God is always up to something.  How is it with you today?  It can be an ugly and chaotic world out there. Are you; are we in a position to be useful to God? We are the called out ones.  We are the ones who God has imparted righteousness to.  No because we are the Heroes or the giants of our time but because we are the ones willing to listen to the call of God in our lives.

At this point in the story of Noah, he didn’t know that God had a task for him. But God already had him set apart.

How can you be open to God's working in your life in ways that you are not yet aware of? 

By Another Road

Merry Christmas.  This is the twelfth day of Christmas. This is Epiphany Sunday.  I love epiphany Sunday because it is still Christmas while Christmas is by and large done for most people.  You can see we have most of the decorations taken down but we still have the nativity scene here.  The epiphany is the celebration of the visitation of the wise men.  People from the east came and the divinity of Jesus was revealed to them.  Jesus was born as a Jew in a Jewish land but at a very young age (under 2) the non-Jewish world (the bible calls us “gentiles”) was let in on the miracle of his birth.

What does this mean?  I mean, so what? I struggled with the importance of this day for a long time. A man who I knew, who has since passed away, said that this is the most important holiday of the year. I didn’t get it.  So some guys came and brought gifts.  Is this a historical record a sort of review of the gust book of visitors to the young Jesus? Jesus divine nature was revealed to the gentiles.  Okay did they start a church?  Doesn’t say that.  Was their lives changed?  Doesn’t say that either. It did say that they went home by a different road.

When I struggle with scripture, I often find clarity in my conversations with people who have a love for God and faith in Jesus.  If you have ever been part of a bible study you probably have experienced this.  A question comes up, it is dealt with on a surface level then someone says something that sparks a conversation.  What comes next is a God-thing.  The Holy Spirit begins to work in and through the conversation and a truth emerges that no one can lay claim to as an individual.  It is in the community that we hear from the voice of God.  I often try to seek out the wisdom of others.  I may be the pastor of this this church but that doesn’t mean I have all the answers. The wisdom is in the gathering. Think about those people in our gathering, now and those who have gone who you would consider good strong Christian people.  What is it about them that is so special?   I thought about this and some traits came to mind.  Knowledge, compassion, self-sacrificing love.  I thought of the fruits of the spirit. All good things but it seems like there was something more. The intangible, the indescribable part that I try to grasp at is that those wonderful people reveal Christ in them. They let the love of Christ flow through them.  They unfiltered, uninhibited, and unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God

Scripture says that wise men came asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."  When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 

There are people who are, and have been since his birth, afraid of Jesus.  Why?

Why would a king be afraid of a baby?

Why are people threatened by the Good News about Jesus Christ? Jesus was born into this world.  That was the easy part.  Everybody who ever amounted to anything was born.  Everybody who failed to reach their potential was also born.  Having life is indeed a miracle and a gift of God but let’s be honest, that’s the easy part.  The hard part is living.  It wasn’t that Jesus was born of a virgin that troubled Herod.  The troubling part to Herod was that this baby was born to be king of the Jews.  Herod thought that was his job. And he didn’t want to share.

So Herod gathered some intelligence. He did some investigating all because he wanted to honor the new baby but we really know that he wanted to destroy the threat to his rule. He told the wise men to report back to him when they found him.

The wise men found Jesus.  And they worshiped him. They presented him with gifts of Gold, frankincense and myrrh. They must have stayed more than your typical visit to a baby because they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. Perhaps they told Joseph about their dream. Perhaps Joseph had his dream about the same time and began the preparations to flee to Egypt.  Perhaps it was the gifts they brought that sustained the Holy family during their time as refugees.  Whatever happened at that visit by the wise men from the east, life was certainly different afterwards.  Not only did Joseph, Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt, the wise men took a different route back to their home country. Jesus was just a baby and He was already changing things.  Jesus was disrupting the order of things.  Of course babies do that anyway.  But this baby was different.  The wise men, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds all knew that this was God in the flesh. There was an ever-widening circle of people who being let in on this wonderful news. 

What if his identity, his nature was never revealed?  What if God came and was silent?  What would have changed?  We cannot possibly know. The thing is, it was the epiphany, the revealing of his divinity that changed and is continuing to change the world.  When you came to believe that Jesus was the son of God and put your trust in him, the Holy Spirit took up residence in you.  Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ was born in you. At your baptism you died to your flesh and were born of the Spirit. 

The epiphany is God’s divinity revealed in Jesus Christ after he was born.  If Jesus was born in you at your baptism don’t you think it’s time for an epiphany?  Don’t you think it’s time for you to reveal the Christ that is living in you? 

Let me tell you. Some people won’t like it.  There are Herods out there that will try to kill it as soon as you reveal it.  Christ’s message is radical.  Christ’s presence in this world is disruptive.  Folks that have a stake in keeping things just as they are will try to silence you and discourage you.  But you don’t have to take abuse.  Take a different road. You are not in this alone. This is a body of Christ’s believers.  Next week is the celebration of Jesus baptism.  A perfect time to be baptized into God’s holy church.  If you feel God’s call to live the life he has intended for you, I invite you to see me about beginning your journey.  If you are already baptized and are not yet a member of this gathering, I invite you to take a deeper, more public commitment to this body of believers and become a member. 

How is it with you today?  God lives in each of us. The question we face as a believer is how much of God are we willing to reveal in our lives.  How much are you willing to reveal?