Flood's Comin'!

Flood’s comin'! At least that is what my phone tells me frequently.  I get alerts from the National Weather Service when severe weather is coming and this includes flood warnings.  It seems like there hasn’t been a week this spring that there hasn’t been a river flood warning that has popped up.

Noah didn’t have a smart phone. He had a relationship with God. Noah got an alert that the flood was comin’! We’ve talked about how God chose Noah and we’ve talked about the difficult task that was before Noah and Naamah their family. We’ve talked about God’s great love and desire to save and we have talked about how God wants to save even the things that we may think are undesirable (like dirty pigsJ)

"God shut them in."

Now we are within a week of the flood that would come into Noah’s life. The flood is comin’!

The floods always come.

On the 15^th just this past Thursday, there was a report of a man with a gun walking around Greenville, Michigan. It was early in the morning so they told the students not to come to school.  My kids were students at Greenville public schools once upon a time.  This is the nightmare of every parent sending their children off to school.  They are out of our protective care and schools have been a target in recent history of very unstable people.

On the same day, this past Thursday President Obama dedicated the 9/11 museum in NYC. We took some of the youth there this past summer.  We saw the museum. We look through the glass at the unfinished project but we couldn’t go in.  Most of the youth that were on the trip had no direct memory of the events of that day in 2001. They were all just slightly too young. Where were you on that day?  How did you react?

(My experience of 9/11)

Flood’s comin’’! Floods always come.  You see the flood isn’t always a bunch of water. Sometimes it the Santa Anna winds making a hellish wild fire that is threating to consume your world in Southern California.  Sometimes it’s evil people like members of Boko Haram killing thousands and kidnapping hundreds of school girls in Nigeria.

Flood’s comin’!  Or perhaps you are in the midst of surviving your own flood.  Perhaps you are being overwhelmed by the circumstances in your life.

When the flood was coming God gave Noah instructions to save him. He told him how to prepare. And then God shut him in. Sometimes we need to be shut in and protected until the flood passes.

(A story of depression)

Sometimes God shuts us in.  We shut ourselves in to hide or to gain our strength so that we can flourish. If we don’t shut ourselves in in a healthy way we won’t flourish.

If we go, go, go we can run out of energy.  Jesus doesn’t want us to spend ourselves he wants us to endure.  He calls us to live and to serve and to sacrifice but he also says that while we may be hated by all men for his name’s sake, those who endure will be saved (Matthew 10:22 paraphrase).  Sometimes the storms of life are too much.  I am reminded of the time when Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee and a storm arose.  His disciples were afraid for their lives but Jesus wasn’t worried, in fact he was sleeping through it.  But when they woke him the said to the sea, “peace, be still.” And there was a great calm.

The disciples were distressed and Jesus cared for them.

The question is: is this the exclusive ministry of Jesus and the church? To be a place of calm and protection for the Disciples of Christ.

What does Jesus do? After he calms the storm he continues his ministry.  He heals people, one after another. And he directs his disciple to feed the multitude.

We are all at different places on our spiritual journey.  There is no one “right” place to be.  You may find yourself preparing for a coming flood, you may have experienced an overwhelming flood in your life and are waiting for any sign of dry ground or you may be ready to begin life again.

The thing is, when God shut Noah in he didn’t shut him out.  God didn’t direct Noah to build an ark so that he could live there forever; it was a temporary solution to a temporary problem. God told Noah to bring the pairs of animals on board and to bring food for them. This was not a situation that could last forever. God was saving Noah and his family from the flood and at the same time God was making provision for life after the flood.  The pairs of animals mean the continuance of life, all life.  The clean and the unclean. The good, the bad and the ugly. God wanted 7 pairs of clean animals as opposed to one pair of unclean which shows that God has a desire that life be holy and wholly devoted to God.

If you are currently resting in the protection of God; if you are shut in so that you can find your strength I ask that you allow your fellow passengers for whom the storm has passed, who are ready for the continuance of life, to go out and tell people about the love and protection that God offers.  I am asking that you make room in this place, in the life of this church for people who need God in their lives.

Earlier I read from the Gospel the parable of the seeds.

The seed is a great analogy of this.  We are like the seed.  We are not put away so to be preserved just as we are. We are planted so that we can grow and produce fruit.

Noah was shut in the Ark.

Jesus was shut in the tomb.

We are brought into Jesus love and care so that we can be transformed into something better than we have ever been before.

So how is it with you today? Can you make room on the boat for someone who may also need God’s love and protection?

Flood’s comin’! Floods always come. God is calling you to a life of faith and of abundance life despite the floods that inevitably come. Would you pray with me?