Never Again

 Based on Genesis 9:8-17

             It was about a year ago that Covid started to make its way around the world, just as Lent was getting started. Around Mar. 18, 2020 is often cited as when shut downs started to occur and we began the process of getting accustomed to wearing facial coverings, washing our hands, maintaining physical separation, all the things we have become quite familiar with. Mar. 18 was during the third week of Lent. The first virtual worship service I uploaded to YouTube was Mar. 22^nd. Of course, none of us knew how long this would last, or that providing online worship would become a permanent part of our church’s ministry. Eleven months later, here we are. We are back to in person worship. But not all of us are back. It will be some time yet before we can put away our masks, embrace each other, and share a potluck together. This has been an underappreciated sacrifice for us Methodists. No potlucks!

            Lent is a season in the Christian liturgical year when we are invited to re-engage with the way of the cross. These weeks of self-reflection, confession and repentance, and recommitment to discipleship, all build up to Holy Week when we re-live the drama of the last supper, the arrest, the betrayal, the beating, the crucifixion, the burial, and then the resurrection. We navigate through this penitential season often through three traditional methods: fasting or abstinence, prayer, and service or giving alms, providing charity. These methods are intended to call us back to the seriousness of our discipleship, the commitment and sacrifice we are called upon to follow Jesus. It is true that we are saved by grace. The only fitting response of gratitude for our salvation is to commit to the way of discipleship, the narrow and hard road that leads to life. Lent is the season that calls us to that challenging path.

            Lent is often a time when we are asked to abstain or fast from certain foods we enjoy or habits or vices that distract us in our faithful living. People often choose to abstain from alcohol, meat, or chocolate. Some choose to stay off social media or limit their news intake or their favorite political opinion shows on MSNBC or Fox. We abstain from these things so that we can strip away distractions, give ourselves more time for prayer and reflection, be more available to serve the needs of others, and maybe to confront our own mortality. Our time on earth is limited. One day we will return to the dust. What do we need to let go of so that we can be free and live with more intentionality? What habits that numb us from the suffering we are enduring do we need to set aside so we can come to terms with our suffering and what the Spirit is trying to teach us in the suffering we endure? These are Lent questions.

            On that point, it seems that we have been enduring Lent since last February. I don’t mean we have been fasting or abstaining from certain foods or habits all this time. In fact, maybe some of us have picked up some habits over the past several months that are not the healthiest. But we haven’t had to abstain or fast to become aware of our mortality. We have been awash in death due to the pandemic. Every time we put on our masks we are reminded of our mortality. We have lost so much during the pandemic, and not just the loss of potlucks. We have lost shaking hands and giving hugs. We have lost going to concerts. We have had to endure challenges to our discipleship. We had to be resilient in our faith without in person worship or Bible study or simply fellowshipping together as brothers and sisters in Christ. Even Easter and Christmas had a subdued, Lenten feel to it. Yes, in some ways we have been in the season of Lent since last February.

            Prolonged seasons like we are experiencing, this Lenten pandemic season, is grueling. It saps our energy. We sometimes have feelings of overwhelm. We sometimes wonder if it is all worth it. By that I mean is it worth it to stay connected to the church or stay true to our faith. Although it must be said that sometimes life itself is exhausting and we wonder what there is that keeps us going on. In this extended season of Lent, where we have lost so much, suffered a lot, and confronted our mortality, we could use a little hope. It is hope that keeps us engaged with life. It is hope that propels us to stay faithful to God and to the church, to this way of life that we call Christian discipleship. We need some resurrection hope in this season of struggle.

            We find some hope in today’s passage from Genesis. The hope we receive from this passage is that no matter how bad it gets, God is committed to preserving life. The sun will keep rising. Winter will turn into spring. Mothers will continue to give birth. Seeds planted into the soil will produce a harvest. No matter how bad it gets, we can trust that God will see to it that life perseveres.

            In this passage, we hear of a covenant that God establishes. A covenant is an agreement entered in to by two parties. Each side of the covenant commit to various things to preserve the covenant. For example, in a marriage covenant, the couple commit to certain things in the vows they make. These things are often aspirational. And when the couple falls short in keeping their vows, it is their love for each other that prompts them to talk it through, seek and offer forgiveness, and recommit to the vows. A covenant is based on a commitment to be in relationship and has much room for grace.

            But in this covenant we hear about in Genesis 9, it is really a one-way covenant. God initiates the covenant. God is the only one who speaks. The terms of the agreement of this covenant apply only to God. In other words, God is the only one who vows anything. The other party to the covenant doesn’t have to do anything. The responsibility for maintaining this covenant rests completely on God.

            God enters into this covenant with Noah and his descendants, but also with every living creature that had been with Noah on the ark. In other words, God is making a covenant with all living creatures who don’t live in water. God is making a covenant with all creatures that breathe air. It’s not limited to Noah or his family. It is not limited to one ethnic group. It is not limited to human beings. It is a covenant that includes much of creation itself.

            The basic covenant is this: God will never wipe out the earth and start over again. As we recall, the reason God sent the great flood was because there was so much wickedness in the world. Everything had gone off the rails. Noah was the only righteous person left. So, God decided to wipe the slate clean and start over. We have all probably been there. We were working on some kind of project and everything was falling apart and we decide to start over. Most of us who have tinkered with gardening know what it’s like to set up a plot and plant stuff, but the soil wasn’t good, or we didn’t tend the garden well and it was overrun with weeds, or the plants got some kind of disease, so we just rip it all up and start over next spring. But what God did was on a massive scale. God wanted to start over with Noah and all the air breathing creatures. A relaunch of life if you will.

            In this covenant that God establishes with all the air breathing creatures, God makes it clear that God will never do that again. God will never wipe everything out and start over. God is committed to preserving life. Something of God’s character expands in this covenant. Having established this covenant, God who is the creator of life more fully becomes the preserver of life.

            This is all an act of pure grace on God’s part. Noah didn’t initiate this covenant. God did. And in fact Noah says nothing. Noah does not respond, nor does his wife and kids. The air breathing creatures do not respond. This commitment God makes to preserve life is made regardless of the response. God just does it. God asks nothing from us. We don’t have to do anything or even acknowledge what God has done. It is a simple given that God is committed to preserving life, period.

             The tendency toward creating the situation that prompted God to wipe out the earth with the flood hasn’t changed. I am confident that the world today is as wicked as it was when God wiped out the earth with a flood. This only underscores the profound grace of God. When God determined from that point on not to wipe out the earth again, God did not first demand that all air-breathing creatures change their ways. No change, no repentance, no apology, was demanded. God knew that the shiny new world wiped clean by the flood waters would soon enough become spoiled again. God probably recognized that God’s anger and disappointment would flare up again. So, God determines to be reminded of this covenant every time God sees the rainbow. Even though the conditions that led to God flooding the earth has not changed, God still commits never to do that again. Grace.

            Here is the big takeaway. God is committed to preserving life. We can count on God never destroying the earth. Three times in this passage God says, “Never again.” We sometimes say “never again” when we are called to account for our moral failures. We mess up and hurt someone we love. They confront us with what we have done. And we say something like, “I will never do that again, I promise.” Sometimes we are good on that promise. But often we fail to follow through on that promise. We are human. We make mistakes. We fall short of what we aspire to or what we promise. We are not always reliable. But we can count on God to follow through. We can trust that if God has determined never to wipe out the earth, no matter how messy it gets, we can count on that. We can be assured that God will preserve life. We as a species might wipe ourselves out by our own actions, i.e. nuclear annihilation. But we can be confident that God is not in the annihilation business.

            As we move forward in this prolonged season of Lent, when we are reminded of our mortality, when we are experiencing all kinds of loss, when we are confronted with the challenge of being faithful disciples of Jesus in times of great upheaval and uncertainty, we can at least rely on this hope that God is committed to preserving life, that the creative processes of life will continue. Death does not have the final word. Life prevails.

            Maybe this commitment God has made to preserve life can serve as a guide for us as we navigate our lives through this season of Lent. How might we partner with God in the preservation of life? How might commitment to preserve life influence the decisions we make and the actions we take in our day to day living? I invite you to reflect on how commitment to preserving life can influence the choices you make about fasting or abstinence, prayer, and service.