If you have ever seen the recent movie, starring Russell Crowe, called Noah you will clearly gain the impression that the world in which Noah and his family lives is a pretty dismal one. It s bland and it s grey. The inhabitants are not what one would call model citizens. Indeed the world that Noah lives in is one that has forgotten God. It s a society that has no place for God. It s a community where God is excluded. Can you image a world like that? Can you comprehend a world without God? What might it look like? Can you envision a society where there is no room for a creator? Indeed, can you begin to understand a community where our highest authority comes, not from above, but from within ourselves - where humankind claims the ability to nurture and save itself? Karl Marx suggested God is a human invention. Indeed Marx and his followers believed the only intelligent design was in the mind of the human. This meant God is our own creation, God cannot exist independently from our own projections. Others formed the so-called Death of God school by claiming God was a childish, immature concept. The sooner we got rid of God and began to grow up, we better off we would be! With attitudes such as this, it s no wonder God may become upset. For, when someone shuts the door in your face, how do you react? When you go to a great effort to create something, when you offer others something unique and precious and to then see them reject it, how do you feel? Friends, the story of Noah is all about a loving, generous God who wants the absolute best for the creation.
(2) The story of Noah is all about an arrogant, self-possessed humanity who literally tells this loving God to nick-off! The story of Noah is all about a generous God who yearns for fellowship, a God who desires to live in relationship with his creation but who is told in no uncertain terms by his people to get lost! And God s reaction here is to stop, to ponder and to then start all over again. Think about it. There are close connections between the Creation Story and Story of Noah. In Genesis 1 we encounter a formless void.darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2). Then in Genesis 7 we read the story of the Great Flood as the waters, again cover the earth. And this time a new creation emerges as the waters recede. I must admit that I have always struggled with the story of Noah. There is a kind of childish innocence about all the animals entering the Ark two by two. There is a certain quaintness about Noah and his family all huddled up with lions, giraffes, snakes and kangaroos! But the thought of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands or even millions of people, being engulfed by a massive flood and drowning to death outside the ark leaves me quite cold. Indeed, it s even offensive. For, all this raises questions. Despite humankind s stupidity, despite the fact that God s people have turned their backs on God, despite the world s utter failure, doesn t this flood story declare that God is cruel? Doesn t it say God actually sanctions violence? Doesn t it suggest God even carries out genocide? After all we are told that God s intention is to blot out every living thing that was on the face of the ground (Genesis 7:23).
(3) I remember my Sunday School days listening to many disturbing stories shared by my very sincere teacher who took the Bible quite literally. The conquest of Canaan is one. Here the Israelites receive instructions - like this particular one from Deuteronomy (20:16-18): But as for the towns of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not let anything that breathes remain alive. You shall annihilate them the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites just as the LORD your God has commanded, so that they may not teach you to do all the abhorrent things that they do for their gods, and you thus sin against the LORD your God. Then earlier in Israel s history Moses instructions the people, after being influenced by the subversive actions of the Midianites (Numbers 31: 15-18), in this way: Have you allowed all the women to live? These women here, on Balaam s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the LORD in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known a man by sleeping with him. But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves. And there are these instructions in Deuteronomy 22:20-21: If, however, this charge is true, that evidence of the young woman s virginity was not found, then they shall bring the young woman out to the entrance of her father s house and the men of her town shall stone her to death, because she committed a disgraceful act in Israel by prostituting herself in her father s house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. Now these stories all have a rationale. At the risk of appearing to make a contradiction, these stories seek to a certain good. In the first instance it s all about Israel claiming the land they believe God has given them. This story affirms the view that God s promises will be fulfilled. But, the question surely must be asked, should this fulfilment come at the cost of genocide as the local inhabitants are wiped out? In the second instance the Midianites threaten the very fabric of Hebrew society. These nomadic people menace the purity of Israel s faith. But does thus justify such horrendous actions such as killing women and children? And in the third case the honour of a man s household, everything that he is - is at stake. But does that in any way sanction the brutal public execution of his daughter? Now in each case God has a reason to be, as the saying goes, mad as hell. The sordid rituals and the churlish actions of the Canaanites menace Israel and its calling to be a just nation.
(4) The crass, self-indulgent habits of the Midianites threaten Israel s call to righteous living. And the indecent, wanton practises of young women dishonour, they bring shame upon good, God-fearing families. And in today s story of Noah, the brazen disregard for God by the people of his time, their rejection of the one from whom they came, no doubt upsets God. One can begin to understand why God would want to right them off and start all over again. But you see, these stories do not, and can never, stand alone. These stories, in isolation, make absolutely no sense to us as Christians. The idea of revenge, retribution and an eye for an eye has no place in our way of understanding or doing things as Christians. Let s go back to the story of Noah. The creation, as we see it, is written off. The rains come and the world in inundated. Only Noah, his family and his fascinating cargo of animals survive. But then God does something quite amazing. God does an about turn. And the focus here is not the foolishness of humankind, it is not the failure of the creation, it is not the destructive flood. Rather, the focus is on the rainbow that is set in the sky. For here God makes a new promise. And that promise is bound up in the words never again. God will never again seek revenge. God will never again act to eradicate humankind. God will never again will the destruction of the creation. So God establishes a new covenant, a new promise or commitment with Noah to this effect. 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 (Genesis 9:11). Note the rainbow is actually an undrawn bow. It is a bow that is to be never used as a weapon of destruction. It is a bow that is disarmed. Its purpose is not to kill or maim but to offer a sign of genuine love that does not hold grudges, that does not seek revenge, that does not impose violence or terror on others. And God s about turn here, God s never again, is the key thing. For, God s about turn, God s never again, is to be the very thing that shapes our lives as Christians it is to be very lens through which we see, experience and live life! Friends, God s about turn, God s never again, is a profound declaration of the God whose love for us, and for the whole creation, is unconditional.
(5) For the thing that truly defines God is not a commitment to punishing people. The characteristic that epitomises just who God is - is not a declaration that says I will wipe you out if you do the wrong thing. It is not an announcement stating I will destroy you if you offend me even if that is exactly what we do! God s most profound attribute, the very thing that says who God is is that which says God loves us no matter what. Even if we turn away from God, even if we despise God, if we even think God is irrelevant God continues to love and to reach out and to seek fellowship with us! And this is how we are to read the scriptures. We must always approach the testimony contained in the Bible through the lens of grace. Those stories that speak of destruction, revenge and violence at the hands of God must now be reinterpreted through the spectre of God s unconditional love. Without this perspective it just doesn t make sense! For grace not only defines God. It defines us and makes us who we are! Revenge, retribution, violence and any form of payback simply have no place in God s scheme of things. I believe, emphatically, those stories that speak of God s vengeance need to be re-read and reinterpreted, not through the perspective of the sword, but through the example of the cross - the cross that Jesus of Nazareth bore. For, you see, God s about turn, God s never again is epitomised not only in the undrawn bow it is demonstrated and offered to us in the cross of Christ. The cross the act of self-giving, the commitment of loving others, no matter what, of being prepared to even die for what one believes in a pledge to serving - and in a way that does not demain, violate or destroy others this is the God who we worship! Those passages in scripture that refer to revenge and retribution will continue to haunt us and I guess most of us deal with this matter by simply ignoring such passages. They certainly do not appear in the lectionary! But the thing I am convinced of is this - in whatever we do, we do in terms of unconditional love. And that goes for everything.
(6) Everything we do is to be shaped everything we do is to be defined - by grace. For, God has set his bow in the clouds. Jesus has gone to the cross to demonstrate this. So friends, even if you feel you have the right to be angry, even if you feel you are justified in condemning others, indeed, even if you feel you are correct in either forcibly opposing others or sending them away to a life of misery or hell, the God of grace says there is different way. Indeed, in this day and age where religion is used as a tool to sanction violence, we must affirm a better way - lest we fall into that terrible trap of simply engaging in a modern day crusade. For there will be no winners here! God says never again - Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. Never again shall God turn God s back on God s people. Never again shall God dismiss that which God has created. Never again shall God condemn or right us off. Never again shall God use violence against those who God nurtures and loves. For our God IS a God of grace and mercy. Amen. John Barr