Remember Noah? - March 1, 2009

First Sunday in Lent ~ “Remember Noah?” Genesis 9:8-17; 1Peter 3:18-22 Genesis 9: 13: “I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Where are the rainbows are in your life? I love rainbows – they are so beautiful! Rainbows follow storms. Maybe that’s one reason we love rainbows. No matter how fierce a storm may be, if we see a rainbow afterward, it gives us hope. Nancy Leigh DeMoss, in her radio series “The Blessing of Thorns,” tells a truly touching story. It’s a Thanksgiving story, but it bears a universal truth. I’ve tried to abbreviate the story just a little for this sermon while still leaving intact its beauty. It’s about a woman named Sandra. Sandra was feeling exceedingly low as she made her way into the florist shop door. It was Thanksgiving week. This is the week she would have delivered her second child, a son. But there was an automobile accident. As a result, she lost her baby. As if to add to her grief, her husband’s company was threatening a transfer and her sister called to say she could not come for the holiday. “Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?” she wondered aloud. “For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child?” “Good afternoon, can I help you?” The shop clerk’s approach startled her. “I . . . I need an arrangement, “stammered Sandra. “For Thanksgiving.” “Are you looking for something that conveys ‘gratitude’ this Thanksgiving?” asked the shop clerk. “Not exactly!” Sandra blurted out. “In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.” Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.” Just then another customer entered the shop. The clerk said, “Hi Barbara . . . let me get your order.” She walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of long stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems had been snipped . . . there were no roses, just stems with lots and lots of thorns. “Want this in a box?” asked the clerk. Was this a joke? thought Sandra. Who would want rose stems with no flowers? But it was no joke. After the customer left with her order Sandra stammered, “Uhh, that lady just left with, uhh . . . she just left with no flowers!” “Right,” said the clerk. “I cut off the flowers. That’s the Special . . . I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.” Then the clerk explained, “Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much like you feel today. She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she was facing major surgery.” “That same year I had lost my husband,” continued the clerk, “and for the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.” “So what did you do?” asked Sandra. “I learned to be thankful for thorns,” answered the clerk quietly. “I’ve always thanked God for good things in life and never thought to ask Him why those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life, but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.” Sandra said, “I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.” Just then someone else, a man named Phil, walked in the shop. He said his wife sent him to pick up their usual Thanksgiving arrangement . . . twelve thorny, long stemmed stems! “Those are for your wife?” asked Sandra. “Do you mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that?” “No . . . I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s grace and guidance, we slogged through problem after problem. He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from ‘thorny’ times, and that was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific ‘problem’ and give thanks to [God] for what that problem taught us.” As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!” “I don’t know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life,” Sandra said to the clerk. “It’s all too . . . fresh.” “Well,” the clerk replied carefully, “my experience has shown me that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don’t resent the thorns.” Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve long stemmed thorns, please,” she managed to choke out. “I hoped you would,” said the clerk gently. “I’ll have them ready in a minute.” “Thank you. What do I owe you?” asked Sandra. “Nothing.” said the clerk. “Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you’d like to read it first.” It read: “Dear God, I have never thanked you for my thorns. I have thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to you along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of your rainbow look much more brilliant.” (4) Sandra had been through the storm. Now she could see the rainbow. I wonder if that isn’t one reason our spirits are lifted by rainbows? Rainbows follow storms. *** The Road to Holiness Recently I was looking at some of my many files under the "quotes" folder. One such quote is called, "The Road to Holiness." A seeker after truth came to a saint for guidance."Tell me, wise one, how did you become holy?""Two words.""And what are they, please?""Right choices."The seeker was fascinated. "How does one learn to choose rightly?""One word.""One word! May I have it, please?" the seeker asked."Growth."The seeker was thrilled. "How does one grow?""Two words.""What are they, pray tell?""Wrong choices." I believe that this is God's purpose in times of testing, to help us grow and to show us that we have the faith and ability to stand up to the testing so that we will trust God in difficult times -- to strengthen our faith and Christian character. At the same time, Satan has his own purpose -- to turn those being tested away from God -- to "tempt" them to sin. (Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes) *** One of the best known stories in all literature is the story of Noah and the Ark. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the more modern version of that story. Let me give you an abbreviated version as posted by somebody on the Internet: The Lord spoke to Noah and said, “Noah, in six months I’m going to make it rain until the whole world is covered with water. But I want to save a few good people and two of every living thing on the planet. So I am ordering you to build an Ark.” “OK,” Noah said, trembling with fear. “I’m your man.” Six months passed, the sky began to cloud up, and the rain began to fall in torrents. The Lord looked down and saw Noah sitting in his yard. There was no Ark. “Noah!” shouted the Lord, “where is My Ark?” “Lord, please forgive me!” begged Noah. “I did my best, but there were some big problems. First, I had to get a building permit. My neighbors objected, claiming that I was violating zoning ordinances by building the Ark in my front yard. I spent months trying to get a variance from the city planning board. After all that, I had a big problem getting enough wood for the Ark, because of the endangered species act. “Then the carpenters’ union started picketing my home because I wasn’t using union carpenters. Next, I started gathering up the animals but got sued by an animal rights group. Just when that suit got dismissed, the EPA notified me that I couldn’t complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement for your proposed flood. Then the Corps of Engineers wanted a map of the area to be flooded. I sent them a globe and they went ballistic! Lord, I’m sorry, but I don’t think there’s any way I can finish the Ark in less than five years if ever!” With that, the sky cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow arched across the sky. Noah looked up and smiled. “You mean you are not going to destroy the world?” he asked hopefully. “Wrong!” thundered the Lord. “But I’m going to do it with something far worse than a mere flood. Something far more destructive. Something that man himself created.” “What’s that?” Noah asked. “Government!” said the Lord. *** Even little children know the story of Noah and the ark and the animals. And we know the beautiful ending to the story. God made a promise to Noah, and to all humankind. Never again would God send a flood to destroy the earth. And this would be a sign of God’s promise. God placed a rainbow in the clouds. Whenever we see the rainbow we can remember God’s promise. There’s something special and hopeful about a rainbow, isn’t there? Did you know that “Rainbows appear at the end of rainstorms because it is then that you have the two prerequisites for making them: 1) water droplets suspended in the sky and 2) sunlight . . . A rainbow’s visible colors are always arrayed in the same order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet . . . And…Rainbows are actually circular. They appear to be arches [or half‑circles] only because their bottom halves are cut off by the ground you stand upon. If you wish to see them in their full circular glory . . . you need to view them from high above the ground, such as onboard an airplane.” That’s why you can never find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The rainbow has no end. Those are the technical truths about rainbows, but they do not explain the emotional lift we get from these wonders of nature. *** Rainbows also remind of us of the beauty of God’s world. There are many people who believe this beautiful world happened by blind chance. They can make compelling arguments for their position. I have to ask them, however, if the world did happen by blind chance, why is it so beautiful? Why do we have roses and rainbows? There is a story of a child from the back streets of a great city who was taken for a day in the country. When she saw the bluebells in the woods, she asked: “Do you think God would mind if I picked some of His flowers.” That’s the way we ought to feel about creation. This is God’s beautiful world, a world He has filled with rainbows and roses. No one ever seems to want to address that question, why there is so much beauty in the world? Some people want us to explain why there is suffering in the world why we have thorns and storm clouds. In a world of chance, thorns and storm clouds can be easily explained. It’s just part of the fight for survival. They are part of the evolutionary process. How do you explain roses and rainbows? They are not necessary for our survival. Their beauty serves no evolutionary function that we can see. Rainbows are simply and solely the gift of a loving and gracious God. They are the best evidence we have of God’s love. As it is with creation, when we look at the rainbow or the rose, we see the nature of God. God is a God of love who literally creates the colors of our world and paints it with beauty. *** Rainbows follow storms. Rainbows remind us of the beauty of God’s world. And most important of all: rainbows remind us of our covenant relationship with God. God made a promise to Noah and he sealed it with a rainbow. God also made a promise to Abraham. And to Isaac. And to Jacob. God made lots of promises in the scriptures. In fact, people who study these things and count them tell us that there are more than 3,000 promises in the Bible. You will find a promise to meet every need you will ever encounter. Promises are important to God, just like they are important to us. “On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty, to God and my country.” The Scout’s promise. “To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish ’till death us do part.” The promise we give each other in the marriage ceremony. Promises are important. If God says that He will be with us through the storm, you can count on it. If He says He accepts us just as we are, you can count on him more than any person on earth! When Jesus says He has prepared a place for us that where He is there we may also be, you can look forward to it. If He says that nothing in all creation can separate us from His love for us. Remember Noah the next time you see a rainbow. God promised Noah that He would never again destroy the world with water, AND God is faithful to all of the promises God makes to us throughout the scriptures. After the storm, God promises us a rainbow. Rainbows are the image of God’s beauty in this world. Rainbows are the image of the HOPE we receive in Christ, the beauty of God’s promises, to be with us always! Amen.Let us pray. God, help us to see the rainbows in our lives. Through Christ we pray. AMEN.