“When the bow is in the clouds, I will see
it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature
of all flesh that is on the earth.” (Genesis
9:16)
So what’s a “covenant?” I’ve been trying
to get the concept across to my confirmation students this semester since the
word seems to crop up a lot in the Bible. It’s a contract, an agreement, a
treaty, a hand-shake, pinky-swear, “let’s-drink-on-it” mutual promise between
two parties. And covenants show up pretty early in the Bible. Adam and Eve are
the first parties to a covenant with God. That deal went like this: “Live in my
garden,” God says. “Eat all the fruits and veggies you want, be in charge of
everything and have lots of babies. Just don’t eat the fruit of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil and everything will be peachy between us.”
Well, that deal didn’t last too long.
Before you know it, everybody is just
sinning their butts off. By Genesis 4 we get our first homicide, and by Genesis
6:11 the whole earth is filled with violence. So God finds one pretty righteous
dude—Noah—and tells him to build a big boat to save himself and his family and
enough animals to repopulate the world. Then God proceeds to wipe out all other
life on earth with a devastating flood and start from scratch (which, if you
ask me, sounds pretty extreme!).
But God’s plan to end violence with more violence turns out to be a bust. When
Noah finally sets foot on dry land once again, he builds an altar and makes a
sacrifice to God, presumable in thanksgiving for not being drowned himself
(Genesis 8:20ff). There is no mention
that he has any regret for the mass death and destruction which has just occurred
or any pity for those who’ve died. It’s God who recognizes that even righteous Noah
can be a selfish jerk, and laments, “I will never again curse the ground because
of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth…”
(v.21b)
To be sure, Noah actually turns out to be something
of a tool. In Genesis 9:18-27 (a story we never teach the kids in Sunday
School), our “righteous” friend plants a vineyard, makes wine, gets totally
hammered, and passes out buck naked. When his son Ham finds the old man
sleeping it off in the buff, he gets his brothers to come and cover him up.
Unfortunately, Noah, in his hang-over embarrassment, blames the whole incident
on Ham for seeing him nude, and curses him and his descendants forever (As if
seeing your dad drunk and naked isn’t enough of a curse already!). The guy
whose boat-building skills have saved the human race turns out to be a drunken,
abusive father after all. (I guess nobody’s
family is perfect.)
Knowing that the flood idea didn’t work
too well, God makes another treaty with humankind: This time, God relaxes the
rules, knowing that we’re probably going to break them anyway. He even gives up
on the vegetarian thing and lets us eat meat (9:3). The new deal is totally
one-sided. God just promises that he won’t wipe out life on earth. Period. He
seals the deal with the rainbow, his signature on the dotted line which says he
loves everything he’s made, and his desire is that it should flourish. There are
no pre-conditions on our part.
This is a pretty daring thing for God to
do, knowing as God does, how totally weak and faithless we are. God again gives
stewardship of this planet into our stupid hands (9:1-2). God promises to be
patient and to bless the earth. We’re
the ones with the potential to screw it all up.
So what is our response to God’s
non-aggression pact? Do we say, “Thanks, God” and forget it, or are we inspired
to develop some kind of responsibility towards the other living creatures of
all flesh that are upon the earth? Or towrds the earth itself?
I kind of wonder why the Revised Common
Lectionary marries the story of God’s covenant with Noah to the story of Jesus’
temptation in the wilderness (Mark 8:31-38). Perhaps it’s just to illustrate
for us as we begin our Lenten observances that God’s goodness is stronger than
sin’s temptation. God is willing to give us this planet and trust that we’ll
take care of it. We’ll be tempted to make selfish choices and mess it all up.
But Jesus came to walk with us in this wicked, jacked-up world, and teach us by
example. We really can be grateful
and faithful once we let into our hearts the knowledge that God’s love is
mightier than the world’s sin.
Look to the rainbow. Feel God’s grace. Then
do the right thing.
Thanks for reading, my friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment