Lessons Learned Through Noah

Genesis 9: 8-17
1 Peter 3: 18-22

We often consider Noah’s story to be one for children. We decorate our nurseries with little arks and cute animals and rainbows. We have the Sunday school kids put on plays featuring Noah and the animals and we have the preschool kids draw pictures of it. But not too often do we think about what we adults can learn about life and God through Noah’s story. Well, I came across ten life lessons that come straight from reading Noah’s story that I want to share with all of you.

 Lesson # 1 : Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. Noah acted on faith, building the ark long before the rain started. You need to look into the future and plan for it.

This lesson is probably one of the hardest because it requires a delicate balance. God often reminds us not to look too close to the past, but also warns us to not concentrate too heavily on the future which leaves us with the present. This first life lesson requires a lot of faith from us. Jesus reminds us that we have been given a precious gift because God has made it possible through Jesus for all of us to enter into heaven.

And although it is a gift freely given, it still requires a faith response from us. That response of faith is important to how we deal with all that life throws at us. We can more easily deal with the present when we have our eye on the prize of eternal salvation with God. When we remember that it is only through God that we have or receiving anything, it is a lot easier to give up the reigns of control to Him.

 Lesson # 2 : Don’t listen to your critics. Listen instead to your heart, and then do whatever has to be done. The neighbors might have taunted when Noah was blocking their driveway — but he had the last laugh as soon as the rain began falling!

Sometimes our critics will be our family and friends. They won’t always understand what God requires from you to be a faithful Christian. Noah could have let himself be disheartened by all the criticism and laughter, but instead he chose to ignore the naysayers and instead to only listen to God’s voice.

Lesson # 3 : Stay physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally fit. You never know, maybe when you’re 600 years old, someone might come along out of the blue and ask you to do something REALLY big!

While not many people will make it to 600 years old, this is a good point. You’re never too old or too young to learn something new. You may have read the bible a hundred times, but there is always something in there that you will have never noticed before. Perhaps it took a new experience for the scripture to come to life, but that is the beauty of the Bible – as we grow, so does it.

Lesson # 4 : Don’t seek to go it alone. Always travel, at least, in pairs, because two heads are better than one.

There are many times when our pride tells us that we can do this on our own. We don’t need anyone else to tell us what to do. There are times when we are sure of where we should go and what needs to be done. So when someone new comes along and tries to change things, we resist with all we have. Through Noah, God reminds us that he made Adam AND Eve because the only way to live life is through shared experiences with others. We all need companions and friends. It doesn’t have to be a spouse, but we need other people to lean on both in good times and bad.

Lesson # 5 : Speed is not always an advantage. The cheetahs were on board, but so were the snails; and they all arrived safely on dry ground at the very same time.

This is probably the second hardest lesson for people in the 21^st century. We live in a world of NOW. We want the fastest cars, the fastest food service, the fastest coffee makers, the fastest computers and cell phones. Waiting for anything has become anathema to most people.

We used to have a saying that some things are worth the wait. Most people no longer believe that. We have furniture that has been made in twelve seconds instead of handcrafted in twelve months and instead of lasting generations, they barely last a few years. We have cheap electronics that break when we sneeze on them. Everything from our washers and dryers to our cars are made to NOT last when it used to be that things were made to last a lifetime.

What do we get by hurrying life up? Let’s see: How many of us have heartburn nightly from the fast food and stress? How many of us have tension headaches and migraines every month? How many of us have high blood pressure and have to take pills to keep from having a stroke?

Lesson # 6 : Handle Conflict with certainty. If you can’t fight or flee from adversity — at least make certain you have an idea that can float in the battlefield of ideas!

Noah wanted to both fight God and flee from this task he had been assigned. There are many tasks both in our lives and in the church we would like to flee or fight. One of mine is picking hymns. If I had my way, I’d pick the same six songs and play them every other week to avoid the looks Ms. Cleo gives me when I introduce a new song with a bad tune. But I know that we have enough musical talent in this church to handle a bad song or two because that isn’t really what is important about our Sunday worship. What is important is that we have worshiped God and hopefully leave uplifted by His presence in our lives.

Lesson # 7 : Don’t miss the boat! Never forget this underlying truth: that ultimately when all is said and done, we’re all in the same boat!

It’s easy to get caught up in life and forget about God. It’s easy to forget about what it means to be a Christian when everything and everyone around us seems to have forgotten too. But at the end of our lives, we are all going to face one surety – death. And after our death we will meet our Maker. How will we look God in the eye and say, “I forgot to get into the boat because I was busy with my business.” or “I didn’t get in because no one else did.” Or “I got wrapped up in taking care of my children and my job and forgot what time we were to board the boat.” These excuses will seem shallow then because they are shallow now.

Lesson # 8 : Don’t rely much on the experts. Remember that amateurs built the ark while professionals built the Titanic and the Challenger Space Shuttle.

You may not have a PHD in rocket science, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have something to offer the world. Everything you have gone through in your life has taught you something. It’s amazing what a little bit of your life experience could teach a young teenager just starting out. So perhaps instead of leaving it to the experts who often get it wrong because they are concentrating on only one viewpoint, maybe it is time for you to step up and offer your valuable knowledge to this church and the other areas of your life.

Lesson # 9 : Fear is nothing more than “False Evidence Appearing Real”. The woodpeckers on the INSIDE are often a bigger threat to your overall well being than the storms raging on the outside.

Jesus never had a lot of patience with fear. He allowed people to have doubts, but every time someone was fearful in the gospels, he rebuked them. Fear paralyzes. Fear stops potential things from become reality. Our self doubts and worries cause us more damage than the things we are actually afraid of happening. Perhaps you fear looking a fool if you try to teach Sunday school. I know I felt that way when I started with Confirmation class, something I had never taught before.

Those children soak up everything I give them. Some days it’s really good stuff. Other days, it’s not. But that class that I was so dreading at the beginning of the year has become one of my favorite things about being a pastor here at Trinity. Perhaps your fear will become your greatest treasure as well.

Lesson # 10 : Remain faithful and optimistic. No matter how bleak things look, if God is traveling with you, there’s always going to be a rainbow of peace on the other side of the storm.

None of these lessons are easy, but they all come with one important guarantee. God is with you. You are not alone. If you mess up, then try again. Because at the end of your life, there is a rainbow waiting for you that offers ultimate peace and happiness for all that you have suffered while trying to live a good, Christian life. However, if you never try, if you never have faith in what sometimes seems impossible and improbable, then all you are left with is regrets. That is no life to live. There’s no afterlife in that either.     

Amen.

Wash and Be Cleansed

2 kings 5: 1-14
Mark 1: 40-45

Who are you? The answer you give depends on what is important to you at this point in your life. The answer to the question changes with what takes up the largest part of our life at the moment it is asked. Perhaps you have just finished your degree and consider yourself a graduate. Perhaps you have just retired from your job and consider yourself permanently on vacation. Perhaps you just had a baby and consider yourself a mother or father. Or maybe you had a grandchild and your mind is on being a grandparent. We also define ourselves by the things that have been part of our lives the longest such as our careers, our family, and our hometown.

For the man in the book of Mark, when asked who he is, his answer would have been, “An outcast, a man with leprosy, a nobody.” Because of Jewish purity laws, a person with any kind of disease or infirmity was cast out of the town and out of the synagogue. They were no longer allowed to mix with those who were clean in case they contaminated them.

Logically, this makes perfect sense. If someone has a cold, we want them to stay away from us. I don’t want them sneezing or coughing by me because I don’t want their cold. If we know someone has something contagious or a disease or condition that could be dangerous to OUR well-being, our first instinct is to ostracize them. We do not want them in our presence so that we will not suffer as well.

Do you remember 25 years ago when HIV/AIDs became really well known? Remember how afraid everyone was of the disease? Anyone who contacted the disease was no longer welcome in their friends and families homes. They often lost their job if it became known they had it. Getting medical and health benefits while having such a disease was an uphill battle with very little luck of actually getting the help they needed. No one wanted to touch them, to sit by them, to breathe the same air as anyone with HIV or AIDs.

There are some people who still feel this way because they are not educated on how the disease is contracted and how it is spread. Thankfully, educating people became the number one defense in helping people with HIV/AIDs to get back the rights that were taken from them out of fear and ignorance. Unfortunately for those who lived 2000 years ago, they did not have the same chance.

Once you were pronounced unclean from whatever condition you had it was really hard to get accepted back into society. No one wanted that person near them because they did not want to be outcasts either. Once again, we see Jesus breaking all the rules of proper society to right a wrong.

The man with leprosy comes up to Jesus and falls to his knees. This man has no pride left. He has lost everything and pride is a poor substitute for clothing, food, and family. There he is on his knees before Jesus, breaking the rules by being in the presence of someone clean, and he begs Jesus, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

This man is not just asking for Jesus to heal him of his skin condition. He is asking Jesus for his life back - his family, his children, his friends. He is asking for the right to walk down the street and not have people shun him. He is asking for the right to be able to get a job and pay for a roof over his head and food for his belly. He is asking for the right to be an active and participating member of society, one who can once again walk into the synagogue and worship God without having people spit and hiss and run from him.

Different bibles translate the next line in various ways. This one says Jesus was indignant. Some say Jesus was angry, or it has been translated Jesus was moved with compassion or Jesus had mercy upon him. Compassion and mercy sound like Jesus, don’t they? But the idea of Jesus angry or indignant is much more interesting because of how human it sounds to our ears.

What was Jesus indignant or angry about? Was it this man who has broken the cleanliness law? Is it the question the man asks, as if Jesus would be unwilling? Is Jesus mad at the situation, the social injustice that is before him in the presence of a man ostracized from his community because of a skin condition? Is Jesus mad and indignant because even though he does have compassion upon the man, even though he is about to show him mercy, soon their roles will reverse.

What happens here is a reversal of fortunes. Jesus tells the man, “I am willing. Be clean!” but before he says these words he reaches out and TOUCHES the man. This was expressly forbidden. Jesus has now broken the purity laws by touching someone considered unclean. This makes Jesus unclean. But Jesus does more than that when he touches the man. Jesus offers himself, his presence and his comfort in the form of his hand upon the man. Who knows how long this man has gone untouched by everyone, even the other outcasts. No one but someone who has been relegated to the outside of their community would understand what this felt like to the man.

Here was Jesus, powerful and authoritative, looking the man in the eye, speaking with him as a human being and then touching him as an equal. This is the first sign of respect shown to the man with leprosy in what we can imagine was a long time. Respect. Jesus respects human beings and their feelings. God respects who we are and what we are.

Once the man is cleansed, Jesus tells the man to go to the priests so that they can declare him a part of society once more. Jesus tells the man to not tell anyone what he has done, but the man cannot remain silent. He has witnessed a miracle, one that has changed his life forever. There was no keeping silent on this! His joy knew no bounds and he became a messenger – one that spread Jesus’ goodness far and wide.

However, the result of his disobedience is that now Jesus has become the outcast. He could no longer enter a town openly, but had to stay in lonely places. Jesus gave the man his position and power in that one moment when he touched him, and Jesus took the man’s place as an outcast in society.

It gives me shivers to think about this. Jesus loves us all so much that he takes our place, takes our suffering as his own. Whatever is going on in our lives; the good, the bad, the ugly – Jesus walks it with us. Helps us through by shouldering the burdens for us. Sometimes we ask people, “if you could do it differently, knowing now what you didn’t know then, would you?” Jesus’ answer would be “No, I wouldn’t do it differently”. We all know it. Jesus would give up his place for us any time we ask.

The man said, “If you are willing..” Jesus, moved with compassion for the man’s situation, angered at the injustice perpetrated upon the man, indignant that the man even had to ask the question – gives his place to him without looking back. And if you think Jesus wouldn’t do the same exact thing for you, then you’re wrong.

Jesus proved that when he willingly went to the cross for you. He refused to defend himself, refused to call upon the angels or His Father in heaven for help. He allowed himself, one totally pure and clean from life’s sinfulness, to take our place, to take our punishment. Jesus loves you that much. Jesus respects the person you are that much.

Now, how much do you love and respect Jesus? Jesus swapped places with us. That means he took our punishment so that we could have his reward. We now stand at God’s side because that is where Jesus belongs. We now have God’s ear because Jesus does. We now have eternal life because Jesus does.

But do you act like you are always in God’s presence? I wonder what it will take to make us change our ways and see that God is not up in heaven waiting to judge us, but is by our side and helping us through each and every moment of our lives.

Amen.

Why He Came

Isaiah 40:21-31
Mark 1: 29-39

Is it any wonder that we have doubts and disbeliefs? Is it any wonder the population of atheists continues to grow? Jesus is so confusing! God refuses to do what we expect God to do and it confuses us to no end. This passage in Mark is another great example of Jesus refusing to do what his disciples expect, what we expect of him.

Last week we talked about fears and how change exacerbates our fears of the unknown. Jesus is completely unknown to these people that he is meeting, and the disciples have only just met him as well. But even as the disciples begin to know more about Jesus’ character, he still continually surprises them. Jesus continues to surprise us to this day.

In the beginning of this passage we see them leaving the temple where Jesus just taught with authority and performed an exorcism. Now they head to Simon’s home where they find his mother in law ill and in bed. Already knowing how compassionate and powerful Jesus is the disciples turn to him and he immediately goes to the woman. What is interesting in this passage is that Jesus does not pray or perform some ritual to heal Simon’s mother in law. He touches her.

Jesus takes her hand and helps her get up out of bed. The passage does not say so, but we can tell that by Jesus’ touch alone, the fever is taken from the woman and she immediately begins to go about her daily work.

No one in that house expected Jesus to be that powerful. They really didn’t know much about him at all yet, but when Simon saw his mother in law was ill he hoped that Jesus could do something to ease her burden.

I doubt they expected such an instantaneous healing. Although they lived in a time where magic and miracles were much more easily accepted, they didn’t see that many miracles. When someone proclaimed to be a healer they usually had gods they prayed to, tonics that had to be given, and sacrifices were made. It took time and effort, and more often than not the person was not healed.

Then along comes Jesus whose mere touch can bring relief from pain, illness and disease. The word spread quickly and everyone with any kind of affliction came to him. He healed their sicknesses and he drove out the demons that plagued their lives. Then the next morning he went to pray and when his four disciples found him they said, “Everyone is looking for you!” and instead of immediately going to the people searching for him, Jesus tells them it is time to move on.

Every week I stand up here and tell you that Jesus has the power to change your life for the better. Some of you believe that and others of you don’t.

You’re not alone. Anyone who tries to say they have never doubted the existence of God or doubted that God cares about THEM – is probably lying. God does things in such a unique way that we can never figure out what is coming next. Sometimes God’s plan does not make any sense to us at all.

There was a professor on the philosophy of religion who used to ask us if God was all powerful and all benevolent, why did he let 40,000 children die every day from hunger and mal-nutrition. At the time I did not know how to answer. I do now. Why is it that America throws out 40,000 people’s worth of food every single day and yet we feel no guilt that children go hungry? We have two hands and two feet – we need to learn to use them and not blame God.

Yesterday I learned that a good friend of mine’s brother died. It wasn’t really unexpected since he had been desperately sick with cancer. The saddest part of it is that his mother died two years ago when his father accidentally ran her over and then a year ago, his other brother died unexpectedly. Now all that is left of the family from two years ago is a father and a son filled with grief. It is so much loss to endure in such a short period of time. What is God thinking? Why would God allow this family to suffer so much? What GOOD can come of such a terrible situation?

Isaiah tries to give us some answers to these questions. He reminds us that God is so powerful that we are merely grasshoppers in comparison. Tiny brains with tiny bodies and not a lot of power to affect change in the world. No sooner have we made something of ourselves than we die off from old age. But God has existed much longer and will continue to exist long past our short lives. Isaiah tells us that although we will never understand God’s plans, God never leaves us alone. He will strengthen the weary and bring surety to those who stumble because God never gets tired or stumbles in his purpose.

When we try to make sense of God we will only end up more confused. It doesn’t mean we have to have blind faith because those who are blindly faithful often fall farthest from God’s truth. It means that questions are a good thing. Questions help us reason things out and make sense of a senseless world. I’ll probably never know why my friend’s family suffered so much in such a short period of time, but I know God knows why. I know that whether I understand or not, isn’t what is important. We put too much importance on knowledge and reason and understanding and not enough on acceptance.

When my professor told us that statistic, I really struggled with it. I couldn’t understand why God would allow it to happen. It took me a long time to accept I didn’t understand and once I did – that is when other things became more clear. For example, the world produces enough food to feed every person on the planet, except some nations have hogged the food supply. America is one of those nations. Why do 40,000 children die EVERY DAY from hunger? Partly, because of us.

I accept there will be some things I will never know about God and the world and life. We all need to accept that the past can never be changed, but the future holds infinite possibilities if we’re willing to be open to them. Jesus took twelve men from small fishing villages and opened up a whole new life for them. They saw and did things none of them would ever have imagined before Jesus came into their life. Jesus was the unexpected surprise that changed the whole world.

God gives each of us the ability to have the same miraculous change. It starts with accepting what sane people doubt. It starts with understanding that you will never understand completely. It starts with throwing reason and caution and logic out the window because logic will never get us into God’s head. The only way to know God is to know Jesus, and I promise Jesus will keep on surprising you for the rest of your life if you never stop searching for him. Where Jesus is at, what Jesus is doing, is not what we would expect.

Jesus is on death row with the triple homicide prisoner. Jesus is on the corner with the prostitute who has an STD. Jesus is with the teenager who just had an abortion. Jesus is with the one person you dislike most in your life. It doesn’t make sense. It has no reason or logic to it, but then God never said we grasshoppers needed to understand. We just need to believe and accept.

 Amen.