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United Church of Paducah
4600 Buckner Lane
Paducah, KY 42001
(270) 442-3722
Worship Times
Sunday Service: 10:00a
Refreshments &
Fellowship: 11:15a
Christian Education
For All Ages:
11:20a - Noon
Nursery Services Provided Handicap Accessible
All Are Welcome!
A Congregation Of The
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From March 5, 2006
As
For Me
Genesis 9: 8-19
Three short chapters in Genesis. That's all it takes to
detail humanity's downhill slide.
It happened so quickly. Remember Eden? Eden was still
just a shimmering wonder when a willful bite sent Adam
and Eve out the door.
East of Eden, the downward turn continued. Cain not only
refused to be Abel's keeper, he refused to confess that
the blood on his hands was his brother's.
A few generations later, a song of vengeance rose up in
Lamech's throat. "I have killed a man for wounding me," Lamech boasted. Violence and retribution had overtaken
creation's blessing.
Humanity's descent - three chapters paints the picture.
Then Genesis Six gives us God's response. "The Lord saw
that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth,
and that every inclination of the thoughts of their
hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry
that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved
him in his heart."
"So the Lord said, 'I will blot out from the earth the
human beings I have created - people together with animals
and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry
that I have made them.' But Noah found favor in the
sight of the Lord."
Reflect for a moment on Eden's beauty and humanity's
promise. Think about the God behind it all. Consider how
quickly God's dreams were dashed. How could we not be
moved? How could we not grieve the disobedience and the
defiling of God's good gift of life?
There are many ways one can read scripture. As history.
As myth. As collected wisdom and prophetic
proclamations. As the faith document of an ancient
people who experienced themselves as uniquely chosen to
be in relationship with God.
Especially with Genesis, one way to read is with an eye
to the development of the character of God. And I mean
no disrespect here when I refer to God as a character.
Genesis shows us a certain kind of God, one who grows in
self-understanding, a God who grapples with the scope of
God's own power and loving desires. A God who chooses to
grow and grapple and mature.
Genesis shows us a God who doesn't just create and
scoot, but a God who fashions a creation that, when it
goes differently than God might have wished, elects to
stay in loving relationship with this wayward creation.
At the beginning of Genesis, and again I mean no
disrespect, God has a marvelously youthful quality.
Remember how it was when you were young? Remember how
easily passion and vision came? How ready you were to
forego eating and sleeping simply because your
imagination had been seized by some grand dream?
Remember when you were young how eager you were to have
your efforts result in unbridled success? How certain
you were that they would?
Across from my childhood home in northern California was
a huge field. One summer morning several of us kids were
overtaken by the desire to transform its rangy chaos
into something ordered and inspiring.
That vision in place, we marched over to the field and
set about transplanting weeds. We arranged them this way
and that so that together they became what we imagined
was gardening perfection. At the end of the day, we
stood back pleased beyond belief, anxious to go to sleep
so that we could wake up the next day to enjoy our
creation.
When morning came, we made a discovery. What had showed
absolute promise the day before was now dry and wilting,
some of it nearly dead. We hung our heads: all that
effort wasted. None of us had seen this coming. We
walked back across the street in silence - and to my recollection
- never played like that in the field again.
In Genesis, our young, growing God (to borrow a line
from a Brian Wren hymn) refuses to walk away like we
kids did. God also refuses to give up, give in, or give
way. Even, and this is important, even when God's most
precious creation - humanity - is responsible for violating
what God's own beauty and goodness has set in motion.
When humanity's choices hit a new low, as described by
our Genesis writer, God does not run into God's bedroom
to sob and hide. God does not throw a temper tantrum.
When humanity's choices hit a new low, God doesn't even
try to get even.
What does God do? God matures. God grows wiser. God
finds a way to restore creation as well as a way to
commit to it with greater vigor than before.
"As for me," God says after a cleansing flood washes
away all earthly wickedness...
"As for me," God says after Noah successfully rides out
the long, watery wait...
"As for me," God says reaching out toward creation more
fully than ever before...
"As for me," God says, "I am establishing my covenant
with you and your descendants after you, and with every
living creature that is with you, the birds, the
domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with
you."
God continues. "I establish my covenant with you... This
is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and
you and every living creature that is with you, for all
future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds over
the earth... I will remember my covenant that is between
me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and
the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy
all flesh. 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."
Do you hear it? Do you hear the responsibility God is
taking for this divine-human relationship? Do you hear
how God isn't taking some of the responsibility, but is
taking all of it?
"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."
This is no contract God is making with Noah and his
descendants. This is a covenant. A peculiar,
intentional, unilateral covenant. A promise to beat all
promises. A vow to surpass all vows.
"I establish my covenant with you," God says asking
nothing of us, not even that we hear or understand or
agree. "I establish my covenant with you." And by you,
God means not just Noah and his progeny but every single
generation and every living thing that will ever come
into being.
If this is not fidelity, I don't know what is. If this
is not generous, I don't know what is. God makes no
demands whatsoever for the covenant to take effect. God
extends no requirements in order for us to qualify as
recipients of this divine promise.
So generous is God's covenant that we are free to forget
God even extended it. Why? Because God alone will do the
remembering. God alone will do the enacting. God alone
will be the one who keeps the covenant alive for all
time.
If we remember, when we remember, why we remember - all of
these are just icing on God's cake. Sweet, but not
necessary.
God alone reaches out and resolves always, always to be
faithful. No expiration date. No conditions. No matter
what, God has promised to be loving. God gives up the
bow - easily the symbol of warring and violence. God takes
that bow and sets it in the sky forever, not as a threat
but as a reminder of a covenant so pure and true that
nothing is needed for it to be in effect.
You do not have to be good. So begins a favorite poem by
Mary Oliver.
You do not have to be good, the poet writes. You do not
have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through
the desert, repenting. As Lent begins, know that you do
not have to walk on your knees, repenting. Not for
hundred miles. Not for a hundred yards. Not even for a
hundred inches.
If you wish to repent, now that's another thing. If
God's grace - so comprehensive and awesome, if God's goodness
- so stupendous and wonderful, if God's love - so
marvelous and miraculous, if this should inspire you to
repent, then by all means do.
If who God is, if who God has always been, if who God
will always be, has - in any way - touched you, then by all
means do repent. Do repent. (Repent being another word
for "turn around" or "turn toward home.")
By all means, do turn around. Do turn toward home. Just
know that it won't change God's love for you or God's
commitment to you. Go ahead and turn around, turn toward
home. Go ahead and repent. It won't change God but - and
this is no small thing - it may change you.
Turn and look. You may well begin to see, with sight
clearer and clearer, that rainbow sign hanging in the
sky. You know, the one God put there just for you - when
God was young and yet knew exactly what God was doing.
Amen.
© Rev. Karen Winkel
United Church of Paducah (UCC) |
"Never place a period where God has placed a comma." - Gracie
Allen
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