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Mid-Week with Christ
May 15, 2020
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Standing Firm in the Flood
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Genesis 6:5-8, 11-18
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord... 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Prayer for the Day
Father of mercy, you set your bow in the sky as a promise that never again would you destroy the earth in a flood. May you protect us as we pass through the calamity of this pandemic. May it remind us of our wickedness, and how we have too often turned on each other rather than turn to you for forgiveness in Jesus. Let your Spirit continually descend on us that we might become children not of violence but of mercy and peace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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The drawings, paintings and signs are everywhere around us in our home town of Montreal: the rainbow, the clouds, and the words "ça va bien aller" - it's going to be okay. We see them in home windows, the glass doors of grocery stores, on changeable billboards. It is an unconscious reminder that the rainbow was originally given as a sign of a covenant, a promise that the earth would never again be destroyed by a flood.
A close reading of the Genesis account of the Great Flood reveals something lost on many of us: the reason why the Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth. It wasn't the rise of sexual immorality, or a loss of religious fervour among the people. Moses records that the earth was corrupt because it was filled with violence. Of man, Moses writes that "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." We had turned on each other, thinking the worst of each other and letting those thoughts lead to continual, unending violence.
This time it is not a flood of water that has come upon the earth but a virus transmitted by mere water droplets. While some are hopeful that facing a common enemy like COVID-19 could unite the peoples of the earth, it is also threatening to bring out the worst of us. Conspiracy theories abound. Threats against one group or another are on the rise. Nation blames nation for the disease, and the economic hardship caused by the virus itself, or by the attempts to halt its progress, is beginning to hit more and more people. Will we be like the people of Noah's time and let Satan and our own sin use the virus to turn us on each other?
Certainly sin still exists in the world. The rainbow also announced that the violence on earth could not be washed away by mere floodwaters. It would take a different kind of water to fix our violent hearts. In baptism, the Spirit that descended on Jesus like a dove - like Noah's dove sent out from the ark - descends on us and finds dry land. The Spirit makes his home in us and gives us new names: sons and daughters of God through Christ. That Spirit now also strives to conform us to Jesus who, though he suffered violence, came to deliver us from our violent ways.
Like Noah's flood, this virus will also pass. May that day come soon, and may we as God's sons and daughters give thanks for the salvation from the flood of death brought to us in Jesus Christ. May we live as those who have renounced violent ways, and come to know the way of Christ's peace.
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