God created our world. God first created Adam and then realized humans need companionship and created Eve. God placed them in the Garden where all their needs were met.  God told them there was only one rule---don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It seemed simple, but immediately, the humans ate of the tree. Most importantly, when confronted by God, Adam blamed Eve who in turn blamed the snake. No one took responsibility. The next interaction in our world was even worse. Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain’s rejection of responsibility is clearly stated by him: Am I my brother’s keeper?

      Time passes and God saw that humans were constantly planning evil. God regretted creating human beings and decided to blot out all humans (and the animals as well Gen. 6:7). Only Noah was seen as righteous— only he and his family together with two of every kind of animal would be saved. The flood came and killed every living thing. What has God accomplished?

      It could be argued that God hadn’t really accomplished anything. Were the humans after the flood any different than their predecessors? That is not obvious. Perhaps God is different. The flood is the first genocide in the world. After it is over, God realizes that nothing has really been accomplished. The nature of human beings has not changed. What is different is God takes responsibility and promises never to destroy the earth again. God, having learned the importance of responsibility, makes a covenant not just with human beings but with all living creatures. After all, why did all those animals have to die because of the misdeeds of humans?

      God makes clear that genocide is never the solution. Taking responsibility is what allows the world to exist and to try to repair the inevitable mistakes that humans (and God?) make.

      Noah may have been righteous but he too didn’t take responsibility for all the other humans in his world. We have no evidence that he tried to save them. After the flood, fully cognizant of his failure, he could only bear the guilt of being a survivor by living in a drunken stupor.

      Abraham is the first to understand that it is all about being responsible. It will be Abraham who will speak truth to power on behalf of his neighbors, the people of Sodom. It is not an accident that Abraham’s most well-known quality is welcoming strangers to his tent. He models for us what a human being should be.