A flood that is no myth...

Sermon for the first Sunday of Lent - Genesis 9; 1 Peter 3; Mark 1

I wonder, of those sitting here today, have you heard the story of the flood? Noah. The rain. Mt Ararat. Lions and tigers and bears…oh my. How many of us had the flannel board Noah and the Ark? A little bitty boat with the giant elephants and giraffes sticking their heads out. There is even a song by The Irish Rovers about a unicorn in the ark:

A long time ago, when the Earth was green
There was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen                                                   
And they run around free while the Earth was being born               
And the loveliest of all was the unicorn.                                             
There was green alligators and long-necked geese             
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees                                                           
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born       
The loveliest of all was the unicorn.
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It doesn’t go well later in the song. God sees some sinnin’, sends drivin’ rain, the unicorns decide to dance in the rain which is why:
 
You’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese             
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees                                                           
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born       
You’re never gonna see no unicorns.
 
Because of the way we paint it, the flood becomes sort of a joke. It’s why when the creation museum builds a life-sized ark, so many laugh. It’s why we get angry when people make a big deal about the flood because of its ramifications. Flooding kills people. They die. Thousands. Millions. Who knows. So, for so many of us, it’s myth. Confined to legend. Silliness.
 
But as a trained historian, someone who enjoys myth and legend, we come to some trouble because Noah is not the only flood story. There is Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia, Zi-udisura in Sumerian literature, Manu in India, numerous stories in the literature of Native Americans in both South and North, Nu’u in Hawaii, Bergelmir in Norway, and even the Finlanders. Almost every tribe, nation, and tongue has some sort of narrative told of a flood, which as an historian makes me wonder if possibly there might be a connection. Maybe. Something happened thousands of years ago, and people tell the story. A flood, of some kind, being essential to the life of a people.
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I wonder if there is some sort of fascination with the grimness of it. The death by drowning. The terrifying nature of moving, but not having a foothold of anything solid to lean on. Of gasping for breath and nothing comes.

Or it could be the thought of new beginnings. Of a big bath. Of cleanliness. Power-washing the Earth. Cleaning up a mess. Water washing over everything. Out with the old, in with the new. A bad, very sad part, and then also something restorative.

With the bad and the sad, in the restorative, for us, today comes a promise here. This reading from Genesis 9 tells of the aftermath. God looking at what has been done and says, I will never again do this with water. To remind me I will put a rainbow in the sky, almost like a bow and arrow pointed straight at me, keeping me from doing my worst. Reminding God of the past, it seems, and looking towards the future. Instead though, he says - I like water. I’m going to continue this washing, this death by drowning, but in a different way. I’m going to use this flood, this work of sin washing in a life-giving way:

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, in which he also went and made proclamation to the spirits in prison who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

A God who works through floods and water with salvation in view is given to us in these words of Peter. Where what once was a flood that mediated out death, now a flood comes that gives life. That in something so diabolical, so weird, so confined to myth or legend, a giant flood and ark, God works now in the ark of his word and water to make new out of old. New creation out of old. Baptism that drowns the sinner and raises them to new life. A new use of the Noah covenant in your life. In your heart.

Even in Christ’s baptism he was bringing forth this God work in the water, identifying with the sinner, doing the work of salvation, fulfilling all righteousness. Stepping into the water and hearing the word, the word which you should hear at baptism – Child, I am pleased with you. Gospel preached in that water. Life taken and given in that water. God being pleased with you, on account of his Son.

We speak of it in our rite of baptism, on page 121 in the green hymnal, In Holy Baptism our gracious heavenly Father liberates us from sin and death by joining us to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are born children of a fallen humanity; in the waters of Baptism we are reborn children of God and inheritors of eternal life. By water and the Holy Spirit we are made members of the Church which is the body of Christ. As we live with him and with his people, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.

There you hear of liberation, resurrection, rebirth, inheritance, members of the body, child of God, a life of devotion to God through a life together with other drowned and raised sinners. The call of the baptized. Not a one stop shop, but a life now lived.

Luther goes even further to open up this word for us. He lays it out in the Small Catechism - Baptism is not simply plain water. Instead, it is water used according to God’s command and connected with God’s word…It brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare.

Luther speaks to your worry that water can’t do such a thing. Luther explains - Clearly the water does not do it, but the word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this word of God in the water. For without the word of God the water is plain water and not a baptism, but with the word of God it is a baptism, that is, a grace-filled water of life and a “bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit,” as St. Paul says to Titus in chapter 3, “through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is sure.”

Growing out of this, baptism becomes a daily work, Luther speaking of our baptism, making the flooding power of God into something more than just a little bath you had as a baby - it signifies that the old person in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily sorrow for sin and through repentance, and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. Why? Because of Jesus. Because of this beloved Son. Because of this Christ, this promise that began there with Noah now extends to you. Death and life both coming through water. I will no longer destroy the world with water, instead, I will use it to save through faith in my Son who raises sinners to new life.

The flood is important. This Noah we tend to laugh at becomes essential to the story of the Christian, your story, because in that flood is this foreshadowing of Christ, of salvation, of love for sinners that God has. Because in the flood, here now in baptism, at the font, daily, comes the work of God. God speaking words with water to drown you and save you. A continuous flooding through this promise for you. Where once God used it for a particular work of new beginnings, now he does it for this new beginning in you.

With Lent we look to this. We see this promise as ours and are reminded that the road to Jerusalem, to the cross where Christ died is made manifest for you in simple things. In things we may see as myth. A little water, a few words, that can’t be power, can it? Yet, it is. In water and Word Christ makes his work known in you at the beginning. The beginning of all faith. Of all salvation in you. Something to hold onto if you ever doubt that God’s love reigns in you. Be reminded each moment you make your way through these doors, seeing the font, that you have died in Christ and been raised because God has said so. And there is the water to prove it. Each day you take a shower or a bath, wash your hands or do the dishes, that water can be a reminder of God’s covenant with you. In Jesus you are a new creation for his sake, even if you don’t feel like it. That is why it is a continuous thing. Continuous work. Dying and rising being the true good work. A good work done in you so as to be a blessing to others. To make a new creation in you so that you might be God’s messenger of hope and reconciliation because you have a hope in him, and have been reconciled to him by the water, by the word.

The flood is no myth if what you see in it is God’s work upon you. An inevitable work that Peter lays out for you as a saving work. Loving work. There for you. Not by you, but for you. Thanks be to God. Amen
​TW