Our Church Family

Dear church,

Some people are very good at identifying opportunity. They are capitalists. They can see an environment where they can thrive, a space in the market where no one else is operating, a gap in services they can fill, or a product they can provide.

The first step is identifying that opportunity. The first step is to be able to see it. “And Lot lifted up his eyes” (Genesis 13:8). 

When we see the opportunity, we seize it with the knowledge that in doing so we may have found a way to the good life. We may have found the answer to our own need for health and wellness, and physical and financial security.

The stock market had an interesting year – up and then down and then up again. And smart investors were weighing all of this out. The really smart ones stayed in the market throughout the turbulence. And the really, really smart ones threw even more money into the market when it was at its lowest point – knowing eventually things would improve. 

They saw an opportunity for gain, and they seized it. 

“And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord” (Genesis 13:8).

Lot knew what he was doing. This was good land. It reminded Lot of the garden of the Lord – the Garden of Eden. This was, as we sometimes like to say about Colorado, “God’s country.”

Lot could find success in this place. His herds would have ample grazing and water. If Lot were to plant crops, he was likely to be successful. This was an opportunity to be seized.

And Abram gave Lot the opportunity. A good family man, Abram deferred to his relative when the two parted ways (Ephesians 5:21). He allowed Lot to have his pick of places to live. And Lot opted for the well-watered land that was like the garden of God. 

Theologically, we might think of Lot making his own attempt to return to the way of innocence, to move back toward the days when God walked with humanity in the cool of the day and in a land where everything came easy and the stuff of life was to be gathered in abundance. Can we return, on our own, to the Garden of Eden?

In our own seizing of opportunity, we sometimes get the idea that we can solve all of our problems. We try to let the physical things in life, the created things, serve as the conduits to the good life. We might not do this consciously, but the temptation is there. 

And resources are finite. The thing we are trying to do in paving our own way to the good life is hard. Others may see the same opportunities we see. Lot would find out that kings sometimes make war over the good land. The world of sin is also a world of competition (Genesis 14:2).

That’s not to say seizing the opportunity is a bad thing. It is only to say we ought to be discerning and to check our own hearts as we see the good land in front of us.

We might think about Abram, who wasn’t particularly choosy about where he settled. He seemed to prefer to wait on God’s promise. And God showed him exactly what was in store for him. Abram went where God called him to go, listening to the promise. 

Abram found himself walking with God, at least in a sense, and looking at the fruit of the promise that would come. “Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you” (Genesis 13:17).

Perhaps the promise is even better than what we can see with our own eyes. Perhaps it is better than even than the opportunity that’s right in front of us.

Chris

Dear church,

Many Christians seem anxious and angry these days.

Our national discourse has grown more heated during the past year or so, thanks to the pandemic, the economic downturn, the social lockdowns, the racial unrest, the riots, the election, the additional riots, the censoring, etc. There is more to it than even these things, but these come to mind pretty easily. 

And some Christians are anxious and angry. Some worry about getting COVID-19. Some worry about spreading COVID-19. Some worry about their safety. Some worry about the future of the country. Some worry about economy, the stock market, and the national debt. Some are angry about the elections. Some are angry about the culture.

And the fact of the matter is Christians are people of promise. We have nothing to fear. We have an unshakeable kingdom of which we are members. Our King will come, and he will set things right. 

But in times like these, it is easy to feel so fallible and weak. Despite all our Bible reading and devotions and sermon-listening and prayer – despite everything we know about God and his ways – we still can get caught up in the emotion of this temporary world and these temporary kingdoms. 

We can spout off on social media, and we can delete “friends” when they disagree with us. We can lay awake at night wondering what will happen next, whether we should buy guns, whether we should invest in gold, whether there will be much of a country left for our children and grandchildren.

Despite all the things we know about God and his promises, we still can struggle with all of these things – all of this anger and all of this anxiety. 

And it’s easy to get down on ourselves. It is easy to feel badly that we aren’t further along as people of peace and hope and joy. We “know” better, and we still fall short.

I suppose simply knowing the promise of God is not enough to drive us to perfect living.

Abram knew the promise of God. God was explicit: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Abram “knew” what God had in store for him. And yet, in a moment of stress – of famine and of travel and of entering into the unknown in Egypt – Abram fell back into the old ways, into sin. He returned to the way of deception and the way that marks Satan and every sinner on earth. 

Sarai was his wife, but Abram said she was not. He was afraid. Even though he knew the promise of God, he lived for a season as if he did not. Actually, he lived multiple seasons – see Genesis 20 – as if he did not.

The persistence of sin seems almost limitless at times. It is frustrating to us. Despite our best efforts and all of our knowledge, we too easily can fall back into sinful patterns.

This episode in Abram’s life was important because it threatened to derail the plan God had laid out for humanity and its salvation. Abram and his family were to be a blessing to the world. And Abram, in fear, turned his wife over to another man.

But God stepped in. “The Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai” (Genesis 12:17).

God knew Abram couldn’t do it on his own, despite Abram’s willingness to follow God in faith. God knew Abram would slip up, that he would suffer moments of unbelief. God knew Abram would encounter times of fear. 

As it turns out, simply knowing the promise wasn’t enough. Abram’s knowledge that God had promised to bless him was not enough to drive Abram into perfect obedience and faith. Sin still crouched at the door.

And so God took the initiative in Abram’s life. God had a plan, and God was working out the plan despite the foibles of humanity. The plan, with all its twists and turns and God’s repeated intervention, led to the cross. 

And we are Christians, believers in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We know the promise. We know we have eternal life. We know we are like strangers on this earth, awaiting our homeland. A new heaven and earth is coming, and we can look forward to that with hope.

And yet we still sometimes fall into those old patterns of anxiety and anger as we try to get along in this world.

It’s probably good for us to feel frustrated when this happens. We don’t want to become complacent, after all! God does desire our obedience to Him.

But at the same time, we should remember God has a plan. He had a plan for Abram and all of humanity, and he has good intentions for us. This is why the Holy Spirit lives in us, teaching us the way we should live. God continues to intervene in human life through the work of the Spirit.

God’s plan won’t be thwarted. When we go astray, we ought to continue to live in faith. And we can look for the Holy Spirit’s help in our dark moments (Matthew 28:20).

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:39).

That sounds like a plan.

Chris

Dear church,

Censorship seems to be a big topic these days. Voices emerge and are unliked by those who control the levers of the media. And those unliked voices are silenced. They are swept away. 

And one side cries out, “This is not fair!” 

The other side only shrugs. They say it is important to silence these unliked voices because these voices are offensive to the people who matter the most and these voices speak against the national and global narrative that matters the most. These voices, in short, are dangerous. 

A great human project is underway. Millions of people are coming together to work this project, to build a better world, a more loving world, a more tolerant world, a safer and more sanitary world, a world with fewer risks, a world that is more equitable, a world that leaves no one behind, a world devoid of the need to work, a world devoid of gender differences, a world where everyone sees things the same way. 

You get the picture. And, frankly, some voices are just standing in the way of that. And those voices must be silenced. 

So we are told.

And we can see the efforts by humanity as it tries, in fits and starts, to build the Tower of Babel all over again. 

But not everyone, it seems, is interested in the construction project. And the architects of the tower are furious about that. “Can’t you see how great it’s going to be?!”

And so those who don’t care for the project are silenced. And those who might have the world embark on some other, alternative project are silenced as well. And we can see God’s wisdom in confusing our languages and creating new cultures. If somehow everyone launched into the work of the tower, the sin would be overwhelming. 

We know we are to love God and love our neighbors. We cannot have the second without the first. Without the proper love of God, we embark on human pursuits as we try to love our neighbors. We build towers for the “love” of humanity. Usually, it turns out not to be love at all. It typically is only a project of power and greed. Something like communism comes to mind.

And so God scattered us. He confused our languages. He gave us our cultures. 

Now what? The work of tower-building will continue, haltingly, of course. Sinful humanity can’t help itself,

But God has provided a Deliverer. It’s not through human effort or ingenuity we are saved from all of this. It’s not by a great “tower” project of human strength, where all of humanity gets together and wills its way to freedom.

No, we are delivered by a single, humble child born in a nowhere place. There is one family, one nation, through which the whole world is delivered, even in their different languages and their different cultures. 

So we can quit building the tower.

Chris

Dear church,

I had a difficult time processing the events in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. Hundreds of people, perhaps thousands, swarmed the capitol building. A woman was shot to death. Several others died of medical emergencies. The day was tragic.

It clearly was a scary situation for those who were in the capitol – the politicians and their staffers. The pictures of them “sheltering in place” made me gulp. I wondered what they were thinking.

Thankfully, the storming of the capitol didn’t seem very organized. Once the protestors – rioters – entered the building, they didn’t seem to have much of a plan. Videos and photographs showed some rioters simply standing around, yelling. Others walked the halls and banged on doors. There was some pilfering of offices, apparently, but it seemed rather random. 

I saw a picture of one guy in body paint and Viking horns, who seemed to have taken up court in the capitol. A few people were standing there listening to him, but not many. 

Also, thankfully, nothing was set on fire. For some reason, I had it in my mind that all good riots are accompanied by fire. But that was not the case at the capitol, which is good.

But one of the big reasons I’ve had a difficult time processing these events was because of the ease by which the protestors and rioters entered the capitol. I would have hoped the building would have been more secure. Why not more police? Why not more riot gear on the police who were there? Why didn’t they have those big plastic shields other riot police have? 

And how about this, why not board up the capitol, knowing events like this might happen? You’ll scoff at this idea, I’m sure. But why not?

It seems like the business owners of America have more sense than the capitol police on these matters. Perhaps business owners simply are more experienced with this kind of thing. Deep in our big cities, whenever these entrepreneurs sense a riot coming, they now are proactive. The plywood is pulled out and mounted to the windows. Sometimes, business owners even write supportive messages to the expected rioters, hoping to calm their rage and get them to move on to some other place. “Don’t burn this one down, please!” they seem to be saying.

We can imagine the scene on the eve of an expected riot. The windows are boarded up. Vehicles are removed. The streets are quiet in expectation. I suppose it’s similar to when a hurricane is expected to make landfall. 

The waiting is probably the hardest part. To wait for some negative event, wondering just how bad it will be, is probably tortuous. I suppose the capitol police experienced some of this as they waited. 

Genesis 10 is one of those boring chapters of the Bible. Not much happens in it. Definitely not a riot. It’s just another genealogy, a list of names and places. We get to see what happens with Noah and his sons. 

“These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood” (Genesis 10:1).

The aim of this chapter is to memorialize how the nations took their shape. Some familiar names emerge – like Egypt and Canaan, and the Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites. We learn where the Philistines came from. We learn about Nimrod, the mighty hunter.

“These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood” (Genesis 10:32).

We don’t, of course, lose sight of the flood. Mass destruction had just wiped out most of humanity and the animal kingdom. God’s wrath against sin is eye-opening and scary. I’m sure Noah had plenty of anxious moments of anticipation until God finally boarded up the ark before the storm. 

With Noah, God was starting anew. The rainbow was in the sky. The earth was fresh and clean – except perhaps for a rotting corpse here or there. This was a new day, a new chapter in time. 

God made a covenant with Noah, and his family was sent out into the world. They were fruitful and multiplied. The story, perhaps, would be different this time. 

But we know it was not. These sons of Noah turned out to be more of the same. Humanity, despite all of our fresh starts and our new year’s resolutions, tends to move in one direction only. And that direction is into sin. And away from God.

And this cleansed creation once again had to endure the foibles of humanity. The wickedness and hatred and violence started again. Even out of this good man. Noah, we remember, was a righteous man. He was blameless in his generation. He had found favor in the eyes of God.

And now, upon the earth, were released the sons of Noah. And the breakdown started all over again. 

All we have to do is look out upon our world. We can see it. We can see anguish. Behind all the protests and the riots is anguish. People are in anguish because things aren’t turning out for them the way they would like.

And they turn their disappointment and their anger against those whom they believe are thwarting them. They turn against white people, wealthy people, Republicans, Democrats, the police, the media, politicians, election officials, landlords, public health officials, the anti-maskers – and on and on it goes. 

The riot at the capitol, and the riots in our cities, are the result of anguish – a longing for something better and something more. The sons of Noah have made a mess of things.

As Christians, we know that we participate in the mess and the anguish. Every human bears responsibility because every human sins. The mistakes we soon read about by Noah’s offspring are the same mistakes we continually make. On and on it goes. Sin continues its steady march, emerging out of the actions and mouths of men, women, and children. 

And if creation itself could do it, it would board up its windows and its doors. It would lock away its precious things. And it would hope that the sons of Noah would pass on by. Creation has a lot at stake here, too. And the sons of Noah bring riots with them. 

“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).

Well, that is interesting. There is hope. And creation hopes for something new – for the sons of God.

The reality for Christians is we are being revealed as “sons of God” even now. We are the fateful sons of Noah who now have been adopted and brought to the table of our Father like unruly and filthy street urchins. We are people of the riot, well fed and in better clothes.

Our adopted Father is doing something new with us. We are the ones for which creation is waiting with eager longing – the adopted brothers and sisters of the true Son.

And now, inside of these old sons of Noah is the life-giving, fruit-filled Holy Spirit. It is persistently shaking loose from us the old disappointments and anguish – and with them, the riots.

In the quiet of our souls, we wait patiently and with hope for the new thing God is doing within us. We become people of peace. And creation – and every business owner and capitol police officer – will be happy to see us coming.

Chris

Dear church,

The foundation of human government emerged as Noah and his family stepped out of the ark. 

“From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”

Humans were to govern themselves. There was to be a reckoning whenever the primal sin of murder were to occur. 

Murder is wrong. We know this intuitively. It is marked into our DNA. Those moral relativists who say no absolute right and wrong exists cannot escape the wrongness of taking a life. 

Murder is wrong because of the sacredness of human life. We are made in the image of God. No one ought to be thrown away and discarded, snuffed out, with no regard to the sacredness of life. 

And God puts the matter of justice in the hands of humans. Humans are to set things right. And the reason we can do that is because, again, we are made in the image of God. It is the likeness of God in us that enables us to see right from wrong and to administer justice fairly. 

Rather than take life, we are to make life. “And you, be fruitful and multiply, and increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.” It seems that humans are to govern themselves in order to allow the divine mandate to be carried out. We prevent murder in order to allow human flourishing. 

And so it is true that human government has been instituted by God. The governing authorities who have held sway over human peoples through the centuries received their mandate in Genesis 9. God is the one who commanded us to police ourselves and to administer justice fairly. God is the one who announced we are capable of doing such things. God is the one who made us in his image. 

But human government is a very fragile thing, as we have seen in recent days and months. Government was designed by God to exist for our good, to make room for our flourishing. It was designed to create peace and enable families to thrive. 

Government, however, can be infected with sin, and it can falter. The “reckoning” can be improperly administered. Rather than make way for human flourishing, it can make way for human chaos. Rather than enabling families to thrive in peace, it can oppress and lock up the innocent. Government can shut down a person’s livelihood, and it can allow the killing of babies. 

Some people want to place every hope in the government. They figure democracy or socialism or some other form of government will see us through to the promised land. By now, after these long centuries, we ought to know that no human government is capable of this – because every human government is soiled by sin.

Our efforts to govern ourselves ultimately will fail. The Assyrian experiment failed. The Babylonian experiment failed. The Persian experiment failed. The Greek experiment failed. The Roman experiment failed. And so it goes. Right now, the American experiment looks a little shaky.

We might as well come to terms with this. And we ought to look for our Messiah. “And the government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6).

Yes, this is the only answer. In times of national strife and uncertainty, we must continually remind ourselves we have a King – not a president or senate or house of representatives or governor or county commission or city council. We don’t elect this King. He simply IS.

Our King has his own way of “reckoning” with the sin of humanity. He gathered up all of our sins, including murder, and carried them to the cross. The guilt of human sin was something he took upon himself. 

We can put our hope in His government. It will not come to an end. No election can change that. There is no storming of his capitol building. There is no media to spin a narrative against Him. His judgment is final. 

His name is Jesus Christ. And his word is one of hope. 

When this King comes at the End, he will be preceded by good news. In fact, the good news is already here. All we must do is accept him. We drop our pretenses and our ideas about the perfection of humanity. We see ourselves for who we are. And we ask him to lead us. 

The good news is he accepts any who come to him. 

Chris  

Dear church,

The sending of the raven didn’t appear to be helpful to Noah and the occupants of the ark. It flew away from Noah’s hand and then began to fly “to and fro” over the waters. It didn’t appear to land. It just wandered the sky and the sea. 

Ravens were used by sailors to determine the location of land or the atmospheric conditions. Ravens were known for their ability to fly great distances. And we also know ravens are scavengers. They like to eat rotting flesh. 

The deluge brought death. We might imagine dead bodies floating on the surface of the water. Perhaps the raven landed on some of those for meals. Or perhaps this picture of the raven flying “to and fro” is a picture for us of the search for death. Was there anything left remaining to consume?

It’s a dark picture. 

Off the top of my head, the only other figure from Scripture whom I recall moving “to and fro” was Satan (Job 1:7). It gives us a picture of a restless search, seeking someone to tempt, seeking something to devour.

When we read passages like Genesis 8, we ought to stop and wonder why the story has been given to us in the way it has. Why the raven? Why the dove? Why were these things remembered and retold to us in this particular way?

The dove, of course, also went on a search. But it gives us a picture of something more tame and orderly. It went out three times, each time showing Noah something new. The first time, it revealed the time for waiting was not yet complete. The second time, it brought back evidence of life. The dove had found an olive tree – a symbol of peace. 

The third time, the dove did not return. There was life to be lived out there!

Scripturally speaking, the dove is perhaps more familiar to us than the raven. The dove represents the Holy Spirit (John 1:32). We know the Holy Spirit imparts life.

Again, these are things to consider as we read Genesis 8. 

Even after the flood, sin persists on earth. God knew this would be so. Satan continues his restless search. Unholiness is never far from us. We must always be aware that it lurks around us and in us. 

And yet, we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us through this sin-filled world. We rely on the grace of God, who covers over even our own heinous sins by the blood of Christ. We need not fear Satan. But we have a clear-eyed understanding of who we are in Christ.

Chris

Dear church,

Water is necessary for life. The scientists are searching for it on other planets. If they can find water, they can find life. 

And this is true. At the outset of God’s creative activities, we see water in abundance. Even in the darkness, water was present (Genesis 1:2). One of God’s first actions was to separate the waters, above and below (Genesis 1:6). And then God gathered the water into seas (1:9-10).

The presence of water is central to the story of creation. 

And the value of water is lost on no one. We need it to survive. We need it for our crops and for every piece of vegetation we see. A lot of people worry all winter about water, hoping for big snows, because they know the value of the water that will be released from the snowpack during the spring. 

Water is fundamental to physical life on earth. And God chose to use water to destroy.

“The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth …”

That’s a lot of water. The separated waters in the opening scenes of Genesis – the waters below and above (1:6-7; 7:11) – exploded onto the scene and swallowed up life. 

This is interesting because God used one of the most important components of physical life on earth to destroy physical life on earth. It is a fitting punishment for sin, after all. Adam and Eve were grasping for more physical life when they took up the forbidden fruit. They wanted the fruit that was pleasing to the eye, that was good for food, that would make them more like God, and that would have no negative effect on their length of life. “You will not surely die,” the serpent said.

Adam and Eve were doing nothing more than striving for more – more of this sensuous, pride-filled life. More food for the belly. More wisdom for the mind. And more years on the earth. They were no different than people today.

At the end, as Adam and Eve took that bite, the sum of life for them was physical. There was nothing else to it. It was flesh. And God had so much more planned for humanity than that. 

Life is not simply about what we find in the here and now. It is not simply about food and drink and sex and recreation and leisure and work and wealth. Life, as God intended it, is about more than that. Really, it is about Him.

And that is why the flood was so fitting as a punishment for human sin. If human striving – which inevitably resulted in human competition and violence – was all about the physical things of this created world, then God gave humanity a mouthful of it. Actually, he gave humanity a world-ful of it.

Like money and sex and food, water is something we want – obviously. Things don’t happen here without it. Of the physical world, water is the highest need, the most important good. 

God seemed to be saying, “If you want a purely physical life – if you want more and more and more of this world – here it is.” And that physical thing that people desire so much, if given to them in abundance, can destroy them. 

I wonder if this is another manifestation of God’s giving people over to their sins – of letting them go their own way. “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity …” (Romans 1:24). If we desire physical things for ourselves, if we choose that over our obedience to God, then God will let us go. He will step out of the way.

But he knows those things lead nowhere. They lead to nothingness and emptiness. Read Psalm 115 when you get a chance.

God punished humans by deluging them with what they were pursuing – more of a physical life without God. What they thought brought only life could actually bring death.

And we might learn the lesson: Nothing on this earth can satisfy us like God can.

Instead of this lust and craving for physical things of this created world, God desires our hearts to be like the psalmist in Psalm 42: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.”

There is a water that does more than nourish our bodies. If we only long for and receive physical water, we too will suffer destruction in the end. Jesus was sitting beside a famous water well in Samaria and told a woman about it: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).

I suppose the question we might ask as we read about the flood – and understanding the flood as a literal event that happened long ago, but also an event that points toward the final judgment of God – is a question about our desires. Yes, we all sin. We will struggle with sin until the day we die. But we never will give up the good fight. We will stive to obey God, and to follow Christ as his disciples. 

But the question is this: Do I desire Him more than I desire anything else on this earth – whether it is my possessions, my family, my children, my vocation, my reputation, my legacy? Does God come first for me? Do I thirst for him, for his living water?

This brings up another interesting question for me, and it’s kind of a tangent to Genesis 7, but not really. As parents, we love our children. We labor for them. We cry over them. We rejoice with them. We see it as our sacred duty to raise them and to raise them well. We want to protect them and then see them succeed in life. We want them to be happy and to live as godly adults. (And we hope they’ll take care of us when we’re old!)

This is what parents ought to do. I think God ordained this for us.

But at the same time, we ought never to lose sight of why we do all these things for our kids. These are his kids, not ours. He is the Creator. Everything that has breath belongs to him. Our duty in raising our kids – even as it comes to us with this primal instinct to protect and teach – is a duty that we have to Him.

We raise our kids for the glory of God. We don’t do it for our own glory, our own pride, our own security. We do it because we desire Him.

That’s it for today. Thanks, as always, for reading!

Chris

Dear church,

The story of Noah and the ark is the gospel message in its most stark terms. Everything is stripped away, including any sugar-coating we may give to the unpleasant parts – the parts about judgment and death. 

This story is about God’s absolute intolerance of sin and evil. It’s right there in black and white. “For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh …” This meant the destruction of men and women. People were going to meet their end. 

Children’s pastors face a dilemma with this story. This is a much-loved story because it involves so much activity, and so many animals. Noah built a big boat, and the animal kingdom came to him, two by two, into the boat. And then the rains came, and the water rose. The story ends with a dove flying off to find dry land, and then comes the rainbow. You can create some great craft projects for kids out of this story!

But those who teach this story to children have to decide how to handle the inconvenient reality that under those floodwaters are a lot of dead bodies. Again, this is a stark picture. We can imagine the deluge, as well as the panic it would have induced as people ran for higher ground. When that failed, we can imagine the horror of knowing that death was coming. Quite simply, this is awful. 

But this judgment was fitting, according to Genesis 6. “The earth was filled with violence.” This was a just punishment. “And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”

This was God’s creation, and it had been marred by sin. The Bible calls it “corruption.” A good thing had been ruined. 

And so as we read this text, we must remember the high expectations of God. He expects holiness. Sin has consequences. 

Yesterday was an election day, and it was an important election. A famous politician once said, “Elections have consequences.” That is, if you or your political party don’t win the election, then you must live with what happens next. The angst over the Supreme Court last year was a good example of that. One party had to stand by helplessly while the other party did basically as it saw fit – because that party had won the election. Elections do have consequences.

Sin also has consequences. To rebel against God, to disregard the conscience he has put inside of us, is to bring consequences upon us. There is a Judgment Day, and it is something to fear – because every one of us has sinned.

I wonder whether we Christians talk about this enough. I wonder whether we keep it in front of us – and in front of our nonbelieving friends – like we should. On Judgment Day, we will have to answer for our actions. There is no getting around it. We might like to draw people to Christ by extolling his love for humanity, and this is good. But we cannot forget that sin has consequences, that there will be a Judgment Day, and that God really, really, really hates sin and evil. And God is in charge.

And so Noah and his ark are a good and very clear reminder to us that God is watching the earth he has created, and he is seeing the sins that are being committed, and he will bring judgment on those who commit those sins. 

What is that famous proverb? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). How can we read about the wrath of God in this story and not experience the fear of the Lord? Yes, God is loving. He loves you and me. But God also is holy. And we are wrecking his creation with our sin. If we shrink God down into something warm and cuddly, forgetting he is all powerful and “vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Romans 12:19), then we have made God too small and too tame and too predictable. And we will have made ourselves too smart. 

I think it’s best to live in humble fear of the Lord, especially as we consider our sins. 

And so, yes, this story about Noah and his ark gives us the gospel in very stark terms. It shows us God’s character, and it shows us ours, and it shows us what happens when God decides he wants to do something about the sin in the world. 

And it gives us good news. The good news is this: There is an ark!

The common thinking is it took Noah decades to build the ark. This was a boat built on dry land in an era that had not seen rain. We can picture the word spreading about this giant boat, and the crazy man who was building it. I can picture crowds coming by at all times of the year to see this strange sight. 

The disciple Peter called Noah a “herald of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). A herald, by definition, is a sign or a messenger – someone or something that brings news. Many newspapers have that old word, “Herald,” in their names. 

I can’t imagine Noah didn’t share the good news about the ark with those who came to visit him during those long years of construction. “Rain’s coming. You might want to get on the boat with us.”

In another sense, Noah was a herald or a sign of righteousness just as the Virgin Mary was. God had chosen Noah and given him a great and incredible task, and Noah was faithful in his obedience to God. Noah had “found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” The angel came to Mary and said, “Greetings, O favored one …” (Luke 1:28). And Noah seemed to humbly submit to God’s commands, just as Mary later would do. In their obedience, they demonstrated the righteousness of God.

And each – both Noah and Mary – produced for the world an “ark.”

I am quite convinced the events surrounding Noah and his ark prefigure Jesus Christ. Jesus is our “ark.” We need to get on the boat by putting our faith in him. Rain is coming (or actually fire). Sin does have consequences, and God’s righteous judgment will leave us speechless and helpless when it comes in its fullness. We need to get on the boat! 

For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we ought to let out a great breath of gratitude. We are on the boat. We have been saved – and are being saved. We did nothing to earn this salvation. It was given to us by God as a gift. 

Without Christ, we would be like men and women dropped into the middle of the ocean without a life jacket and told we are on our own. Without him, there would be no way we could save ourselves. Gratitude ought to be our never-ending response.

But we also ought to talk about the “ark.” We need to tell others. I imagine some people laughed at Noah, and some will laugh at us. But those who laugh also ought to learn to swim, and no one can swim that well. If our hearts don’t break about this now, I imagine they will later – and especially so if we haven’t told them about the ark.

The door remains open. There still is time.

Chris

Dear church,

We are in a season of new beginnings. January is like that. It is a mark in time by which we can start new things – a new workout plan, a new diet plan, a new financial plan, a new Bible-reading plan. January is a time to start a new plan in an effort to make things better. We want better health, better finances, better spirituality – you name it.

Of course, in our new beginnings, we can’t erase our pasts. We can’t mask over the fact we already are a little out of shape, a little overweight, a little in debt, a little out habit. The trend is set, and our new beginnings are our way of trying to break free from that trend. 

The genealogy in Genesis 5 is a new beginning. The firstborn son of the first couple turned out to be a failure. All the way down to Lamech, Cain’s line was one of hatred and murder (4:23-24). Sin had entered the world, and it was wreaking havoc. 

This new genealogy, however, started with Seth. Here was a new beginning, leaving Cain behind. Perhaps things would be different. Perhaps the chain of sin could be broken.

We know this is not how it would work out. A certain man named Noah rounds out this genealogy, and we know sin did not wind down. It only grew, even in this new beginning. 

It is so very sad, and it speaks to the seemingly unbreakable nature of sin. It cannot be conquered by humanity. No matter how many new beginnings we have, sin will be an ever-present part of our lives. It always will be “crouching at the door” (4:7).

Perhaps this chapter is a reminder to us to live lives that are wary toward the things that tempt us to sin. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith …” (1 Peter 5:8-9).

To be sober-minded and watchful means we remain very aware of the things we stream on television and the websites we visit on our computers. We are careful about the places we go and the people we spend time with. Satan knows who we are. He knows our tendencies. The desires of our hearts are not always for life and truth. 

And so we “resist” – firm in our faith. This is why the church is so important to our lives, and why I feel sorry for those who have abandoned it. The church and its members – all of them sinners! – help us learn to resist. 

Our particular church is a very open kind of place. It is encouraged and even expected that members share with one another, that brothers and sisters speak out about God’s Word and where it is directing us. We are expected to “stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). This is what we do when we gather, and I am grateful for it.

We know the force and power of sin in the world. Our own genealogy, no matter where we start it, is full of sinful people who do sinful things – and so this is us. 

And we want to resist, firm in our faith. And we learn it is faith that wins out in the end. Seeing the hopelessness of our condition and the wretchedness of our genealogies, God personally entered the stream of human existence and made a way for our exit from this world of oppressive sin. It was a free gift of grace, and we accept it by faith (Ephesians 2:8).

If we ever wonder what we can do in the face of sin, it is this: Stay firm in your faith. Believe God and his promises. Don’t listen to the world’s lies, to Satan’s fables. Do not lose hope. Keep striving after God, one day at a time, from January through December.

Genesis 5 gives us a glimpse of God’s desire for us. We get a forerunner in the faith – the very first of these we find in the long sweep of biblical history. “Enoch walked with God.” The chapter says it twice: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.”

How is it that this could happen? Bible scholars have long argued about this passage. Suffice it to say for now that Enoch had faith. Faith was his defining characteristic – according to the Bible. 

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:5-6).

And so we, too, wanting to please God, remain firm in our faith. Today might be a day for you to make a new beginning in faith. This is the only way to break free from the constant stream of sin and death that makes up the genealogy of human existence. 

We must put our faith in Christ – the one who sets us free.

Chris

Dear church,

To enter into the church is to enter into a life of worship. This is fundamental to what we do as church members – the worship of God. After our baptisms, our entire lives point us to this.

We worship in different ways, of course. Our songs sometimes are out of tune, and yet we still sing. Our financial gifts sometimes are lacking, and yet we still give. And we pray and we serve and we stop to read our Bibles. When we see a brother or sister in need, we help. When we see a neighbor in need, we help. When we’re hurt, we hesitate to respond, understanding something about turning the other cheek. And then we forgive.

This is idealistic, of course. We fail often. But this is what we strive toward. This is worship. We don’t do this for ourselves. We do this for God. We present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1).

And as we do this, we understand the world does not. Those outside the church, those who have rejected God, do other things. Some seek after money or sex or prestige. Some pursue even darker things. And some see no meaning in life at all, and, when it comes to the worship of anything, they consider themselves non-participants.

 And so a person may worship God, and a person may refuse to worship God. Sometimes the refusal is strident, and sometimes its lackadaisical. And, of course, sometimes the worship of God is a little lackadaisical, too!

But the church is the seat of worship on earth – not the physical church building but the physical people of the church, the body of Christ, the family of God. It is what we do. We worship. 

From the very earliest days of human history, worship caused conflict. Cain was bitter toward Abel. He was bitter about Abel’s worship of God, and he was bitter about Abel’s relationship with God. 

It seems to be a strange thing to cause bitterness. Cain, in some way, remained in control. God told him to “do well.” If Cain did well, he would be accepted by God. 

To “do well,” I suppose, means to worship God properly and fully. But Cain did not desire to do well. Worship wasn’t his priority. He was not interested in this.

While God wants to bring people into a special relationship with himself, Cain was bent toward evil. That is, he was bent toward something – anything – other than what God wanted. Cain didn’t seem to realize this. He wasn’t particularly vocal about his disdain toward worship. He just didn’t want to do it. 

And he didn’t appreciate Abel was worshiping well – and that God favored him. 

Multiple sibling contrasts or rivalries emerge in the Bible – like Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his many brothers. What we might notice about these rivalries is the way in which one brother was favored – if not explicitly by God then at least by his human father.

One brother was favored. Others were not. How can bitterness not find its way into the picture?

The church sometimes is persecuted. This is not so much the case in the United States as it is in some other countries. But I think we can sense, as American Christians, how church persecution might find its way into our culture. Whether we like it or not, the bitterness is growing. 

God’s chosen people, his church, live not for this world or the things in it. Instead, we see this world as temporary, as fleeting, and we strive to live for God. Like Abel, we worship. 

And if the world finds a way to hate us, we understand that such a circumstance was promised to us. “If the world hates you,” Jesus said, “know that it has hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). We aren’t surprised by the world’s hatred. Abel might have been surprised by Cain’s.

Abel’s death is a reminder of the potential cost of loving and worshiping God. As humans, we are designed for something more than the worship of material objects and money and physical pleasures. We are designed for something more than the worship of our health or our children. 

And we will never stop yearning for that ultimate One who transcends every created thing around us. We search. And some of us find Him – or are found by Him.

And we happily worship. And we may find ourselves at times experiencing the heat of hatred for our worship. We’re in relationship with God. We have eternal life. We are in the church, the body of Christ. We are children of God now. 

The world hates this. Some strive for something more – but they stop short of worshiping the one who is eternal, who is the first and the last.

Bitterness can grow. But we don’t return the bitterness. Like Abel, we simply keep worshiping. 

Chris