Scarboro United Church,

Calgary, Alberta

March 1, 2009

"Our Journey Through Darkness"

There's Good News in today's reading from Genesis!

We are no longer enemies of God. God says to us, "I will no longer destroy life because of the way humans act." I know the text says "by flood" but flood is a code word in the Bible for chaos. The Israelites were not fond of swimming and sailing. The seas were too chaotic, rising waters too dangerous, too unpredictable for comfort. This reality we are rediscovering as global warming makes weather extreme and floods more frequent and more dangerous.

Perhaps our prayers should get more literalistic - God, we've got a deal. You're still sending rainbows, you weren't going to do this . . . so lighten up!

Less literalistically (and I hope you don't think the world could be flooded with water - where would it all come from? Where would it go?) God promises that God will not send chaos to destroy the world. And so far, so good. There has been chaos, perhaps more than we would like at times, but life goes on. God's Word is good Word.

A bit of chaos is a good thing. A small amount of chaos keeps us on our toes, keeps us guessing, keeps us creative. Life without a little chaos can be boring, stifling, stuck. And when you are stuck on the bottom, it becomes oppressive. A little chaos works against oppression. Kind of like the Holy Spirit, God's way of stirring things up and making sure, as Mary sings in the Magnificat celebrating her conception, that the rich are sent away empty and hungry even as the poor and lowly are lifted up.

My favourite image of the Holy Spirit is the toothbrush. Anyone brushed their teeth today? Do you think all your vigorous brushing actually killed any bacteria? Maybe, but maybe not. I don't want to get in trouble with any dentists or dental hygienists but I understand that all that energetic brushing just stirs things up. Bacteria is lifted up, swirled around and lands on a different spot. And that is important. Because if bacteria stays in one spot and multiplies, you get decay happening. Rot sets in.

And that is what happens in life when the status quo becomes the status ho hum. When the mundane becomes humdrum. When the rich get rich and the poor get the usual. Rot sets in. Decay happens - that's a recession. Toothache results - a depression. Sometimes we need a little chaos, it keeps the rot from settling in.

Did you see the news clips of President Obama yesterday? He served notice on all the highly-paid lobbyists in the US that the status quo is going to end. "I know you are gearing up for a fight," he told them, "I just want you to know that I am too!"

We don't like chaos but sometimes a little chaos is necessary. We don't like chaos but we know chaos. Just keep it manageable! We know the flood that rises against our control and threatens to strip us of everything we value.

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We have seen a lot of chaos in the past few years. Floods, hurricanes, tornados, ice storms and other weather disasters are increasing in frequency and rising in their power and devastation. More destructive and chaotic for so many is the economic turmoil circling the globe, threatening our security on so many fronts. Pensions threatened. Jobs lost or cut back to part-time. All trained up and nowhere to work. Futures put on hold, called into question. We know chaos. We know flood.

Those raising teenagers involved with drugs or gangs or both, know the overwhelming anxiety, the flood of fear that tears at family life. Those who struggle with the demons of alcohol, gambling or drug addiction know what plagues they are, how they turn life upside down and take away everything of value and give nothing of value in return. We know chaos. We know the flood.

Those faced with devastating illness watching their abilities disappear, their certainties vanish, their lives ebb away. One minute life is unfolding as it should and in the next second . . . abilities, certainties, life itself, gone. We know chaos. We know flood.

Aboriginal people, Asians, East Indians, Muslims, gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered people, all looking for acceptance and respect and instead receiving rejection and abuse, chaos and flood.

You know chaos. You know flood. Is there anyone here who doesn't, even in a small way, know chaos and flood?

The ancients knew what we sometimes forget. God knows chaos. God knows flood. And God's choice is made. God declares we are not the enemy of God. When God looks on us God no longer sees the enemy, if God ever did, and God has no interest in punishing for disobedient behaviour. Very early in the history of our faith, in pre-history times - the book of Genesis is all pre-historic legend - some of our ancestors realized that God is not a big parent in the sky judging our behaviour and punishing us accordingly.

And when they saw that, it was a huge sea change. It was the dawning of a spiritual maturity that is still beyond so many who, to this day, still try to call down God's anger on anything they don't like or anyone they judge as different. Who take God's Holy Word and change it into words of condemnation and devastation because the real Good News is beyond their comprehension.

The good news is that God knows chaos. God knows flood. And God's Word is a word of mercy within mercy within mercy. I will not destroy life on earth. Here is my pretty little bow to remind you. It is not a bow to launch arrows, but instead the shape of my arms reaching out through storm, through chaos, through flood, embracing you - holding you in my constant, faithful love through whatever comes.

It would be nice if there were only good news. Good news feels good. But we know chaos and we know flood and we know there is bad news.

The bad news is that choice between the survival or the destruction of life on earth is now in our hands. If life on this fragile planet disappears, it is our doing. We can no longer blame God. And more bad news is that it is going to get worse before it gets better.

So what can we do about it? Lots of little things. There are books and magazines and newspaper articles and websites galore. You don't need me to tell you all the things you can do. And if you are gifted enough or well enough placed, there may be big or even very big things you can do. Unfortunately I can't make you do any of that or even make you want to do any of that. Chaos will motivate . . . eventually. Flood will motivate . . . eventually.

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And in the meantime? In the mean time you and I can build an ark!

Does anybody know what the oldest image of the church is? A boat! The church is an ark - unfinished. I say unfinished because it is not yet big enough to hold everyone in the world. I don't believe that this time we want to limit this Ark, the church, the Body of Christ in the world to a few pair of people and a lot of animals.

We need a boat to keep us all afloat in this chaos and this flood of our own making. A boat which can see us through to the peace, the shalom, the hope of God's promise. We need to know we are all in this together. We need to know that we are not alone.

We need to gain a deep respect for this earth, this planet, this garden, this freely given gift. The rocks and trees cry out in praise and thanksgiving. Where are our ears? Where are our eyes?

We need to remember again the absolute treasure of right relations with all Creation. We need to remember that God is with us and that God knows. God knows chaos. God knows flood. God knows that nothing, not chaos, not flood, not financial devastation, not personal or family collapse, not failing health, not rejection, not abuse, not even death itself can separate us from what has been ours from the beginning, our inheritance, pure and undefiled, God's absolute and unending love for us and for all Creation. God's abiding love shown in the life we remember, as we gather at this table to remember. In every crumb of bread we share and every drop of wine we consume together at this Table, the longest and widest Table in creation, we remember. God is with us in chaos, in flood, we are not alone, thanks be to God.

Amen