Home | Site Map | Contact Us | Feeds

Enter Noah's Advent Ark

            “Dear Lord God, I have completed the ark as you have commanded. I will not secure the portals until next week, when you have promised to send the rain. The animals are strangely subdued in a calm sense of what seems like fear. They hear the sounds of others from their families out there; I wonder if they realize they will never see them again. Oh, how I am likewise afraid, Lord. Can you not find favor on people out there as you have found on me? I am afraid for them, that their end is near. After 120 years they still do not listen. Bring them to this ark. Let me build another for them. Give them more time. Your wrath has been aroused but I know your mercy is greater. Have mercy on these people. And if not – if their wickedness has corrupted them and your created world beyond rescue – then let none of my family perish in the floodwaters. Not so that I can keep them for myself but so that they can glorify you and produce a new generation who knows you, worships you and obeys your commands. Spare these animals so that they can populate the earth with your creative wonder, and keep this ark safe from destruction. During the journey let me, your servant, act as an example of faith and obedience, even if it means I must give up food, or sleep, or even my life. If in future times the world’s wickedness ever grieves your heart again, O Lord, do not destroy them but send a deliverer, greater than I, who obeys your commands and can save the wicked whom I cannot. You have faithfully prepared me, my Lord. Except for my own heart that grieves like yours, I am ready for the rain. I am ready to enter the ark. Amen.”

            Thoughts like these must have stirred in Noah’s mind and heart. Are you ready for the reign … of Christ and his kingdom when he floods this earth with the grace we remember at his first coming and the glory we anticipate at his second coming? The season of Advent calls us to make sure that we are ready for the reign of Christ just as Noah was ready for the rain of the flood. Through God’s Word we invite Noah and his ark to our world gone bad and our hearts divided between hope and dread. Come and Enter Noah’s Advent Ark.

Avoid the judgment of a fatal flood from God

            In the beginning God created people to live in harmony with him forever. But by Noah’s day the people of the world only wanted to satisfy their sinful cravings. “My Spirit will not contend with man forever,” God shared with Noah, “for he is mortal.” Mankind was following its mortal instincts and only its mortal instincts, controlled exclusively by its sinful flesh. “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was filled with pain.” Mankind’s deepest satisfaction of evil was destined to a meaningless existence of oblivion separated from the grieving heart of God. Rather than allow wickedness to multiply, God said. “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air.”

            Come inside. Hunker down with Noah in the belly of the ark. There is only one thing worse than hearing the pitter patter of the rain turning into a torrential whoosh and then feeling the ark tip in its first movement afloat the muddy water. There is only one thing worse than the drowning screams of mass terror penetrating the ark and pounding on your heart. There is only one thing worse than another thud on the ark that could be a bloated human corpse, a floating animal carcass, or a dismantled portion of a home that once kept children safe. There is only one thing worse: drowning outside of the ark in the fatal flood from God. To whom does that happen? “The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” People who were supposed to be children of God became influenced by, then interested in, that attached to others under the influence of sinful flesh, who did not share faith in God. People who were supposed to be children of God made their own choices independent of God. People who were supposed to be children of God were more stimulated by basic instincts than God’s instructions. Those of us who have coveted the carefree lifestyles of the rich and famous who aren’t “stifled” by Christian morals, who once pursued a business or personal relationship that did not please God, who have ever followed the basic instincts of sex drive or love for money or need for revenge while tuning out God’s instructions – we should be the floating human corpses drowning in the fatal flood of God’s judgment. Except for one thing. We Enter Noah’s Advent Ark.

Enjoy the journey of a wonderful walk with God

            Jesus once said, “For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:38,39). Took them all away. Despite Noah’s prayer to God pleading for more time or another way, they were all destroyed. Some scholars estimate that 3 billion people died in the flood. Does that mean Noah’s efforts were all for nothing, except for preserving a zoo of animals?

            Look at what the Bible says. Moses, God’s chosen author for the book of Genesis, labels this story, “The account of Noah.”  Here is what one of my favorite Bible commentaries explains about that title, “He doesn’t call it ‘The Disaster of the Flood’ … Moses’ emphasis is not on the nightmare of judgment, the global catastrophe which destroyed a world population … Instead Moses emphasizes the deliverance God accomplished through Noah … As Moses described it, this is not the story of the flood. This is Noah’s story – including his faith, his obedience, his deliverance, his sin, and the solemn covenant God made with him” (Prof. John Jeske, “The People’s Bible: Genesis,” Northwestern Publishing House, Milwaukee, p. 77).

            Through Noah’s efforts of faith God did save mankind. God spared Noah’s family and through them God would save the world when a new deliverer would be born, generations later. Like Noah, Jesus Christ invited people to be saved from destruction by beams of wood lifting him up from the ground. Like Noah, Jesus Christ was ridiculed and dismissed, but he was not deterred in his obedience to God and, because of it, he saved others. He saved us. More than Noah, Jesus Christ gave his very life on the cross as payment to God for the sins of all people, and constructed by that cross a new ark with open doors for the good and the bad until he comes again. This is Noah’s Advent ark, nothing other than the mercy of God. The mercy of God that gave the wicked world 120 years to turn from evil still patiently waits today, holding off Judgment Day for one more soul to Enter Noah’s Advent Ark. The mercy of God that used water as a tool in Noah’s day to both destroy and save now uses the waters of Holy Baptism to both destroy evil and save those who Enter Noah’s Advent Ark. The mercy of God that finally put an end to a violent, wicked world will act again soon and at the end of this world with a flood of fire on this planet out of which he will rescue believers from sin and wickedness. Enter Noah’s Advent Ark. Be prepared.

            Noah was prepared. And the Bible tells us why, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord … [he] was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” God’s favor, or his grace, is ours by faith. The acts and promises of God’s mercy move us to realize that we are mortal and weak, and to rely on his divine deliverance. Like Noah you are righteous by faith and your actions match your faith in a way that makes you wholesome among the people of this world. And you walk with God. Right now, step by step through each new day and life experience and even death, you walk with God. You Enter Noah’s Advent Ark. Here’s one example of entering Noah’s Advent ark during these last days. Leah Bauer is a member of Grace who has moved to Germany with her job, and shares her experience in the December issue of Forward in Christ. She writes,

“Germany has some of the most beautiful Cathedrals … but Christianity has become all but nonexistent here today. The more I talk to my colleagues and other acquaintances who are fast becoming my friends, the more [it is] sad and difficult knowing that these people I care about … are all unbelievers. Since the first day, this has been both a struggle and a huge opportunity … They are surrounded by so many Germans who claim to be part of the church but are obviously not living Christian lives … I still have to laugh at how all of my friends think I’m such a novelty – always stating what I believe and then, with God’s help, actually following it up with actions … [Sometimes I want to] run back to my Christian world. But after prayer and thoughtful consideration, I know that God wants me to be here … I trust that he will use me and make me a blessing to many people” (pp. 30,31).

            And so with Noah we pray, “Dear Lord God, have mercy on these people. Let me, your servant, act as an example of faith and obedience. Send a deliverer, greater than I, who obeys your commands and can save the wicked whom I cannot. You have faithfully prepared me, my Lord. I am ready to enter the ark. Amen.”

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on November 30, 2008

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

Home | Site Map | Contact Us | Feeds