The Bible Challenge, Day 3: Genesis 7-9, Psalm 3 and Matthew 3
In a flash humanity manages to slide down that slippery slope from
profoundly blessed to doomed for destruction. We start out in Paradise
like a newborn baby with infinite possibilities for life, and before we are
wet behind the ears, we decide to choose instant gratification over
following the wise instruction from our truly best friend in that forbidden
fruit incident. As we begin making our way in the tough environment of
“real life,” jealous anger lures us to murder a brother, and soon humanity
has become evil through and through. It seems that the whole of human
ancestry has entered its teenage years, playing fast and loose with
consequences, and pursuing selfishness by default.
Mark Twain once said: “When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him
through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole.” And
even though Twain wrote those words millennia after the time of Noah, God
recognizes the sentiment. God makes us for himself, to enjoy our
company and to watch us grow and flourish, but one day when God looks down
on righteous Noah, God comes to realize that Noah alone cares about God:
about worshipping God and enjoying God’s friendship and about treating
others with respect and justice. Brokenhearted, God decides to make a
clean sweep. God will save Noah and his family and preserve a couple
of each species in Creation so that they can repopulate the earth after all
other breath has been snatched away. There is much about this story
that we have to read between the lines, but it seems that the extinction
experiment is somehow traumatic for God. So, God creates the rainbow
as a sign that God is not going to choose mass annihilation again.
People have reassurance and God has a check on negative impulses.
Thus, from the beginning humanity establishes a pattern of going with
base instincts instead of with divine directions and the Spirit’s nudging at
our hearts and lives. Finally God inaugurates a plan that will renew
the face of the earth. The sign of this new creation is once again
water, but this water is not for drowning the reprobate, but for cleansing
him or her from the inside out. John bursts onto the scene and urges
us to wake up, turn around our lives, and embrace a new start as forgiven
folks. The act of baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ adult
ministry, and in the process his heavenly Father reminds Jesus that he is
dearly beloved. God keeps whispering those words into our hearts to
drown out the flood of criticism and blame the world keeps shouting.
Do you hear God’s whisper, Beloved One?
The Rev. Jennie
Lou D. Reid+
Rector, St. Faith’s Episcopal Church,
Cutler Bay, Florida
In a flash humanity manages to slide down that slippery slope from
profoundly blessed to doomed for destruction. We start out in Paradise
like a newborn baby with infinite possibilities for life, and before we are
wet behind the ears, we decide to choose instant gratification over
following the wise instruction from our truly best friend in that forbidden
fruit incident. As we begin making our way in the tough environment of
“real life,” jealous anger lures us to murder a brother, and soon humanity
has become evil through and through. It seems that the whole of human
ancestry has entered its teenage years, playing fast and loose with
consequences, and pursuing selfishness by default.
Mark Twain once said: “When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him
through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole.” And
even though Twain wrote those words millennia after the time of Noah, God
recognizes the sentiment. God makes us for himself, to enjoy our
company and to watch us grow and flourish, but one day when God looks down
on righteous Noah, God comes to realize that Noah alone cares about God:
about worshipping God and enjoying God’s friendship and about treating
others with respect and justice. Brokenhearted, God decides to make a
clean sweep. God will save Noah and his family and preserve a couple
of each species in Creation so that they can repopulate the earth after all
other breath has been snatched away. There is much about this story
that we have to read between the lines, but it seems that the extinction
experiment is somehow traumatic for God. So, God creates the rainbow
as a sign that God is not going to choose mass annihilation again.
People have reassurance and God has a check on negative impulses.
Thus, from the beginning humanity establishes a pattern of going with
base instincts instead of with divine directions and the Spirit’s nudging at
our hearts and lives. Finally God inaugurates a plan that will renew
the face of the earth. The sign of this new creation is once again
water, but this water is not for drowning the reprobate, but for cleansing
him or her from the inside out. John bursts onto the scene and urges
us to wake up, turn around our lives, and embrace a new start as forgiven
folks. The act of baptism marks the beginning of Jesus’ adult
ministry, and in the process his heavenly Father reminds Jesus that he is
dearly beloved. God keeps whispering those words into our hearts to
drown out the flood of criticism and blame the world keeps shouting.
Do you hear God’s whisper, Beloved One?
The Rev. Jennie
Lou D. Reid+
Rector, St. Faith’s Episcopal Church,
Cutler Bay, Florida
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