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Pentecost 10, 2024
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
July 28, 2024
Genesis 9:8-17, Ephesians 3:14-21, Mark 6:45-56
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Have you ever seen a doomsday movie where the hero emerges from an underground shelter to the new, post-apocalyptic world? The unlikely hero blinks at the light and looks around at the destruction and then tries to overcome the challenges of life in the harshness of the new world.
For Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives it is no fiction. For a year they have been sealed up in a coffin-shaped ark filled with the sounds and smells of the most complete zoo of all times. For an entire year they have been confined in a floating menagerie 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.
God has destroyed the earth with a flood because of the sins of man. In that ark is all that is left of humanity as well as the birds and land animals that will repopulate the earth.
The story of Noah’s Ark is an incredibly harsh story, but I think sometimes we can get distracted by the perceived cuteness of the ark and the animals. There are children’s nurseries decorated in a Noah’s Ark theme with two elephants coming down the gangplank and two giraffes’ heads sticking out of the top of an adorable little boat which appears to be a terribly overloaded bathtub toy. In the background, there is a rainbow.
Animals are cute and all but I think that may mask the reality. The story of Noah’s Ark is a story of worldwide extermination. It is God’s wrath coming down upon sinful humans in the complete devastation of a deadly, worldwide flood.
The world’s population is reduced to eight souls closed up in a tiny speck of a boat on the vast, endless ocean. After what must have been a very long year, the waters finally recede and the land emerges. The ark comes to rest on a mountain and the eight people and all the creatures come out of the ark.
How strange it must be for Noah and his family emerging into an empty world. There is no one else around; everyone is gone, drowned in the deluge. The eight survivors likely feel very vulnerable in the aftermath of God’s wrath and any rain storm may now trigger horrible memories and fears.
God speaks to Noah and his family and makes a promise to them that He will never again destroy the earth with the waters of a flood. This promise is to Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives and their offspring, including you. It is a promise to every living creature coming off the ark, God will never again destroy the earth with water. And God gives Himself a sign to remember His promise. God sets a bow in the cloud as a sign of the covenant. The bow, a rainbow, is a sign for God that will remind Him that when He sends rain He will never again use it to destroy the earth. And it is a sign to us of God’s covenant promise. So, perhaps in the nursery of one of Noah’s great-great grandchildren, a scene of his Ark and the rainbow is a good reminder of God’s promise.
It is an awesome thing to see a rainbow, all those amazing colors painting the sky. I have heard that in days past children were taught to say the Lord’s Prayer when they saw a rainbow. I don’t remember doing that. At my house, growing up, my mom would give us a Popsicle to celebrate a rainbow. When you see one, you want to share it with others. Rainbows are special.
But the true meaning of the rainbow lately has gotten obscured. We have tales of the Leprechaun’s pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, we have Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” in the “Wizard of Oz”. Gay rights groups resonated with Garland’s rough and tumble battles in life and adopted a rainbow flag as a symbol of their movement. And so now if you see a rainbow symbol at a church it is not clear what it means.
Interestingly, the pride flag has only six colors whereas God’s rainbow has seven. Six is the number of man, seven, the number of God. God’s rainbow is the sign of His promise to you as the offspring of Noah. And that promise is still in effect today; never again a great flood.
And you can see evidence of that great flood all around you. The stones of this building are full of fossil evidence of the flood. As you look at the rocks and see fossil remains of countless animals buried in rock layers, you are reminded that where you sit today was the bottom of an ocean thousands of feet deep. When you see the fossil remains of an animal, you are reminded of God’s judgment at the time of Noah.
And when you see a rainbow in the sky, remember God’s promise to never again destroy the earth with a flood. Never again with a flood…but the earth will be destroyed. God has promised to destroy the earth on the last day… with fire. The judgment day is coming and even then there will be a rainbow.
In the Revelation of John we see the rainbow surrounding the throne of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. Jesus sits on the judgment seat surrounded by a rainbow and this is good news.
But how can the judgment throne of God be good news? God is perfect and you are flawed. God is Holy and you are a sinner. When Martin Luther was a monk he feared the judgment throne. Luther writes, “For I did not believe in Christ; I regarded Him only as a severe and terrible Judge, portrayed as seated on a rainbow.”[1]
But after Luther discovered the Gospel he looked forward to the Day of Judgment with joy, “Therefore we who come to Christ want to have Him as a gracious Lord. The rainbow on which He sits enthroned does not terrify me; it appears for my salvation. We do not look upon Him as a judge. He will call for us. He will not reject us. He will also protect us against the devil.” [2]
God has made a promise to you in Christ Jesus. You need not fear the judgment because you are covered by the grace of Jesus. You still have the sign of the rainbow that God will not destroy the world with water. Now He saves with water. As we hear in 1 Peter 3:20–21 (ESV) 20 … they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…”
You have water as a sign and method of salvation through Holy Baptism. How do you know you are saved? Because you have been baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection.
And you have the sign and method of salvation in Holy Communion. How do you know Jesus died for you and promises you salvation? Because He has given you His flesh to eat and His blood to drink.
You have the sign of the holy cross showing you how Jesus saves you, as Luther writes, “To us in the New Testament, Baptism and the Eucharist have been given as the visible signs of grace, so that we might firmly believe that our sins have been forgiven through Christ’s suffering and that we have been redeemed by His death. Thus the church has never been deprived to such an extent of outward signs that it became impossible to know where God could surely be found.”[3]
God has promised to save you. He gives you baptism. He gives you Holy Communion. Trust God.
When you see a rainbow, take a moment to ponder what Noah and his family must have been thinking when they emerged from the Ark, and what an amazing promise God made to them with the rainbow. When you see water, remember the promise of your baptism. When you see bread or wine, remember God’s promise to you in Holy Communion. When you see a cross remember you are forgiven in the blood of Jesus. Remember you are free in Christ. Amen.
[1] (Luther's Works 24), S. 24:24
[2] (Luther's Works 23), S. 23:61
[3] (Luther's Works 1), S. 1:248