February 14, 2010

“Humanity is Pretty Cool”

(Loosely based on the story of Noah’s Ark)

              There are some stories in the Bible that are hard to understand.  This story that we are talking about today, about the flood, and Noah, and the Ark, and all the animals – real versions of the ones we blessed today – this is one of those stories that sure is hard to understand.  You see this a story about something pretty bad that happened.  We try to tell the story nicely, but there is just no getting around the fact that the only reason God told Noah to build a really big boat, is because there was going to be a really big flood, and all the people and animals were in danger.  So this is a story about when bad stuff happens.

            You know what?  I used to be a kid, like you.  So I know that kids are pretty smart and tend to figure things out a lot faster than adults tend to think they do.  So I suspect that you have already figured out that sometimes really bad stuff happens. 

Sometimes bad stuff, even really bad stuff, just happens for no reason at all.  We had a bad snow storm a few weeks ago and the snow was really heavy and it stuck to the branches of the trees at my house and lots of the branches broke off the trees and I had to spend a lot of time and whole bunch of money to get it all cleaned up.  That was bad, but there is no reason for it, it just happened because big storms happen.  And you have probably heard in the last few weeks that there was a big, terrible earthquake in a country called Haiti.  Buildings were destroyed and lots of people died and it was really, really bad – but there is no reason for it, it just happened because of the way the earth is, there are earthquakes.    Sometimes really bad stuff just happens for no reason at all.

And sometimes really bad stuff happens because people try to do good things, but it doesn’t turn out right, and in fact turns out pretty bad – like I remember when I was young and we had a swing outside beside my house.  It was a swing hooked up to the branch of a tree, and it could go really high.  I asked my brother to push me in the swing, and told him to push me higher and higher.  But on one push one of his hands sort of slipped or something, which made me go all crazy sideways in the swing.  I got scared and thought I was going to hit the tree, so I tried to kind of jump out of the swing, but I didn’t land right and I hit my chin on the ground and smashed my teeth together, and man oh man oh golly did it hurt.  I started crying and screaming and my chin was bleeding and I had to go to the emergency room at the hospital and see a doctor and get stitches.  I even chipped one of my teeth – you can barely see it, but right here and it remains chipped to this day.  So it was bad – but it only happened because my brother was trying to do something good, by pushing me in the swing.  And again, the same thing is true for adults.  Maybe car accidents are a good example.  It is a good thing that people are able to drive around in cars and go to work and go to school and go buy things they need and come to church.  But with all those cars out there, with people doing good things, sometimes people make mistakes and there are accidents and cars crash into each other, and people get hurt, and sometimes get hurt very badly, and that’s bad – but it only happens because people are driving around, which is basically a good thing.  So sometimes bad stuff happens because people try to do good things, but it doesn’t turn out right.

And sometimes really bad stuff happens because people do bad things – like have you ever seen someone get pushed so they fall and then get hurt?  Yeah.  People aren’t always very nice.  And that’s true about adults too.  I think you know that there are wars in the world, places where people are fighting with guns and bombs and all sorts of horrible things.  It’s very sad, but every kid figures out that people aren’t always very nice.  So sometimes bad stuff happens because people do bad things.

Now, I have been talking to you kids for, hmmm, quite a while now.  But you know what?  All those adults are listening too, because everybody is interested when you start talking about bad stuff that happens.  And, well, this is church – and so people, both adults and kids, start wondering what all this has to do with God.  And, you know, we all start thinking about this at some point.  Maybe when you are three, or nine, or thirty or ninety, but we all starting thinking about what God has to do with all this bad stuff that happens.  Maybe you, or some of you, noticed that when I was talking about  the different kinds of bad stuff that happens, I never said that God makes any of the bad stuff happen.  And I think that that is true.  God does not make bad stuff happen.  God does not make random bad things, like earthquakes, happen. God does not make things get messed up when people are doing good things.  And God does not make people do bad things.    God does not make bad stuff happen.

            And here’s one comment that I especially want the adults to hear – although you are welcome to listen too.  When, in the Bible, it looks like God is making bad things happen, that is the Bible’s way of saying that when people do bad things, bad things happen.  Sometimes the connection between the bad things people do and the bad things that happen is very complex and the results are very indirect.  And in that complex, indirect space the Bible, rightly, I think, finds God.  The Bible clearly says that God caused the Flood because of human sinfulness.  But when the Bible says that God punishes humanity, it is saying that God allows us to suffer the consequences of our sometimes very serious wrongdoing.  The Flood is the Bible’s way of saying that people were seriously messing up God’s good creation, and God allowed people and creation to suffer the consequences.   So God doesn’t cause bad things to happen, but when humans do bad things, God does allow us to suffer the consequences.

            Okay, so back to you young folks now.  And actually, back to the story of Noah, the Ark, and all those animals.  What the story of Noah’s Ark is really all about, is helping us live in a world in which bad stuff happens.  Obviously, the Flood was a bad thing.  It rained and rained and rained so long that lots of stuff was wiped out.  People died, animals died, the whole place was covered with water.  But God had Noah build the Ark.  God provided a way for things to keep going.  God provided a way for people and animals not to be wiped out, to keep going.  That Ark that God had Noah build, kept the people and the animals alive.  God loved the people, and God loved the animals, and God provided a way for them to make it through. 

             And that’s why this is a story we remember today.  Because God is still doing the same thing today.  God still loves the people, and God still loves the animals, and God still provides a way for us to make it through.

Today the Ark is the Church.  Through the church God provides a way for humanity to make it through.  I think many of you know that poem we do with our hands: Here is the church.  Here is the steeple.  Open the doors and see all the people.  Well, I want to teach you a second part to that:  Here is the church.  Here is the steeple.  Open the doors and see all the people.  When times are bad, and things look dark, always remember, the church is the Ark.  (With hand motions.)

Now that doesn’t mean that bad stuff will never happen to us when we are part of the church.  I don’t think we are being very honest about life if we don’t admit that bad stuff happens.  But because today, the Ark is the Church, it does mean that through the church God will provide a way for us to make it through the bad times, the dark times.  God still loves the people, and God still love the animals, and God still provides a way for us to make it through.

Here is the church.  Here is the steeple.  Open the doors and see all the people.  When times are bad, and things look dark, always remember, the church is the Ark.  (With hand motions.)