Abc - The Building Blocks Of Faith- Catastrophe Series

Today we continue our series entitled, The ABC’s of faith. The larger idea is based on the idea that we learn over time through an exploration process of success and failure. Everything we come to know and understand is built over time on the foundation of trial and error.

We learned last week, the wooden blocks we have all played with were an idea in 1594, a practical concept 100 years after that, and only then it would take another 175 years to be mass practice and produced as the blocks we know and love from Brooklyn, New York.

Last week,we talked about corruption of humanity and this week we continue with our “C” alliteration by building on the ideas creation and corruption by talking about the idea of catastrophe as part of our Christian witness. These are the building blocks (or the major aspects) of Christian identity that help us to withstand the storms of life. So after hearing today’s scripture, did you ask yourself”

Why flood the earth? Wasn’t there another way?

Or did you immediately recall the famous statement written by Richard Dawkins about God in his book the God Delusion in which he said,

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

Or said by a friend who read the whole bible for the first time, “What’s the deal with the God of the Old Testament? It seems like he’s a grumpy old man just watching 3 year olds misbehave and all he has is a stick to whack them to behave.”

I understand what he was saying. The Old Testament can make new Christians uncomfortable because it's not the loving Jesus we sing about. But when we take in the whole story we see a God of love whose nature reflects the fruit of His Holy Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. Or as the psalmist wrote: "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8)"

The story of the flood is more than a story of God’s action on a faithless society. Let’s take a look at the scripture texts we heard this morning and unpack the truth underneath. Genesis 6: 5.

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.

Do you remember watching the planes hit the twin towers? Do you remember your anger? Do you remember how every time they replayed it your anger increased? Do you remember watching President Bush telling us we were going to respond and pundits saying we should drop a nuclear bomb and make glass of all the desert sand? Or more recently, watching the Palestinian video footage of the massacre at the music festival? Or the deaths of innocents in Gaza?

Now, compound that feeling by 750 million because outside of the eight righteous the bible tells us that is how many were behaving badly. How upset would you be? Would you wait to act for generations?

6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

The words “The Lord regretted” cut to the core of my human heart. The Hebrew word used here is yin'na'hem, from the root word ‘nacham.’ The word is exclusively about emotions: a feeling of pain, sadness, or unhappiness. The word does not imply that God feels He has made a mistake, or that He wishes to have done differently. It is possible to experience grief and "regret," is used here, without implying an error. Any parent who has held a crying, upset child as they receive a vaccination has experienced exactly this emotional regret. Such a parent is "grieved" over the pain, but has no illusions that this was the wrong decision. However, this verse demonstrates the low point in the history of humanity. God is troubled. He is "grieved," or "pained," by the outcome of those created in His image. The men and women did not grieve their own sin. They would not repent. God could see humanity would eventually infect even Noah’s grandkids if he didn’t act.

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.