Then
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am
establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the
domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out
of the ark. I establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never
again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God
said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and
every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I
have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between
me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth
and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my
covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and
the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When
the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant
between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God
said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between
me and all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis
9:8-17 (NRSVA)
Saint
Benedict, who wrote the guidebook for monastic living, said that a monk’s life
“…ought to be a continuous Lent.” He
also recognized that not many people have the strength of discipline to live
Lent all year long, so he suggested using Lent to “wash away the
negligence of other things.”[1]
After nine
long months Noah and his family stepped out of the floating zoo onto dry
land. If you consider what they had been
through, you can sense what Lent tries to convey to our understanding.
The Ark was a LONELY place
Remembering
that every living human being and animal on planet earth had succumbed to the
flood waters, and that Noah and his seven family members at that moment
comprised the entirety of humanity, made “global community” a very small scope
with an overwhelming sense of aloneness.
Lent should speak of the aloneness man faces without a Savior.
The Ark was a DARK place
Alfred
Hitchcock and Stephen King have made a fortune with the terror of the
darkness. In antediluvian times darkness
was to be feared. Even today we cannot
shake our natural fear of the dark.
Noah’s little family huddled against the darkness of a storm, surrounded
by the darkness of a closed ark. Lent
should speak of the darkness in our souls which craves the light of God.
The Ark was an UNCERTAIN place
No matter where
Noah looked there was water! God had
promised…but, would they have enough food to wait out the waters? God had said they’d be safe…but, the animals
were restless.
Fear of the
unknown is perhaps the most emotionally-paralyzing prospect of human existence. If there is anything that makes a dog bark,
or a child cry, or the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up, it is
uncertainty.
For Noah,
if God was that angry to wipe man off the face of the earth – what did that
mean for him? Had he dodged a bullet
only to face God alone and in the dark?
What was to become of them?
Lent ought
to speak of the uncertainty which life in the 21st century smears
over our hearts. But, then…
The Ark Brought Noah to a NEW PLACE
God’s
promise (or covenant) was unequivocal and was not predicated upon anything
mankind would do or keep from doing; God just promised – NO more catastrophic
floods to start over.
God’s
promise was also not just to Noah, but to his descendants – you and me! And God said He would always keep watch over
that promise. So, every time you see a
rainbow, you and God are staring at the same thing at the same time. That should spark chill bumps up and down
your spinal column, when you consider the context in which the promise is
made. God has chosen to never again
destroy the planet.
So God Keeps His Promises?
The whole
point of the flood account making it into Holy Scripture, and that of Lent is
to keep before us the reality of just how far God goes to keep His
promises. He’ll go as far as a cross and
an empty tomb!
Lent should
do more than cause us to give up drinking or chocolate for a few weeks. It ought to be as life-changing as spending
40 days and nights in the terror of darkness, loneliness and uncertainty of the
storms – and then coming out into the light of God’s marvelous promise!
What’s It All About, Preacher?
Let me not
“toy” with you here. If you’re like me
you occasionally trudge through dry spots – valleys, really – where you are
just going through the motions, hitting the high spots and wondering if things
will ever get better. You are empty
spiritually, depleted physically and strained by time and commitment, and
surrounded by conflicts. Life stinks!
This is
where Lent comes in, friend!
I recently
read some excerpts from a work by Debra Farrington[2],
who quotes monastic guides for stepping out of the ark – and finding sunlight
and firm land. In it she suggested a few
things that began to light my Lenten fire.
Let me share a few of them as a suggestion to
those of us who may have an empty spiritual gas tank today:
Re-Connection
Re-connect
with God. That presupposes that there
has been a “disconnect”. We don’t mean
for it to happen, but somewhere in the middle of living life and doing all that
people expect, the one person in our lives that should not be neglected is
God.
Like a
light that’s been turned off, or dimmed too much, we need reconnection. We need to take a slice from whatever time we
now spend on worthless things – or even good things – and do the best thing; we
need to reconnect with the One who loves us.
Lent means coming out of the darkness to reconnect with
light!
Recreation
We Americans have a hard time not
working more. Surveys suggest that in
the 1990’s the average American added a week of work to his schedule each
year. And it’s getting worse!
Lent means coming up from the
darkness of tending the Ark’s residents and leaky hull, to grab a breath of
fresh air and play with the doves hanging out on the mast.
Relaxation
Scripture is plain at this point; it
is a waste of time to stay up late and rise early if you’re trying to do it all
in the flesh.[3]
Every so often I will find myself
violating that principle. After multiple
late nights of meetings or ministry I’m strung-out and still have to prepare a
sermon and a zillion other items for Sunday.
I awake early and have to use a whip and cow prod to get myself out of
bed to do devotions and study. Pursuing
a relationship with God is much better accomplished when one has had rest.
Lent comes to the over-amped,
under-rested saint and says, “God is on the job; go take a nap”!
Release
Jesus said that our lives do not
revolve around things. The poorest
American has much more than 80% of the world’s people. We have enough stuff!
Lent says, “Be Detached from all this
stuff and see how much you can do to help someone else”.
The Bottom Line
I have found myself in one of those
valleys recently…all dry, parched and spiritually depleted. I’m glad Lent is here. My game plan is to:
·
Reconnect
with God each day – I’m not on vacation, but I’m taking a little extra time to
talk to my Lord.
·
Recreate
– Scratch the dog’s ear each time I pass her in the hallway, take Elizabeth for
an ice cream cone.
·
Rest
– The TV is off!
·
Release
– I’m going to let go worrying about stuff, and start hunting for some way to
be a blessing to someone else.
The covenant of the rainbow was
something God gave to assure us that God was not interested in destroying
mankind. During Lent it should also
speak to us that He’s not particularly fond of seeing us self-destruct
either.
Lent – a season of life!
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