Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19
Proper 4 (9) – Year A
The pericope for today is pretty mechanical. It speaks of building an escape pod that is somehow to be so formative that the blessing/curse genetics of human beings will be reduced to that of only being a blessing for G*D (not by G*D).
It is as if G*D has been talking to “himself” again and plans this re-creation with an initial big negative (flood) and an expanded positive (increasing the food chain to all creatures rather than just plants). I expect this story was to teach us to always acquiesce to G*D because there would always be a threat of a flood (well, a fire next time) poised to sweep us away.
This is a different story than living in a garden protected from the ravages of chaos. How can you expect a future threat, unexperienced, to hold for very long? Here there is concrete evidence of a creator’s curse.
Take a look around at today’s world, church, and state. If we are to assist making a shift to fruitfully live together, it might be well for us to move away from generalized fears for the future to demonstrate how a curse to come grows from our decisions of today. That is, in both church and state, how do we concretize the presence of fascism in order to clarify the closeness of curse? In both church and state, how do we bring a word of blessing that will open eyes to a rebirth of community (Christian and otherwise).
The selected passages skip through a larger story dealing with the limits of creation. When we read the whole section about Noah, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find everyone back where they started—in need of steadfast, rainbow love.
The shifting sands of our life lead us, again and again, to search for a rainbow where we might find an ark-of-gold that will make everything right. We just don’t want to have our rainbow come after great turmoil. But until we are more constantly ready for change, these are lessons to be gone over again.
May the certainty of closed heads not erase an exploration by open hearts.
It is as if G*D has been talking to “himself” again and plans this re-creation with an initial big negative (flood) and an expanded positive (increasing the food chain to all creatures rather than just plants). I expect this story was to teach us to always acquiesce to G*D because there would always be a threat of a flood (well, a fire next time) poised to sweep us away.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
So where are you these days?
- preparing for disaster, with all the energy that takes?
- waiting through the long days of gestation to some new environment?
- living into new relationships? (it is one thing to be cooped up together for survival and another to go forth and choose to yet remain in relationship)
Whichever state you find yourself in, may you know you are blessed.
One view of the progressive movement is that we have entered into the third of these stages. We are past the flood of literal/creedal limitations taking our breath of inspiration away, we have redeveloped our spiritual disciplines during our confinement, we are going forth to live our gifts and, yet, to stay in relationship with all the other creations of G*D.
Guess what, this is not the end of the story as we have yet to cycle through other floods such as the cycle of Babel to Pentecost and slavery to exodus and death to resurrection and others we cannot so neatly label.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html
Blessings and Curses abound. Our tendency is to focus on one or the other. This is a great theological divide between people, as great as the language issue at Babel.
Are you a glass half-full or half-empty person in your initial orientation and how do you account for the experiences of life that point in the other direction? Between recognizing our proclivities and overcoming our resistance to change lies the experience of Pentecost.
The pericope for today is pretty mechanical. It speaks of building an escape pod that is somehow to be so formative that the blessing/curse genetics of human beings will be reduced to that of only being a blessing for G*D (not by G*D)
It is as if G*D has been talking to “himself” again and plans this re-creation with a big negative (flood) and an expanded positive (expanded food chain to all creatures rather than just plants). I expect this story was to teach us to always acquiesce to God because there would always be the threat of a flood (well, a fire next time) hanging over our heads.
This is a different story than living in a garden protected from the ravages of chaos. How can you expect a future threat, unexperienced, to hold for very long? Here there is concrete evidence of a creator’s curse.
Take a look around at today’s world, church and state. If we are going to assist making the shift to fruitfully live together it might be well for us to move away from generalized fears for the future to demonstrate how a curse to come will grow from our decisions of the past. That is, in both church and state, how do we concretize the presence of facism in order to clarify the closeness of curse? In both church and state, how do we bring a word of blessing that will open our eyes to a rebirth of community (Christian and otherwise).
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
An example of the duplicity available within the blessing and curse model - [For the record my fingers first typed “blessing and church” and I had to go back to respell.]
The newsletter of a religious right group within our Annual Conference had on their front page:
In light of this sermon [“Catholic Spirit” by John Wesley], and our desire for unity within our annual conference, we continue to hope that members of the executive committee for the Kairos CoMotion event hosted at Lake Street UMC in March will accept our invitation for genuine dialogue. Because the cross of Christ (doctrine of atonement) is essential to our identity as United Methodist Christians, we feel it is imperative for us to have honest conversations about salvation and the hope that is within us."
As I read this, the blessing of unity, genuine dialogue, and honest conversation keeps getting trumped by the curse of some preconceived eternal doctrine deemed essential to one’s identity.
It feels as if they have claimed the Noah spot and Progressive Christians are relegated to those who are evil, continually. Without falling into the trap of participating in a conversation that has no honesty because the conclusion is known by one party, how might we yet be helpfully parabolic by following the Jesus tradition of opening new possibilities for those who might have the ears to hear.
It is difficult to foresee even a benign outcome to our experiences of having the certainty of closed heads erase the explorations of open hearts. Right now this matter is in the flood of a no-win situation. Pray for a new start that will lead past where we currently are.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/may2005.html
The earth was apparently built on a sand foundation when a breath moved over the deep. The crust over the deep was shaky. It leaked. Some even called it corrupt.
Eden turned out not to be all it was cracked up to be. Our nostalgic tendency has made more of Eden than it could stand.
A building on sand is very much like an ark afloat – unstable, uncertain where it is going to end up and when it will finally come back to reality.
At any rate, after falling buildings and falling water Noah and family come back to earth only to find that corruption has come with them. Not only have things come on board, two-by-two, but so has our ability to see things dualistically. Immediately after landing we find irresponsibility, nakedness, and blame all back. Wine and bodies and relationships are all ambivalent experiences, but here they become either-or, this-or-that, and life is taken out of them and we are left with only caricatures and exaggerations of G*D's image.
Since we are always dealing with the limits of creation, it shouldn't be too surprising to find Noah and family back where they started – in need of steadfast, rainbow, love that builds on sand, again and again, until we learn to have this reality become a rock upon which we can rely – wait a moment and the life we have constructed will all come tumbling down – a readiness for change.