This coming Sunday in my "Difficult Scriptures" sermon series we turn to the story of Noah. How do we understand this story? Specifically, how do we understand the God of this story who kills every human, indeed all life, on earth except for Noah, his family, and a handful of animals? What about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? What about Jericho? Is God a God of love or of violence and retribution?
Our lessons are:
Genesis 6:1-8, 11-14, 19-22, 7:11-14, 23-24, 9:11-14 - The story of Noah and the ark is long but you should probable read it. It begins at 6:1 and ends at 9:17. It is actually two oral traditions that were woven together (see Google: two writers of Noah story). This story is also in the "pre-history" section of Genesis, chapters 1-11). The stories are not recorded to accurately recount history although there may be some historic memory recorded in the story of the flood. Many societies around the eastern Mediterranean have stories of a massive flood. Scientists believe that there was a massive Mediterranean flood of the region around the Black Sea. These need not concern us at this time. The question is "did God cause the flood that killed off humanity?" If not, why would the Bible say God did? What is our understanding of passages like the Noah story?
Luke 13:1-5 - Jesus is told that there were some people from Galilee who were murdered by Pilot's soldiers at the altar in Jerusalem. Jesus asks if they thought those who died were "worse sinners" than others. In other words, did they deserve to die because they were especially bad or evil? Jesus then mentions some people who died when a stone tower collapsed. Did the dead deserve to die; were they "worse offenders"? Perhaps the most perplexing of this passage is when Jesus says twice, ". . . unless you repent, you will perish just as they did." What? We've got some work to do.
Here is a link to my commentary on the Lectionary readings assigned for this Sunday: Readings for Sunday, November 9, 2014.
Have a great week serving God by serving our neighbors.
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Gary Taylor
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