What would you do if you were God? And you saw the world you had made had turned toward violence toward one another and the earth?

The book of Genesis contains the old, old stories of our faith, the record of God’s relationship with humankind. We were created for relationship with God and we don’t make it past the 6th chapter of Genesis before God has despaired of human potential. In chapter 6 we read, “The Lord saw the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth and the Lord was sorry that he made humankind. I have determined to make an end to all flesh for the earth is filled with violence because of them.”That’s when God instructed Noah to build the ark.

Dr. Craig Barnes remembers the children’s Sunday School version of this story with the animals, neat and orderly, making their way into the ark and the story written by those who were tempted to believe that God will punish the wicked and preserve the righteous no matter how few they are. As we mature, we begin to have doubts about the mythology of the story and what it says about a God that would destroy all these sinners.

We skip ahead to chapter nine that we read this morning. Coming out of the flood, God remembers. God is moving toward his people, toward us. Walter Brueggemman writes, And then, in a jarring moment of recognition, we are told, “God remembered,” God remembered the faithful who had not joined the insanity. God is stopped short in the frenzy of emotion the way a parent of a teenager is stopped short when one remembers that this object of rage is a well-beloved daughter…or son. God comes to God’s sense, after having lost the way:

The waters subsided;
they gradually receded;
The waters abated;
The waters continued to abate and the dry land appeared, a tool of God’s remembering resolve.
This story is not about water. It is about God and God’s deep way with the earth, God’s raging anger at betrayal, and God’s abrupt about-face when God remembered what God had forgotten, had forgotten about loving the earth and the creatures in it. God’s response leads him to make a covenant with the earth in verses 11-13. Seven times over the 10 verses, notice how God’s covenant is established in all the earth, with all people, across all generations. Covenant is the Bible’s word for the strong relationship between God and us. The heart of the covenant is our belonging to God and God’s belonging to us. God says, 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.” The rainbow is not a sentimental reassurance that things are going to get better. According to Biblical scholars, the rainbow is really God’s reminder to himself of his promise. It is a symbol of God’s covenant between him and the earth.

Dr. Craig Barnes explains that God is telling all flesh for all generations, ‘I will never use my weapons against my creatures again.’ Now, let’s be careful about what this does not say. It doesn’t say that there aren’t still going to be times when you face a flood of adversity. When your loved one dies, when you are filled with panic and fear about the future, when you feel tired and defeated, it is not because God is mad at you. It doesn’t say that humans will stop tearing each other apart. When we forget God’s covenant, we forget that God is a partner with us in our conflict, in our struggles, in our wilderness.

The scripture from Mark’s gospel begins with Jesus’ baptism. “ And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

I read a story about a Biblical scholar explaining Mark 1 to a group of teenagers. He told the teens that when Jesus was baptized, the skies did not just open up, but in the original Greek of Mark 1:10 we are told the skies ripped open, split in an almost violent way. He made the point that when Jesus was baptized the heavens that separate us from God were ripped open so that now we have access to God.

There is a sense that in Jesus’ baptism, God was tearing open the veil of the heavens because he was now coming close to us by way of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit who is empowering Jesus for the ministry before him. “And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

God was present with Jesus in his wilderness. The wilderness experience is about God going through the wilderness experience to better understand our own wilderness experiences, to give us an example of our experience of grief, the loneliness of saying no that feels like utter abandonment and isolation.

I end with this from Kathleen Norris, Acedia and Me: God comes into our wilderness. That is the promise. We are not finally alone there. In the lonely wilderness of illness and grief, angels come to wait on us. The church is there, friends are there, reaching out to touch and comfort and hold us, reminders that God is there, that we are held tightly by the One who loves us.

This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.