July 16, 2023 homily on Genesis 6:13-22 by Pastor Galen
The story of Noah and the Ark is one of the most iconic stories in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). We love to picture the animals proceeding into the ark two by two, the ark floating on the water and eventually resting on the top of a mountain, and the rainbow in the sky as God’s promise never to destroy the Earth with a flood again.
Noah and the Ark makes for a wonderful children’s story, if you focus on the boat, and all of the animals that were rescued, and downplay the massive destruction that took place as whole civilizations on earth were wiped out by the flood.
Christians have historically seen Noah’s ark as a symbol of Salvation or of the Church. Just as God saved Noah and his family from destruction, so too we believe that we who are followers of Christ will be saved from judgment, when Jesus returns to put a final end to evil and injustice and makes everything right. We know that God will never again destroy the earth with a flood, as God promised Noah, but we know that there will be a day of judgment, and Noah’s ark and the rainbow remind us that we too can place our hope and trust in the Lord for salvation. In truth, this is probably the main thing that we should take away from this story.
Noah Found Favor in the Sight of God
But this morning I’d like to focus in on the time before the flood. The time before Noah and his family and all of the animals entered the ark, before there was ever a rainbow or even a cloud in the sky. Back when God first called Noah to build the ark.
We see in Genesis chapter 6 that the world was so evil that God intended to wipe out everyone on the face of the earth. But then God saw Noah. The Bible tells us that “Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8), that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation” and that “Noah walked with God” (Noah 6:9). Now this is interesting to me. We don’t see here that Noah was an incredible philanthropist or humanitarian. We don’t have any evidence that Noah had ever performed any miracles, or held any position of religious or political leadership. We just see that he was righteous, blameless and that he walked with God.
Sometimes we wonder if God sees our little acts of faithfulness. We wonder if the little kindnesses that we show on a daily basis make any difference in this world. We see here that God sees, that God knows, and that one day God will indeed reward us for those humble acts of obedience and trust.
And we see here too that those tiny acts of faithfulness do indeed make a difference. Imagine, for example, if Noah had not been faithful, if he hadn’t walked with God. Then indeed, all of humanity would have been wiped out, and the whole world would have been destroyed! It’s because of Noah’s obedience that God decided to rescue humanity. And indeed it’s because of Noah’s willingness to obey God that we are here today, even though the task God called Noah to do must have seemed ridiculously large and complex.
A Massive Undertaking
You see, if we look more closely at the assignment that God gave Noah and his family, we see that this was a massive undertaking. According to the dimensions in Genesis 6, the ark that Noah was commanded to build was about 510 feet long — in other words, about 1 and a half football fields in length! Even today with our modern technology and construction equipment this would be considered an extensive building project.
I don’t know about you, but I get overwhelmed when I buy a piece of furniture from Ikea and it has to be assembled! (In fact, we have a piece of porch furniture in the front hallway of our house that I bought almost a year ago, and it’s still in the box because I haven’t made the time to put it together yet!) But for Noah, the boat didn’t just come needing to be assembled. The trees had to be chopped down, the boards had to be sawed, the nails had to be forged, and the adhesive needed to be sourced and mixed. This was a massive building project.
Not only that, but Noah was instructed to bring two of every kind of animal on earth into the ark, and to gather up enough food to keep all of them alive for the duration of the flood. I don’t know if the animals just miraculously traveled to the spot where Noah was building the ark, or if he had to go around the world capturing or taming the animals and learning about their natural habitats so he could collect just the right types of food to keep them alive for the duration of the flood, and build just the right types of pens and cages to house them in on the ark, but no matter how you slice it, this was an extensive project.
As an adult, there are so many things that I wonder about Noah and his family during this time. How could Noah afford to embark on this building project? Was he inherently wealthy, or did he have to do this nights and weekends while waking up every day to go off to a 9-5 job so that he could pay the bills? Did his wife have to pick up a second job to buy food for their family so Noah could quit his job and do this full time? After all, no one was paying them to build this ark, and the materials could not have been cheap!
And how did he know how to do all of this? Had he studied carpentry or architecture, or nautical engineering? What about zoology? And what did his friends and neighbors and family members say? Surely they must have thought he had “gone off the deep end” when he first told them about the project. Even while they were building the ark, their family certainly must have been seen as odd. After all, Jesus tells us in Matthew 24 that “in those days before the flood [people] were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark” (Matthew 24:38). Everyone else around them was continuing on with life as normal, living it up, while Noah and his family had to be completed dedicated and devoted to the task at hand.
And so with all of this, it would have been completely understandable if Noah had said to God, “No way!! There’s no way I can do that. It’s too absurd of an assignment. Maybe I’ll build a little boat for me and my family and a few of our pets, but there’s no way I can gather up two of every kind of animal on the face of the earth, or build a boat big enough to accommodate all of them!” Truth be told, that’s what most of us would have been inclined to say.
We don’t have any record of Noah pushing back, or arguing with God, although it’s very possible that he did. It’s possible that he and his wife wrestled with this for days or weeks or even months. It’s possible that he spent anxious nights lying awake at night, alternating between wrestling with God, wondering what his friends and family were going to say, and mentally drafting building plans and sketches in his head. If Noah was anything like us, he probably did feel overwhelmed at just the thought of beginning a project like this. But in the end, the Bible tells us that “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.” (Genesis 622). And because of Noah’s faithfulness, his family was saved, humanity was preserved, and we have Noah and his family in part to thank for the fact that we’re here today.
Takeaways
Now, none of us have been called to build an ark and gather up two of every kind of animal on the face of the earth. But I’m sure all of us are concerned about the safety and well-being of our family members, and we want to do everything we can to keep them safe. At the same time, we see so many needs in the world around us. Our hearts break when we see evil and pain and injustice, poverty, and environmental destruction, and the list could go on and on. We wonder how we can create a better life for our family and those who will come after us, while at the same time following through with whatever calling God has placed upon our lives. We wonder how our gifts or skills can make an impact in the world, or we wonder how God can possibly use the little bit that we have to help build God’s Kingdom.
I think one of the takeaways from the story of Noah is that we are called to be faithful and obedient to God, no matter how big or how small a task God has called us to. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither was the ark! It probably took Noah and his family decades to build the ark. And, on any given day, the tasks they had to do may not have seemed all that exciting. Hammering nails, sawing boards, feeding animals. And yet day in and day out they had to choose to be faithful and obedient, and to carry out the assignment that God had given them.
Maybe we can’t save the whole world, or protect all of the animals on the planet. But maybe you can adopt a pet. Maybe you can sponsor one child who is hungry, or send a card to a loved one who is sick. Maybe you can take a home-cooked meal to a grieving neighbor, or invite an international student or a refugee family to join you for Thanksgiving dinner.
Another takeaway for me is that working for the safety and well-being of our own family members does not have to conflict with working for the good of the world and those around us. As we think about the type of world we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in, as we think about what it would take for them to flourish, most likely others want that for their families as well. And so we are called to work for an end to violence and for the flourishing of our families and the community around us. We are called to preserve and protect the environment, to work for clean air and water, and for the protection of endangered species, knowing that this will be good not only for the world, but for us and our loved ones as well.
And so this morning, may we trust that God sees our tiny acts of obedience and that God can and will multiply our daily acts of faithfulness for the good of our families and the world around us. May we seek to be obedient to God’s call on our lives, no matter how big or how small the task may seem. And may we look to the Lord for our hope and our salvation, and trust in God’s unfailing love.
Amen!
Hampden United Methodist Church 