"God Remembers" March 5, 2006 First Sunday of Lent

(First read the text for this sermon: Genesis 9:8-17)


Whenever there is a youth activity, there is always the last youth to be picked up from the church! And when there’s a delay in Mom or Dad coming, how often it is that the youth says, “I hope she remembers to come and get me!” (Sometimes, the parents does forget his or her child! I remember an embarrassed father and mother, years ago. One Sunday, after all the morning activities had ended and most people had left the building, there was a little girl still there. It turned out that both the mother and father had driven separately. And both had assumed that the other was taking their daughter home …)

It’s not a good feeling, to be forgotten. For instance, how many parents of adult children know what its like for your children to forget your birthday? Being forgotten assaults our egos – you know, that little part of your consciousness that tells you that you are the center of the universe. And, I think our fear of being forgotten relates to the fear we have of death. I recently read this story from a former colleague of mine in Delaware, who has also moved on to another congregation:

“I had occasion to return a call to my former church in Delaware and to try and reach one of the pastors with whom I had worked there. There is a new receptionist at the phone in that church, a person added to the staff since I left. I have dreaded somewhat calling that church in the past, because I was so well known and the receptionist always knew my voice and would hold me up by asking how things were going here and how was I doing, and did I like New York, and all that. And I just wanted to have her pass me on to the person I called. But there’s a new person there now, and the new person does not know me.

“’May I speak to Anne,' I asked. ‘I’ll pass you through,’ the new receptionist said, ‘May I ask who’s calling?' ‘Jon Walton,’ I said with some hesitancy, sure she would recognize my name and say, ‘Oh I’ve heard so much about you’ and ‘How do you like New York?’ and all that. But instead she repeated back my name, ‘Jon Walton,’ completely disinterested. ‘Just a moment.’ I got Anne’s voicemail, but I also got a dose of reality. In a moment of time, in that lack of recognition, I realized that life moves on. Others come and take our place, and we will not always be remembered. Somebody else moves into the apartment we leave. Somebody else takes our job after us. Somebody else comes next, and we are reminded that we are dust and to dust we shall return.”

We are dust, and to dust we shall return. That is simply reality. In human memory, each one of us will be forgotten. I think of my father’s mother, for instance. She has always been a role model for me. But it is shocking for me to think that, when my brother and my two cousins and I die, there will be no one alive who will remember our grandmother! She will be forgotten, in just two generations!

Here is what I want to say to you today: God remembers.

All of those you and I have forgotten? God remembers. When you and I are dust and forgotten by all who will come after us? God will remember.

The story we read this morning, from Genesis, is about God who remembers.

It’s part of the Noah story. The flood has happened. The waters have receded, the dry land has appeared, all the animals and Noah’s family have disembarked from the ark. 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."

Notice the first thing about this story: It is describing pure grace! This story describes the first covenant that God makes with human beings. (The more familiar covenant with Abraham and Sarah comes later!) Did God have to make this covenant? Of course not. It is purely God’s initiative. It is grace and gift, wholly and entirely! Indeed, it is the result of God’s own repentance. According to the story, God is horrified at the destruction of the world in the flood!

Now, notice that this covenant God makes is universal. It is not limited to the community of faith. There was no people of God at this point! That only came with God’s call to Abraham, later in the Genesis story. “The [covenant with Noah] is permanent, but the Torah tells us that God chose Abraham, Sarah, and their children to be the bearers of an additional, particular covenant.” Because of the first covenant in Hebrew Scripture, the covenant God makes with Noah, even “Judaism…teaches that God stands not only in particularistic relationship with the Jewish people, but also in a universal relationship with all humanity.”

So, according to our Bible, God is in covenant with Jews and Christians and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and all flesh that is on the earth. (Verse 17) What unimaginable, universal grace! And this covenant of care is not limited to human beings! Did you notice that? We read that 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.” “Every living creature”: all of the creatures in nature. What ecological implications! Part of our Lenten penitence must be confessing our complicity in the damage we do to our environment by the cars we drive and the size of houses we live in and the resources we use, in proportion to the rest of the world. (Don’t get mad at me. I’m just being Biblical here!)

In grace, as gift, purely by God’s initiative, God creates a covenant of love with all human beings, all living creatures, for all future generations. God acts unilaterally, obligating God’s self! Pure grace. One hundred percent gift.

Now, let me speak to the theme of Lent, in the context of this morning’s passage from Genesis. It is to God’s initiative of grace and love that we are called to return, when we turn away from God.

God has acted first! For us Christians, God has done all that is necessary for our salvation, through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. We cannot save ourselves because we can never measure up to God’s desires for us – and so, God does it for us! Our lives of faith –our actions, our decisions, the words we speak, our devotional practices, are response to what God has done, first.

God establishes the covenant, and God maintains it in faithfulness. God remembers. Isn’t it a charming part of the story: the explanation for the rainbow in the sky? Did you notice that God places the rainbow in the sky, not for our benefit, but for God’s?! According to the story, God places the rainbow in the sky so that God will remember what God has promised – so that, when God sees the rainbow, God will remember to stop the rain! Delightful!

God remembers. According to the Bible, God is influenced by people and by events of suffering and pain. God does not forget us! Look at the progression. With Noah, God establishes the covenant. With Abraham and Sarah, God establishes a more specific covenant, “a particularistic relationship with the Jewish people.” And, of course, each time you and I gather around the Lord’s Table for his Supper, we hear these words: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.” (It is through our baptisms that God includes us in that covenant. And, remember, we refer to the story of Noah and the flood in our baptismal liturgy. See how it all ties together?)

“[S]hed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.” Through the covenants that God establishes with all flesh that is on the earth (to quote the last verse of our reading), God’s purpose is forgiveness and reconciliation, mercy and reunion.

God is faithful! God remembers! At times, you and I turn away. But when we turn away, God calls us to return.

What grace! What good news!

In the name of God who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.


Pastor Andy Ballentine
St. Stephen Lutheran Church
Williamsburg, Virginia