Rescue at Sea -- A Message for October 4, 2026

 

Friends, today is World Communion Sunday…Christians all over the world are meeting at the communion table today. Our faith is an international faith. Our God is the God of all the people scattered across the globe.

We are reminded of the global nature of our faith as we return to the story of the people of God. For 400 years, the Hebrew people who worshipped God lived among the people of Egypt. They moved there when Joseph was a leader in Egypt. They initially found refuge in Egypt – the Egyptian people fed them and nurtured them during a terrible famine. Like many refugees, they had to flee because of a natural disaster in their homeland….and in Egypt, they found “home.”

But, things turned ugly in Egypt. The people who initially welcomed them and provided refuge to the Hebrew people turned against them. They were forced into bondage, into slavery. Things got worse and worse….finally, the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, demanded that the Egyptian people kill all of the baby boys born to the Hebrew people. The Pharaoh decided to eradicate the Hebrew people.

This was too much. It was too much for the Hebrews. It was too much for God.

God raised up a leader in Moses. Moses went to Pharaoh and pleaded for the release of the Hebrew slaves. Despite his pleas, Pharaoh was hard-hearted and refused to release the Hebrews. God caused 10 plagues to fall upon the land of Egypt. Finally, after the 10th plague, the Pharaoh agreed the Hebrew people could leave. 

But, then he changed his mind. We turn to the story of the escape of the Hebrews in the book of Exodus, chapter 14. Please turn to verse five with me….

The Scripture Exodus 14:5-7, 10-14, 21-29

5 When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” 

6 So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. 

7 He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. 

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 

11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 

12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 

14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 

22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 

24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 

25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

26 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” 

27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. 

28 The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

29 But the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

The Message Rescue at Sea

There is an old Irish proverb from the 14th century that is still familiar to us ... .it says; “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.” We are sometimes more comfortable in familiar situations, even when they are unhappy, than when we are trying new things. 

The Hebrew slaves were having a hard time in Egypt….they started out free but then they became slaves. The Pharaoh kept making their burden more difficult – they had to build vast buildings and monuments…. They were required to make the bricks for the walls and foundations of these structures. When they started asking for freedom, the Pharaoh increased their work-load. He stopped providing straw to aid in the production of bricks. They had to get up earlier in the day to scavenge for straw before they started making the bricks. And, then, the Pharaoh increased their output – each slave was required to make more and more bricks each day. There was no end in sight. The Pharaoh and his minions were cruel overlords. 

And, regularly, the Pharaoh was afraid of the strength of the slaves. In the past, he tried to weaken them by having their male babies killed. He was a terrible despot.

After 10 terrible plagues, the Pharaoh decided that keeping the Hebrew slaves was too dangerous. In order to have peace – and in order for his own people to stay alive – he had to free the slaves. So, they were freed. They began marching away towards the Promised Land. But, then the Pharaoh had a meeting with his advisors – maybe his accountants – and regretted freeing the slaves.  The economy in Egypt was dependent on their labor. They needed the slaves to return to work. Without them, the economy would collapse.

We recognize this. The economy of the plantation culture of the Southern United States collapsed when it could no longer depend on the labor of the freed American slaves.

So, the Pharaoh and his 600 best chariots and their drivers and a bunch of other military men chased after the Hebrews. When the former slaves saw the chasing army, they started to regret their predictament…they complained to Moses that it would have been better for them to stay slaves in Egypt than to be killed by the army out in the desert. “Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”

We know this predicament…well, we probably haven’t been slaves fleeing for our lives….but, we know the conflicting thoughts they were having….should I stay in this job I hate because the alternatives could be just as bad? …should I stay in this broken marriage because it is better than being alone? ….should I keep getting my hair cut by Sally even though I don’t like the way she does my bangs because otherwise I would have to find someone else to do my hair?

Often we feel risk-adverse or afraid to change something because the situation we are in is comfortable or safe or predictable, and changing will involve entering the unknown.

When ministers get together and talk at our ministerium gatherings or training sessions, one of the complaints they have is that they hear a lot from their congregation members, “...but, we have always done it this way.” ….”Our communion bread has always been Pepperidge Farm white bread, we can’t change it to wheat bread.” “We always have our picnic on the 3rd Sunday of July, we can’t change it to the 2nd Sunday.” “Our bell choir always plays at the 8 am Easter worship service, we can’t have it play at the 10 am Easter service.” Ugh…..

No matter how comfortable we are, we sometimes need to allow change….A seed has to die for a plant to grow. Sometimes the best course of action for our lives, and for our churches is to change.

And, this is scary.  We know what happened in the past….but we cannot predict the future.

The Hebrew slaves knew what happened in their past – but they didn’t know what was going to happen in their future.

Sometimes, God breaks into our lives in surprising ways. The fleeing Hebrews were up against a wall – or actually, they were up against a sea. They were pinned in with the Egyptian army on one side and the Red Sea on the other. They thought they were sitting ducks about to be slaughtered. But, then God performed a miracle. The sea was parted. A path opened up for them to cross over the sea. And, the Egyptians were so cocky, so confident, they didn’ stop themselves from following them. I don’t know about you, but if I thought God was favoring my enemy, and performing miracles to protect them, I maybe wouldn’t think that miracle extended for me. But, the Egyptian army followed the Hebrews and started crossing the sea on the dry ground that opened up. But once the Hebrews made it across, God stopped the miracle. The sea waters crashed back together. The Egyptian armies were lost.

Out of the chaos of the waters, the Hebrew slaves were born. Out of the waters of creation, God’s people were born.

When we are baptised, God uses the water to signify that we are re-born….we are a new creation. Our faith in Jesus helps us start over again. 

Despite not knowing what the future will hold, our God is a God of hope. God promises that God is with us when we trust in him. So, despite our reluctance to change, and try new things, sometimes we discover that when we trust in God, whatever the new thing God has for our future is profoundly better than what we had in the past.

This weekend, we have been very busy as a church. We have been tending to the flea market in our fellowship hall and in our parking lot. We have been cooking and baking and selling our wares. We have been taking people’s money for parking and their donations for the treasures. We are busy. And we are tired.

Sometimes, we are so busy doing what we are doing, so caught up in the moment, that we fail to pause and listen for God’s guidance in our lives. What does God want me to do now? What does God want our church to do next? What changes do we need to make to faithfully serve God into the future? 

So, let’s remember to stop…to breathe…to pray…to listen…to rest in God. It's ok for us to take a break.  It's ok after all of this “doing” to rest. And, let’s listen to what new things God is calling us to do. How can we work together to serve the Lord? What changes in our lives do we need to make to be faithful into the future? Maybe God will cause some unexpected miracles to unfold right in front of our eyes.

Let’s hope so.  Amen.

Joseph in Prison -- A Message for September 27, 2026

 

Friends, it feels like we are leaping through the Old Testament this fall. We started a few weeks ago as we focused on the Covenant God made with Noah and the animals. Last week, we read about God’s call upon Abraham and Sarah to leave their homeland, travel to Canaan, and become the ancestors of countless people. Today, we read a portion of the story of the trials and tribulations of their great-grandson Joseph. 

Each week, we are focusing on a few highlights from the Old Testament – each highlight reminding us of how God calls upon imperfect people to change the world for the better.

If you haven’t read through the saga of Joseph lately, I remind you that it shares many elements in common with telanovellas or soap operas.

Joseph was one of the youngest sons of Jacob and his wife Rachel….Jacob had 12 sons in all with his two “wives” and two “concubines.” Jacob favored Joseph and showered him with special attention – Joseph became prideful and bratty in response to his father’s favoritism. HIs older brothers were jealous of Joseph. They finally became so angry and jealous they threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, and then lied to his father and said he was dead. 

Today, we turn to what happened to Joseph while he was a slave. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 39 – we will read the whole chapter.

Listen now to the word of God….  

The Scripture Genesis 39:1-23

1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did,

4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.

6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,

7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care.

9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside.

12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,

14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.

15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home.

17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me.

18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger.

20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,

21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.

23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…

The Message Joseph in Prison

Joseph didn’t stay in prison. You will notice that everywhere he landed, he ended up doing well. Joseph had a knack for interpreting dreams, or a knack in asking God to help him interpret dreams. While he was in prison, Joseph met the former cupbearer and baker of the Pharaoh. He correctly interpreted their dreams – one of them was put to death and the other was restored to his work in the King’s court. Eventually, the Pharaoh had some weird dreams no one could interpret. Joseph was remembered and brought to court to interpret the king’s dreams. His interpretation was correct.

After Joseph’s success, the Pharaoh freed Joseph and elevated him to the king’s second-in-command and advisor. There was a terrible famine. Joseph was put in charge of storing food before the famine and distributing it during the famine. Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt and asked for aid. After many twists and turns, Joseph forgave his brothers and his whole family resettled in Egypt.

After his adolescent bratty-ness, Joseph matured. I suspect the stress of being sold into slavery by your nearest relatives may have forced Joseph to grow up and re-evaluate his life. While he was a slave in Potiphar’s home, Joseph was loyal and faithful to his slave master. 

After he was wrongly imprisoned because of a lie, Joseph became a model prisoner, working on behalf of the prison overseer to settle disputes and be a role model for the other prisoners.

Joseph was consistent – wherever he found himself, he worked to help the people he was with – other slaves, other prisoners, the people of Egypt, his family.

Sometimes, we find ourselves in unfortunate situations – a job we feel is beneath us; or assigned to a group project in school with unhelpful partners; or sitting in a seat in a chemo unit we never expected to sit in. We find ourselves in places we don’t want to be or expect to be….kind of like David who first found himself held in slavery and then found himself sitting in prison.

We could give up.  We are tempted to give up. We are tempted to just curl up in a ball and cry.

But that is not what Joseph did. Wherever he found himself, he still had faith in God. He still trusted that God had a plan for his life. And, he was inspired by his faith to make the best of the situation he was in – When Joseph was captive in slavery, “Joseph found favor in his (master’s) eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.” When Joseph was captive in prison, “...the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there.” When Joseph was in the court of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh said: “You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders.” 

We can be like Joseph, no matter what happens in our lives….we can trust in God. We can be faithful. We can remember that God has a plan for us even if we don’t understand it at the moment. We can look around at the people surrounding us, and be kind to them. We can work hard and try to lift other people’s spirits. We can take care of ourselves, and work to take care of others. Even if we are feeling grumpy, we can choose to not take it out on others. We can work to make the best of whatever situation we are in.

Joseph took things in stride. He was faithful to God when he was cast out from his family. He was faithful to God when he became a slave. He was faithful to God when he was thrown into prison. He was faithful to God when he became a leader in Egypt. He never forgot his faith in God.

Let us work to be like Joseph: Faithful, resilient, and accepting….today and all days to come. Amen.

Call of Abraham -- A Message for September 20, 2026

 

Friends, we are focusing on very familiar stories from the Old Testament over the next few weeks. Last week, our focus was on Noah and his family. Noah was faithful to God in a time of widespread disharmony. God commissioned Noah to build an ark – Noah and his family stayed on the ark for almost a year when the earth was flooded. They cared for and protected many animals – after the flood waters receded, God made a covenant with Noah, his family and the animals and promised to never destroy the earth with floodwaters.

This week, we turn the first of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs – Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah were from the ancient Sumerian city of Ur – in what is now Southern Iraq. They were called by God to migrate to a new land – to leave their homeland forever. In doing so, by listening to God, they became the ancestors of the three Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Islam, and Christianity.

Let us listen to the Call of Abraham as we turn to Genesis chapter 12, verses one through nine:

The Scripture Genesis 12:1-9

1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.

5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Prayer before Message: Open our ears, Holy One, to hear your still-speaking voice. As the scriptures are read and spoken today, disturb our complacency, comfort our anxieties, and guide our steps onto your paths. Amen. 

The Message Call of Abraham

Most of the people who attend Trinity did not grow up in this community – a handful of us did, but the rest of us grew up somewhere else. Many of us grew up in the city, or a city, or in older suburbs that are closer to the Philadelphia city limits. But, we chose to move to Skippack or Harleysville or Collegeville. We came here for different reasons, but there are few common threads – low-crime, good schools, access to parks and trails, and peace and quiet. We moved here because this place felt safe.

Abraham did the opposite. He left the safety and security of his father’s house, where his relatives and friends all lived and protected each other, and ventured out into the unknown. Jerusalem is 815 miles away from the location of the ancient city of Ur in modern-day Iraq. Eight-hundred and fifteen miles away from everything Abraham ever knew – safety, family, predictability…..Abraham literally stepped into the great unknown.

In this season of the church year, we are reflecting on God’s covenants with God’s people. Last week, we read the story of God’s covenant with Noah and the animals – God promised to never destroy the earth with water again, and in turn, Noah and the animals promised to restore the earth – to repopulate it, to fill it with people and animals who are striving to live together in harmony.

This morning, we turn to God’s covenant with Abraham.  We hear the story of Abraham’s call – God chose Abraham and Sarah – a couple who struggled with infertility – to become the ancestors of God’s chosen people. God chose a couple who weren’t able to have children to become the parents of countless generations – some of those generations related them biologically through the miraculous birth of Isaac, and the rest of us related to them through adoption as a result of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Each place where Abraham and Sarah touched down, and set up their tent and stayed awhile, became a place where Abraham also set up an altar to worship God. In today’s reading, Abraham built two altars – one at the site of the Great Tree of Morah in Shechem (now the modern day West Bank of Palestine). The other Altar was built east of Bethel and west of Ai – still in the modern day West Bank.

The names of the towns to the east and west of this altar are significant….Bethel means “House of God” and Ai means “Ruin.” So, Abraham’s altar was between the house of God and Ruin – a middle place – a place that isn’t perfect, isn’t quite safe, isn’t quite predictable.

We also live our lives in that middle place – we spend time interacting with the holy, with God. We pray, we worship, we participate in the work of the church, we endeavor to help people in need. But, we are also interacting with “ruin” – our world often feels like a perilous place.  We drive our cars and sometimes just avoid accidents with distracted drivers. We eat out at restaurants and sometimes go home with an upset stomach. We get unwelcome diagnoses, and our dish washers break down, and we worry about our children and grandchildren and nieces. Our lives are also teetering between hope and heartbreak, between goodness and ruin.

And, that is all the more reason we need our faith. This is why we need a relationship with our God…. to keep balanced…. to keep the ruin part of our lives from weighing us down.  

Worshipping God was so important to Abraham that he built an altar wherever he put up his tent. We need to make sure we are also connecting with God wherever we are.  Worship is not only for Sunday morning – we can pray wherever we are, whenever we can. When I was a little girl, my Sunday School teacher took the bus to work every day. She told me she often prayed the whole ride to work – We can pray when we are driving…we can pray when we are waiting in line at the grocery store…we can pray in the shower ... .We can pray when we are walking on the treadmill at the YMCA.

We also must work to carve out time in our busy days to read the Bible. The words of God are inspiring and comforting. In the Bible, we read the stories of the people God called upon to do God’s work in the world – people who were imperfect and inconsistent – people like us. God tells us to “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds.” Reading the Bible helps us remember the words of God, so that they are permanently etched in our hearts and minds.

Part of the way we worship God is through service. Helping other people and helping the church are ways to honor God…..volunteering at the Daily Bread Food Pantry…helping to sort the white elephant items….singing in the Choir….bagging trash at a Perkiomen Stream clean up. God has given us the responsibility to care for God’s creation, to care for each other, and to extend the reach of God’s church. We worship God through serving beyond our own needs.

Abraham demonstrated his devotion to God in ways that we would find very difficult….he travelled away from his home to a distant land, a place with no predictability or safety for him or his immediate family. He heard God’s promise to make him and Sarah the parents of billions of offspring, and trusted God to fulfill that promise despite infertility and advanced age. Abraham worshipped God everywhere he went – when he set up his tent, he also set up an altar.

Let us work to be like Abraham and Sarah – let us work to put our trust in God and God’s plan for us. Let us be brave if God calls us to do unlikely or uncomfortable things. Let us work to worship God wherever we are, not only in formal settings like we are part of right now, but also through our prayers, through reading God’s word and by serving God’s world. 

I pray we will do all these things with love in our hearts today and all days. Amen.

Flood And Promise -- A Message for September 13, 2026

 

Friends, welcome to church on Welcome Back Sunday. This is our first day of children’s Sunday School, so we may occasionally hear voices coming up from the church nursery where the kids are meeting.

Here is a plug for Adult Sunday School – we meet every week at 9 am in the Education Building’s Social Hall. Our class is a weekly discussion of a particular event in the news and how we respond to that event as questions.  I email everyone the topic and articles about that topic on Thursday, so we have a few days in advance to prepare for our time together.

Today, we are returning to our lectionary. A lectionary is a series of readings prepared for churches. Our lectionary is called the Narrative Lectionary – we have used it for the past few years. The Narrative Lectionary is used in a 4 year cycle – every fall, we focus on Bible stories from the Old Testament. In Advent, during December, we will start focusing on stories from the New Testament Gospels. After Easter, we focus on stories from the New Testament Letters and the book of the Acts of the 

Apostles. The Narrative Lectionary was developed to increase Biblical literacy among church go-ers….we may know a smattering of stories from the Bible, but the hope it that after we use the Narrative Lectionary for a few cycles, we will all have a broader and deeper understanding of the word of God. 

This morning, we are turning to a familiar Biblical text – we read a portion of this text a few weeks ago when we heard Elaine Becker’s favorite scripture. We are going to hear verses from three sections of the Noah story – God’s dismay at how people were acting, God calling Noah to build the ark, and the exit from the ark and God’s covenant with God’s people. 

We are going to hear a lot of Scripture this week…don’t worry, we won’t hear this much every week. 

Try to hear the Noah story as a story – pretend we are a story hour at the library and settle down and let the story wash over you. 

Let us first turn to Genesis, chapter 6, verses five through 22….

The Scripture Genesis 6:5-22, 8:6-12, 9:8-17

Genesis 6:5-22

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 

6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 

7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

9 This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 

10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 

12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 

13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 

14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[a] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 

15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[b] 

16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[c] high all around.[d] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 

17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 

18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 

19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 

20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 

21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

So, to summarize – God saw that humanity was not behaving the way God intended us to behave. But, Noah and his family were the exception to that – they were faithful and listened to God. 

God told Noah to build the ark – at Bible Study on Tuesday, Ned our resident Math teacher explained how big the ark was – it was huge.  It was about 1 and a half times longer than an American Football field. It would have been a massive structure for Noah and his family to build. But, if we think of all of the animals, food, and people stored inside, it also would have been very crowded – and smelly!

Now, imagine the long, long duration of their time on the ark. It rained for 40 days and nights. The land was flooded. The ark floated on the surface of the water for a long, long time. The people and animals were probably scared – they probably wondered what would happen next – would the water dissipate and dry up – would they walk on the land again?

Now let us turn to Genesis, chapter 8, verses 6 through 12:

Genesis 8:6-12

6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 

7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 

8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 

9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 

10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 

11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 

12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

So, Noah used birds to discover if the land was dry….the raven flew here and there, but didn’t find a place to land. The dove returned first with an olive leaf – the trees were dying off and growing new leaves….but what about the ground? A week later, the dove flew away – this meant things were back to normal.

So, Noah, the animals, and Noah’s family finally left the ark. Noah immediately prayed and offered sacrifices to God. Noah was thankful they had been spared. 

And, God had a new plan for the earth.  We listen to that plan now as we turn to Genesis chapter 9, verses 8 through 17: 

Genesis 9:8-17

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 

9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 

10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 

11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 

14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 

15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 

16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Here ends this reading of the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

The Message Flood and Promise

The people on Noah’s ark were the last people on earth – imagine how lonely they felt. There were just 8 of them….Noah and his wife, their three sons, and the son’s wives. That’s it.

I hope they really, really got along with each other. I hope Noah and his wife were the ideal in-laws to those daughters-in-law. I hope everyone did their fair share of the chores. I hope no one complained about the smell of the animals or the boredom they felt or how tired they were of eating the same old thing every day. I can’t imagine being closed up in a barge for almost a year, with it rocking on the water. I get motion sickness – i hope none of the people or animals on the ark suffered from motion sickness or any other illness for the duration of their trip.

I am sure it wasn’t easy.

But, the thing the people on the ark had was hope. They hoped for the future. They trusted God – and trusted God wouldn’t forget them.  They believed in their mission – they were responsible for preserving the animals of the earth – they were responsible to preserve the human race. And, they succeeded – they worked together, they listened to God, and they overcame great obstacles, and odds, and persevered.

Sometimes, we feel like we are the people in the ark with Noah. We look around our church and sometimes see only a handful of people. It is usually more than 8, but not a lot more than 8. And, when we sit in this room, many of us look around and remember the people who used to sit here among us…. we see the spot where Mary Ann sat and miss her. Our eyes are drawn to where Milton sat, and where Marge sat, and where Don sat. We remember when our parents were here and our grandparents were here ... .when the room was full of familiar faces that are no longer sitting among us.

It is not easy.

Our church is not alone. American church attendance was at its peak in the 1950s….it has been going down ever since. And, many social scientists think Covid accelerated the decline in attendance even more.

So, we are not the only people looking around their sanctuaries on Sunday morning and remembering the people who used to be here. There are lots of churches who are small in number of attendees. Many of us feel like those 8 people on the ark… wondering what the future will hold.

But, our faith reminds us that a few remnant people, working together, can accomplish great things.

Noah and his family, those 8 people on the ark, repopulated the earth. We are their descendants. And, those animals who were with them also repopulated the earth – the birds in the sky, the animals we encounter when we are outdoors, our dogs and cats and guinea pigs are all descendants of those animals cooped up together on the ark. 

Abraham and Sarah, 2 individuals, left their homeland and traveled around the Middle East in response to the call of God. They only had one son together….one child. They were told they would become the parents of countless generations of children, and Sarah laughed because the idea was so absurd.  Yet, from Isaac and Rebecca came Jacob, from Jacob came 12 children, from those children came many grandchildren, from those descendants came all of the Jewish people, from their descendant Jesus we were all adopted into their family and became the children of God.  Out of two individuals came as many descendants as the stars in the skies.

Jesus traveled with a group of 12 disciples. Twelve students is a cosy class in college. Soccer teams usually have 11 players. Corporate brainstorming workshops are considered to work best with 12 participants. Jesus’s 12 disciples, 11 without Judas, became the first leaders of the Christian church…out of that group of 12 people the faith, our faith, spread across the world. 

We may look around our sanctuary and worry, but small groups of people can do great things together. God is calling us to share the Gospel with the people of our neighborhood, the people we know, and the people we are going to know soon. Working together, we can support each other, and work to care for the people of our community. There are people who are looking for churches like ours – people  who don’t want to just figure out faith on their own but want to worship with others….people who are turned off by big crowds and loud praise music…people who want to go deeper and connect with God in a beautiful, tradition setting following a liturgy that has withstood the test of time. 

When it comes to faith, when it comes to church, bigger isn’t always better. And, certainly, when it came to the experience of the 8 folks on the ark with Noah, a tiny, remnant group of people, working together, could change the world for the better. 

Let us work together to change our world for the better, today and all days. Amen.