Do the Right Thing

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday, July 20, 2014.  The Bible verses used are Genesis 8:15-22 and 9:8-17.

            So we’ve come to the last week of our sermon series on Noah.  Noah has survived the flood.  He’s stayed faithful to God.  He’s saved all the animals.  And he’s given thanks to God for bringing him and his family through it all.  So what’s left?

            What’s left is God’s response.  And the way we’re told this is interesting in a couple of ways.

            First, we’re told that, when Noah gave the burnt offering to God, “the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of human beings...never again will I destroy all living creatures...As long the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’”

            Now, the way that’s written, it makes it sound like God made this decision only after Noah gave thanks to God.  It sounds like Noah’s decision to give thanks to God had an impact on God, and influenced God’s promise to never wipe out all living creatures from that day forward.

            So does that mean that, if Noah had not given thanks, God would not have made that promise?  I don’t know.  The Bible does not say that, and I’m not saying it’s true.  I do think, though, that it’s something to think about.

            As we talked last week, Noah did not give thanks to God because he wanted God to make this promise.  Noah did not know that God would make any promise at all.  Noah gave thanks to God because God deserved thanks.  Noah gave God thanks because it was the right thing to do.

            I’ll bet everyone here has had times where you did the right thing with no ulterior motive, just because it was the right thing to do.  Think about those times.  What happened as a result?  Probably sometimes nothing happened.  Probably sometimes nobody even noticed or cared.  But sometimes, I’ll bet something did happen.  In fact, I’ll bet that sometimes something really cool happened, something you never expected.  

            Because that’s the thing.  When we do the right thing with no ulterior motive, just because it’s the right thing, we never know what may happen as a result.  Maybe nothing at all will happen.  In fact, maybe nobody will even notice or care.  But maybe something really cool will happen.  It may happen right away, or it may happen sometime in the future.  We may know that it happened because of what we did, or we may never know that what we did had any impact at all.  But still, sometimes, when we do the right thing with no ulterior motive, just because it’s the right thing, something really cool will happen.

            Noah did not know what would happen if he did the right thing.  He did not know anything would happen.  And again, we don’t know that anything did, really.  We don’t know that God would not have made the same promise if Noah had not given thanks.  What we know is that Noah gave thanks, and then God made the promise.  Noah did the right thing, and something good happened.

I also find it interesting that we’re given God’s response in two parts.  First, we’re told God’s inner thoughts, which we just talked about.  Only after that are we told what God said to Noah.

What that points out, I think, is that God did not have to tell Noah about God’s decision.  God did not have to say anything to Noah.  God could’ve let Noah, and all the rest of us, wonder whether God might do this again.  God could’ve let us all wonder whether God would cause another flood or would do something else to wipe out creation if things got too far out of hand.

And think how much different our lives would be if God had done that.  Because, you know, there’s a lot of bad stuff going on in the world right now.  The Middle East seems to be falling apart in about five different ways.  Eastern Europe is once more worried about Russia.  There are all kinds of terrorism threats.  It seems like the world is as divided and as dangerous now as it’s ever been.

And it seems like our country is as divided as it’s ever been, too.  Name an issue, and you’ve got people on all sides arguing about it.  And each side seems to be convinced that it has God’s truth on its side.  And each side seems to be convinced that those who don’t agree with them are not just wrong but are evil and must be defeated by whatever means necessary.  We don’t even seem able to have civil discussions about things we disagree on any more, because, after all, who’d want to have a civil discussion with someone who’s evil?  You don’t discuss things with evil, you defeat evil.  

And that’s not just happening in politics.  It’s happening in the church, too.  It’s even happening in the United Methodist Church.  Our denomination seems to be so focused on the things we disagree on that it’s getting in the way of all the good things we do.

When we see all this stuff going on, sometimes we wonder what God must think about it.  We wonder if God must not be pretty upset about some of the things that happen in the world.  We may not have reached the point we got to in Noah’s time, where Noah was the only righteous man left, but sometimes it feels like maybe we’re headed in that direction.  And if God had not told Noah about God’s promise, we might be getting worried about whether God might decide to do what he did in Noah’s time--to wipe out creation and start all over again.

But we do have God’s promise, and God did tell Noah about it.  But God did not just make the promise to Noah.  Listen to what God says, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 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.”  In other words, this is not just a promise God made to Noah.  It’s not even a promise God just made to human beings.  This is a promise God made to all of creation.  And God gave us the beauty of the rainbow so that we would always be reminded of God’s promise.

Did you ever wonder why God made that decision?  And did you ever wonder why God told us about it?  Why did God not reserve the right to have another flood again, if people got too far out of hand?  And even if God did not want to reserve that right, why tell us?  Why not leave us wondering?

We don’t know, of course.  It’s certainly not because of anything we earned.  It’s certainly not because of anything we deserve.  And I really don’t think it’s because human beings, as a group, are better now than we were in Noah’s time.  Human beings are what we are, and I don’t think we’ve changed a whole lot over the years.  We may have figured a few things out, we may have made technological advances, but human nature seems to be pretty much what it’s always been.

What could the reason be?  I don’t know, and my opinion is really no better than yours, but since I’m standing up here I’ll tell you what I think.  I think God gave us that promise and told us about it because God does not want us to live our lives in fear.  And God especially does not want us to live our lives in fear of God.  God wants our love, not our fear.  And we cannot really love someone if we’re afraid of them.  So God let us know that, no matter what we do, God will never destroy creation again.  Another way of saying this, I think, is that God decided not to destroy creation again, and God decided to tell us about that decision, because it was the right thing for God to do.

Now of course, God, being God, always does the right thing.  You and I do not.  But we know that even when we do the wrong thing, even when it seems like a large part of humanity is doing the wrong thing, God will not destroy us.  God will give us another chance.  God will give us the chance to turn around, to ask for forgiveness, and help us get ourselves on the right track again.  Sometimes we do that.  Sometimes we don’t.  But as long as we’re on this earth, we always have that chance.

And when we take advantage of that chance, incredible things can happen.  When we turn around and ask for forgiveness and with God’s help get back on the right track again, incredible things can happen.  When we do the right thing with no ulterior motive, just because it’s the right thing, incredible things can happen.

Noah did the right thing.  And God did the right thing.  God made a wonderful, beautiful promise to us out of love.  So wherever we are in our lives today, let’s take advantage of that promise.  Let’s turn around, ask God for forgiveness, and ask God to help us get ourselves on the right track again.  Let’s do the right thing.  If we do, incredible things will happen.