"People of the Covenant" - Genesis 9:8-17

In the ancient Christian Church new converts to the faith were often baptized the day before Easter, at the Saturday evening Easter Vigil.  It is widely believed that the season of Lent began as the weeks in which people would prepare for their baptism -- through catechism, prayer, and fasting.  Lent therefore seems a fitting time to remember our own baptisms -- to recall that we are loved and claimed by God, that we all have new life in the Church.

This week’s text, Genesis 9:8-17 -- the story of God’s covenant with Noah, may also be read as a story of baptism.  In the symbolic language of baptism, the believer is baptized into Christ’s death and raised with Christ to new life.  The baptized individual leaves behind their old life and begins a new one in Christ.  In the story of Noah, the waters of the flood wash away violence and sin from the whole earth.  When the waters recede, God makes an everlasting covenant with Noah and all of creation -- that never again shall all the earth be destroyed in a flood.  In the flood, God washes away the sins of the earth, and claims all of humanity and all of creation as his beloved once more.  The old is washed away and a new life in God’s love is begun for all the world.

This year’s theme for our Lenten Journey is “... Let it begin with me…”  The theme is meant to remind us that if the kingdom of God is to come on the earth it must also come to each of us.  This Lent I hope that we will remember both our own baptism and that of the whole world.  Remembering that you are loved and claimed by God, that in baptism you were granted new life in Christ is remarkably affirming and transformative.  Yet we must also remember that the love with which God claims us is the same love with which She claims all of humanity and all of creation.  Yes, God loves us.  And yes, God loves the whole world.  May we strive each day this Lent to love ourselves and our neighbors just as we know that God does so fiercely.  Amen.

Pastor Andrew Greenhaw