Tim, Roy and Jonny provided the music on Sunday 4 March, Jonny led worship and Tim brought us the message.
Our new song for this week, Weep with Me, courtesy of the Rend Collective is a lament. We’ve been looking at the highlights of the Old Testament, and it is surprising how many are actually in the very first book, Genesis. Focussing in on Genesis 6 we hear the story of Noah and his family. It is a long story so Tim only selected some snippets to illustrate but he encouraged us all to go home and read it in full. It’s clear that Noah did everything he was commanded to do. 150 days of flood occurred before the waters started to recede. Noah used birds to try to find dry land and signs of life. The raven explored but found nothing, the first dove explored but found nothing, the second returned with an olive sprig. Not a bad present for Noah’s 601st birthday.
God’s new covenant serves to remind him and us of his promise. Never again would water be used to wipe out all life. The rainbow is the sign of that promise.
We teach the story of the Ark to our children, at home and in our Sunday Schools or Young Churches. But as we get older there is a dawning realisation, “Seriously, we’re teaching this to our children, a tale of the destruction of humankind!” 
It doesn’t sit very well with the carved wooden animals, the cuddly ark playset, the jovial bearded Noah character or the cartoon picture that seems to appear on every children’s Bible.
Too often we focus upon the behaviour of humankind, and the judgement of a wrathful, vengeful God. What we miss and what we really need to hear, realise and reflect upon is the pain at the heart of God in this situation. This is a God who weeps here.
The story of Noah “borrows” from other earlier stories. The Great Flood from the Epic of Gilgamesh has a flood hero Utnapishtim who is rewarded with immortality. Many scholars believe that it is clear that the first 11 chapters of Genesis draw upon many older stories drawn from elsewhere. The story is told because the Jewish writers wanted to tell us more about the relationship between humans and God. The focus here is and should be on the change in the character of God.
It is about covenant and promise. It is about God’s creation not living up to God’s intent. We’re invited to penetrate to the heart of God. God is grieved, not angered, as he sees the state of humankind. Can God abandon the world he made so joyously? The turnaround begins and is done through God’s pain and anguish. He feels the pain of his broken world .
In the midst of the story is this one man, Noah, and his family who offer the world hope. They show that faithfulness is possible even in a violent unbelieving world. Resolution of this whole story comes by the change in God’s heart, God speaks from his heart, in the full realisation that even after the flood humankind will not be changed forever. They will repeat the same mistakes. They will be just the same. Rain and flood will not change them forever. Hope depends upon God’s heart. God promises to stay with man. This marks an irreversible change in God. Such a commitment is costly for God. A grieved God is set against a resistant and resisting world. The self abandoning god of Philippians 2. We finish with Chapter 9 of Genesis with God restating the purpose of humankind and his role.
God restates the original Genesis promises. The rainbow is established as a covenant, a promise, but who is it a reminder for? It is the equivalent of a Post It note for God. “God remembered…” 
This is what gives hope through the Old Testament. The flood story tells us we cannot be forgotten by God. God remembers. Tim urged us to read it again if you have difficulty believing. God’s purpose and plan for creation will not be thwarted by humankind’s inability to live up to the hype. The reality of chaos is all around us and we are invited to live a life of hope.
God is committed to the world he made. He sent his Son into the world as part of that commitment.
Tim also read the story of Noah by Frederick Buechner. Be thankful God is not forgetful or easily distracted!!
“In one way, then, it gave Noah a nice warm feeling to see the rainbow up there, but in another way it gave him an uneasy twinge. If God needed the rainbow as a reminder, he thought, that could mean that, if someday God didn’t happen to look in the right direction or had something else on his mind, he might forget his promise and the heavy drops would start pattering down on the roof a second time.”
Years later John Lennox was preaching on Issaac . John said I bet none of you can imagine what it to be stabbed with a knife. Peter couldn’t help himself. He shouted back ” I do!”. Unlike the Isaac story there was no angel on the bus that night to save Peter. The lad with the knife stabbed Peter in the arm, severed tendons in his right arm. Back in hospital Peter found himself yet again asking himself “Why me?” He couldn’t answer and didn’t know where to turn as he didn’t know god. Because he couldn’t use his arm he lost his job as apprentice cutter. His arm didn’t work for two years. Peter turned to drink and drugs and tried to bury pain. That doesn’t work. Buried pain never stops buried.
no grandchildren, no favourites.
With A Mission. He highlighted their work across the world and the ways in which both the founder of YWAM and the founder of WYAM Perth heard God’s voice on the way forward. Be warned, God will even speak to you in the shower.
is not a sin but greed is. Remember the incredible world that is spoilt by sin. Tim explained that he sees this as picture language demonstrating who we are. The question of Adam and Eve existing doesn’t matter. What it is showing is the nature of our humanity and of our sin. Does the serpent get bad press here? Sin colours our world and affects the brokenness of the world. Did God really say that? This was the serpent’s question.,. He focuses on the one single thing that they they have not been given (yet). The serpent makes no mention of anything that has already been given. Tim drew our attention to the fact that Eve adds to God’s word, temptations begin to assert themselves, “It’s only a piece of paper, the boss will not mind”, “I know it say don’t deceive , but it is only a white lie”. “I know it is wrong to commit adultery but I love her!”
don’t really know if this was the case but we could think about the tree as a “not yet” gift from God. Remember the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness. Satan offers him the world. There is nothing wrong with the offer, after all Satan is only offering what Jesus will have anyway but the offer involved not taking the time needed to do what had to be done.
im led us in thinking about bread today rather than water. He read John 6 35 to 51. He asked us to imagine what it must have felt like, that long slog up the hill pushing the big heavy bike. He admitted that he had considered playing us the great Two Ronnies spoof version filmed 5 years later. That went on even longer emphasising the difficulty of the climb. Many of us try to live like that . We go through life feeling like it is a long trudge up the hill in search of things. Imagine if the bread was delivered to door with ease, with no effort at all from us. In 1973 at the time of the advert, there was no concept of online shopping. (Subsequent to Tim’s preaching I found out the name Hovis was the result of a competition won in 1890 by Herbet Grimes. He used the phrase “HOminus VIS” which means the strength of man. Apt really for the subject of today’s sermon. )
of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Narnia fame was writing about when famous people met Jesus. An interviewer tried to get C S Lewis to outline the moment of his conversion, of the exact time when he, CS Lewis, met Jesus.