SUMMARY KEYWORDS

story, god, questions, points, noah, flood, read, church, narrative, restoration, christians, animals, father, violence, bow, blot, world, humanity, interpret, creation.

SPEAKER

Adam Hendrix

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Hi, everyone, it's so good to see you. Hi. It's great to be with you this morning, an honor to be with everyone in this room, at all of our campuses and online. I'm especially honored to be speaking in the series in which we are discussing the need to grow up with our faith, or else we're in danger of growing out of our faith. Discussing the idea of going beyond a flannel graph faith, even though this looks amazing.

If you missed last week's sermon, I encourage you to watch it, Phil did an awesome job setting up the series. And I'm not just saying that because he's my boss, and I have to, it was great. Now I love the title of this series, because I've always loved stories. And today's story is one of my favorites. I still remember sitting in Sunday school, look at that naive guy, with the brown suit. And we would sing a song like Father Abraham, which if you aren't a Christian, or you didn't grow up in church, it sort of goes like this, feel free to sing along with me if you know it; Father Abraham, had many sons, had many sons have father Abraham. I one of them, so are you. So let's all praise - and then we sort of shake our appendages spastically. And then we turn around and do a circle. And it was always confusing to me. I didn't even understand the song because my father's name was in fact, not Abraham. And some of you are listening in you are like, man, you Christians are really weird. You don't know the half of it. But then my teacher would sit down and she brought out the flannel graph. And she would detail this fun and lively story about a boat, and some animals and a rainbow. And she would read from Genesis that said, every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two have every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. And I thought to myself, how fun a traveling zoo cruise, all my favorite animals in one place, and also cats. Most kids are enchanted with the story like I was but of course that's not all there is right? As I grew up, I started reading the Bible more seriously, and I saw a different story. I read this, He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground; human beings and animals, and creeping things, and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the Earth. To be clear, being blot out is not a good thing. Blot out is was what I wanted to do my kids were on a road trip and they I keep asking, Are we there yet? I'm gonna pull this car over and I'm gonna blot you out. See, this part of the story was not on our flannel graph, I'd love to see those flannel graphs at some point. So today, we want to return to this story and see the deeper meaning behind it. Because that's the thing with stories, right? Stories point to something deeper. Stories are how we make sense of life, our entire worldview, and memories are created out of stories. Robert McKee, a scriptlet writing legend says stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. So today, we want to talk about how we interpret stories, because two people can witness the same event and interpret it differently. Stephen Covey, the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, tells a story about being on a subway. And when a father and his children enter, and the children are rambunctious and annoying everybody on the train and they yell and jump around causing a scene. And the father just sits there doing nothing. And Covey gets irritated with the father's lack of engagement. So he reaches over to let them know how disturbing the kids are, and he asked him to control them. And the man looks up in a daze and says, I guess you're right. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don't know what to think. I don't know how to handle it, either. Can you imagine the shift in perspective in that moment? Because one story points to an annoying circumstance with an irresponsible dad. The other story points to a tragic, impossible situation for any parent to handle. Each story pointed to something. Each one had a different meaning. And Covey writes about how he could have handled the situation differently. He talks about the need to have asked more questions, instead of assuming. And this is how we interpret stories, right? We ask questions. So today we're going to look at one of our most ancient stories, asking questions about meaning, what is the point of the story? See, there's one way to interpret this story that focuses on the violence and anger of God. And there's another way that sees hope and restoration. And here's the deal. These two stories are still happening today, a story of a world that is hope less, and a story of redemption, depending on how we interpret it. So I'm going to read from the Noah story, and then we're going to ask some questions to help us find the meaning underneath. I can't read the whole thing. But I'm going to read a summary. And as I do want you to pay attention to questions you may have about the story. Here we go. The Lord saw the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out from the earth the human beings I've created. But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. Make yourself an ark of cypresswood. I will establish my covenant with you, and you will come into the ark, your sons, your wife, and your sons wife, with you, and every living thing of all flesh; you shall bring to have every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you. And all the flesh died that moved on the earth; birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth and all human beings. And then many days later, Noah and his family were saved. And God says, I've set my bow in the clouds, 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. So what questions do you have? The first question I have for us today is simply this. Is it true? Is it true? That's the immediate first question, right? For some of you this question might make you feel uncomfortable. For others, you're wondering if is that question we can even ask in church. See, my love for stories continued into my junior high years, to the point where I was reading Michael Crichton novels in sixth grade. I was a little bit of a nerd. And one time I was reading the book, Jurassic Park. Yes, the book Jurassic Park, way better than the movie. And I had a moment of existential dread. For whatever reason, I never thought of this dilemma before, but it hit me. What about the dinosaurs in the Bible? They're never mentioned. What about the dinosaurs on the ark? Dinosaurs love to eat goats, and I assume cats. How is this possible? And I wondered for the first time; is this story true?

But I ignored the question. I shoved it down. It scared me. In the tradition I grew up with questions like this were not encouraged. We were taught to believe in faith. And maybe this is you today, or someone you know you - you have given up or close to giving up the faith because you think you need to shove down or ignore questions. Again, if our faith doesn't grow up with us, we're in danger of growing out of it. For those who are not Christians, this can often be a critique, and a barrier of Christianity. They see a group of people who are afraid to wrestle with hard questions, or be intellectually honest about dilemmas. But a few years ago, I visited a tourist study at a local Jewish synagogue, and I was shocked when after reading the text together, the rabbi opened the mic by simply saying, So what questions and problems do we have with these scriptures? After talking to some in the class afterwards, they explain their belief that it's through asking hard questions, and wrestling with the text that it truly comes alive. The fuller Youth Institute has identified one of the ways to help younger people stick with the church and faith. It's to provide safe places to ask hard questions. So my hope for our church and the broader church is that we can learn from this concept -it's not through avoiding questions, but it's wrestling with them that our faith comes alive. So is it true? Here's the list that makes us ask this question. The text says Noah was 600 years old. I don't know what kind of yoga he's doing but feels like a lot. Now how did they build a boat this big in those days? Like where did they buy their power tools? Right? How to know a call all of these animals to one place? Do you have some kind of dog whistle that God had given? And how could all the animals fit on the boat? This is a big one, what does the Bible mean by kinds of animals? Is it talking about species? Because if so, they would not have all fit. What about there not being evidence of a global flood? And then finally, the big one. What did they do with all the poopy? That's right, I said poopy in church. This is uh, I feel alive right now. So is it true that all these things happen exactly as it's written. Now, there are different camps here. Some Christians believe this is a historical, fully accurate account. There are Christians who have done a lot of work to show how so many animals could fit. And they believe this was an actual global flood as is written, other Christians believe differently. They believe this was probably more of a localized flood. And they see the story as figurative a passed down story from the Israelites helping to explain their history. And here's the deal, I'm positive that we have both camps and everything in between in our church. One of the things we say here at Menlo is we want to have a generous orthodoxy, where we agree on essentials, but we have grace in the non essentials. It's a church where many different perspectives can belong all in the name of Jesus, I love this, about our church. My hope is our church, and the entire Christian church can learn to come around a table together and hold different beliefs and opinions like these together. With us Phil said last week, with Unity, but not uniformity. Sometimes we are known for our arguing and bickering in these areas, while Christ told us that we should be known by our love, right. So like last week, some of you are listening right now, and you are totally fine to never think about this topic ever again, I get it. But others of you might want to dig in more. In the same book series that we mentioned last week. There's a book called Genesis History fiction, or neither. And this book presents three Christian views of Genesis 1 through 11, including the flood. So you can check that out if you want to dig in more this week. But again, is it true? I would say that maybe this is the wrong question to be asking. Again, every story points to something; stories give a deeper sense of meaning, and understanding. The head of theology for our denomination says it like this, the flood is one of the most misunderstood stories in the Bible. Put to the side the question of whether it happens or not. That question would be to misunderstand the point Genesis is trying to make, and the context text of Genesis 1 through 11. The best question is, what role does the flood play in the story of God and His image bearers? See, these are the best questions to understand the point of the story. What role does it play in the story of God and His image bearers? Years ago, my mentor told me something similar; with every scripture, we should be asking the question, what does this tell me about God? And what does this tell me about us? Humanity. This is the heart of the story. So the rest of our time, we're going to look at those two questions. The next question is, what does this tell us about God? What does this tell us about God? So your common thought in this story is it's proof of a God who is angry and retributive. The famous atheists Richard Dawkins uses this story and others, other narratives to declare the God of the Old Testament of vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser. A genocidal mega maniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. For some of you today, internally, maybe you have this lens of God, always annoyed and angry just waiting for you to mess up. But is this what the story points to? But first we need to look at why God causes the flood in the first place. We see this back in Genesis, the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth. And every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he made humankind on the earth. And it grieved him to his heart. it grieved him to his heart. You know, here in America, we are accustomed to mass gun shootings. A group of people that we often forget about are the parents of the shooters. Sue Klebold was the mother of Dylan, one of the teenage shooters at the Columbine shootings. And she's now written a book and given interviews, and she details the pain and the grief she felt because of what her son did. How could her boy that she raised and loved, commit such a horrific act? See the rest of her life she will grieve what her son did. And this, this is the driving emotion, we see from God, not angry, thirsty for blood, not vengeance. He doesn't take pleasure from the flood, but grief, hurt, sadness.

Some of you will know this. But this was not the only flood story. In the ancient Near East. There were many others some written before the Noah story, the most famous one probably being the Epic of Gilgamesh. And these narratives, we see images of gods that were spiteful, annoyed, angry, or petty. But this narrative gives an image of what made Yahweh the real God different. He hurt, and grieved and he lamented the violence and evil that his children had become. This is the first thing this story tells us about God and His character. He grieves and he hurts over violence and suffering in his creation. Because of course, this was not God's original design, right? Sometimes we forget this we get caught up in the evil and sin that abounds in our world. And we forget this is not how God originally designed things to be. It was the rebellion of humans that changed things. And this is where the story gets interesting. Instead of fully ending all of creation, everybody doesn't die. A family is saved. God is going to do something new. The Ark and Noah they represent redemption and restoration, a new creation. A new Adam. Old Testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann says the narrative concerns the grief of God and the emergence of new humanity in the midst of old judged humanity. These dimensions of the narrative change our reading of God's well known anger and redirect our exposition. This new humanity was an act of redemption salvation, which of course was symbolized with a bow. And yes, we fill in the word rainbow. But there wasn't actually a Hebrew word for Rainbow the phrase is a bow in the clouds. Now what is a bow? A bow is an arc that points to something right? Which way was the bow pointing? Towards God. And this is a kid's bow arrow. So you guys are saved from the front row here. The bow was pointed to God, God makes a covenant with Noah, that this violence will never again be pointed down to humanity. Many of you will know the rest of the story with Noah just like the original creation, Noah and humans they fall back into sin and violence. Apparently Noah was not the savior. He was only human. As Christians who read the Bible through a lens of Jesus, we should be getting bells and whistles going off in the story, because the Noah's story is pointing to something to someone. A waiting for a day when a Messiah would come who would enter the waters of death and bring new creation, a new covenant of peace and life. See in the flood story, the bow of evil and violence is pointed down on humankind, while one man is redeemed. But through Jesus, the bow is pointed on one man, while the rest of humankind is redeemed. We see that Jesus is called the last Adam through him there is a true new humanity and creation. Throughout Jesus's life, He gives signs and miracles that point to his new kingdom. A kingdom that would be a restoration to God's original design. So what is the true rest of the story here? We have to zoom out from this one story, and we see the flood is part of the ongoing narrative of redemption. Pointing beyond itself to the goodness of God. God uses short term judgment to setup eternal redemption. It's one step along the way to God restoring his broken creation. So what does this story tell us about God and His character? He is a God who grieves sin and violence, but he longs to redeem and restore. Now, our final question is simply this; what does this story tell us about humanity? What does an ancient weird story like this, say about us? In a data driven, logical world of Silicon Valley, what can we learn from the flood story? See, there are two stories in our world. And each story points to something depending on how we interpret it. Not too long ago, I was driving on the 101 and I got in a standstill, traffic. It took hours to get home and, and later I was texting with a buddy, and he said, you know the reason for the traffic? They were trying to talk down a jumper from a bridge on the highway. And it broke my heart to be reminded of the suffering some people feel. I recently reading an article about a category of the fastest rising death rates in America called deaths of despair, that include alcoholism and drug overdoses, and suicide. I can't count the number of times I've walked into the church on a Sunday morning, and someone says to me, did you hear about the shooting last night? Doesn't surprise me anymore, but every time I'm filled with pain. Recently, the US Surgeon General declared the country as being in the midst of a loneliness epidemic. Because of the vast numbers of people dealing with isolation. What does this story say about us? Some things haven't changed. We are humans still living in a world of chaos, pain, violence and suffering. This is our world. This is humanity. This story is built on hopelessness, and despair. But it's only one story. It's only one interpretation. In the 80s Father, Greg Boyle moved into a Los Angeles neighborhood with the highest concentration of gangs in America. And these folks are born into a story. In this story, a bow of violence seems to be concentrated directly on them. He gives one example of a kid's mom who put out cigarettes on his body, and would hold his head in the toilet and flush until he nearly drowned. So many of them run to gangs for protection and family. And the world interprets their story, labeling them thugs and animals and killers. But Father, Boyle believed a different story with a different interpretation. He believed that every human is a beloved child of God, simply needing to hear a story about second chances and redemption. And so he started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries. It's now become the biggest gang reorientation program in the world. Homeboys and homegirls can receive free tattoo removal. They can learn to work in the bakery or the cafe they can receive free therapy, get GED and college prep courses, often working and living with people who used to be their enemies on the street. To this day over 7,000 people have come through the program and reentered society. See one story pointed to worthlessness and violence. But another story points to restoration and redemption. And one man decided to let his life story point others to a God who isn't done with them yet. To a God who is on a rescue mission of restoration. The author and Pastor Thomas Goodell says living life bears a resemblance to writing a story. How we live, our decisions, our investments, our words, our entire life. It's a story. And every story points to something. What is the something in your story? And the same way that God put a bow in the clouds pointing to him he has placed us in this world to point others to him. We are called to be ambassadors and messengers and signposts for a different narrative and story. Because people in our world are desperate for more meaning and understanding.

So does your life point them to more meaning? Or is it just like everyone else's they see? Doess your life point to a God who is active and alive, and to a world that is inconceivably beautiful and good because of God and because God is always in it. Because where our world is caught up in a story of pain and despair and suffering, we live and speak and act in a way that points to something new and different. A story of restoration, and hope. A story telling not of God's anger and retribution, but His love and restoration. Your life tells a story, and every story points to something. What is this something in your story? Let's pray together. And this week, our spiritual formation practice for this entire series is what we talked about last week, Lectio Divina. A practice that reminds us that this text, the scriptures in the Bible are not just any story, these are living and active words, and the Holy Spirit can speak to us. So even right now, as we pray, and we think about what the story says, let's allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us. So God, we thank you for this reminder, this story that points to who you are, and what you've done. For those of us in this room, or call ourselves Christians, would you renew within us a desire to live our lives in a way that points to restoration or redemption, a story of second chances? God would you show us ways in which we are pointing to something different? And God, I pray for those in this room. I pray for those who feel like they are caught up in a story where they are stuck. A story of suffering a story of isolation. And God pray that your spirit would speak to them today and tell them that it is not too late. You are on a rescue mission of restoration and it involves them. So speak, we're listening. As we go about this week, would you speak to us? We thank you for this time. It's in Jesus name we all pray. Amen. Amen.

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