March 1, 2009
The First Sunday in Lent
Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe
Richard C. Choe ©
* * *
8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
* * *
“Lord, your ocean so great,
And my boat is so small.”
I remember the vast ocean of clouds on the way to Canada in 1975. I was 14 years old and my family and I were on our way to a new land we would be calling “home.” There was an endless ocean of white outside the window. I remember feeling so small inside the airplane floating toward the new land. I had no idea what the new land looked like. What I had was a sense of hope and a promise of a new beginning.
With me were two wooden carvings my friends gave me as gifts for the new journey. They were totems – miniaturized versions of the statues found at the entrance of villages in Korea, erected to ward off evil spirits. “The Great General under the Heaven” was inscribed on the male totem. “The Woman General beneath the Earth” was the inscription on the female totem. Like Noah in his ark, I carried the pair to the new land. They were mementoes of my birth place. They were memories from my old homeland. They represented my place of origin and a reminder from friends that I was not travelling alone.
I have experienced many upheavals since then. There were floods that swept away much of memories of my old friends. Their faces have all but faded away in the tides of time. There were experiences of feeling so small in the vast ocean of loneliness, growing up in Canada. But I have carried the two totems with me through all the tides and the floods of my life, knowing that they represent my connection to my ancestral spirit.
According to the Book of Genesis, the Great Flood wiped out all life on earth except the life carried in the ark Noah and his family built. The flood destroyed everything. Noah and his family experienced mortality throughout the flood. Each toss and turn reminded them of the “smallness” of being human in the vast ocean of God’s wrath. Each gust of wind terrified them to death.
When it rains, it pours.
“Women and children continue to suffer and die in Darfur.” “A young man gunned down at home in Toronto.” “Ninety children known to Ontario’s child welfare system died in 2007, according to the latest report from the chief coroner’s office.”[i] Each headline in the newspaper tells us of the floods of violence and horror continuing around us.
Our lives are inundated with so many headlines indicating the floods of destruction around us. And we often feel so small in the vast ocean of torrid currents of despair as the world turns.
When it rains, it pours.
There are times in life when we feel so overwhelmed with crises in life that we feel paralyzed. There are issues with people at work. There are conflicts you are trying to manage with your family members. There are times when life seems to be a continuation of one flood after another. Peace and tranquility seem so illusive.
When will the flood subside in our life? When will we see the dry land?
The wind finally subsided and the dry land was found for Noah and his companions. A new cycle of life was about to begin as Noah and every living thing “went out of the ark by families.”
The first thing Noah and his family did when they disembarked on the dry land was to offer thanksgiving to God. The book of Genesis repeats over and over to emphasize what Noah and his companions heard from God – that God will never again curse the ground.
And the covenant was made between God and Noah to mark the new beginning of life on earth. Noah hears God’s promise that there will not be any more destruction and that the sign of the covenant between them is the rainbow. Thus, a rainbow became the symbol of the first recorded covenant between God and humanity. And the covenant was not only with Noah but also with his descendants and the rest of creation. “I will remember the covenant,” said God to Noah.
What Noah heard, what Noah understood, was that the God he heard was the God of life-giving, not the God of destruction. Noah’s understanding of the covenant underscores his faith and conviction that God is the God of renewal. For him, God is the God of rejuvenation and resurrection.
Noah turned around his experiences of desolation into a prelude of a new beginning of his relationship with God. That is the rainbow connection – God and Noah turned to each other to be present to each other. That was the covenant God and Noah made to each other and with the rest of God’s creation.
Where do we see the sign of the rainbow in our life? Where can we experience God’s voice telling us that there shall be no more destruction and desolation?
Experiences of tragedy and near-death often change people’s outlook on life. Nothing can be more life-changing than an escape from a near death experience. Some succumb to fear and live in the floods of nightmares. But some, like Noah, choose to overcome fear and become hope for others.
Daoud Hari was one of the 2.5 million internally displaced people in Sudan. In 2003, Daoud Hari’s village was attacked and torched to the ground by the Sudanese-government-backed militia. He witnessed how the militia murdered his older brother. Though his family was decimated and dispersed, he eventually found safety across the border in Chad.
With his knowledge of languages, including English, Hari became a translator and guide to the foreign reporters and government officials covering genocide in Darfur. He risked his life again and again to help ensure that the story of his people is told while there is still time to save them.
He was captured by the Sudanese military in one of the missions to cover the story of genocide in Darfur. He and his companions were severely tortured by the Sudanese and Chadian governments. When he was finally released with the help of people abroad, Daoud Hari wrote a book, The Translator: A Memoir, to continue to tell the stories of his people so that the rest of the humanity does not forget them.
“You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life,” Hari wrote in his book.[ii] He stated that “the best way to bury your pain is to help others and to lose yourself in that.”[iii]
Facing our mortality often “awakens” us to realize what’s really important in our life. Near-death or near-disaster in life, if we choose, could help us to renew our life and to cherish those around us. Like Noah and his companions, we could make adversities we face as the beginning of a new way of being. It is true that people often find hope after experiencing adversity. The experiences of desolation and hopelessness often awaken people to search for hope. That’s the rainbow connection – hope arising out of hopelessness.
Noah and his family found hope after experiencing destruction and desolation. Rainbow became a symbol of God’s promise of peace for them. The theme of turning death into renewal – a process of resurrection – continues in our time.
Daoud Hari found hope and became hope for others even after experiencing death and the loss of many of his family members. Gifts from my friends continue to remind me that I am not alone. They remind me that their friendship and love will always accompany me in my life. They remind me that friends are to be found and cherished in life. My old friends’ gifts became a model for my faith and ministry: accompanying those who are in need and being present in their life.
The Season of Lent is a time of searching for such hope – becoming aware of desolations within and around us and turning them into a source of hope and renewal within and around us. Lent is a time of reflecting the life of Jesus and how he became the source of hope for us. Lent is a time of finding ways to become hope for those around us.
When it rains, it pours.
But we also know that it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. God continues to invite us to turn our sorrows into hope. God continues to invite us to become a rainbow to those around us. May we dare to be the rainbow of God’s promise to all. May we dare to turn to God and embody God’s renewing love for all.
Amen.
And my boat is so small.”
I remember the vast ocean of clouds on the way to Canada in 1975. I was 14 years old and my family and I were on our way to a new land we would be calling “home.” There was an endless ocean of white outside the window. I remember feeling so small inside the airplane floating toward the new land. I had no idea what the new land looked like. What I had was a sense of hope and a promise of a new beginning.
With me were two wooden carvings my friends gave me as gifts for the new journey. They were totems – miniaturized versions of the statues found at the entrance of villages in Korea, erected to ward off evil spirits. “The Great General under the Heaven” was inscribed on the male totem. “The Woman General beneath the Earth” was the inscription on the female totem. Like Noah in his ark, I carried the pair to the new land. They were mementoes of my birth place. They were memories from my old homeland. They represented my place of origin and a reminder from friends that I was not travelling alone.
I have experienced many upheavals since then. There were floods that swept away much of memories of my old friends. Their faces have all but faded away in the tides of time. There were experiences of feeling so small in the vast ocean of loneliness, growing up in Canada. But I have carried the two totems with me through all the tides and the floods of my life, knowing that they represent my connection to my ancestral spirit.
According to the Book of Genesis, the Great Flood wiped out all life on earth except the life carried in the ark Noah and his family built. The flood destroyed everything. Noah and his family experienced mortality throughout the flood. Each toss and turn reminded them of the “smallness” of being human in the vast ocean of God’s wrath. Each gust of wind terrified them to death.
When it rains, it pours.
“Women and children continue to suffer and die in Darfur.” “A young man gunned down at home in Toronto.” “Ninety children known to Ontario’s child welfare system died in 2007, according to the latest report from the chief coroner’s office.”[i] Each headline in the newspaper tells us of the floods of violence and horror continuing around us.
Our lives are inundated with so many headlines indicating the floods of destruction around us. And we often feel so small in the vast ocean of torrid currents of despair as the world turns.
When it rains, it pours.
There are times in life when we feel so overwhelmed with crises in life that we feel paralyzed. There are issues with people at work. There are conflicts you are trying to manage with your family members. There are times when life seems to be a continuation of one flood after another. Peace and tranquility seem so illusive.
When will the flood subside in our life? When will we see the dry land?
The wind finally subsided and the dry land was found for Noah and his companions. A new cycle of life was about to begin as Noah and every living thing “went out of the ark by families.”
The first thing Noah and his family did when they disembarked on the dry land was to offer thanksgiving to God. The book of Genesis repeats over and over to emphasize what Noah and his companions heard from God – that God will never again curse the ground.
And the covenant was made between God and Noah to mark the new beginning of life on earth. Noah hears God’s promise that there will not be any more destruction and that the sign of the covenant between them is the rainbow. Thus, a rainbow became the symbol of the first recorded covenant between God and humanity. And the covenant was not only with Noah but also with his descendants and the rest of creation. “I will remember the covenant,” said God to Noah.
What Noah heard, what Noah understood, was that the God he heard was the God of life-giving, not the God of destruction. Noah’s understanding of the covenant underscores his faith and conviction that God is the God of renewal. For him, God is the God of rejuvenation and resurrection.
Noah turned around his experiences of desolation into a prelude of a new beginning of his relationship with God. That is the rainbow connection – God and Noah turned to each other to be present to each other. That was the covenant God and Noah made to each other and with the rest of God’s creation.
Where do we see the sign of the rainbow in our life? Where can we experience God’s voice telling us that there shall be no more destruction and desolation?
Experiences of tragedy and near-death often change people’s outlook on life. Nothing can be more life-changing than an escape from a near death experience. Some succumb to fear and live in the floods of nightmares. But some, like Noah, choose to overcome fear and become hope for others.
Daoud Hari was one of the 2.5 million internally displaced people in Sudan. In 2003, Daoud Hari’s village was attacked and torched to the ground by the Sudanese-government-backed militia. He witnessed how the militia murdered his older brother. Though his family was decimated and dispersed, he eventually found safety across the border in Chad.
With his knowledge of languages, including English, Hari became a translator and guide to the foreign reporters and government officials covering genocide in Darfur. He risked his life again and again to help ensure that the story of his people is told while there is still time to save them.
He was captured by the Sudanese military in one of the missions to cover the story of genocide in Darfur. He and his companions were severely tortured by the Sudanese and Chadian governments. When he was finally released with the help of people abroad, Daoud Hari wrote a book, The Translator: A Memoir, to continue to tell the stories of his people so that the rest of the humanity does not forget them.
“You have to be stronger than your fears if you want to get anything done in this life,” Hari wrote in his book.[ii] He stated that “the best way to bury your pain is to help others and to lose yourself in that.”[iii]
Facing our mortality often “awakens” us to realize what’s really important in our life. Near-death or near-disaster in life, if we choose, could help us to renew our life and to cherish those around us. Like Noah and his companions, we could make adversities we face as the beginning of a new way of being. It is true that people often find hope after experiencing adversity. The experiences of desolation and hopelessness often awaken people to search for hope. That’s the rainbow connection – hope arising out of hopelessness.
Noah and his family found hope after experiencing destruction and desolation. Rainbow became a symbol of God’s promise of peace for them. The theme of turning death into renewal – a process of resurrection – continues in our time.
Daoud Hari found hope and became hope for others even after experiencing death and the loss of many of his family members. Gifts from my friends continue to remind me that I am not alone. They remind me that their friendship and love will always accompany me in my life. They remind me that friends are to be found and cherished in life. My old friends’ gifts became a model for my faith and ministry: accompanying those who are in need and being present in their life.
The Season of Lent is a time of searching for such hope – becoming aware of desolations within and around us and turning them into a source of hope and renewal within and around us. Lent is a time of reflecting the life of Jesus and how he became the source of hope for us. Lent is a time of finding ways to become hope for those around us.
When it rains, it pours.
But we also know that it takes both rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. God continues to invite us to turn our sorrows into hope. God continues to invite us to become a rainbow to those around us. May we dare to be the rainbow of God’s promise to all. May we dare to turn to God and embody God’s renewing love for all.
Amen.
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[i] Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star, http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/591523.
[ii] Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Memoir (Anchor Canada, 2008 ), 11.
[iii] Hari, The Translator, 64.
[ii] Daoud Hari, The Translator: A Memoir (Anchor Canada, 2008 ), 11.
[iii] Hari, The Translator, 64.
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