Lent
April 6, 2020
Scripture Reading: Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18
Then the Lord said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household,
for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. Take
with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of
the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; and seven pairs of the
birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of
all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days
and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from
the face of the ground.’ And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
In the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. The rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons, entered the ark, they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.
The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
As we all shelter in place to mitigate the coronavirus, Noah’s story of salvation from the flood seems very appropriate. Not so much related to who is righteous and whether the catastrophic occurrence was the result of the world’s unrighteousness, but more in light of our need to withdraw and shelter to prevent or lessen the impact of a new and potent disease. Sheltering for approximately three weeks at this point has given me time to ponder what it means to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The CDC estimates that every person who gets the virus results in three more people getting the virus if we do not avoid contact with one another. That is particularly essential now that we know people may be contagious for days before they have any symptoms. Some with the virus have few if any, symptoms.
I must say I am a little puzzled with this scripture’s association with Holy Week. Perhaps it is a stretch, but it may illustrate the need for salvation in the world at the time of Jesus’s crucifixion and his death, burial, and eventual resurrection resulting in all things becoming new in Christ.
Prayer: Lord, we welcome being reminded that you came to bring us new life and a calling to build a new world under your leadership. We need your guidance and direction as we struggle to address a pandemic that is recking havoc across the globe. Grant us wisdom and courage for the facing of this hour*. Amen.
Derived from God of Grace and God of Glory written by Harry Emerson Fosdick see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.