Tag Archives: Genesis 9:8-17

Paid in Full

God, Jesus, Lectionary, , , ,

There is nothing more relieving than seeing “paid in full” stamped across an invoice.  Knowing that nothing more is owed, the product or service is paid for, there is no debt hanging over you, nothing further that you need to do.

We saw in the Genesis reading, that God doesn’t have to flood the world again. Now, in this reading from 1 Peter, we see why God made that promise – he has another plan, and that plan is Jesus.

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God

When we go out for a meal with friends, we often split the bill straight down the middle, regardless of who has had what.  But this is like Jesus reaching over and taking the whole bill and paying it for us all.  We need to pay nothing – we probably couldn’t afford it anyway.  Jesus saw the cost of what we have done to the world, and he reaches over and pays the cost himself.  He pays not with a credit card or a wad of cash from his back pocket – he pays with everything he has – his very life, and he does it willingly for each one of us, because he knows we can never pay ourselves.

Jesus had done nothing wrong.  He was the only truly perfect person ever to have lived, because he was living out God’s ways in a way we could see and understand.  But he was willing to give his spotless life to clear the mess and debt that the rest of humanity had made and carries on making.  If you need to clean something, a cloth that is already dirty just makes the mess worse – you need a clean cloth to make a proper job.  That is what Jesus offers to the world.

His death gives the promise of a clean world, and clean lives for everyone.  Eight people were saved in the ark, Jesus offers to save each and every one of us – you and me – not by water, but by rising from the dead, subduing the wrong in the world, and returning to heaven.

Jesus offers all that today.  The only question for us is are we going to receive it?  Or are we going to stand with him arguing that we’ll pay our own share of our bill?  Or insist we can clean up the mess with the dirty cloth we have?

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God

Will you let him?

Thank you Lord

that Jesus came into our world.

That he didn’t just show us what is right,

but made it so that we could start again.

Thank you that he paid the price that we could never pay,

gives the opportunity to truly be clean,

and offers us life.

Lord

may I not stand proud,

but accept the offer

that I may be brought to you

 

Not Drowning, But Living

God, Lectionary, , ,

A covenant is a solemn agreement. A promise to do, or not do something.

The form in which we are most familiar with it is marriage.

The promise of one man and one woman to love and care for each other, a commitment.

In this reading, God is making a covenant, a promise – and he seals it, not with a kiss or a ring, but a rainbow.

God makes his promise with Noah and all his descendants – and with every living creature on earth – so no one is excluded.

The promise he makes is:

Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. (Genesis 9:11).

God has done with that, the world had got into such a state that it needed a clean start, God has washed it clean, and he won’t be doing it again.  He promises – and gives the rainbow as a sign – and every time there is a rainbow it is a reminder of that promise.

The interesting thing is that though this is a covenant, no promise in return is required from Noah.  This is what God is going to do, it is his free will promise to creation.  God jut offers it – what an awesome and generous God.

But with receiving God’s precious gifts and promises does come responsibility.  Sometimes we may wonder that God has forgotten his promise, when we hear of monsoons and mudslides and flooding caused by torrential rain – but more often it is us collectively, who have forgotten our global responsibility to use wisely the resources God has given to us.  We too are called not to drown others by our wants and what we think we need.

God wants not to destroy us, but to give life.  Will we receive it?  Will we do our bit to make sure we are not destroying others?

God remains faithful to us, will we be faithful to him in how we live our lives?

Thank you God

for your faithfulness to us,

that you offer us life.

Forgive me

the times when I would rather choose the way of destruction,

may I not be drowning others with my thoughtlessness and carelessness.

May I seek the way of your life

and be faithful in it.