Third Sunday after Pentecost:  June 1, 2008 (Year A) St. Stephen Episcopal, Oak Harbor The Rev. Rachel K. Taber-Hamilton                   Domination vs. Collaboration in the Human/Creation Relationship. The flood story in Genesis actually weaves together two stories into a single account.  We can see that there are two stories because of several internal contradictions.  One contradiction is the nature of the flood (one story indicates it’s a massive rain storm that brings about flooding [7:12-17; 8:6], the other as the disintegration of the dome separating the waters above the earth and the waters below the earth [7:11]).  Our Old Testament reading today summarizes the second story. The flood story of the Hebrews shared a flood tradition among most ancient Near East societies, as well as other cultures around the world.  The Epic of Atrahasis and the Tablets of Sumar both tell flood stories.  The best known, of course, was the Epic of Gilgamesh, which tells the story of Utnapishtim (rather than Noah) in which this flood hero is delivered from an impending universal catastrophe.  All these stories predate the biblical flood story by close to 1,000 years.   Flood stories are part of the traditions of many ancient Near East societies, which may relate to actual cultural experiences such as the Persian Gulf flooding the coastland area, or the waters of the northeast extension of the Mediterranean breaching the Bosporus Isthmus and inundating the Black Sea. In addition to being a hero story, however, the Genesis flood account is also a morality story. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation.  Noah walked with God” (6:9).   The Hebrew word we have translated as “righteous” (tseqeh) can also be translated “just.”   The meaning is more than maintaining social morays but of acting justly, equitably and compassionately towards humanity and of living within a covenantal relationship with God.  The implication of the word is that one lives out God’s law in one’s commitment to humanity and creation. Noah is just in contrast to the injustice and disobedience (“violence”) of the law as lived to ensure justice of the people toward one another and all that God had made.   In Genesis, God created humanity with hopeful intentions for both humanity and creation, that humanity would “have dominion” (1:26), better understood as a quality of relationship with Creation to cultivate and to nurture (2:15).  Instead, humanity chose to reject a collaborative relationship with God and turned away from helping to nurture and sustain relationship toward one another characterized by what I will refer to as distributive justice informed by compassion.  To our detriment, the human obsession to dominate everything rather than to partner with God in maintaining the earth led humanity to become alienated from each other and with the world around them.  Social power, unjust actions, exploitation of people and resources for personal gain all served to reject a loving relationship with God, refusing to live into the image of God gifted within us all.    The story of Creation in Genesis depicts an ancient cultural cosmology in which there was believed to be an inverted dome of heaven holding back the waters of heaven as well as a dome below the earth, retaining the waters of the earth.  In the flood story of Noah, the flood description, these two domes disintegrate causing the waters of heaven and earth to suddenly and chaotically break through their respective boundaries and meet in a catastrophe of water that annihilates all life except Noah, his family and animals gathered in the ark.  Ultimately, the faithful remnant of God’s Creation so that once again humanity can collaborate in the creation of a faith community that is faithful because it loves God by living justly and compassionately toward one another. In our Gospel reading today, we hear the Sermon on the Mount approaching its conclusion, when Jesus addresses the issue of what it means to authentically serve God.  Previously within the sermon, Jesus has taught that authentic Christian life is lived out in a faith that is free from the striving for power, prestige, parochialism and possessions (6:25-27).  Faithful fellowship means being free of judging the motives or actions of others (7:1-5), of living in a generous and receptive state of spiritual reciprocity within community (7:7-11).  It means always being open to the Sacred Spirit in the events of one’s life and in the world (7:6).  In his “Golden Rule” sentence, Jesus shares that if we want to be treated justly; then we must treat others justly.  If we want to have wealth justly shared with us; then we must share our wealth justly with others.  If we want to be treated with love, respect and caring; then we must treat everyone around us with equal love, respect and caring. At the conclusion of his sermon, Jesus is given to say, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’  Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’” (7:21-23). There will be those who proclaim to be followers of Jesus who will call him “Lord, Lord”.   In the culture of ancient Israel, the doubling of a name was not a statement of emphasis, as it would be in English (“Lord, pay attention”).  Rather, the doubling of a name was an address of deepest intimacy.  Those who may give the impression of deepest fellowship with Christ may actually be those approaching religion with the least substance, if to have spiritual intimacy with Jesus is do the will of God (doing distributive justice informed by compassion). There are supposed followers of Jesus who will “prophesy in my name”, who will preach the most penetrating and insightful and revealing and profound sermons that will bring people to tears, to resolution to follow Jesus and to repentance.  But it is not fiery conversion speeches Jesus desires but that we do the will of God (doing distributive justice informed by compassion).    There are those who will “cast out demons in Jesus’ name”, supposed followers who will heal people physically, mentally and spiritually, and/or who will perform many miracles.   Their ministry may produce mega congregations and adulation of the people.  And yet it is not great miracles or healings Christ desires but that we do the will of God (doing distributive justice informed by compassion. Jesus critiques human praise, prestige, power and the wealth evinced by the social influence of his contemporary spiritual leaders, the Jerusalem priestly aristocracy, the Pharisees and Sadducees.  He critiques the forces of human society that would encourage or entice any of his followers to seek after position, prestige and influence.   God’s Kingdom is not created through blind obedience the Law (particularly when law is used to justify abuse, neglect or discrimination).  God’s Kingdom is not created in the kind of practice of religion which primarily seeks private intimacy with Christ and not primarily the public good. God’s Kingdom is not created by self-involved efforts to build personal kingdoms of power, prestige, possessions or parochialism (particularly within the Church).    Rather, God’s Kingdom is created by “acting justly, loving each other tenderly, and walking humbly with our God” (Micah 6:8).  God’s Kingdom is created through the work of distributive justice informed by compassion in achieving liberation from poverty, the equitable sharing of local and global resources and building relationships between peoples and nations mutually committed to the work of reconciliation and the needs of the other.   Our Epistle reading from Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Rome focuses on the nature of faith; a person of faith is one who responds in faith to the work of transformation being done by God – whether that transformation is individual and spiritual or whether it is social and has to do with the reforming of society.  However, Paul is clear that those who work for justice (i.e. who are “righteous”) are not redeemed by their own action but rather by the freely given grace of God.  Our actions constitute our response to God’s grace and our willingness to enter the covenant of faith which is a relationship with God built upon the “rock” of Christ’s teaching of compassion and example of commitment to the just consideration of all people and all of Creation given to us to cultivate, nurture and restore to right/just relationship. Throughout the Old and New Testaments from every disaster – natural or human made – survives a faithful remnant that God calls to renew the world.  We have this same call and this same promise (the one given to Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jacob and the Apostles) in our journey of faith.  The most difficult challenge for us, as for them, is not the doing or building of church but the doing and building of our own faith ability to trust God.  We must trust.  Or we will not live and grow and dream forth into creating God’s Kingdom for our community and those we have not yet met who wait for the compassion, nurture and justice that only we are in a life-giving position to restore and further cultivate.  We must keep our eyes on God’s vision for us.  Ironically through the long-distance lens of faith, our future is not really about us.  All that we do, the choices we make, must be about God, God’s will and God’s promise, that we enter willingly into whatever circumstances will best promote the ability of our faith community to witness and enact God’s restorative and transforming power, all through the love of Christ.  Amen.