3) From Waffle Worship:
Some Thoughts on the story of Noah and the Ark                            STORY INSIDE Bulletin from 9-29-24

​Isaiah 54:9-10
This is like the days of Noah to me: Just as I swore that the waters of Noah would never again go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
 
Exodus 34:6
More steadfast than the mountains and hills is God’s faithfulness and covenant love. God will be faithful, not because of anything that human beings do, but because God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”
 
“Humanity has not changed in the story of the Flood, but God has changed. Humanity continues to sin and to rebel against God. Humanity continues to fill the earth with violence. God judges but God also redeems, over and over and over again.
And finally, when human sin and corruption have become so great that they threaten to overwhelm the world again, it is God himself who enters into the waters — into the waters of a woman’s womb, into the waters of the Jordan, to show once and for all that God is passionately committed to God’s creation.” 
- Kathryn Schifferdecker, Bible Professor, Luther Seminary 

“One of the messages that comes through to the human beings is that it’s not all about you. You have a broader calling. It’s an ongoing reminder of the breadth of our calling to seek the welfare of the wider world in which we find ourselves. It’s a powerful sense in which God’s vocation and God’s reminder to God’s own self has that corollary in the story of Noah’s calling… and the startling moment when he’s called beyond saving his own skin to really take a look at…the creation God has called him to preserve and be engaged with.” 
- Craig Koester, Bible professor, Luther Seminary 

“Faced with a creation that’s broken, rather than starting over, God commits Godself to find a different way to renew and heal the creation which is going to bring us in the end to the incarnation of Jesus. God is going to take on the brokenness of creation by becoming flesh. The sign of the covenant is a reminder to God’s own self to creation: I promised I won’t destroy you.”

• Rolf Jacobson, Bible professor, Luther Seminary  

​
Questions to consider:

• Questions to consider:
• How does God enlist Noah in the work of the renewal of creation?
• How does God both take evil seriously, and also deal differently with it other than total destruction and starting over?
• What might this story reveal to us about God’s character and purpose for humanity, creation, and the relationship of both with God?
• What might this story be calling us to remember about our own lives and our place in this world?
• -              How can the symbolism from this story can speak to us? (eg, Dove = peace, Ark = God's commitment to preserving living creatures, Rainbow = God's covenant to remind self of promise and what God won't do, eg. same word as “bow”/weapon).

Conversation starts at 5:50