Backyard Basics 5/Blessings 1

Genesis 9: 8-17

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and 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. I 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.”God 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:I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I 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. When 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.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Mark 1:9-15

Backyard Basics Pt 5: Behave

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying,
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

If you've been following our Backyard Basics series, then you have been with us going through some of the ways we can grow in relationship, grow spiritually, and as a community, this year, in our own church backyard. Recap- Believe: Breathe: Balance: Belong, and Ihear if the first day I unveiled this series that many of you have been dreading today's entry- "Behave."I don't blame you.
Behave has gotten quite a bad rap- and is most often used in as a reprimand when we've done something wrong; "Behave!" It simply means, in that sense, "Stop it! Do the right thing! Sit still! Knock it off!" So naming one of our backyard basics, (ways to help us grow in relationship as a community), "Behave," shouldn't be too tough to master. We can't have our own way all the time. We shouldn't whine and have temper tantrums. We mustn't be mean to each other and hurt each other... right? My friends, if you've been listening over the past 5 years, that stuff is in every sermon I preach- so no need to dwell on that today.

But what is worth dwelling on is the fact that sometimes we can become so focused on the way that we behave, or maybe misbehave, and get so self focused on our own behavior, that we miss the bigger things Go may be trying to do in our lives. And we miss seeing the ways in which God provides for us, not just despite, but through our behavior.
This morning is also the first Sunday in Lent;and as we finish our backyard basics series, we are also beginning our Lenten series: Backyard Blessings… and we will talk about those a little later, but the first one is the Blessing of Provision… before we get to that, what is Lent?
Lent, is a 40 day period of preparation, of contemplation, of self reflection and prayer before we commemorate and celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. During Lent, We model Jesus in the wilderness, with the wild beasts- being tempted and tested- and made ready for what is to come.
That's actually what temptation means, in this sense- to try, make trial of, test: for the purpose of ascertaining his quantity, or what he thinks, or how he will behave himself... The satan, who tests him, better translated, the adversary, brings trials and tests upon Jesus that are not revealed to us in the Gospel of Mark, though from the other Gospels we learn they deal with the normal things that tend to trip us up and keep us from being who we are designed to be: power, comfort, wealth.

These are the things Jesus and all of humanity will struggle against in the world for the whole of our lives. The fear of living without any of those three is real, because in their extremes it means death to us- so we are continually attracted to taking more of them than we need... more money, more food, more territory, more security, more political power, more oil, more military, more guns, more. more, more....
You see, without the things that we can amass for ourselves that protect us, and comfort us, and give us power over someone or something, we are left helpless... and dependent on another... a place none of us wants to be.

Jesus of course, made it through his temptation with flying colors- what else would you expect from the Beloved One? He was able to resist the adversary at every turn, and hung out with the animals, and when it was all over God sent angels to minister to him. I like that story. It's good to have a leader we can look up to who wouldn't make the poor choices many of us would make in that situation.

You know what I mean... when push comes to shove, and it’s me or someone else, well, I want my stuff- I want safety for my family, my friends, I want food on my table and money in the bank, and laws both that protect and entitle me what I’ve got, and give me what I don't yet have... I've got a right to whatever want and to do whatever I please, especially in America, the land of the free!
And listen, I'm not beating anybody up. I’m not letting us off the hook either, but I’m not beating us up.. we do a good job of that most of the time for ourselves. Also, This is normal human behavior... and make no mistake, Jesus was in the same world we are in right now. Jesus felt the same pull toward all of those things as you and I...

So did Noah. Dear old Noah- obedient to God to the tee- built a huge boat in the middle of a desert, to the amusement of his friends, made himself a laughing stock in the eyes of the world. And I know we have this image of dear hearted and pious Noah, quietly hammering away in the sun, shrugging off the onlooker’s laughter- glancing up at the heavens for gathering clouds and strength, and then going dutifully back to his work on the ark. I can't imagine it was easy. I can't imagine that Noah didn't face bad days, or the satan, or adversaries of his own. He had a spouse... kids... and no one lived in Noah's time without a community.

The 2014 movie, "Noah" does a wonderful job of imagining the inner struggle of the ark builder- the turmoil of accepting God's decision to destroy humankind because of wickedness- and his angst in fighting the temptation to throw himself overboard. Wasn't he, after all, a human- wicked and sinful? Was he better in some way than his ill fated community? Noah does what he thinks he hears God command, but he is never sure, in the movie version, that he has done it quite right.

I bring this to you today because both of these stories are real for us, every day as we struggle to do what we feel is both honoring to God and best for us. As we struggle against the adversary that lures and tempts us, and struggle to take care of ourselves, our families, our communities... we will always question where the line of balance lies... where do we cross from self care to selfishness? Where do we step from serving to seeing ourselves as a savior? From seeking justice to seeking power? We flirt with those lines every day. The temptation to sin, in fact sin itself did not end with the destruction of humans beings. Sin walked on to the boat with Noah, and his family, and propagated itself upon the earth just as Noah and his family did... that is something we live with.

And when we fall into temptation, when we don't behave as we should, when we deny the divine in our spirit and go our own way, we are not cast out, or cast away or banished from God's presence. We're still loved and accepted and called back to reconcile with God.

But there is one more thing I mentioned in the beginning, as we are talking about behave... and that is that in both cases, despite the temptation, God provided everything necessary, not just for Noah and Jesus to make it through their temptations, but for all of us. Remember these stories are given to us, for us, to learn from, to grow into... so when we are in these situations, we can look to them for a path... in every Bible story, there is a blessing.
So when we see Jesus in the wilderness, and frankly, who among us has not been in a wilderness over the course of their lives, feeling tested, tempted, and no one for company but the wild beasts... God imparts a blessing of provision and sends angels to minister to Jesus... Noah walks from the ark with his family, unsure of what the future holds, not sure if perhaps he should have survived, or if this may happen again next week, and God sets a bow in the clouds, as a sign that God will never stop providing for us, that God's provision lasts for eternity.

It's what keeps us from throwing ourselves overboard, or throwing ourselves off a mountain- sometimes because of our own behavior, is that no matter how it looks, ir how stormy it gets, no matter who or what comes against us that causes us to feel like we are at the end, God has provided, even though we may have trouble seeing it, everything we need...
On Wednesday night we talked about God being bigger than our sin… and I know that’s a hard thing to swallow- that God could love us more despite how we behave. That God could provide for us even when we act in ways that focus on us instead of God, that assume that we can in some way control God or change God’s mind to love us or stop loving us, that my friends is why it’s a blessing…