Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm
25:1-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15
St
Stephen Lutheran Church
The
Rev. Maurice Frontz, STS
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This
era has known no lack of doomsday predictions.
Many
of you will remember Hal Lindsey’s best-selling The Late Great Planet Earth,
and
the billboards proclaiming the end of the world in May 2011,
or
those who believed that since the calendar of the ancient Mayans
ended
at the winter solstice of 2012,
there
would be no more days after that.
But
doomsday predictions are not confined to today,
and
they are not just the province of the uneducated.
Consider
the case of Dr. Johannes Stoeffler,
‘a
German mathematician, astronomer,
astrologer,
and professor at the world-famous University of Tuebingen.
In
1499 he calculated that 20 planetary ‘conjunctions,’
appearances
of two or more planets in the same part of the sky,
would
occur in the year 1524,
and
sixteen of them would occur in the astrological sign of Pisces,’
the
water sign.
‘Stoeffler
therefore predicted that on February 20, 1524,
the
world would be destroyed in a second Great Flood.’
Thanks
to Gutenberg’s printing press,
the
prediction was spread far and wide.
‘As
the date drew near,
many
people built boats and loaded them with provisions.
One
wealthy German nobleman, Count von Iggleheim,
built
a three-story ark.’
According
to my unimpeachable source,
Uncle John’s Bathroom
Reader,
‘the
year 1524 began with much of central Europe in a drought,
which
soothed fears…
until
it began to drizzle on February 20, sparking a panic.
A
terrified mob descended on Count von Iggleheim’s ark
and
tried to force their way onto it.
In
the riot that followed, von Iggleheim was stoned to death
and
hundreds of people were crushed or trampled.
Then
the skies cleared…
and
the mob realized it had all been for nothing.’
If
only they had read the Bible.
Martin
Luther’s translation of the New Testament
had
been circulating for two years,
but
the Old Testament and the Apocrypha
weren’t
published until 1534.
If
Dr. Stoeffler and Count von Iggleheim
and
the other people who bought the story
had read Genesis 9,
they
would have known that the earth would never again be destroyed because of a
flood,
that
God had promised that it would not be so,
that
he had made covenant with Noah
and his descendants,
which,
of course, according to the Bible,
means all of us.
Before
it was able to be scientifically described
or
became a symbol of diversity,
the
rainbow was known the sign of the covenant
which
God made with the people of the world.
God
puts away his weapon,
he
comes in peace,
to
deal with mercy with us and not in wrath.
To
make a covenant
is
to bind oneself by one’s word.
By
making this covenant with Noah and his descendants,
God
declares his intention, his mind and heart –
and
he does so without condition.
He
does not make the covenant dependent upon our attitude or behavior,
so
that our breaking of the covenant would invalidate his promise.
Instead,
he speaks his Word,
and
by his promise he determines the future.
Because
of his promise,
we
can live in confidence that day will follow night,
that
sun will follow rain,
that
order will follow chaos,
that
mercy will follow wrath.
This
covenant is the pattern
for all of God’s covenants in the Bible.
These
covenants culminate in the covenant
that the Father makes with the Son
and
with all who are baptized into the Son’s name.
Baptismal
immersion is not necessary for salvation,
and
yet it is perhaps the most appropriate
symbolic form for baptism,
for
Baptism is at the same time flood
and deliverance from the flood.
In
Baptism the sin of the old Adam or the old Eve
is
drowned in the blood of Christ.
And
yet we ourselves are not annihilated,
but
we are brought forth to the dry ground.
In
the covenant of Baptism God binds himself to his Word.
‘You
are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
In
that covenant Jesus is driven out into the wilderness,
to
live by the words of that covenant,
and
by that promise only.
In
the wilderness forty days,
he
is tempted to abandon the promise,
to
live from his own strength and resources.
The
tempter casts doubt on God’s Word,
just
as the serpent cast doubt
on God’s Word in the garden.
But
Jesus binds himself to the Word
that binds his Father to him,
he
remembers the promise of the Father.
Perhaps
he even prays in the words of Psalm 25:
‘All
the paths of the LORD are love and faithfulness
to
those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.’
All the paths, even in the wilderness
of the world,
in
the time of temptation by the devil,
when
it seems as if chaos will overwhelm the world
and
that we ourselves will perish along with it.
In
Lent, in the time of waiting
in
the wilderness,
when
the songs of jubiliation are stilled
and
the images of salvation covered over,
we
remember the promise of God given us in baptism.
We
bind ourselves to that promise by which God binds himself to us.
Despite
our sin,
despite
the evil that surrounds us,
even
despite death that hems us in and threatens us,
God’s
Word cannot be broken.
And
so we need not be swayed by the tempting voices that say,
‘You
have not trusted in the promise,
you
have failed others and you cannot undo the past,
you
have fallen away and cannot be restored.’
Or
the voice that says,
‘There
are times of drought, famine, and flood,
therefore
God cannot be trusted.’
‘Evil
is stronger than good in the world.’
Or
the voice that says,
‘You
will die and be forgotten,
and
there is nothing to live for but the present.’
Instead,
our trust is and may be in the promise of God.
When
we see the rainbow we remember the covenant of peace
God
made with Noah.
We
believe the words of the apostle,
‘Christ
also suffered for sins once for all,
the
righteous for the unrighteous,
in
order to bring you to God.’
And
with every sign of the cross we recall the promise
made
to Christ and to all who bear his name,
‘You
are my Beloved, with you I am well pleased.’
We
cling to the words of the Creed of the holy Church:
‘We
acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We
look for the resurrection of the dead,
and
the life of the world to come.
Amen.’
