On this first week of Lent our focus is “We journey in trust with Noah and
Jesus.” It comes from those two readings we have just heard. But life is
always a journey. Lent is a time when we focus on the journey a little
more. And we are always faced by the same two questions: “What do we do
with our lives?” “What do we do with our world?” Now, what can we learn
about those questions and the right answers from Noah and the flood?

The most popular question about Noah and the flood is “What was the name of
Noah’s wife?” And whenever that test is given 10% of the respondents say
“Joan of Arc.” Good Catholics, and especially French Catholics, know better
than that.

The second most popular question is “Was there a deluge, was there a great
flood?” And the answer is “Yes, of course” and in the Euphrates Valley,
which is present day Iraq, which is where the flood story comes from, there
were many floods and constant deluges.

And 600 years before Christ the Jewish people were defeated terribly, and
were sent into exile into the Euphrates Valley, and there they heard that
story in exile, and they retold it with a twist. Not to give us an ancient
weather report, not to give us a metrological record of the times, but
rather to tell us a truth about God and a truth about ourselves. That’s
what the Bible is always doing – giving us the truth about God and the truth
about ourselves.

There is a little book by William Sloan Coffin. Coffin was the chaplain at
Yale for years and then the pastor at Riverside Church in New York, and he
wrote a book about 10 years ago. I love the title – some of you will love
it, some of you will hate it, but the title is “The Heart is a Little to the
Left.” And in it he says, “I read the Bible because the Bible reads me. I
see myself reflected in Adam’s excuses, in Saul’s envy of David, in
promise-making, promise-breaking Peter. I find a God who not only answers
our questions, but just as important, who questions our answers. If you
take the Bible seriously, you can’t take it literally – not all of it, but
you must take all of it seriously.”

And so what do Noah and the flood tell us about our God and about ourselves?
Well, first of all, it’s a very homey story, but in it God is involved with
us from start to finish. God is concerned; God regrets what’s going on –
even rues destruction, and promises never, ever again will he let all people
be destroyed. That’s what it tells us about God.

About ourselves, Noah and the flood says we are responsible, we are
accountable, we must care for the earth and for all its creatures – everyone
in that arc, we have to care for. And we must never, ever lose hope. That’
s what the rainbow is about – never to lose hope. That’s what we learn from
Noah and the flood.

What about from Jesus? Now, with Jesus we’re not talking about an ancient
story; we are talking about a historical figure who is also the wisdom of
God. Jesus comes along, and he knows God intimately. He calls God
“Father.” He even calls God “Abba.” He calls God “Daddy.” He knows God
is unconditional love. And he seems to go out into the dessert to this
retreat for these 40 days to search himself and to say how is he going to go
about telling people what he knows about God. How is he going to tell them
the gospel, the good news? And he says that it’s not going to be as a
celebrity, it’s not going to be as a CEO, it’s not going to be as a military
general. Rather, he’s just going to go and announce the good news and he’s
going to do it by being faithful, and by living with integrity, no matter
where it leads – even if it leads to being rejected by his people and to
being put to death by the authorities.

What are we to do with our lives? What are we to do with our world?

You know, last Sunday night we had Kevin Hines here. He’s the young man who
a few years back attempted suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge and
one of the few that survived it. One of the things he said, both about
himself and about people he has interviewed who have concerned themselves
with suicide, was that very often toward the end they make a pact. They
say, “If only this will happen, I won’t go through with it.” For him it was
“If one person will reach out to me; if one person will smile at me; if one
person will say ‘what’s going on, are you OK?’ I won’t go through with it.”

He boarded the bus; he was on the last seat of the bus sobbing, sobbing,
sobbing away and saying to himself, “Someone will notice and if they do, if
they reach out to me, I won’t go through with it.” Hundreds of people that
day got on and off the bus, with him sobbing in the back, no one said a word
to him. When the bus got to the end of the line, he walked forward and he
saw the bus driver sitting there, who had seen him sobbing, and he said,
“The bus driver will reach out.” And the bus driver said, “End of the line,
kid, get off.” He got off and he walked the Golden Gate Bridge for 40
minutes, saying, “Someone will reach out to me.” After 40 minutes one woman
walked up to him and said, “ahhh” and she said, “I’m a tourist. Here’s my
camera. Will you take my picture?” He took her picture and he leapt.

What are we to do with our lives? What are we to do with our world?

Noah gives us a framework. The framework is that God is near and we must be
responsible for our world and for one another. Jesus gives us a message.
Jesus calls us to be faithful and true, wherever it leads. And Kevin makes
a suggestion. The suggestion is to notice one another and to reach out to
those who are hurting. That’s one suggestion. May we find many others.

Amen.