First Sunday of Lent

Genesis 9:8-17 p 6
8Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him,9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you,10and 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.11I 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.”
12God 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:13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds,15I 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.16When 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.”17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
This is the word of the Lord…thanks be to God
Mark 2:13-22 p 813-814
13Jesus went out again beside the sea; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them.14As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.15And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him.16When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
18Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”19Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.20The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.
21“No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
This is the word of the Lord….thanks be to God



Apparently the whole world was sinful, at least in Noah’s day. The world was so bad—when not too very long ago God made it and declared it “good” –so bad, that God wants to destroy it. Or rather, God regrets that he has made the world, and humans in it. Every thought, every impulse of their lives is evil, says God. All the time. This isn’t working. I’ve got to start over, God thinks.
Ah…but there is one faithful one, Noah…and his family. Now, we don’t know in what ways Noah was faithful…we are only told that he was.
So, Noah builds the boat, and God sends water, lots of it, and they ride out the storm in a ship, filled with animals and each other, and finally, finally, come out, 40 days later, to a world that is different. Wiped clean.

What kind of God would do that? We might ask. What kind of God regrets his own creation? What kind of God wants- and makes- a “do-over”?
We have a hint. God makes a covenant with Noah. A covenant in which God promises never to destroy the world by flood ever again. A world, in which, perhaps, God regrets the flood as well as the creation, and wants to re-establish a relationship, with all creation—through Noah, and Noah’s descendents, and the descendants of all the animals who were carried on that boat.

And here’s the thing: God doesn’t require anything of Noah and his children. God only binds himself “As for me….” God says. There is nothing about what Noah and his family and descendants are required to do. God chooses to limit God’s power, and chooses to establish a new covenant, a new relationship with humans. God makes a promise never again to destroy the world in this way.

The world had not improved much by the time we get to first century Palestine. The only sure things in life are death, and taxes. And Levi is a tax collector, for the Roman government, and, most probably, taking a cut for himself as well. So, both a shill for the oppressors, and someone who’s padding his own pockets. He would have made a bundle, it was thought, because that portion of Galilee was the Via Maris, a major trade route. People traveled on the Roman roads because they were safe. But they paid a price. And when they went thru that particular portion of road, they paid their taxes to Levi.

And Jesus comes by. And disrupts Levi’s work day. Because that’s what Jesus does.
Jesus commands him- follow me. And Levi does, and is given new life. He arose, got up- but the word there doesn’t mean he stood up from his chair- it is the word we use for resurrection: anastao- - - Just like Simon and Andrew and James and John, who left their fishing nets, Levi gets up and lets the coins and receipts fall from his lap, as he arises, and follows Jesus.

A wonderful story, we think- a new life! Resurrection! A happy ending!
Except, it’s not. People are mad- why would Jesus call a collaborator, someone who works for the enemy? Why would Jesus sit down with tax collectors and sinners?- we are reminded – 3 times! That Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners!- Jesus is rubbing elbows with them. And people are outraged.

Jesus, of course, has a simple answer. Those who are healthy don’t need a doctor. I have not come to heal the righteous, he says, but to heal the sick. I have not come to save the holy, but to save the sinners.

Which is good news. For all of us.

Think back to the Noah story. “the inclinations of the humans hearts was very evil, all the time, always. “ things weren’t any different in Jesus day. They’re not much different now. But God decided to enter into covenant with Noah, and with creation, and with all creation again—knowing fully what humans were capable of.
And God in Jesus decided to come for the sick and the sinners- and to eat with us, and to die for us, and to teach us and heal us.

The story of Noah and the ark is often used for baby blankets, wall decorations for a baby’s or child’s room. Or a play boat filled with animals for a toddler aged child—and the child would have fun, marching the animals up into the ark, two by two.

But, in some ways, this is a disturbing story- God decides to wipe out the world—not exactly the kind of story you want to tell your baby as she is drifting off to sleep. And that is one way to look at this story.
But it is not the whole story—we know the rest of the story, the story of the covenant, given by God, lived out in Jesus Christ, in which we stand today.
When Christ called Levi, a notorious sinner, a traitor, a collaborator, we don’t hear any rules about what Levi must do first. We don’t hear any laws preached to him before he will be allowed to follow Jesus, before he can be named an official follower of the Messiah. In fact, we don’t even hear Jesus talking to Levi about repentance, or quitting his day job, or any of it. That doesn’t seem to be on Jesus’ mind- just “follow me” and Levi does. And Jesus doesn’t seem to have laid down any rules for Levi’s sinful friends, either: first we have Jesus calling Levi, next thing we know, Jesus is in the thick of it, at the table with notorious sinners.

Jesus goes where the sinners are. The physician has come for the sick, not the healthy.
This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent. A time of 40 days when we meditate on Christ’s journey to Easter. A time of reflection, of fasting, of deepened prayer and spiritual disciplines.
And we often think of that, or at least I think of that, as kind of a solitary work. The Bible even says “when you pray, do it in secret. When you fast, put oil on your face, don’t be somber, so that others will know you are fasting…” So it sounds like a recommendation to do these quietly, discretely, alone.
But I don’t know if you heard any of the news stories about churches bringing ashes for Ash Wednesday out into the public: in Starbucks, at drive throughs, at the subway or train stations.
Sara Miles blogged about this (http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/church_year/ash_wednesday_in_the_streets_1.php)
: about the weirdness and rule-breakingness and blessing of bringing ashes to people in San Francisco. They set up next to the subway entrance. She and some others from the church put up signs, duct-taped to the fence behind them. The two signs read: Life is very, very short, and More Forgiveness. They brought ashes, last year’s palm branches, burned up, in baby food jars. And people began edging closer….to get a glimpse of grace, to be blessed. They went into a restaurant, and one of the cooks said “Oh….did you come because you knew we couldn’t get to church, so you came to us?” Outside in traffic, a man saw what they were doing and lurched his truck into a parking space, and threw open the door: “Oh! Can I have those? Wait, my mom is in the back seat…can you go give her some?” As they walked down the alleyway, blessing all, a teenaged drug dealer, looking menacing, broke into a smile, and lifted his cap: to show them he already had ashes on his forehead. You are dust, Sara said as she applied ashes, and to dust you shall return.
Miles was amazed that virtually everyone said the same thing: Thank you. Thank you. Why would they thank her, she wondered, for reminding them that they are mortal, that one day they will die? Miles thinks it is because she told them the truth, the unvarnished truth. Which is this: We are all made in the image of God, claimed by God. And so we are also called to act like Jesus: breaking rules, bringing grace, feeding sinners, going out into the world. Because we know the truth about us. We are sinners, and redeemed. We are dust, but breathed into by the Spirit of God. We live in this broken world, and we are in the kingdom of God.