Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

Pentecost +3 – Year A

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

The earth was apparently built on a sand foundation when a breath moved over the deep. The crust over the deep was shaky. It leaked. Some even called it corrupt.

Eden turned out not to be all it was cracked up to be. Our nostalgic tendency has made more of them than they could stand.

A building on sand is very much like an ark afloat – unstable, uncertain where it is going to end up and when it will finally come back to reality.

At any rate, after falling buildings and falling water Noah and family come back to earth only to find that corruption has come with them. Not only have things come on board, two-by-two, but so has our ability to see things dualistically. Immediately after landing we find irresponsibility, nakedness, and blame all back. Wine and bodies and relationships are all ambivalent experiences, but here they become either-or, this-or-that, that takes the life out of them and leaves us with only caricatures and exaggerations of G*D's image.

Since we are always dealing with the limits of creation, it shouldn't be too surprising to find Noah and family back where they started – in need of steadfast, rainbow, love that builds on sand, again and again, until we learn to have this reality become the rock upon which we can rely – wait a moment and the life we have constructed will all come tumbling down – a readiness for change.