God's Grace Inspires Our Gratitude

Genesis 8:15-22

15 Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

God’s Grace Inspires Our Gratitude

It had been exactly a year and 17 days since Noah last heard God speak. We know it was exactly a year and 17 days because Noah took meticulous notes. To be honest, you probably would have taken meticulous notes too had you been through what Noah and his family had.

For the first 480 years of his life, Noah lived in a world that God himself described as corrupt and full of violence.[1] This was God’s honest assessment of Noah’s neighbours:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.[2]

And yet, miraculously, Noah was somehow able to remain “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time,” and someone who “walked with God.”[3]

And then God spoke to Noah the first time:

So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood… Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you.”[4]

It was a harsh reality and a stern judgment, but a gracious promise – that God would not only spare Noah and his family, but a representative mating pair from every species of animal on earth. And for the next 120 years Noah dedicated himself to doing exactly what God told him to do.

Then, in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month[5]  the rain started to fall, and it didn’t stop for 40 days and 40 nights. Even after the rain stopped, it took another 10 months for the water to recede before Noah and his family and all those animals could safely leave the ark.

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you…” So Noah came out.[6]

Imagine what it must have felt like to set foot on dry ground after a year and 17 days and to walk into a brand new world. There must have been this overwhelming sense of relief. They didn’t have to be afraid of their neighbours anymore. They didn’t have be concerned about negative influences on their children or grandchildren. They didn’t have to lock their doors at night. The flood gave them – and the world – a clean slate.

Imagine how the flood made Noah and his family feel about God – that he chose them to live; that he kept them safe through it all; that he even kept every animal on board alive; that after all was said and done, God not only remembered them but promised them a fruitful and prosperous future.

We don’t have to imagine how Noah and his family felt about God. We can see how they felt in the first thing they did after disembarking.

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.[7]

The first thing Noah does is build an altar. Not a house. Not an outhouse. Not a barn. An altar. It would have taken time. It would have taken effort finding the right stones and stacking them. It would have been the first permanent structure on the face of the entire planet after the flood.

The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar, i.e. a place to offer sacrifices, a place to show his appreciation and gratitude for everything that God had done for him. Imagine how difficult it must have been to sacrifice one of the only 7 sheep in the entire world! This was no small thing! Proportionately speaking, this is easily the largest, most generous sacrifice in the history of the world – one seventh of an entire species!

Had Noah been more practical he might have persuaded himself to save that sheep. One more sheep on earth could have sped up the repopulation of the planet so much more quickly. But in that moment, Noah wasn’t being practical. He was being thankful. His thankfulness for God’s grace not only made him generous, but it also demonstrated his ongoing trust in God. Noah trusted that God could still replenish the sheep population with only 6 of the 7 that had been on the ark.

God’s grace and generosity toward Noah inspired Noah’s gratitude and trust in God. And the sacrifice that Noah made was so pleasing to God that God made a promise:

“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”[8]

The sacrifice that Noah made may have been the largest in history, but the promise that God made was even greater. It was a promise that didn’t just apply to Noah and his family, or the animals that were with them on the ark. It was a promise that applied to the entire planet for the rest of history, and is a promise that we are still enjoying today.

Do you like autumn? Do you like when the seasons change, and even though you have to put away your shorts and t-shirts, now you get to drink pumpkin spice lattes in cozy sweaters? You have this passage to thank for that.

Do you ever go to bed at night afraid that the sun won’t come up in the morning? Of course not! The sun will always come up tomorrow. You have this promise to thank for that.

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”[9]

The cycle of the seasons and the rising of the sun are not inevitable. They are a daily miracle of God’s faithfulness and love, and they are a promise of God’s providence that still applies today.

The grace and mercy and generosity that God showed to Noah and his family still applies today too.

What was the world like before the flood? Corrupt and violent. What is the world like today?

What were people like before the flood? Every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil all the time. What are people like today? What are we like today?

I promise you, the world we live in – and those of us who live in it – are not better than it was before the flood. If this was the world of Noah’s day, God surely would have sent a flood to wash all our wickedness away. Why doesn’t he do it again? Two reasons.

First, because of this promise. God keeps his promises. If he says he will never curse the ground because of man again, he won’t. But even more, it’s because of another promise he kept, this time not to cleanse the world, but to save it.

God doesn’t have to send a flood to reset the world in an attempt to fix the problem of sin. He already sent his Son. And even though every inclination of our hearts is still only evil all the time even from childhood, we are forgiven, not because of any sacrifice we make – even if we were to sacrifice a seventh of an entire species. We’re forgiven because of a sacrifice God made. And if you thought Noah was generous in his gratitude to God, God is even more generous in his grace to us. He was even willing to sacrifice his one and only Son for you.

That’s the thing that stands out to me more than anything else in this passage:

“Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.”[10]

God did not make this promise because Noah and his family were so good. Read the next chapter! You’ll see that Noah and his sons were sinners too. God did not make this promise in the hope that humans would be better now than they were then. We are most definitely not!

God did not make this promise because of anything we are or do. God made this promise because of who he is and because of what he has done for us. He shows us love that we don’t deserve. He sacrificed more than we could ever offer. And he continues to bless us, e.g. with the rising of the sun every morning, with a harvest every Fall, with pumpkin spice lattes and cozy sweaters, but most of all, with the everlasting promise of his faithful love demonstrated by the sacrifice of his Son on a cross for you.

In a way, every Sunday is a re-enactment of Genesis 8. In a way, every time you walk out those doors after worship it is as if God is opening the door of the ark for you on a brand new clean slate. The wickedness of the world isn’t washed away, but the sin of your heart is. What are you going to do to show your gratitude?

Please don’t build an altar in our parking lot before you go home. Please don’t kill 14% of an entire species to show your thankfulness to God. Don’t copy Noah, but you can learn from him:

1. Don’t wait. The instant you become aware of God’s generosity and grace in your life – the instant you recognize some blessing, whether it’s a green light on your way to work or a healthy baby home from the hospital – stop and thank God right away. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. Pray like my less-than-two-year-old: “Thank you Jesus. Amen.”

2. At the same time, don’t skimp. Don’t make that simple prayer a throwaway thought or a castoff comment. It doesn’t have to be elaborate – I’m sure Noah’s altar was no Sistine Chapel – but it should be sincere.

3. Be generous. Sometimes it is better to be thankful than practical. When we sacrifice to God something that is important to us, whether that is our time, money, energy or effort, it demonstrates true trust that God will still provide for us despite the impracticality of our sacrifice to him. And that’s his promise. He will always provide for you. That is what this holiday is all about.

God is generous and faithful in his grace to you. Be generous and faithful in your gratitude to him. Amen.

[1] Genesis 6:11

[2] Genesis 6:5

[3] Genesis 6:9

[4] Genesis 6:13,14,17,18

[5] Genesis 7:11

[6] Genesis 8:15,16,18

[7] Genesis 8:20

[8] Genesis 8:21,22

[9] Genesis 8:22

[10] Genesis 8:21

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Who Am I?

1 Chronicles 29:1-2,10-18

1 Then King David said to the whole assembly: “My son Solomon, the one whom God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. The task is great, because this palatial structure is not for man but for the Lord God. 2 With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities. 

10 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying,

“Praise be to you, Lord,
    the God of our father Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power
    and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,
    for everything in heaven and earth is yours.
Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;
    you are exalted as head over all.
12 Wealth and honor come from you;
    you are the ruler of all things.
In your hands are strength and power
    to exalt and give strength to all.
13 Now, our God, we give you thanks,
    and praise your glorious name.

14 “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand. 15 We are foreigners and strangers in your sight, as were all our ancestors. Our days on earth are like a shadow, without hope. 16 Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you. 17 I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you. 18 Lord, the God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.”

Who am I?

What is the most beautiful church you have ever seen? I may be partial, but I’ve loved all of the churches I’ve served. I think they’re each beautiful in their own ways.

My phone recently reminded me of some memories of our trip to Germany a couple years ago. There were some amazing churches over there.

My sister-in-law was just in Spain, and she shared these photos of the Sagrada Familia which she thought was the most beautiful church she’d ever seen. Based on the photos, I don’t doubt her.

Some of the most beautiful buildings in the history of the world have been churches. And even though many of the magnificent cathedrals in Europe are empty shells of what they used to be, and even though they may have been built so that the pastor or the prince or the architect might make a name for himself, they still stand all these many centuries later as monuments to the glory of God. And what may be even more amazing is that as beautiful as these buildings are, they are only a pale reflection of the splendour of God.

There was one church, though, that would have put all these to shame. We read a little bit about it in our first reading this morning from 1 Chronicles 29.

David wanted to build a temple to the Lord. He even gathered all the materials to do it:

With all my resources I have provided for the temple of my God—gold for the gold work, silver for the silver, bronze for the bronze, iron for the iron and wood for the wood, as well as onyx for the settings, turquoise, stones of various colors, and all kinds of fine stone and marble—all of these in large quantities.[1]

David wanted to build a temple to the Lord. It was a good and godly desire, from a good and godly man. David was the most moral, God-pleasing king Israel ever had. David was known as a man after God’s own heart. But when David asked for God’s blessing on his temple project, God said, “No.”

The way David explained it to the officials of Israel was that because David’s reign was spent conquering Canaan, God didn’t want his temple to be associated with war, but with peace. That would make sense. God is not a god of war. He is a God of justice, but also of grace and mercy. It would make sense that God wouldn’t want his temple to be associated with war.

But David wasn’t telling the whole story. You can tell, even from today’s text, that there was something else that troubled David:

“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?”[2]

David knew who he was. He may have been the best, most moral king that Israel ever had, but that wasn’t really saying much. He may have been “a man after God’s own heart,” but he was far from a saint. He had had a salacious affair with the wife of one his best soldiers and subsequently had him killed to cover it up. He had been a bad dad and looked the other way as his children ran amok, not only making a mockery of his family but leading open rebellion and inciting a civil war. The same man who slayed the giant with nothing but a sling and a stone, succumbed to fear later on in life and trusted more in the number of troops in his army than in the strength of his God, and as a direct result of his distrust, he caused the death of 70,000 men in Israel.

When David asks, “Who am I?” he means it. He knew all too well all the many reasons he was unworthy to do anything for God, let alone be the one to build a glorious temple to his name.

Do you ever feel that way? “Who am I?” Who am I to serve on council, to be a Sunday school teacher, to talk about Jesus to a classmate or co-worker? Who am I? I’m a screw up. I’m a failure. I’m not a role model. I don’t have it all figured out. I can barely play two cords on my mandolin. What makes me think I can accompany worship? I’m already stretched thin. What do I have to offer? If these people knew my past, they wouldn’t let me pump gas for them, let alone listen to me about grace and forgiveness. What could I possibly contribute?

Honestly? Nothing.

It reminds me of a story I’ve told you before about a platypus. When I was about 5 or 6 years old, I wanted to get a Christmas present for my Uncle Ted. He was goofy and good with kids. He was always kind and generous.

The problem was, I was 5 or 6 years old. I didn’t have any money to get him anything. Do you know what I did? I asked Uncle Ted to loan me some. Then I went to the store and saw something that I liked and assumed that he would like it too. Who wouldn’t want a stuffed platypus for Christmas?

Then, when we got back to Grandma’s house, I needed to figure out how to wrap the thing. I was 5 or 6 years old. I didn’t know how to wrap anything, let alone a stuffed platypus. Do you know what I did? I asked Uncle Ted to help me.

The poor man! Not only did he end up buying and wrapping his own Christmas present, but it wasn’t even something he ever asked for or wanted.

Uncle Ted died about 10 years after that. He was technically my great uncle, i.e. my mother’s uncle, so when it came to dividing up his estate, I was pretty much at the bottom of the list. But do you know what he still had? This silly, stuffed platypus that he never asked for or wanted, but that he clearly delighted in and cherished enough to hold onto for a decade, even until he died.

You don’t have anything that God needs. You can’t offer him anything that he doesn’t already have. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t delight in your service to him. God delights in anything you do for him.

God didn’t ask David to build him a temple. God didn’t even want David to build him a temple. But that didn’t stop David from wanting to serve his God.

David knew who he was. He knew he wasn’t worthy of God. He knew he was a sinner. But he also knew what God had done for a sinner like him. Verses 10-13 have no fewer than 15 reasons why David was happy to serve his God. I want you to listen to those verses again and see how many you can spot:

“Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.[3]

God had been good to David. God had blessed him as the king of Israel with victory and wealth and honor and glory. God had made the nation strong, even when David was weak. And that would have been enough to earn David’s unending thanks and praise. David was a wealthy, healthy, happy man and he owed it all to God.

But David’s praise was much more personal than that. “Who am I?” he asked. He knew all too well the sins that separated him from his God. That’s why, of all the ways he could have shown his thanks and praise, he chose the temple. It was the temple that served as the place for sacrifice. It was the temple that stood as a testament to God’s grace and mercy. It was the temple that pointed ahead to Jesus.

All the animals that were sacrificed on the altar that David’s son Solomon would eventually build were nothing more than allusions to the sacrifice that God would ultimately make on a hill not too far away. All the blood that was shed in those temple courts was just a symbol of the blood Jesus shed for you and me to purify us from all our sins, the same blood that he gives us in the sacrament today to give us the assurance that he has taken our guilt away.

We may still say, “Who am I?” or “What could I possibly give to God?” But to Jesus the answer is not nobody or nothing. You are Jesus’ own sister or brother. You are someone he died to save. You are someone he loved enough to give his life for. Anything you give him will be precious in his sight – even if it’s something as silly as a stuffed platypus, or a few weeds pulled or leaves raked, an hour spent watching the little ones so their parents can go to Bible class or choir practice, or serving on a board or committee or going on a mission trip or building a church.

Your service to God doesn’t have match David’s piles of precious metals and stones, but your service to God can equal or exceed even his thankfulness and praise, because of all the good that God has done for you, whether that’s material wealth, physical health, professional success, personal happiness, or none of the above. Even if you have none of those things, you still have a God who gave his Son for a sinner like you, so that when you ask, “Who am I?” it is not with a sense of guilt or gloom, but with a spirit of thankfulness and joy.

Who are you? You are someone God loves. You are someone God has saved. You are someone God has blessed. You are someone qualified and motivated to serve. And so I pray with David,

“Lord, keep these desires and thoughts in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.”[4]

Amen.

[1] 1 Chronicles 29:2

[2] 1 Chronicles 29:14

[3] 1 Chronicles 29:10-13

[4] 1 Chronicles 29:18

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