For the summer months we will be celebrating Holy Communion using the Kenyan liturgy from the Anglican church in Kenya. It is more call and response, a bit more charismatic in the best sense of the word, and places a strong focus on the cross, atonement, and sacrifice that brings hopeful unity.

Liturgy helps shape and form us through scripture, prayer, praise, and Holy Communion. We continue to see ourselves as sinners in need of forgiveness and grace. This is costly grace, as Dustin+ reminded us last week, “the bigger the sacrifice the bigger the gain.” This Sunday we will look at reasons why God sent the flood, Genesis 6-10, the judgement, Noah’s response, grace, and the invitation for us to participate in the new ark, the church. Again, the liturgy’s call is to remember the ultimate sacrifice. Faith is a response to revelation and the more personal the revelation is, the deeper our faith grows. 

The  flood demonstrates that an external re-set like the flood and the new earth after cannot fix the human heart. We cannot fix an internal problem with an external solution. The flood wiped away a corrupt environment but it did not wipe away human nature. Notice that Noah’s first action is to offer a  thanksgiving sacrifice in Genesis 8:20 immediately followed by the first action of sin in the post flood creation by getting drunk in Genesis 9:21. Order falls back into disorder quicker than a hippo on a slip and slide. God knew this would happen because, as He says, He would never flood the earth again, recognizing that humanity is inherently broken.

Judgement alone cannot cure humanity. From this point on God’s strategy shifts toward long term redemption and covenant making. To be sure, Noah showed unwavering obedience in building the ark followed soon after with inebriation. Yet, notice that in the genealogy of Jesus in the gospel of Luke 3:36, Noah is mentioned. And in much of Christian typology the church is seen as the new ark holding creation. Just as the ark rescued a remnant of broken humanity from the waters of judgment, the church is viewed as the vessel carrying believers through the chaotic waters of the world into eternal life.

Finally, we are all called to help ourselves and others respond to the invitation of salvation. Some of us are called to a unique ministry of ordination to help equip people to come on board. On Sunday at the 11:00 am service Michael McGee will, by God’s grace, be ordained as a deacon. His ordination means he is set apart, not above others or below, to set an example for us all in serving and bringing the needs of the people to the church. We are excited for him and ask you to support him in prayer and thanksgiving.

Come and See

+Philip