Genesis 8:13-9:17/St Mark 4:1-20
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Sower went out to sow. He knew the harvest He would reap. He knew the apparent waste and extravagant squandering His sowing would seem to be. One-quarter is devoured. One quarter is scorched. Another is choked. Three-quarters is unproductive. For all His scattered plenteousness, but one fourth produces a harvest. The Sower knew. Yet He sows anyway. In love He scatters abroad the goodly seed, intent that all men may have the wholesome Word.
So it was in the days of Noah. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth; and it grieved Him to His heart; even as it grieved the Sower. Yet the fault lay not in the Seed, nor the Sower, but in the ground. The fault lay in man. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 6:5-8). In grace and love, however, the Sower still sowed.
If you have been following the readings in the daily lectionary since Ash Wednesday you have read the creation account, the Fall, the exile from Eden, but also the promise of the Seed. You have read of murderous Cain and the good shepherd Abel; the generations of Noah and the ever increasing corruption of man’s heart.
Nothing has changed. Man continues to destroy God’s good creation, husband and wife continue to bicker and blame, brother continues to rise up against brother, the inclination of man’s heart is only and continually evil. Concerning this our Lutheran Confessions state, “Since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin, called concupiscence. Concupiscence is a disease and original vice that is truly sin. It damns and brings eternal death” (AC II).
This is difficult to comprehend, but it is not a parable. It is the reality of all who are naturally born. Our Lord had every right to lay waste to His good creation, now horribly corrupted by man. He still has every right. Yet the Sower still sows. And Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This was not by any merit or worthiness in him. The ground does not prepare itself for the Seed. We cannot make ourselves good and pleasing to God. What pleases God, why Noah found favor in His eyes, why one-quarter of the seed germinated, is faith. This pleases God. And faith is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, by grace, not work.
Thus it is written, By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith (Heb 11:7). Noah was a righteous man, not with a righteousness of his own, but righteous with the righteousness of Another, the One in whom the covenant was sealed, the One whose blood covers the cursed heart of man and bespeaks him righteous, the One who is The Sign of the new and everlasting covenant between God and all flesh that is on the earth.
For all men naturally born are infected with sin. But there is one Man who was supernaturally born, begotten of the Father from all eternity, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ. His is the day and the night. He established the heavenly lights and the sun. He has fixed the boundaries of the earth. He split open springs and brooks, as you sang in the Psalm. Christ taught beside the sea - the very sea, the water He used to blot out the wickedness of men from the earth.
And He took upon Himself the punishment due all men. He became Sin. He became a Curse. He bore the sin of all mankind, of Noah and his sons and family, of you and me and put it to death by His Cross and Passion, which has become that great Sign between God and man, that He will not destroy all flesh, but save those who believe.
It is written, For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not open, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water (1 Pet 3:18-20). St Peter is not writing about purgatory! He is confessing Christ’s decent into hell - the spirits in prison - a victory march for the One who has overcome death and the grave. Noah, the ark, the flood, foreshadowed this pivotal event!
St Peter continues, Baptism, which corresponds to this (that is, to the flood and Noah’s redemption), now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 3:21). No matter what you think of Russell Crowe and whatever Darren Aronofsky’s movie is, it is likely he’ll miss this important point - the flood foreshadowed our Lord’s own Baptism in the Jordan, and our Baptisms into Him.
For Christ is the Ark of Life in whom we are ferried safely across from death to life. After His cataclysmic death for all mankind His side was opened and out came the blood of the covenant and the water of life, even as the ark was opened and out came every living thing that had been brought safely through death. Behold you are the family brought forth from the Ark of Christ’s body and blood!
And set before you here is the same Body and Blood, the once for all sacrifice that was pleasing to God, now given to you as the hundred fold harvest of the Sower. Note that with Noah and his descendants there was a covenant prohibition against the consuming of blood. The same will be said regarding the Passover Lamb. Life was in the blood. Behold that prohibition has been lifted. Here you are given the Blood not beasts or birds, but of the GodMan, Jesus Christ, who pours for you His lifeblood, from His sacred veins. This is your blessing: the forgiveness of sins in the shed blood of Christ, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
Come then, eat and drink, believe and live. For the gift of faith given you is reckoned as righteousness in the sight of the Father. Here the Sower continues to sow in grace and love, feeding you on the wholesome loaves of His Word and promise. Here is balm for your wicked heart. Here is comfort for your guilty conscience. Here our Lord, by His grace, in love keeps you safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
The Sower went out to sow. He knew the harvest He would reap. He knew the apparent waste and extravagant squandering His sowing would seem to be. One-quarter is devoured. One quarter is scorched. Another is choked. Three-quarters is unproductive. For all His scattered plenteousness, but one fourth produces a harvest. The Sower knew. Yet He sows anyway. In love He scatters abroad the goodly seed, intent that all men may have the wholesome Word.
So it was in the days of Noah. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth; and it grieved Him to His heart; even as it grieved the Sower. Yet the fault lay not in the Seed, nor the Sower, but in the ground. The fault lay in man. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Gen 6:5-8). In grace and love, however, the Sower still sowed.
If you have been following the readings in the daily lectionary since Ash Wednesday you have read the creation account, the Fall, the exile from Eden, but also the promise of the Seed. You have read of murderous Cain and the good shepherd Abel; the generations of Noah and the ever increasing corruption of man’s heart.
Nothing has changed. Man continues to destroy God’s good creation, husband and wife continue to bicker and blame, brother continues to rise up against brother, the inclination of man’s heart is only and continually evil. Concerning this our Lutheran Confessions state, “Since the fall of Adam, all who are naturally born are born with sin, that is, without fear of God, without trust in God, and with the inclination to sin, called concupiscence. Concupiscence is a disease and original vice that is truly sin. It damns and brings eternal death” (AC II).
This is difficult to comprehend, but it is not a parable. It is the reality of all who are naturally born. Our Lord had every right to lay waste to His good creation, now horribly corrupted by man. He still has every right. Yet the Sower still sows. And Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. This was not by any merit or worthiness in him. The ground does not prepare itself for the Seed. We cannot make ourselves good and pleasing to God. What pleases God, why Noah found favor in His eyes, why one-quarter of the seed germinated, is faith. This pleases God. And faith is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, by grace, not work.
Thus it is written, By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith (Heb 11:7). Noah was a righteous man, not with a righteousness of his own, but righteous with the righteousness of Another, the One in whom the covenant was sealed, the One whose blood covers the cursed heart of man and bespeaks him righteous, the One who is The Sign of the new and everlasting covenant between God and all flesh that is on the earth.
For all men naturally born are infected with sin. But there is one Man who was supernaturally born, begotten of the Father from all eternity, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ. His is the day and the night. He established the heavenly lights and the sun. He has fixed the boundaries of the earth. He split open springs and brooks, as you sang in the Psalm. Christ taught beside the sea - the very sea, the water He used to blot out the wickedness of men from the earth.
And He took upon Himself the punishment due all men. He became Sin. He became a Curse. He bore the sin of all mankind, of Noah and his sons and family, of you and me and put it to death by His Cross and Passion, which has become that great Sign between God and man, that He will not destroy all flesh, but save those who believe.
It is written, For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not open, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water (1 Pet 3:18-20). St Peter is not writing about purgatory! He is confessing Christ’s decent into hell - the spirits in prison - a victory march for the One who has overcome death and the grave. Noah, the ark, the flood, foreshadowed this pivotal event!
St Peter continues, Baptism, which corresponds to this (that is, to the flood and Noah’s redemption), now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 3:21). No matter what you think of Russell Crowe and whatever Darren Aronofsky’s movie is, it is likely he’ll miss this important point - the flood foreshadowed our Lord’s own Baptism in the Jordan, and our Baptisms into Him.
For Christ is the Ark of Life in whom we are ferried safely across from death to life. After His cataclysmic death for all mankind His side was opened and out came the blood of the covenant and the water of life, even as the ark was opened and out came every living thing that had been brought safely through death. Behold you are the family brought forth from the Ark of Christ’s body and blood!
And set before you here is the same Body and Blood, the once for all sacrifice that was pleasing to God, now given to you as the hundred fold harvest of the Sower. Note that with Noah and his descendants there was a covenant prohibition against the consuming of blood. The same will be said regarding the Passover Lamb. Life was in the blood. Behold that prohibition has been lifted. Here you are given the Blood not beasts or birds, but of the GodMan, Jesus Christ, who pours for you His lifeblood, from His sacred veins. This is your blessing: the forgiveness of sins in the shed blood of Christ, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
Come then, eat and drink, believe and live. For the gift of faith given you is reckoned as righteousness in the sight of the Father. Here the Sower continues to sow in grace and love, feeding you on the wholesome loaves of His Word and promise. Here is balm for your wicked heart. Here is comfort for your guilty conscience. Here our Lord, by His grace, in love keeps you safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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