Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection with Pastor Adam Hamilton for Friday, 2 May 2014
Dear Resurrection Family,
What a blessing to wake up to sunshine and blue skies here in Kansas City following a week of storms across the country that had a devastating impact on communities and lives. Last Sunday a tornado hit Baxter Springs, Kansas destroying 100 homes and businesses and leaving 34 people injured. Our Reach and Restore Disaster Response ministry had Early Response Team leaders there this week. We also have a Reach and Restore team of 12 people heading to Moore, Oklahoma this weekend in the continuing efforts of rebuilding after the tornado there last year. If you'd like to know more about how you can help, or updates on the work, click here.
As storms, tornadoes and flooding has swept across parts of our country, this weekend we begin a three-part sermon series on the Bible's greatest storm, the story of Noah and the Ark. I'll begin this weekend with Genesis 6:5-8 and 11-13. We'll begin with the questions I'm often asked by children and adults about the flood story. Then we'll look at what this story tells us about God and about ourselves. We'll find that this old story speaks powerfully to us today. Continue reading to learn a few things about the Noah story that may not make it into the sermon this weekend, and I'll give you a link to an ABC news story about a group claiming to have found Noah's ark.
As you may know, this spring I'm speaking on my new book, Making Sense of the Bible in various cities across the country. I'll give that same talk on Monday night, May 12 at 6:30 pm in the Resurrection Leawood sanctuary. We'll consider these and other questions: Is the Bible ever wrong? Who decided what books made it into the Bible and why? Why does God seem so violent in the Old Testament? We'll consider the Bible and homosexuality. And we'll look whether Revelation is a guide to the end times. I'll speak for 45 minutes, then two Saint Paul School of Theology professors will ask questions, followed by a Q and A with attendees. The event is free. Bring a friend or your small group and join me on the 12th.
I mentioned that I would end with a bit more information about Noah and a link to a news clip about the latest claims to have found Noah's ark. There were multiple versions of the story of the great flood and the ark in the ancient near east. The earliest written versions were from the Sumerians who lived in Mesopotamia. These versions date back to around 2100 BC. Over the next 1,400 years this flood story will be adapted and adopted by the Akkadians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians and others. This old version of the story appears in tablet 11 of The Epic of Gilgamesh.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh the gods become angry with humans and decide to destroy them with a flood. One of the gods has compassion upon a man named Utnapishtim and warns him of the flood and instructs him to tear down his home and to build an ark, 6 stories tall (his ark is a square box, though in one recently found version it is a circle). He is to gather his family, those who helped build the ark and the animals of the fields on the ark to save them from the flood. As the flood subsides the ark rests on a mountain. Utnapishtim releases a bird to see if it finds dry land, then another, then a third. Finally he releases all the animals, and then he makes a sacrifice to the gods.
You can see the many parallels to the Noah story. What is the connection between these two stories? At the earliest the Noah story was written about 700 years after Gilgamesh. Abraham and Sara lived in the land where the Gilgamesh story originated and would have known this story. The Noah story is either adapted from Gilgamesh, or the two share a common ancient source.
The account of Noah in Genesis is actually two different accounts of the Noah story edited into one. You can see this in reading Genesis 6:5-8 and 6:11-13. They use different words for God (5-8 uses the word Yahweh, translated by the world LORD, whereas 11-13 uses the word Elohim translated as God). Each of these two passages was likely originally the introduction to the distinct versions which were edited together to form the story as we know it now.
It is helpful to remember that in ancient times, before there were books (and television, movies and video games) people entertained themselves by telling stories. These stories were often rooted in history. But the stories were told to entertain and the best stories also sought to teach about morality and faith. In the words of my Easter sermon, these stories became the defining stories of ancient people. Told and retold around campfires, they gave meaning to life.
The Noah story either shared a common source with Gilgamesh, or the story was one that Abraham told his descendents, adapting it and retelling it in the light of his faith in Yahweh/Elohim. It is the distinctive elements of the Noah story that tell us how Israel's faith in God was different from the faith of the other ancient near eastern people.
Most mainline scholars don't read the story of Noah as literal history. Like most of the stories in the first 11 chapters of Genesis, they see Noah as an epic and archetypal story that may have been anchored in an actual regional flood story, but this is not the point of it being written. The point of the story is not to teach ancient history, but to teach us about God and about ourselves. When we read it literally, we get caught up in trying to prove that floodwaters could actually cover the earth to a depth of 29,000 feet above sea level, or that it was really possible for Noah to have gotten two (or seven) of each species of animal on the earth on to the ark.
For one geologists look at the Noah story, see David Montgomery's The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood. Because mainline scholars tend to see the flood stories as anchored in regional floods, not a global flood with waters rising 29,000 feet above sea level around the globe (required by a literal reading of Noah), they also don't expect to find an actual ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey. Some of those who take the story literally, and that the water's covered the earth and all its mountains, continue to search for Noah's ark, believing if they could find Noah's ark it would prove the biblical accounts are accurate. Every few years there is another claim that someone has found the ark. Here's a link to a news story about the most recent "finding";. This looks pretty convincing, but other folks looking for the ark have pronounced this finding a hoax but I think you'll appreciate the story.
This weekend we'll focus on what the story of Noah's mark means and what it was intended to teach us about God and his will for our lives.
Blessings!
Adam
News from the Leawood Campus:
Interested in joining Church of the Resurrection? This Sunday is our next Coffee with the Pastors at the Leawood Campus. Join me and our other pastors for coffee and a chance to hear more about the church and what it means to be a member. The time is inspirational and informative. We conclude the coffee with a brief joining service for those who are ready to become members of the church. We begin at 2:00 pm and concludes by 3:45. Childcare is available. To sign up for Coffee with the Pastors click on this link.
Vacation Bible Camp is just around the corner, June 9-13. We'll have 1,300 kids here having a great time as they play games, have crafts, sing and as they grow in their faith. We're still in need of about 55 volunteers to help out. You'll have a blast and you'll grow in your own faith as you invest in the lives of our kids. Contact Gail Gunnerson to get more information or to volunteer.
Are you a parent who feels stressed out at times? I know, what kind of question is that?! We're offering an event as a part of our Live Forward ministry to help parents in dealing with their own stress while de-stressing their parenting and home. Our guest speaker is Dr. Scott Sells who wrote, Parenting Your Out of Control Teenager. The event is this coming Thursday, May 8th, from 6:30-7:30 in the Student Center. This event is free and does not require registration. It is reserved for adults only. You can register childcare at childcare@cor.org.
Click on these links for other campus news:
•Resurrection West
•Resurrection Downtown
•Resurrection Blue Springs
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, KS 66224 United States
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