Sermon Transcript: September 6, 2026
Genesis 6:5–22; 8:6–12
The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humans on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air—for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.
These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up, and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.
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At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven, and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground, but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark, and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him any more.
For the Word of God in scripture,
For the Word of God among us,
For the Word of God within us,
Thanks be to God.
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If you are fortunate or blessed enough to get one, here is my advice: Take it. Make the most of it. Second chances are a gift. They are one of the purest forms of grace.
Now let me be clear: True second chances are not necessarily earned. They are not due and should not be expected. It is the same with forgiveness, which may or may not be a part of the second chance. We have spent a good chunk of this past summer looking at repentance and repair. In the process, we learned that forgiveness, too, is pure grace. It cannot be forced. It can only be freely given.
If you have caused harm to another, you can apologize. You can seek to make amends. You can offer to be a part of repair. The one thing you cannot do is demand or expect forgiveness. Even if you have apologized again and again, done what you can for amends and repair, forgiveness is up to the victim and the victim alone. It is tied to their own process of healing and repair. It is theirs to give if they see fit to do so. And if they don’t, that is just something that we have to accept.
Now, that applies to interpersonal situations, but what about between us and God? Things get even more complicated. You will hear some preachers say all you have to do is pray a certain prayer, or just genuinely repent in your heart, and God will wipe your slate clean. But is it really just that easy? I mean, if we can just say a few words and get forgiveness from God, then can’t we just ignore the victims?
The older I get, the more I am suspicious of those who want to privatize faith—those who say, “My faith is about my relationship to God and is no one else’s business.” When we speak or think like this, we mix up the definitions of personal and private. Faith is always personal. It cuts straight to the heart of the matter, straight to the human heart in a way that is deeply intimate, but in no way unique. Faith is always personal, but never private. It is never about me and me alone. It is always about how we relate to others. Jesus made this plain when asked the greatest commandment and quickly recited the Shema: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind.” But Jesus doesn’t stop there. “The second is like it,” he said. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Reflecting on what this means for us today, Brian McLaren writes, “It’s not about the church meeting your needs; it’s about joining the mission of God’s people to meet the world’s needs… Imagine if organized religion organized billions of people and trillions of dollars to tackle the challenges that our economic and political systems are afraid or unwilling to tackle—a planet ravaged by unsustainable human behavior and an out-of-control consumptive economy, the growing gap between the rich minority and the poor majority, and the proliferation of weapons of all kinds—including weapons of mass destruction.”
That may sound like a mighty lofty plan, but God has had mighty lofty plans for us from the beginning, according to Genesis. Professor Dennis Olson writes, “God began directing a symphony of light, order, boundaries, flourishing life, creatures of all kinds, vocations, relationships, co-creative responsibilities, and blessing—a veritable garden of life teeming with possibility, hope, and promise. God’s gracious generosity and hospitality welcomed into existence a whole new creaturely world, a world different from God but a creation in relationship with God.”
Dr. Olson continues, “True relationship requires a degree of freedom and agency on both sides, both human and divine. While God assessed God’s creation at the beginning as ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31) but not perfect, possibilities existed for wrong choices and negative consequences. Tragically, humans were tempted to become ‘like God’ (3:5). They experienced temptation, fear, distrust, shame, and a tendency to transfer blame to others rather than oneself.”
We are used to reading the story of Noah and the ark as a story of destruction and punishment—God’s wrath and judgment flooding down over the people, drowning the wicked. But what if, instead of a story about destruction, we read it as a story of re-creation; not a story of punishment, but a second chance, a chance to begin all over again? Because in the biblical narrative, that is exactly what it is.
Olson writes, “Other cultures surrounding ancient Israel had their own flood stories in which a hero builds an ark and survives a flood sent by angry gods. The biblical account adapts some elements of this flood story tradition but also reshapes the tradition to conform to an enduring biblical pattern… The flood was a whole-earth attempt by God to deal with the corruption and violence of God’s good creation by destroying nearly all of it and starting over again… God promises ultimately to work for creation’s flourishing and not its destruction, even though God knows that ‘the inclination of the human heart’ will continue to remain ‘evil from youth’ (8:21). Yes, judgment and consequences will follow from such human corruption and violence. But God will also be mercifully restrained and will work to ensure that the story of humans and creation continues in spite of human wickedness.”
The story of Noah and the ark is the story of second chances, of new beginnings and re-creation. It is “what the Gospels teach us,” according to Jonathan Walton. He writes, “Consider the ways Jesus often forms his disciples while they are in motion. Jesus walks alongside them, asks questions, and listens. In the process, the disciples misunderstand his teachings, debate with one another, encounter those with different views, and witness miracles that they cannot readily explain. Yet, along the way, they are transformed.”
The Gospel is the story of transformation, and transformation happens when we embrace the grace, the forgiveness and the second chances we have been given.
When we come to this table, we accept the divine invitation to begin again, to try once more to live as God intended. Here at this table, we are all recipients of God’s amazing grace. Here we are nourished to live in love, hope, and forgiveness. Because we all need second chances, where we can learn from our past without being bound by it.
And being given another chance, we begin where all great epic stories begin: in gratitude. Gratitude for the gift of life, gratitude for companions on the journey, gratitude to be able to grow and change, and learn, and be transformed. A whole new chance in life, just like that. You can’t earn it. You may never deserve it. But it is yours. It is a gift. It is always a gift.
Amen.
