Week 3: Genesis 8:20-9:17

The Ark has been built, the animals have marched on board, the flood has occurred, the waters have receded and God is now in the process of establishing a covenant with the people of the earth through Noah. The story continues:

God’s Promise to Noah

 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelt the pleasing odour, the Lord said in his heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
   seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
   shall not cease.’
The Covenant with Noah

God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another, I will require a reckoning for human life.
Whoever sheds the blood of a human,
   by a human shall that person’s blood be shed;
for in his own image
   God made humankind.
And you, be fruitful and multiply, abound on the earth and multiply in it.’

 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

Reflections:
1.  What struck you in this passage?  What might God be saying to you through this?

2. The word covenant is often used to describe our relationship with God. In a covenant both parties agree to act in certain ways as a sign of their covenant.  What behaviors do we engage in that express the covenant we have with God?  How does God keep God's covenant with us. What can we expect from God? 

3. A covenant important to the life of Episcopalians is the Baptismal Covenant, page 304 of the Book of Common Prayer.  Which part of the Baptismal Covenant most challenges you and why?