"Chaos"

​Midweek 2 – 2025                                                                             LSB #’s 511, 914 tune 621, 979
Text – Genesis 7:11-12
 
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, & the windows of the heavens were opened.  And rain fell upon the earth forty days & forty nights.
 
CHAOS
 
 
On Good Friday of 1964, a massive earthquake occurred off the coast of Resurrection Bay, Alaska.  Eyewitnesses as far away as the town of Seaside, Oregon report that the water along the coast was first sucked out to sea, exposing the mud at the bottom of the Necanicum River & creating a trough 1200 yards west of the beach.[1]  
Then, the water level beyond the trough rose, until finally it all came rushing back in to devastate the town.    Water is one of the most destructive forces on earth.   From the very first pages of Genesis, God deployed His word in a battle with water.  There was a watery chaos that smothered any possibility of life until God divided it by His word.  
Yahweh fixed the firmament to keep the waters above separated from the waters below.  He opened a space in which life could dwell.  With those boundaries in place the water that existed in the Garden was a cool, life-giving mist – no longer the destructive watery chaos. 
After the fall, the waters take on an ominous tone.  When God saw human wickedness increase in exponential proportions, He removed the boundaries of the waters.  For 40 days & nights, the water came not only from above but also from the fountains of the great deep below.  
The separation that God had effected in day two of creation collapsed.   The waters came rushing back in to destroy life, except for Noah, his family & the animals on the ark.   The sea was no longer merely the force of chaos, but an instrument of God’s wrath & judgment against sin.  Yet, when St. Peter reflects on The Flood, he says that Noah was saved by the waters.  The instrument of God’s judgment at the same time became the means of salvation for Noah as he floated on top of the waters in the ark that God told him to build.    The sea also figures prominently in the history of God’s people as Moses was leading them out of slavery in Egypt.  
Pursued by Pharaoh, the children of Israel encountered an enemy even more ferocious – the sea.   They were trapped.   They could not go backwards for they would impale themselves on Pharaoh’s swords.   They could not go forward because there they would meet a watery grave.  But once again God separated the waters from the waters.  
The Israelites went through the middle of the sea on dry ground.   In the beginning, God had opened up a space where human life could flourish.   Now, He opens up a space where the Israelites could escape.   Not so for the Egyptians.  For them, the sea was divine wrath.  For the Israelites, it was God’s salvation. 
When the Egyptians followed the Israelites into the sea, God took away the boundaries separating the waters from the waters.  The sea rushed in, sweeping away their chariots & drowning the entire army.  The sister of Moses sang: “I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously.  The horse & the rider He has thrown into the sea.” 
Jesus battled the sea in His earthly ministry too.  One day, sleeping in the back of a boat, a storm arose on the sea & threatened to destroy the disciples.  But Jesus awoke & said to the sea, “Peace!  Be still!” & there was a great calm.  (Mark 4:39) 
In Revelation, God overcomes the sea.  Before His throne is a sea of glass.  No more chaos & death.  It is completely smooth.  Finally, in the new heaven & the new earth, the sea “is no more.”  (Revelation 21:1)   This represents the final triumph of God’s word over the watery chaos.  So, you might think that a Christian is immune from this chaos, but not so!   Think of your baptism.  The Small Catechism tells us that baptism is water combined with God’s word.  In your baptism God throws you directly into that primeval battle recorded in the first pages of Genesis.  It should never be a surprise that the Christin life is a struggle!  Don’t be deceived about the Christian life.   It is not “nice.”  
When you look around you at the others in this room, you might be tempted to think that everyone else has it all together, & you are the only one who is a mess.   But what do you think the church is?   Is it a calm place, full of light & peace, in which we gather together in orderly fashion at an appointed time to hear a few polished words of fine rhetoric?  
Do you nod in pious agreement with the words of the preacher & say to yourself, “How nice”?   The truth is not nearly as innocuous as that.   We are baptized, which means we are in the fight of our lives!   Of course there are times we get overwhelmed by chaos.  Chaos is what sin brings – always! 
And the chaos is not just sin like getting angry with someone who steps on your foot, or driving 40 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone.  I mean your life isn’t turning out the way you want it to.  Maybe you lost your parents when other people haven’t.  Or you’re single & don’t see how you’ll ever be married.  Or you think God could not possibly love you.  
Don’t fall for it.   Those attacks do not define “whose” you are, & the attacks are a microcosm of what’s playing out in the pages of Genesis.  We look to Noah & The Flood to understand what is happening to us.  The attacks against us are images of the primal forces in play at creation itself.  Whether chaos or God’s own wrath, is not always easy to tell.  
However, the watery chaos does suffocate life.  Yet, the catechism tells us that baptism is not just the water.  It is also God’s word.   Yahweh’s word separates the waters from the waters & opens up a space where life can thrive.  It divides the sea & lets the Israelites pass through on dry ground.   You can fight these battles & you can win because you have the word of God with you.  At His rebuke the waters fled & He “…set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.”  (Psalm 104:7 & 9 ESV) 
In this season of repentance, we acknowledge that we have been overwhelmed by the forces of sin & evil in our own lives, but we also acknowledge that we have God’s word, which is in ultimate control of those forces.  Even amidst the chaos you & I have the peace of the heavenly Father’s promises.  As the Psalmist said:
“…though its waters roar & foam & the mountains quake with their surging.  …we will not fear, though the earth gives way & the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”  (Psalm 46:3 & 2 NIV)   Since God saved Noah, his family & enough animals to repopulate the entire planet, God is able to save us as well.  In heaven, there’ll be no more chaos, & we will flourish forever. 
In the name of Jesus.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Word eternal, through Your being God created all we see, when the empty spaces echoed with the Father’s “Let there be…” light & life burst from the glorious   power of Your majesty.        Still Your brooding Spirit hovers over chaos, dark & deep, calling out with invitation: “Rise, awaken from your sleep; Christ the Lord will shine upon you & from death your soul shall keep.”  Amen.  LSB 914:2-3. 


[1] https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/education/science/docs/tsun2975/tsun2975_appendixC.pdf.