The olive leaf of hope

Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible. 6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

The account of the Flood is the account of God’s justice, His goodness, care, guidance and promises. It is the story of Noah’s faithful response demonstrated in his obedience, faith and daily walk with God. There are many lessons that we can learn from the story of Noah’s ark like: 1. Don’t miss the boat. 2. Plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. 3. Don’t listen to critics; just get on with the job that needs to be done. 4. Remember that the ark was built by amateurs while the Titanic was built by professionals. 5. Stay fit. When you’re 600 years old, someone may ask you to do something really big.

The story of Noah today is often told as a children’s story or with a cartoonish image with animal heads sticking out all over the boat. But the story of Noah and his ark is a true story. It is our story. It is a story of how God wanted – and still wants – all people to be saved. God realized that unless He intervened, even His own believing children might be swept away in the tide of evil everywhere on earth. So, although the flood was an awesome act of destruction, it was even more a mighty and marvelous act of deliverance. For the waters that drowned billions of screaming, blaspheming unbelievers were the same waters that lifted the ark with its precious cargo high above all the death and destruction.

So today as we review our week in Vacation Bible School, it is important for us to appreciate how special it was to be on the ark. While everyone else is left outside without even a set of water wings, to us who are on the ark, God extends the olive leaf of hope.

Let’s pick up the story on day 285 in the ark. Water. All Noah can see is water. The evening sun sinks into it. The clouds are reflected in it. His floating 450 foot, 3 story boat filled with a menagerie of zoo animals is surrounded by it. The floodgates of heaven had opened. The springs of the deep had let loose. For 150 days the waters raged and roiled. Now with the hot sun and God’s strong wind, the waters are receding. Off in the distance, Noah can begin to see mountaintops. But all around him still is … water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the west.

Noah sent a raven on a scouting mission. It never returned. Lots of carrion to consume. He sent a dove. It came back shivering and spent having found no place to roost. Then a week later, he tried again. With a prayer he let the dove go and watched until the bird was no bigger than a speck in the window.

All day he looked for the dove’s return. The sun was setting and the sky was darkening as Noah climbed to the opened window. He has come to look for one last time, but all he sees is deep, dark water. Water to the north. Water to the south. Water to the east. Water to the …

You know the feeling. You have stood where Noah stood. You’ve known your share of floods. Flooded by sorrow at the cemetery. Flooded by stress at the office. Flooded with disappointment in your children. Flooded with fear in this economy. Flooded with anger at the disability in your body or at the inability of your spouse.

The temptation to give up is very real. The wait for a cure is too long. The size of your debt is too large. The depth of your grief is too deep. The mountain of your guilt is too high. The chasm in your marriage is too wide. The bitterness in your heart is too sweet.

There are no friends who understand you. Your family is close, but sometimes a little too close. You feel enclosed. Trapped. Claustrophobic. On top of that – the stench is horrendous. And if you feel that way, think of how Noah’s family must have felt cooped up with each other and all those animals in a floating zoo for over a year.

The temptation to give in is very close. God had once looked at his highest creatures and said, “Very good!” Then He looked at them again and said in dismay and disgust, “This isn’t the human race I created! Their heart is only evil all the time. I must destroy them and start over!” What must God think when He looks out at the world we live in today? Rampant premarital sex, open homosexuality, drunkenness, dirty jokes, cheating, lying, laziness, prejudice, pornography, abortion, divorce, the love of most growing cold, brother turning against brother, and the devil making himself prince of this world. We are living among a culture of sin. Sadly, we, the faithful remnant, are often taking part in this world of sin. Noah lived in the world but apart from it. Shamefully, we too often live in the world and of the world.

A flood of despair washes over you. A tidal wave of temptation knocks you off your sure footing. Your mind is crushed by thrashing breakers. The world is a flood and slowly you can become with the mud.

Jesus once commented “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37-39). We see the people in our world living and dancing the lyrics of R.E.M.’s song, “It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.” We are tempted to join their oblivious dance to certain judgment.

You need what Noah needed for the 120 years before the flood and the entire year he spent on the ark. You need some hope. You’re not asking for a helicopter rescue, but the sound of one would be nice. Hope doesn’t promise an instant solution but rather the possibility of an eventual one. Sometimes all we need is a little hope.

That’s all Noah needed. And that’s what Noah received.

Here’s how the Bible describes the moment, “When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf!” An olive leaf. Noah would have been happy to have the bird … but to have the leaf! This leaf was more than foliage; this was promise. The bird brought more than a piece of a tree; it brought hope. For isn’t that what hope is? Hope is an olive leaf – evidence of dry land after a flood. It is the branch of a new life, a better life. It is the hope of a land of promise after a flood of death. It is the hope for a future.

Don’t we cherish the olive leaves of life? “It appears the cancer may be in remission.” “I can help you with those finances.” Your alcoholic father saying, “I’m going to AA.” Your scared and pregnant daughter saying, “Mom, I’m going to keep the baby.” Just when your unemployment is running out you hear, “You’re hired.”

As much as we need the olive leaves, we also love that dove that brings them. The dove of the Holy Spirit who brings you the branch of peace. The growth of God’s love. The offshoot of forgiveness. The spray of joy. The sprig of promise. To all those on the boat, to all who search the horizon for a fleck of hope, the Holy Spirit comes to us as a dove. He comes bearing fruit from a distant land, from our future home. He comes with the olive leaf of hope.

Have you received your leaf? Don’t think that your ark is too isolated. Don’t think that your flood is too wide. Receive His hope, won’t you? Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it.

Through Noah’s efforts of faith God saved mankind. God spared Noah’s family and through them God would save the world when a new deliverer would be born, generations later. Jesus Christ is our Noah. Like Noah, Jesus Christ invited people to be saved from destruction by beams of wood lifting Him up from the ground. Like Noah, Jesus was ridiculed and dismissed as a crackpot and a blasphemer to the worldly way of life. But He was not deterred in His obedience toward God. And because of it, He saved others. He saved us – His family. Noah was to build the ark out of cypress wood for the safety of the eight members of his family. Jesus Christ, our Noah, has constructed a new ark out of the rough wood of his cross. This new ark is the Christian Church with doors open to all.

This ark of the Christian Church is filled with hope. For just as God was merciful and hoped that over 120 years the wicked might turn from their evil, so God has been holding off Judgment Day for one more soul to enter His holy ark.

A “Peanuts” cartoon pictured Lucy and her brother Linus looking out the window at a steady downpour of rain. “Boy,” said Lucy,” look at it rain. What if it floods the whole world?” “It will never do that,” Linus replied confidently. “In the ninth chapter of Genesis, God promised Noah that would never happen again, and the sign of the promise is the rainbow.” “You’ve taken a great load off my mind,” Lucy said with a relived smile.” Linus added, “Sound theology has a way of doing that.”

In this wicked world, overflowing with evil, deluged with despair and flooded with death, it is easy to lose all hope. But the sound theology of Noah and his ark brings a smile of relief to our worry-worn faces. For God has held out for us the olive leaf of hope. Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can live it. Receive it so you can share it. Amen.