BibleWorm

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In this first episode of the new Narrative Lectionary year, we’re reading the story of God flooding the world as told in Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-12; and 9:8-17. We struggle a bit with the fact that this year begins not with creation, as in other years, but with the destruction of creation. But as we read we realize that this story tells not only of destruction but also a movement within the very life of God, who goes from wanting to destroy imperfect humankind to wanting to be in relationship with us. We notice that God’s proclamation of this new covenant is expansive, including all humans and all animals in all generations of the earth, such that we can never encounter another creature, human or animal, that is not also in covenant relationship with God. What would happen to our lives, we wonder—both our prayer lives and our lives out in the world—if we could learn to think of others as belonging both to God and to ourselves?