Watch the service
This week Pastor Kelvin used the theme of Bishop Bickerton’s opening message for the New York Annual conference session, the story of Noah’s exit from the ark. The fact that Noah was confined in the ark for a little more than a year just as many of us have been confined to home more than we would like for more than year gets our attention. The further parallels between the story and what is happening today are very instructive.
The first thing that Noah did after he and his family came out of the ark was build an altar to God and give thanks. Certainly giving thanks needs to be one of our first agendas as well, as we emerge from the season of COVID. Second, in parallel to God’s command to Noah to be fruitful and multiply the human race, it is crucial in this time that we heed again the call of Jesus to be spiritually fruitful by making disciples. Finally, when we think of Noah, we remember the covenant that God made with him and all of us which is symbolized by the rainbow. So for us today, in our times of trial, it is important to remember the blessings of the New Covenant that God has made for us in Jesus. In Noah’s time, God renewed the land. Today, God offers to restore our souls. In Noah’s time, only Noah and his family were saved in the ark. But now, in Jesus, all of us can be reconciled to God by believing in Jesus’s work on the cross for us. And we are then assigned as ambassadors of reconciliation to bring the Good News of Peace with God to others. Finally, in the New Covenant, God has gone above and beyond, opening up possibilities of resurrection, creating new life and new hope just where we were about to give up on things. Praise God for New Beginnings.