Altar’d: Making Space to Surrender

Introduction and Scripture

Genesis 8:15–20 NIV

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

Pray.

Shelter in place. Three words that I hope to never hear again. COVID brought about such difficult and disorienting experiences for all of us. For some, the loss of life and the loss of loved ones. For most of us the loss of sanity, even if temporarily, and even if we don’t acknowledge it. When this season came about my family was living in our first home. A small house with two little children at the time. We did not know what to do with ourselves. All the places like parks, museums, restaurants, friends houses, that were oasis escapes when we just needed to get out of the house, closed to us. And we had just learned that we would be reappointed to a new church. As a pastor who loves to be close to the people, telling a congregation that I had served for 6 years, that I was being reappointed on a zoom call, was difficult. It was painful to tell this congregation goodbye in a drive-by car line with masks.

When we arrived at our new appointment, we said hello in similar ways. We didnt really know anyone for months. Now in east Texas they were a little more aggressive about in-person gatherings. And by the time we moved there I was so done with shelter in place and the emotional and spiritual consequences, my risk tolerance had grown. I just wanted to be with people. The week I was to preach the first time, a rise of cases and we were going to have to close down again. I cried on one of my first zoom calls with staff. They had to think i was a lunatic.

The story of Noah had to feel that way. As much as I love my family, being surrounded by them and only them, in close quarters, well it felt like a zoo. Noah literally had his family and a zoo. Consider the smell?!

Then the day finally came to open the door and leave. What would you do? What would be your first act? For Noah, it was to build an altar and to worship the Lord. Noah knew that surviving what he came from and to face a new world in front of him, required making space and once again surrendering to God.

Let’s talk about the altar for a moment

The Altar: Priorities

I think we have assumed things about altar and we have not really considered why it’s important. The altar will be a thread we follow through this series. In the temple and throughout Hebrew Scriptures, the altar is a set-apart place where Heaven meets Earth. It is usually through the sacrificial system. In our modern context, you will see bibles or Holy Communion placed here, representing the place where God meets us.

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Altar)

Altars were constructed at places which were considered to have a sacred character, points where contact between the human and the divine could or has occured.

For Noah to step off the boat and immediately build an altar he is worshipping God for what has transpired and setting priority for the way forward. And this is the first altar mentioned in the bible.

Crisis requires that we consider our priorities. Noah’s crisis forced him to consider his priorities. COVID should have forced us to look at our priorities.

This is the invitation of Jesus when he says come and seek first the kingdom (Matthew 6:33). This is what he models as he spends time with the Father early in the morning in prayer.

The season of lent is the church’s posture that crisis need not happen for us to consider our priorities.

Lent is also about sacrifice.

When We Must Sacrifice

Noah makes a sacrifice in our text and the oddity of the sacrificial system can shield us from the significance. Remember, he has just brought limited numbers of animals. Animals for preservation of what God created and animals for food. Noah sacrifices out of the already very limited resources that he has. This was a sign that he trusted the Lord to care for his family. This was an act of surrender.

Surrendering a little out of much is calculated risk

Surrendering much out of little is intimate trust

Examples:

volunteering for one hour a week

giving

confessing that you were a rude driver when you have an addiction

The Greek word for surrender is paradidomi and can be expressed in different ways including to commit in obedience, to yield, to entrust, and to deliver over.

The Meaning of Fire

An altar is just a piece of furniture unless there is holy fire to consume the sacrifice. In Leviticus 6, the priests who were in charge of sacrificing the animals on the altar were given specific instructions to keep the fire burning: “The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out” (v. 12a). In fact, it was so important that it is repeated three times. They were not to let the fire die because it was a reminder that God was always with them, and it was a reminder of God’s mercy. He was always willing to provide forgiveness and reconciliation through the offering of a sacrifice. Once Noah sacrificed his offerings to the Lord, he received a blessing from God. The Lord gave them dominion over the animals and gave those animals as food to eat, but God also gave Noah a warning: they would be responsible for what God had given them; He would demand an accounting for their sins (Gen. 9:5). Noah and his family were dependent on their relationship with God, and they would need a way to keep and reconcile that relationship.

Just as Noah was accountable, so are we. We must be obedient to God’s commands, and when we sin, we must surrender ourselves. The altar is the intentional space where we seek to encounter God and the fire is the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. We keep the fire going to listening and obeying the Lord and allowing His presence to transform us as we abide with Christ. First Thessalonians 5:19 says: “Do not quench the Spirit.” The coals of the fire become cold when we do not seek God, when we do not stay in relationship with Him, and when we disobey. But the Lord is quick to forgive, so, like Noah, our hearts should long to worship God and to offer all we have as a sacrifice to Him. It is by making space to surrender that we will experience the blessings of God.