“After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch 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. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 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. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.” Genesis 8:6-12

“Extend the olive branch:” As I may have suggested earlier in these October devotions, many “Western” idioms come straight from the Bible. Extending an Olive Branch is just one of those idioms. Referencing the text of Noah and the Ark, this Bible story and this idiom remains one of the most popular and easily recognizable. When Noah allegedly sent a dove to check for dry land, she (the dove) eventually returned with a sprig from an olive tree. The association with the dove as a symbol of peace (and later the presence of the Holy Spirit) and the olive branch as well has remained in our Western vernacular.

Once Noah’s Ark landed on dry ground, the first thing Noah did was make a sacrifice to G-d. Genesis 8:21-22 says: “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. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”

The olive branch may have come to symbolize a gesture of peace, but the dove has come to symbolize the coming of the Holy Spirit – which is our source of peace, and the genesis of our faith. Look around the church nave for the presence of the dove – for the symbol of peace – for the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is a reason we pray “Come Holy Spirit” – because we need her presence every day.

Pastor Dave

“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”

The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” John 2:13-19

“Fly off the handle:” Handmade axes in the early years of the founding of the United States weren’t always the crowning achievements of technology and craftsmanship. Occasionally, a particularly poor design would result in the head unexpectedly zooming off its handle. Many people found this an apt metaphor for passionate bursts of rage, eventually birthing the phrase “to Fly off the Handle.”

It appears that Jesus flys off the handle when he is in the synagogue, but a closer look at the reading may give us a different understanding. In John’s Gospel we are told that Jesus “..made a whip out of cords.” This meant that Jesus spent some time weaving together the whip — taking time to braid together the threads to make his whip. So, instead of flying off the handle in an emotional outrage, Jesus had time to think about the scene in front of him — and to forge a plan. This is not some immature reaction Jesus gives, it is a reaction after some intentional time to meditate and utilize the resources he found at the time.

We just always guard against flying off the handle in all situations in our lives. Whether in the church or in the grocery store line, it is always better to take time to contemplate, to meditate, even to pray before we react in anger. No, we will not always do the right thing, but prayer before acting is always a good plan.

Pastor Dave