Sunday of the Flood (NT)

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. ³ And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶ who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, ⁸ will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. ¹⁰ Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

¹² Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, ¹³ not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. ¹⁶ But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Noah and his family went out from the Ark with more than just a good story. They became witnesses to one of the greatest disasters on Earth. The Corinthians did not need letters of recommendation from St Paul, they had already witnessed his preaching and teaching. They already knew who he was.

Many of us are not so willing to take these words as authoritative. God has provided us with eyewitnesses of His Son Jesus Christ. These eyewitnesses provide for us the truth. Jesus Christ has called people and revealed his truth to people, so that they are no longer veiled but are made new. It is Jesus Christ who pulls back the veil and allows the truth to be written upon people’s hearts.

It is therefore the task of each of us who have been made new, to spread the word. As Noah and his family would instruct their children in what they have seen and heard, we have a responsibility to pass on what we have seen and heard. Those whom the Spirit has written on their hearts are now witnesses to the Forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ.