As we have moved through the readings of Great Lent, we started with the creation stories. We learned about the unique calling that we were given as human beings, who are the bridge between heaven and earth. However, almost immediately after this, we heard how humanity fell and hides from God, and is ultimately expelled from Eden. Shortly after that we see Cain slaying his brother and moving to Nod. In the Septuagint, it reads that Nod is opposite Eden. This is not to mean, next door to Eden, but it is better thought of as opposed, or the opposite of Eden.
St Clement of Alexandria points out that Nod means “disturbance,” Eden, “the good life.” What can be a more pointed word-picture than opposite Eden? But here is where humanity finds itself. Opposite Eden in every way. We find ourselves in patterns of disturbance, if that isn’t an oxymoron. Everything in our lives is marked by disorder. And right on its heals comes death.
Death, death and more death. We read about the death of Adams descendants in Genesis 5. The culmination of the story of each of his descendants is that they die. “And he died”, except for Enoch who, “walked with God”.
And at the end of the story of Adam’s descendants who all die, we heard the story of a world that is truly opposite Eden. “Then the Lord God saw man’s wickedness, that it was great in the earth, and every intent of the thoughts within his heart was only evil continually (6:5).” Today’s reading is strangely a few short verses of a larger passage that was prescribed for yesterday’s reading. It sort of hyper-focuses on the entrance into the ark.
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
Noah and his family are entering the ark that will save them from the floodwaters that are about to come. This is a story that gets told and retold throughout the pages of Scripture in various forms. God will preserve a faithful remnant. What is remnant? For those who sew, or for a carpenter, the remnant is something left-over. It is a piece of cloth or a chunk of wood that is too small to be useful. You might just throw it in the garbage or into the fire because you have no use for it.
Another example of this story is seen in today’s reading from Isaiah chapter 10. Isaiah is lamenting that Israel has become disobedient to God. They disregard the poor and the needy. They take advantage of the orphan and the widow and God is about to bring judgement on them by allowing them to be invaded by the Assyrians and carried off so that only a remnant will be left. Though their numbers were as the sands of the sea, a remnant was going to be left which was such a small number that even a child could count them.
This story of the remnant that is protected by God, is told by St Paul in Romans, who identifies us as the remnant, grafted into Israel. The fathers also tell the same story. And it is the story told in the Apacolypse of John.
Indeed, this story (these stories) are about us when we are ruled by our passions. This is where we find ourselves, a remnant, opposite Eden. But God doesn’t throw the remnant into the fire. Instead, this remnant is the very thing He is going to build his project with or sew his garment with. God promises to nurture and protect his remnant, just as He did in the days of Noah.
So what does this mean for us?
When we find ourselves, “by the waters of Babylon,” when we find ourselves “opposite Eden” what are we to do? Well, the answer is at the same time both simple and yet exceedingly hard. Because another aspect we see in the remnant in Scripture is that what is required of them is faithfulness to God. Noah was obedient to God in building an ark when no one had ever seen rain on the earth. The prophets likewise tell us that, “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth (Zep 3:13).” And St John, in his Revelation tells us that the remnant are those who keep the commandments of God.
Likewise, our participation as members of the remnant is to be faithful and obedient to the commands of the Christ. His first command is to repent. We are offered this season to repent; will we take up that offer? In Matthew 25 on the Sunday of Last Judgement we heard other commandments: feed the hungry, cloth the naked, give the food and water to those who hunger and thirst, visit those in sick or in prison. Will we follow these commands or will we be distracted, yet again, by our passions?
Through the prayers of his holy prophets and the evangelists who show us the way to live, may we learn obedience to the commandments of Christ.
March 11th 2026
Dn. John Schantz
