*SCRIPTURE READING: Genesis 8:8-11                               

⁸ Then he sent out a dove to see if the waters on all of the fertile land had subsided, ⁹ but the dove found no place to set its foot. It returned to him in the ark since waters still covered the entire earth. Noah stretched out his hand, took it, and brought it back into the ark. ¹⁰ He waited seven more days and sent the dove out from the ark again. ¹¹ The dove came back to him in the evening, grasping a torn olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the waters were subsiding from the earth.

LEADER           The Word of God that is still speaking.

               ALL                     Thanks be to God.

MESSAGE          The Olive Branch and Its Fruit                   Pastor Donna Goltry

WHY THE OLIVE BRANCH AS SIGN OF LIFE RENEWED? That’s a question worth asking. Why not a branch from a live oak, or an evergreen, or even a stalk of grass?It may be the story of Noah and the flood, as it was heard by the ancients, they would nod their heads and stroke their beards, … yes, yes … when the dove returned with the olive, we knew God was good. We knew we would be ok. We knew we had hope.

I can see them in my mind, around the fire, recalling about Noah and the olive branch like this.

But us? Olives are the condiment we open from the can. Or grab off the salad bar. Or ask to be added on the supreme pizza. Olives are window dressing, not the main dish of the meal.

How different is this vantage point from that of the ancients! After doing a little research into the olive tree, its branches and its fruit, I understand better why it is one of the most important foodstuffs and commodity of their lives. In so many ways, the olive tree, its branches and its fruit, enriched the lives of the ancients.

But the first stop on this investigation is returning to the story of Noah, the flood, to plumb the significance of the olive leaf in the mouth of the dove.

Noah and the Ark is so familiar that nearly every child can tell it. Noah and family, plus two of every kind of animal, climbed into the ark God had told Noah to build it to preserve them from the catastrophic flood that was coming. They wait there until the rains are over and the flood waters begin to recede.

Noah knows it is safe to leave the ark only after he sends out a dove to look for food. The first time, it comes back with nothing in its beak. The second time, it brings back a leaf of an olive branch. He knew this meant dry land was reappearing. For good measure, he waits another seven days and sends the dove out again; this time it doesn’t come back. Noah knows it is time to leave the ark.

Beneath the simplicity of the story lies some of the greatest wisdom of the Bible about the goodness of God as God wrestles with the evil of humanity.

First, we must understand the flood as the seminal event of God reversing the very creation that had come out of the original chaos of the waters of the deep. In Genesis 1, God spoke, his breath hovered over the deep waters (in Hebrew ruakh) and breathed order that allowed plants, animals, humankind to flourish. And it was very good.

But then evil came. The flood is God’s coming to grips with this evil. God confronts it and chooses, still, to preserve and protect a remnant of  humankind. God stops short of completely undoing creation. God sets boundaries.

First boundary: the rain comes for 40 days. That’s a long time but not forever. The floods cover the land and destroy much upon it, but not all.

Animals are protected on the ark.

Plant life survives to flourish once more.

Then God makes a second promise, setting a new boundary. Never again will a flood of this magnitude come.

It was God’s way of reconciling with the human condition – that we are both good but also contain within us the power to do evil. God chooses to accept this and remain engaged with humankind as co-creators, understanding that in doing so, we may fashion a course that is different. This becomes the new world order after the flood.

And God’s engagement with and co-creation of humanity is the remaining story of the Bible. From Noah through the incarnation of Jesus Christ to us. God engages in the lives of the very human beings that we are. As a scholar Terrance Fretheim said,

“God decides to go with the world, come what may in the way of human wickedness. God makes this promise, not simply in spite of human failure, but because human beings are sinful (8:21). The way into the future cannot depend on human loyalty; sinfulness so defines humanity, that if human beings are to live, they must be undergirded by the divine promise. Hence, because of human sinfulness, God promises to stay with the creation. It is the story of God’s grace and redemption. Of renewal and rebirth. [1]

Back to the olive branch. Why the olive branch and not a live oak or a tuft of grass in the dove’s mouth?

Olive trees are hardy, found clinging on the rocks of steep hillsides. Cultivation of olive trees is an ancient, probably dating to 4,000 BC.

The olive branch has long been associated with strength, beauty and peace. Thus, the expression… extending the olive branch of peace.

Olives were a vital food source in the ancient Mediterranean, and still is today. The olive or its oil was present in nearly every meal. It was the essential oil for cooking. Sustenance.

Olive oil was used as fuel for burning. As the song goes, keep your lamp trimmed and burning.

For medicine and healing. Isaiah 1:6 is a lament for those who are abandoned and not healed with olive oil:

⁶ From head to toe, none are well—
only bruises, cuts, and raw wounds,
not treated, not bandaged,
not soothed with oil.

As a beauty treatment, like in the Book of Esther.

For anointing

1 Samuel 10:1 on the anointing of King Saul:

10 Samuel took a small jar of oil and poured it over Saul’s head and kissed him.      “The Lord hereby anoints you leader of his people Israel,”

2 Kings 9:3 in the anointing of Jehu, a king of Israel,

³ Take the jug of oil and pour it on his head. Then say, ‘This is what the Lord has said: I anoint you king of Israel.’ Then open the door, and run out of there without stopping.”

Isaiah 61:1, speaking of his own call from God:

61 The Lord God’s spirit is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me
to bring good news to the poor,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim release for captives,
and liberation for prisoners,

For sacrifice Leviticus 2:4,

⁴ When you present a grain offering baked in an oven, it must be of choice flour: unleavened flatbread mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil.

And after Jacob had wrestled with God all night in his dream,

Genesis 28:18  After Jacob got up early in the morning, he took the stone that he had put near his head, set it up as a sacred pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.

Who knew or had thought about its many uses.

The fruit of peace

The fruit of offering

The fruit of anointing

The fruit of healing and beauty

The fruit of sustenance

Margaret Feinberg tells of going to Macedonia and harvesting olives the old way, with a 75-year old woman who bested her in harvesting. The woman had a special technique, running her hand up the branches, then bringing them back down, gently releasing them from the branches and then collecting them for the harvest. She would carry the olives back to her home, press them, use them. And she collected jars – so she always had a vessel to pour some of the fine oil she had pressed into a jar as a gift of hospitality. That was the Mediterranean old-fashioned way. Feinberg tells this story more fully in her book, Taste and See. 

As we have seen, the olive and its fruit as a special gift from God. To be shared generously. Bearing witness to the mantra: taste and see that the Lord is good.

Taste the fruit of this goodness from the olive tree and its branches – of the delectable fruit that is used in our lives in so many ways. At the table ladened with olives and the food prepared in olive oil. In the many ways it brightens and lightens the burdens of life.

Yes, God provides.

[1] Terrance E Fretheim, “The Book of Genesis: Introduction, Commentary, and Reflections,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, V.I, Leander Keck, General Editor, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 396.