I want to share with you a story about our oldest daughter, Megan. I think if there is one story I could tell to describe Megan to you, to help you know Megan, I think this might be the story. It goes back to when she was in kindergarten. It was the night for her school’s Christmas program. On the program for the evening, it listed under the presentation to be made by the kindergarten class three songs they were to perform. Kim and I didn’t need the program to tell us that, we knew what their performance would be because Megan had told us and practiced it for weeks. When the time came for the kindergarten class’s presentation, out marched the students onto the stage in three rows—the boys dressed as toy soldiers and the girls as ballerinas. There was Megan, front row right in the center—the position of responsibility. The teacher knew Megan knew the program and could count her to lead the other students through the songs. The first song goes splendidly. The second song also. However, after the second song, the teacher points to the right—the students’ left, nods her head, instructs the student to proceed off the stage and herself exits. The teacher had forgotten to do the third song! Dutifully, the back row turned to the left and walked off the stage, as did the middle row. Only half the front row walked off, however. Everyone to Megan’s left, that is. Megan, however, was standing there, shaking her head "no," and trying to tell everyone they were supposed to do one more song. The few remaining students, to Megan’s right, had turned and were telling her to go, the toy soldier next to year actually trying to push her. Megan—despite the pushing, despite her classmates telling her to go, despite the laughter of the audience at this scene, despite even the teacher having told them to exit—Megan stood firm. In fact, as her classmates kept telling her to go, Megan changed from this position (legs together and hands at side), to this (feet spread out and arms folded). She was not budging for anyone! She knew what was right—the class had one more song to do! It took the teacher having to come back, explain to Megan that she was right and the teacher had made a mistake, but they weren’t going to do the third song, before Megan would finally walk off the stage. As she walked off, the audience still laughing about what had taken place, I just looked at Kim and said, "I better go talk to her." We knew she’d be upset—not so much about the laughter, or the kids pushing her, but that she was right and they didn’t get to do their third song. And, indeed, that was the nature of our conversation backstage.

That tells you a lot about our daughter, Megan. Strong-willed? Most definitely. Stubborn? Can be. But, the good thing we learned that night—and saw played out again and again in her life—was this: she would not be swayed by peer pressure. To be sure, like most things in life, it’s a "greatest strength/greatest weakness" kind of thing. The strong-willed aspect can be a real pain if it pertains to a subject we disagree about. Our biggest challenge with Megan was needing to have a persuasive argument and reason for a particular decision we made. Not persuasive, we had a fight on our hands. But, if the rationale was persuasive and she bought into it—you knew you had her with you…and no amount of peer pressure was going to move her.

Those are qualities Noah must have had. Imagine what it must have been like for Noah. To begin with, the key to understanding the story of Noah is at the beginning of our text for today. While "the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence," (Genesis 6:10) so corrupt, in fact, that God grieved He had made human beings, we are told that "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." (Genesis 6:9) Oh that it could be said of us! That no matter what was going on around us, it could be said of us that we are a righteous people, blameless among the people of our time and that we walked with God. In the familiarity of the story of Noah—an ark filled with two of every kind of animal, male and female; of rain for forty days and nights; of rainbows placed in the sky—we ought remember that the beginning of the story takes place in the understanding that Noah was a righteous man despite the corruption going on around him. In my mind’s eye, I picture Noah with his feet firmly planted despite the pushing and shoving of the cultural corruption that surrounds him, arms folded and emphatically shaking his head implying, "No, I am not going to go there because I know what is right!" No doubt he was ridiculed for such a stance. To not go the way of the surrounding culture surrounding is to invite ridicule and scorn. Yet, Noah stood firm, was a "righteous man" despite the corruption surrounding him.

I imagine it only got worse as Noah obeyed God’s command and began building a very large boat even though they weren’t living by the sea, nor was there a hint of storm clouds on the horizon. I have no idea how long it took Noah to build a boat to the specifications given—450 feet long (the length of a football field and a half), 75 feet wide and 45 feet high—but with no power tools and little help it undoubtedly took a very long time. It could only have brought even more ridicule and scorn to Noah. I imagine the corrupt culture around him was relentless. Yet, Noah remained resolute, as our passage for today ends with the words, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." And it saved him—and his family—from the coming destruction.

I believe that God today is still looking for righteous men and women who will stand firm for God’s righteousness no matter the prevailing wind of the culture that surrounds them. To do so will come at a cost—there will be some ridicule and scorn involved. The surrounding culture—as we have said before—is no longer "Christian friendly" and to make a stand for your faith is to invite some form of ridicule and scorn. We, as American Christians, do not face the kind of persecution for our faith that others face in other lands. However, we will face some form of persecution when we make a stand for righteousness. In a recent article about Christians and persecution, Andrew Black and Craig Bird listed the "degrees of persecution" one could face for practicing their faith. The lesser degrees of persecution—the type we’re more likely to face—include disapproval, ridicule, pressure to conform, loss of educational opportunities, economic sanctions, shunning, alienation from community and loss of employment or advancement in employment. To be sure, those persecutions are of significantly less magnitude than what tops the list of degrees of persecution—imprisonment, torture and even death. But, the lesser persecutions are, nonetheless, costs to be paid when standing firm for our faith. Yet, it is worth the cost because standing in the place of God’s righteousness is immeasurably better than standing in the place of cultural acceptance.

I believe one of the greatest challenges we face today as Christians and as a church is to proclaim and to show in convincing fashion that the way of God’s righteousness is the best place to live our lives. In a culture that primarily views standards of faith in a negative way as some kind of cosmic killjoy of fun in life, we need to show the positives of God’s protection and God’s provision for our lives. In a culture where it is rightly said that our young people regularly find more temptations for trouble in just their daily routines than our parents’ generation found when they went looking for it, we need to provide a better way. My heart breaks when I see anyone, especially our young people, suffer destructive consequences resulting from living out cultural norms.

Oftentimes, the cultural norm that is singled out is that of sexual morality. While that is not the only example of where our culture has shifted dramatically away from an understanding of God’s righteousness, it is certainly a major one. A few moments watching TV will prove the point. And the lowering of moral standards has brought destructive consequences to many a life. Yet, to stand firm for a standard that is more in line with God’s righteousness is to invite ridicule and scorn. Amazingly, what was once considered shameful and outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior is now considered the norm, and to call for the standards of a previous age is considered unrealistic, at best, if not, at worst, a target for ridicule.

A few years ago, I attended General Assembly, our denomination’s national meeting, as an observer. That meant I wasn’t a delegate debating and voting on the issues before the assembly, just an observer of the proceedings. That required I sit in the back of the convention hall scattered among other observers. One day, the subject before the assembly was a controversial sexuality curriculum that was in the works, its publication being stalled by demands for rewriting or revising much of it. In the course of the debate, one clergy commissioner spoke of his youth group at church and the number of high schoolers in their group who had taken a chastity pledge—pledging to not have sex until marriage. His statement was greeted by many with laughter! A person in one group of observers two rows in front of me, turned to several others seated with her and, laughing, said, "Oh honey, I took that pledge in high school too!" More laughter. I’d seen the group before and noticed they were wearing name badges that identified them as pastors and leaders in our denomination. To this day, that moment still infuriates me…and saddens me—that we would not only expect so little out of our young adults, or offer them no hope or encouragement to live a righteous life, but would laugh at and ridicule the effort. It amazes and saddens me that we would so give in to the cultural norm that we wouldn’t even try to encourage a higher standard. And the lives of our young people are in peril because of it. We need more Noahs who will stand for righteousness even in the face of ridicule and scorn.

Of course, the decline in cultural mores is not only in the area of sexual morality. The ethics of lying and cheating, for example, have changed. The new standard seems to be it’s not lying or cheating unless you get caught. And we are the poorer for it.

Into this mix, God seeks a Noah—someone to stand for what is right even in the midst of ridicule and scorn. God is seeking people who will walk with Him, upright and blameless though the culture around them curdles with corruption. God seeks this, not because He is a cosmic killjoy wanting to spoil our fun, but rather He wants to provide for us a better way to live and protect us from the consequences of living outside His boundary lines. God wants to save us from the destructive consequences of a morally corrupt society.

George Barna, one of today’s leading Christian observers of cultural trends and issues, is also the author of a book, The Frog and the Kettle. The title is in reference to the familiar parable about placing a frog in a kettle of boiling water. The story is told as a metaphor for what has happened to the standards of our culture and to Christians’ response to it. Now, I’ve never tested this story out, but it makes sense! Place a frog in a pot of boiling water and the frog will immediately leap out of the pot. However, place a frog in a pot of cold water, then gradually heat the water until it boils and the frog will remain in the water until it dies. Barna says much the same thing has happened to Christian faith and the changing culture around us, presenting new challenges for Christians and the church. Written in the 1980’s, Barna’s suggestions for the church’s response still rings true: 1) Win people to Christ, 2) Raise Bible knowledge, 3) Equip the Christian body, 4) Establish Christian community, and 5) Renew Christian behavior. Of that fifth one, "Renew Christian behavior," Barna writes, "To the average nonbeliever Christians act no differently than anyone else. Our faith appears to be simply a theoretical construct, an emotional decision that does not have the power to transform who we are and how we behave. During the '90s," [and still true for the 2000’s] "we must forcefully demonstrate, through our actions, that what we believe dictates what we do. Christians should be discernible as people of integrity and love. We must stand out as the people who sacrifice time and money to help the needy. Our decision-making should be overtly different because we are seeking to make choices that coincide with our faith.

I believe that is what God is seeking today—men and women of faith who, like Noah, would stand firm in righteous obedience to God…even in the midst of ridicule and scorn. Standing firm, not in harsh and critical judgment, but in loving encouragement to live a better way. Or, as the apostle Paul puts it in I Corinthians 15:58, "…stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."