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Biblical
Proportions
by the Rev.
Rich Smith
June 1, 2008
Genesis 6:9-22, 7:24, 8:14-19
I have to admit
that I’ve always been a bit of a
skeptic when it comes to this old story of Noah’s Ark. The
idea
that a 600-year-old man, with only the help of his three 100-year-old
sons could build such a contraption, and that it would actually float;
the notion that the whole earth could be covered with floodwaters, such
that every living thing not on the boat would be wiped out; and worst
of all, the idea that God, who created the earth and all living things
and called it all good decided that a do-over was required, and thus
brings about such destruction. Ever since catastrophes have
been
labeled “acts of God.” And if that’s the case, who would ever
want God to act?
Some might call my
skepticism a lack of faith, and
they are the ones who rejoice whenever expeditions to Turkey’s Mt.
Ararat seem to turn up possible evidence of the ark’s remains – that if
it could somehow be found it would mean that the Bible was literally
true. I rebel against that way of looking at it, and as do as
well when I come across such things as an advertisement for a raft trip
through the Grand Canyon, led by a geologist who will explain that this
wonder of the world was created – not over eons of slow carving by
wind, rain and the Colorado River, but all at once by the Great Flood,
less than six thousand years ago. That would come as a
surprise
to my college geology professor, who on a field trip there in 1972
pointed out some of the oldest exposed rocks on earth, about two
billion years old!
But of course,
stories like this one are not limited
to the Bible. Nearly every ancient culture retains the memory
of
a time when there was a great flood, where the waters seemed to cover
everything, and maybe the world seemed to be ending. And
these
stories have heros, like Noah, or Gilgamish, for example, who persevere
and save the day. Irish legends talk about Queen Cesair and
her
court, who sailed for seven years to avoid drowning when the oceans
overwhelmed Ireland. And in the Australian outback, stories
are
told of Tidilick a Giant Frog who is said to have consumed every drop
of water available, until a very thirsty kangaroo thought to tickle
Tidilick. When the frog laughed, his water broke, as it were, creating
an enormous flood that washed everyone out of their homes.
And
geological evidence confirms that there was indeed a massive flood in
the Australian outback about 5,000 years ago. Furthermore,
the
current issue of Atlantic Monthly, in its feature story about the
possibility of stray comets or asteroids one day striking the earth,
reveals evidence found on the floor of the Indian Ocean, that a huge
space rock struck some 5 to 6,000 years ago, with such force that a 600
foot tsunami was created, with results far more dramatic and calamitous
than the 2004 tsunami or the recent typhoon in Myanmar. So
there
are memories, supported by evidence, that floods of biblical proportion
have historically occurred all over the earth, and there are stories in
various cultures to explain them and give them meaning.
So, skeptic that I
am about many things, I cannot
entirely dismiss this story in Genesis, which basically explains why
we’re still around as the human family in spite of a history of
disasters. It is a story that gives hope. And after
all, it
has served as inspiration for all kinds of art work, for wall paper in
children’s nurseries, songs, comics, and even some pretty bad jokes,
like: According to the Bible, who was the first financier?
Noah,
because he floated an entire company when the world was in a state of
liquidation. What kind of lights did Noah have on the ark?
Flood
lights. Why didn’t they play cards on the ark? The elephant
was
sitting on the deck. I’ll spare you the rest!
So, what does this
old story have to say to us
today? Is God still speaking to us? I
came across a
poster with bits of wisdom gleaned from the story: Plan ahead. It
wasn't raining when Noah built the ark. Remember that the ark was built
by amateurs and the Titanic by professionals. Stay fit. When
you're 600 years old, someone might ask you to do something REALLY
big!
All good bits of
advice, no doubt. But it
seems to me that the word and wisdom for us here should have something
to do with God’s ultimate love for creation, a love even more massive
and of even larger biblical proportions than the flood
itself.
Yes, it’s troubling to think that God might be behind destruction and
suffering, and our world is seeing so much of that – when I left three
weeks ago we were praying for the victims of the typhoon in Myanmar,
and almost immediately that was eclipsed by the earthquake in China,
and all the children killed in poorly constructed schools; and now we
find that the quake caused landslides which dammed rivers,
creating lakes which now threaten massive flooding when the dams are
inevitably breached. Sometimes it’s individual tragedy that
touches us, such as the news of Senator Kennedy’s brain
tumor. We
ask, “Where is God in all of this?” And while some might be
tempted to see God as sending the destruction as punishment for sin, as
in the story of the flood, I am more inclined – because I try to
approach it as a person of faith – to understand God as the one calling
us to respond to such things with compassion, with love, with
action. In the midst of a world-gone-bad, God called Noah –
build
an ark, help me save the best of creation, help me in the work of
re-creation.
And maybe that’s
still the message. What is
God calling you and me to do in the face of all kinds of potential
disaster? Suddenly, it seems, we are facing a flood of them:
a
food crisis, an energy crisis, a home mortgage crisis, a looming
environmental climate change crisis. How do we
respond?
With mixed results, as usual. I cut out an article last week entitled,
“New Survivalists Expect the Worst.” It told about a woman in
New
York state who “until a few years ago...was just another suburban
grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at
McDonalds, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.
“That was before
(she) heard an author talk about
the bleak future of the world’s oil supply. Now, she’s preparing for
the world as we know it to disappear.”
Now, she’s done a
lot of commendable things that all
of us might be urged to do – cut her driving in half, became a locavore
(that is, switched to a diet of locally grown foods), lost 70 pounds,
cut up her credit cards, banished TV, swore off plane travel, and began
relying on a wood burning stove. “I was panic-stricken.” she
said. “Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable.
Weak.
Alone. Just terrible.”
But she is not
alone. “Convinced that the
planet’s oil supply is dwindling and the world’s economies are headed
for a crash, people around the country are moving onto homesteads,
learning to live off the land, conserving fuel, (so far, so good) and
in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend
themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who
didn’t prepare...”
Now you might think
these folks are just doing what
Noah did – getting ready for impending disaster – except for the gun
part. But the story continues:
“These energy
survivalists are not leading some sort
of green revolution meant to save the planet. Many of them believe it
is too late for that... and are largely focused on saving themselves.”
Well, I can
understand their fear, and applaud many
of the things they have done in living greener lives, even
inadvertently. But one lesson from the ark we can’t ignore is
simply this: “We’re all in the same boat.” God calls us to
respond to disaster and threats of disaster not by just saving
ourselves, but by doing what is best for the whole. Cutting
energy use, living and eating as locally as possible – think globally,
live locally – is good for everyone. Caring for small things,
earth’s creatures threatened by our actions, is good for the whole –
symbolized in the story by Noah’s gathering two of every
creature. We might wonder why he didn’t swat the fly or the
mosquito, but even they have their place in the grand ecological scheme
of things.
Fortunately, the
world is populated not only with
survivalists, or with people spending and consuming and using as if
there were no tomorrow. Fortunately, and by God’s grace there
are
modern-day Noah’s in this world, who hear God’s call to do justice and
practice mercy and make the world a better place for all God’s
creatures. Not all of them are famous, in fact most are
not. They simply go about their work quietly and with
dedication
– working for better energy policies, tutoring children in basic math
and reading skills, inspiring healthier eating and lifestyles,
challenging self-centeredness, lifting our sights to things – as Paul
put it – that are true, honorable, just, commendable, and excellent,
and reminding us as Jesus did that whatever you do for the least of
these you do for God. They may even appear a bit crazy and
counter-cultural, as did Noah to his peers who must have thought he’d
lost his mind talking on such a huge and seemingly pointless
construction project, but this also makes them
courageous.
And thank God for them! As the old hymn about the saints
goes,
“God help me to be one, too!”
And so to come back
to where I began – I have always
been a bit skeptical of the story of Noah’s ark. But I am not
skeptical at all of the notion that God calls each of us to build some
kind of ark in the face of uncertainty, and thereby to share love of
biblical proportions.
Last updated
Wednesday, Februrary 29, 2008
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