If you go up to the nursery…you’ll find Noah’s Ark on the walls…on the wallpaper, the artwork, the quilted wall hangings — pictures of cute little animals and happy white haired Noah beaming out from the floating boat, looking for all the world like a sweet little petting zoo bobbing along on the waves.
Who doesn’t love all the animals? Who doesn’t love singing “Rise and Shine and give God the glory, glory”?
But, you have to admit, as a children’s story, it’s rather dark….along the lines of the classic Mother Goose and Grimm’s fairy tales… There’s a lot of death and violence and in this story. And kids know it. One pastor, in telling the story, asked the children to imagine they were on Noah’s ark…and asked them what they saw…what they heard. She was expecting the sights and sounds and smells of critters….of endless water and pounding rain. But one little boy said, “I hear the people outside the boat screaming for help.” Out of the mouths of babes…right?
Yes, the “not safe for children” flipside of this story is the drowning of everyone — of every creature — outside the safety of the boat.
Lifelong friends and neighbors. Flocks and herds, pets and majestic wildlife.
If we listen to this story…do we hear them screaming?
This is one of the stories many people struggle with …for that reason. How could God willingly destroy the people…the animals…that supposedly God created and loved?
As we think together about this story this morning, there are a few things we might want to consider.
Why is this story in the Bible? Why did people of faith tell this story “from the beginning” …right there in Genesis? Is it because it is fact…like a documentary…had we been there would we have seen Noah with his measuring tape, cutting boards to specification? Would we have seen his family herding cats and koalas, giraffes and gibbons into the boat? Is that why they told the story? Or is it because they wanted to say something about God…about who God is? How God is?
We do know there likely was a flood in the part of the world where this story was first recorded that caused massive destruction in ancient times. Some archaeological finds point to it…but also, a flood story comes up in just about every historical tradition at that time. It may not have been truly global…but they didn’t have a globe. However, they did experience a catastrophic event that devastated the whole world as they knew it. They experienced the kind of horrific loss that the people of Puerto Rico experienced last year during the hurricanes and floods. That the people of India experienced this year during the floods. They knew the screaming of those who didn’t have a boat…who couldn’t find high ground.
And most believe that the ancient Israelites told this story to make sense of that destruction… where was Yahweh in the flood? Was Yahweh just a capricious deity, like the other religions imagined…spewing out destruction and anger, waiting to be appeased and flattered by humankind? Or was the God of Israel different?
What the Hebrew scholars believe is that the flood story of Genesis is a faith claim. It isn’t meant to be history, per se….but a declaration that indeed…Yahweh IS different than the way gods of other traditions are understood. Unlike the other gods, the God of Israel is not capricious and without compassion. Floods and natural disasters are not rooted in vindictive revenge or pettiness.
No…as they tell the story…God’s response to our human sin..is grief. God’s heart is broken by our human inclination toward evil.
Their faith claim is that God creates a world that is good. That is the way the story begins…the way the Bible begins. With the sheer goodness of a world that is beautiful and verdant and abundant and complex…filled with wide variety and intricate interdepence. But humankind… humankind doesn’t get it. Humans are the ones who are self-absorbed and vindictive, petty and greedy…not God. Humans seem to be bent on doing evil. So…what these Israelites want to say…is that God, hoping against hope…may have once tried a fresh start, thinking that this time humans will realize the worthlessness of violence and greed …and choose to walk with God. Choose to walk in love and mercy, kindness and justice.
But, it didn’t work. It was a complete flop, in fact. Corruption and evil and hatred… pride and greed and violence….persisted after the flood. They still persist. Everywhere in the known world. So, what they want us all to know …is that God will never do things that way again. What they want us to know…is that when the world experiences floods and fires and devastation — it is not God’s doing. It may be our doing…we may bring it on ourselves…but it is not, after all, an “act of God”, despite what our insurance company says. It is not God’s judgment. These ancient storytellers of faith dare to claim, in fact, that God specifically chooses NOT to work that way. The rainbow…that breathtaking color that fills the skies after a storm…is there precisely to announce to the world that the flood, the destruction, the suffering of creation we see around us is NOT where we see God’s hand at work. Rather, the beauty and restoration and new life after the storm…that is where we will see God.
God is at work where healing happens. Where lives are rescued. Where life is preserved. Where creation is cared for. God is at work in hospitals and refugee camps. God is at work in support groups and advocates for peace. God is at work in homeless shelters and wildlife refuges. God is at work wherever we are responding to the cries of God’s creation. This is God’s world … Its waters and its animals…it’s people and all its plants and living things. It is all precious to God…and whatever we do to redeem and restore life…ALL life….is where we see God.
The mean-ness that persists in our human hearts — that believes some lives matter more than others…that creation is a commodity to be used up rather than a garden to be tended with care….the mean-ness that believes that the voices of those who are yelling amidst the floods of our worlds do not matter…because they are outside our ark — our safety — our “home”…is everything that this story is about…in that THIS is what breaks God’s heart. This is what God longs to change. But no “do-overs” will change our hearts. Destruction and violence will never change our hearts or fix anything. Rather, the God of Israel…the God of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, will persistently send rainbows…inviting us to beauty instead of ugliness. To Love instead of hate. To Hope instead of fear. To choose Joy instead of despair.
God persistently sends rainbows…breathtaking reminders of God’s love for ALL the world — for all people — for all creation ….in all our splendid, superfluous diversity and colorful abundance. God sends rainbows — defiant resurrection rainbows that celebrate life…. when we demand death. God sends rainbows…rainbows of promise that God will never abandon God children. God’s critter’s. God’s plants and rivers. God’s creation. Yes, God sends rainbows. May we fly them boldly….for the sake of the world. Amen.
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