We enter this time of Lent, the first Sunday in Lent, with the story of Noah, or rather with the end of the story of Noah. It is quite a long story: it starts in Chapter 6 in Genesis and it is developed through chapter 9, a chapter which will close with the fate of Noah’s sons.
Now we all know Noah’s story, don’t we? As we heard it, this morning, I am quite sure many among us had Sunday school memories popping in the back of their minds, or we may even experience, as I did, a mild case of the Arky Arky earworm:
“The Lord said to Noah, there’s going to be a floody, floody
Get those children out of the muddy, muddy
The Lord told Noahto built him an arky, arky
The animals, they came in by twosies, twosies
For forty daysies, daysiesit rained and poured
The sun came out and it dried up the landy, landy
Everything was fine and dandy, dandy
So rise and shine and give God the glory, glory“
Well, that’s a way to put it right? Yet if we look a little closer at the text, we will quickly realize that the story is a little bit more complicated than that. Actually, most commentators of Genesis are quite appalled that churches could have turned such a terrible, dreadful story into a children’s favorite. I don’t mean to ruin the song, but if we look at the Bible, it appears that a lot of people and animals didn’t get out of the muddy muddy in the end. As you are probably aware now you’re an adult, Noah is not a cheerful story about a floating zoo caught in a bout of weather, it’s the story of a frightening God who, horrified at men’s violence and wickedness, decides to drown the whole world:
“The Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’(Genesis 6:7)
Now we have to agree that God indeed commanded Noah to build an arky arky for himself and his family and a twosie of all animals because Noah obeyed all God’s commandments. The Bible says that: “Noah found favour in the sight of the Lord“. (Genesis 6:8). Yet, in the meantime, God’s resolve is made: “For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die“. (Genesis 6:17)
And so, as some commentators have observed, in these conditions, it may not make it much better to have saved Noah. It may make it even worse. At least, it raises all sort of ethical questions: Does it make it okay to let the rest of people perish in disasters, as well as innocent animals? Does God play favorites? And what about this man, Noah, supposed to be an example of righteous yet apparently not willing to help others? What are we supposed to learn from the story? When we read the story as adults, having in mind all these implications, it can seem rather delicate to give God the glory glory, does not it? And yet acknowledging those difficulties can also help us to get to the heart of the story and to understand it in a fresh and deeper way.
So let’s have a closer look at it.
First of all, once again, we have to understand the context. I don’t want to spend too much time on it, but it is here quite essential if we want to understand the message. We don’t know if the story of Noah happened as described in the Bible, but we can be quite certain that a flood of dramatic proportions happened at some point in History and left traumatic memories to many civilizations. There are at least four stories of a flood, in the Babylonian and Sumerian mythologies. Now when I say “babylonian” it probably rings a bell for you because we mention many times that the Hebrews spent some time in exile in Babylon, and that’s where the Book of Genesis was born, or at least where the stories of the Book were put in writing – that is in the midst of the Babylonian religion and culture. So you see, instead of asking “Is it the way things really happen?” and “Can God order something like that?“, a better question could be: What is it that the authors of Genesis wanted to say about God?Ad if we believe, as we do, that the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible, we can ask: What is it that God, using this ancient story, wants us to know or to discover about God?
I didn’t study in details the Babylonian and Sumerian myths but it looks like the stories around the flood went like that: Human beings had angered the gods, apparently because they were too “loud” and disturbed their peace, so the gods decided to destroy all the people. Now there was a lesser god, the one who had created the human beings, who heard about the gods’ plan and he decided to save a man and his family, as to not ruin all the efforts he had put in his own creation. The lesser god informed the man about the flood that was going to happen and had the man build some sort of boat or shelter and then everybody died. The End.
So how did the Hebrew authors rewrite the story and what does it teach us about God?
In the story of Noah we see that:
– God was not angered at people, God was “sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” (Genesis 6:6)
– God did not deplore that human beings were too loud and disturbed his rest, God “saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually”. (Genesis 6:5).
– We can deduce that the decision to destroy the earth is put on God as is the decision to save a man, a family, because there was no higher and lesser gods in the religion of the Hebrews, only God (Monotheism). What seems like a contradiction for us in God’s actions is due to the fact that several “god characters“ collapse into one.
– The decision to save a man is not based on God’s desire to save his own work, rather it is based on the man’s righteousness (God will not be unfair) and this man will be the start of a new creation. God says to Noah: “I will establish my covenant with you” (Genesis 6:18) and this is indeed what comes to pass in our reading today (Genesis 9:8-17)
So this is what’s going on with the story, at least it is a way of seeing it: In the midst of a human and religious catastrophe (The Exile), the Hebrews are reminded that even if their whole world is destroyed (Jerusalem), God will be faithful. God cannot stand iniquity but he will protect the righteous and bring a new creation through him (The Restoration of the Temple).
Now of course, in our Christian interpretation, we see Noah as a figure of Christ. Some theologians have interpreted the church as being the ark (that’s why we use a boat as symbol for our buildings). I am hoping the metaphor isn’t about excluding others, rather, it means that all those who cling to Christ are brought safely to the shore of a new world (Resurrection), or, if you prefer, to the landy landy.
It is a story. A story that teaches us that God is not angry and violent, rather it teaches us that God is grieved and hurt by our sins and by our own violence. God could decide to destroy the whole world, but God instead places his bow at rest in the sky and chooses to save us through the righteousness of men (Jewish religion) or through the righteousness of a man (Christian religion). The story of Noah may be a terrible, dreadful story at some point but it is mostly a redemption story, a story that shows us the heart of God, a heart full of compassion. God and men’s relationships are now bound in a covenant that cannot be revoked. God chooses to save humanity rather than to give us what our sins deserve. It’s a story that indeed invites us to give the glory glory.
So how do we do that?
– The story invites us to share in God’s grief, for the sins of the world and for our own sins, in prayer, through lamentations, repentance and forgiveness (forgiving others). One of the big take away in the story for me is that we see that forgiveness is hard, it is hard for us but it’s firstly hard for God. When we love, when we care about people and about doing the right thing, we are certainly hurt by injustices and ingratitude.
– Yet, and that’s the second take away, the story invites us to have hope for our world and for ourselves in spite of the many catastrophes we may face, collectively and individually. God puts aside judgment and condemnation, does not respond to violence with violence. It is of course what we are also meant to do as God’s children.
– Lastly, the question is for us about whom we decide to trust. Do we think we have the means to save ourselves, or in the midst of our trials do we enter the covenant with God and trust that God is powerful enough and caring enough to see us trough to the dandy, dandy?