Not a Week for Myths and Happy Endings Preached at Wollaston Congregational Church On February 18th, 2018 Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17 Let me ask you a question: when did you first hear the story of Noah’s Ark? As an infant, toddler, or kindergartner, I’m guessing. Noah and his ark appear in children’s bibles and popup books in our household. It’s often the very first Bible story a child hears, perhaps because of the parade of animals, the brightness of the rainbow, the gentleness of the dove. Murals on Sunday School classrooms and nursery walls feature the scene. One method of introducing children to Bible stories tells children that God warned Noah “there was going to be a flood”, and that he must act swiftly. Good Noah is tasked with protecting his family from the storm and saving all species of animals from extinction. After the storm, God promises never to flood the world again, the family and the animals get off the ark and begin to populate the freshly washed earth. I have an English friend whose son saw right through this version of the story. The vicar of the local parish church came to his school and told the story of Noah. But my friend’s son had not been de-sensitized to the implications of the story of the flood. The family had not exposed him to the board books and toys some of us had in childhood. And so, at around the age of 10 he heard the about Noah for the first time and he heard it exactly as it was. He was traumatized and later he asked his mother … why would God ever drown all the people, all the animals, all the children and babies? Why would God ever do a thing like that? The story of the flood is a dark story indeed. Yet, we have transformed it. As humans often do, we have taken the violence and devastation and made it a myth with a tidy: problem – solution - happy ending structure. But, this week is not a week for myths and happy endings. It began on Wednesday, which was already a weird myth versus reality kind of day as St. Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday coincided. That morning Pr. Alissa, Harvard Divinity School student Samm and I stood outside Quincy North T station. Our thumbs and fingers were stained with the dark ashes we had made from burning palms on Tuesday evening. Many commuters came to us to receive the ashes, and we marked the sign of the cross on their forehead. We were reminded that the composition of our bodies came from nothing more that dust and ashes, and that finally that is where we’ll return. Some commuters had already received their ash crosses in church. And others did not want ashes, but were curious about what we were doing and took away information. In parallel with this event, lovers, friends, parents and children had exchanged cards and candies that morning, celebrating the ideal of human love, harmony and peace. And then went on their ways to work and school. But, this week is not a week for myths and happy endings. The myth of human love and harmony came crashing down, later that day. Students at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, had perhaps exchanged valentines with sweethearts for the first time. But their world was turned upside down, as they were terrorized by a severely disturbed former student with a history aggressive behavior. This student brought his legally obtained AR-15 rifle to the school and killed 17 students, teachers and staff. Perhaps you saw the picture of the anguished mother waiting outside the school for news, an ash cross on her forehead. Too many young people returned to dust much too soon on Wednesday. No, this week is not a week for myths and happy endings. So, let us return to the Noah story this week and remove our mythic filters. This is primordial story, a tale that had risen up among Iron Age people, originating in oral tradition. The various strands of the story, which sometimes contradict and diverge, were put together as one after the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586-587 BCE. God appears to the ancient people as a human-like figure. But unlike the gods of ancient mythologies in the opposing cultures, the God of Israel is profoundly involved in the created world. God is understood as creator and judge with a full range of human emotions. And God is angry, very angry with the state of affairs. Within a short span since the creation of the ideal conditions of Eden, things have gone badly wrong. First the man and the woman ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were expelled from the garden and they had two sons Cain and Abel. Cain killed his brother Abel. Then this act of violence was repeated and amplified by others. In each generation violence is met with violence, revenge becomes the way of the world, and the whole creation descends into chaos. As the story tells us, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was on evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth and it grieved him to his heart.” The ancients had not yet had the time to develop their understanding of God, beyond vengeful creator in the sky. They exist in a dualistic system of reward and punishment. The world has sinned, and God needs to punish the world. But first, in this black-and-white scheme God looks for a “righteous” man to preserve creation. Noah is the choice, his family are the only ones who have not succumbed to wickedness. Everyone else will be destroyed. There isn’t much to redeem the story at this point. Noah and his family build the ark as specified and load up the menagerie. They are to spend a terrifying 40 days and 40 nights as storms rage. They enter into a liminal space, like the chaos from which the world was first created. They, and their floating zoo are the only living creatures that remain. They are utterly dependent on the mercy of the waters and can only trust that God will return them safely to dry land. The story so far is characteristic of the ancient understanding of God as omnipotent and omniscient. God is assumed to be all powerful and all knowing. But, today we read the tail end of the story, the part that may well have been called the epilogue. Yet I think it is the most significant part. In this tail end, God grieves for the destruction that God has brought upon creation. God establishes a covenant – a promise – never again to destroy the earth with flooding. And, most significant of all, at this moment God lays down his weapon, the bow, which now becomes a multicolored sign in the sky. This is a unilateral act of peace, with no equivalent act required on the part of humanity. This was the sign that God was deeply entrenched in the world, and with humanity. But it was only the first sign. There are several other covenants to assure the people of God’s commitment to them and continued presence. Later, in the Christian story, Jesus comes to live out this covenant. Even since the flood, humanity had not recovered from it’s insistence of meeting violence with violence. Instead of ending the violence, they’ve come up with a complex mythical scheme of scapegoating and sacrifice. They think this will appease God. The prophets insist that God desires mercy, not sacrifice, but they do not listen. So in Jesus, God finally consummates the covenant made in those primordial times. Jesus becomes the sacrifice, and again God lays down the bow and God takes the punishment. As Mark Heim writes in the book “Saved from Sacrifice”, “Jesus death saves the world, and it ought not happen.” [1] As I said, this week is not a week for myths and happy endings. This week, the usually omnipotent and omniscient newscasters broke down in tears as they reported on the events in Parkland. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Philip Mudd, a former FBI analyst wept as he said, “A child of God is dead. Can not we in this country acknowledge that we cannot accept this?” Then he said “I can’t do this, Wolf. I’m sorry, I can’t do it.” [2] We depend upon reporters to be stoic. But this show of vulnerability may be just what we need. Perhaps the paralysis that has afflicted this nation since the shooting in Middletown CT on December 14th, 2014, is finally breaking. Since the days of the flood, of course, our violence and vengefulness, has become more subtle and sophisticated. In many places the values of community and family have broken down. Schools are woefully underfunded in the neediest places. Teachers are expected to fulfill the roles of social workers and therapists as well as meeting the demands of the curriculum. And now, some are calling for them to add the responsibilities of armed security guards. Many children are learning the values of hate and entitlement from the rhetoric around them, when empathy is what is needed. And young boys, especially, are schooled by the internet in weapons and violent pornography, when they could be learning about respect of self and others. Instead of paying attention, we adults just argue. Mental health or guns? Which is to blame? And then we doing nothing about either one. It’s going to be a hard 40 days, this Lent. And I have a feeling God’s response will be the same as before. Grieving, weeping, laying down weapons. Jesus will take his place on the cross. This year, again. And the next year, the same. And again and again and again until we come to our sanity. No, this week is not a week for myths and happy endings. [1] S. Mark Heim, Saved from Sacrifice: a theology of the cross, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2006), 108 [2] http://people.com/crime/former-fbi-agent-philip-mudd-sobs-cnn-florida-school-shooting/
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