Word to the Wise
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 - Tuesday in the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 6:5-8; 7:1-5, 10 and Mark 8:14-21]So the Lord said: "I will wipe out from th earth the men whom I have created, and not only the en, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." But Noah found favor with the Lord.
Few biblical stories capture the imagination of young and old alike in the way that the story of Noah's Ark and the Flood! The ancient Hebrews weren't the only people who had a story like it. Scripture scholars tell us that the biblical story may be based on or at least parallel to those of their neighbors. My own generation often recalls the famous comedy routine of Bill Cosby playing the role of Noah talking to God: "What's an ark?" Today's first scripture unfortunately edits out the building of the ark, but my audience can pick up the bible and read the whole story (I recommend doing that!). Of course, the imagination can run amok with it. Were insects included? How did everything fit? What is gopherwood? We have even brought the story into the English language with the saying: "a whole Noah's ark of.........!" As always, the imagination must share the biblical story with mind and faith. What is God trying to teach us? We only get half the story today, but that half does call our attention to the fact (of which the newspapers and media remind us everyday) that humanity can be very destructive and sinful. This can get so bad that the love which brought all creation into being may regret that act of creation! Yet, a faithful remnant always remains. This particular framework will be repeated again and again in the bible! No matter how bad things get, there's a faithful remnant that survives to carry on. In modern times, we know this from Cold War stories or from experiences of missionaries discovering remnants of faith in locations that had been abandoned centuries earlier by missionaries! Neither floods nor disease nor persecution has ever been able to completely destroy faith in God. There is more to Noah's story which will come to us in the first scripture for Wednesday. For the time being, we might imagine ourselves with a clipboard and checklist, crossing off each pair as they run, crawl, slighter, fly, stomp, gallop past us up the ramp into the Ark! Now where's that load of hay........? AMEN
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