"Noah and the News"
What will you put in your ark?
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. John Harries
Sunday, June 15, 2003
Text: Genesis 6:8-22; 7:1-12; 8:1-5; and 9:8-17
As a life-long student of the human condition, I seldom miss the 11 o'clock news. I like to keep track of what's happening. Last Tuesday evening, I watched a very disturbing documentary.
Experts are predicting that more and more epidemics are on the way. Population pressures in Asia and Africa are forcing people to live in closer proximity to their livestock. Several new viruses are about to leap from animals and insects to humans. World-wide air travel will transmit these diseases rapidly.
The broadcast went on to offer several specific examples. SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome (as you well know) - can lead to a life-threatening attack on the body's immune system. Many scientists believe that this condition originates in exotic animals, like ciret cats and ferret badgers, that are eaten as delicacies in southern China.
Mad Cow Disease - BSE - bovine spongiform encephalopathy - is also a threat. Beef cattle who eat infected feed can spread it to people. And then there's monkey pox, another previously unknown virus that can be passed to those who keep prairie dogs as pets.
The news report went on to say that the West Nile virus will thrive during this summer's mosquito season. The illness has now been detected in more than 200 animal species. It can cause a fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
The newscast reminded me of a very sad cartoon. It pictured a mad cow, covered in monkey pox, wearing a SARS mask and being bitten on the head by a West Nile mosquito.
Our experience of the news of late is what happened to old Noah of long ago. When he turned on the television, Lloyd Robertson or Peter Mansbridge were not on the anchor desk. God was reading the news. It was one of those rare days when the weather becomes the top story. In fact, the forecast was the only news item. And like the broadcast that I saw on new global viruses, it was a bad-news story from start to finish. A devastating flood was on the way. It was going to rain non-stop for 40 days and for 40 nights. The water would rise to the highest mountains. Everything would be in danger.
Now the question that I want to explore with you this morning is straight-forward. How are we to respond to bad news? How are we to cope with the unbelievable catastrophes that are flooding over the earth? Since this is Father's Day, I thought that we might be able to find the answer to this question in the biblical account of Noah, one of the great father-figures of our faith, who had to contend with very negative news.
1. Build Yourself An Ark
The first thing that I want you to notice is the good advice that the Lord gave to Noah. After he had finished his weather report, God said: “Build yourself an ark.” Now an ark is a kind of spiritual life-saver, a place of safety and security. Its purpose is to protect us in treacherous times. It is intended to save us from drowning in the depressing news of the day.
God gave Noah a detailed boat-building manual. “Go and buy some good lumber,” he said. “Make the dimensions of the ark 450' long, and 45' wide and 75' high. It should be three stories in height. Put some rooms in it. Cover it with tar inside and out. Put a door in one side. Take your family on board. Stock it with food and with every living thing.” According to the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis, this is what the vessel was to look like.
I had to face this ark-building task head-on last year, when I was diagnosed with cancer. Now I knew about Noah. I knew that this story is not just a prehistoric slice of Judaism. I knew that it was not just a glimpse of God struggling with the problem of evil. It is not just about saving all the animals and the environment from extinction. This amazing allegory also identifies our need to build a sacred space, and to fill it with everything that will conceive, multiply and sustain our life during difficult times.
For example, my first choice as to who I would take into my ark was Barbara, my best friend for over 45 years. I then invited our children, grandson and immediate family to come along. Before my surgeries, I also contacted several close friends and asked them to join me on the journey with personal support. I knew that I could never survive without my Christian faith and the prayers of friends in the church who know how to give strength and encouragement. I was wise enough and fortunate enough to take along an outstanding medical team. I decided to take my Bible, a copy of the Voices United hymnbook, and a few other volumes and CDs that would give wisdom and music to my spirit. (I even considered taking along some sheep, and Sky-High the Camel, in case there was to be a Christmas Pageant!) I packed a flip-chart, some newsprint and magic markers to keep track of our learnings and reflections. Also, my bicycle, a telephone, the computer, a radio, gardening gloves and walking shoes. This became the shape and contents of my life-boat. It was as stable as can be, even when the flood was at its worst.
What about your vessel? What are you assembling around yourself to guarantee that rising waters don't swallow you up? What kind of lumber do you need? Who and what will you take aboard? Are you building now as we worship? Our needs are different. Each of us must construct our own spirituality, for God said to Noah: “Build yourself an ark.”
2. Push Off From Shore
here is a wonderful and revealing line in this story. Genesis 7:16 says “… when they were all in the boat, God closed the door.” In other words, he said to Noah, “Push off from shore.” That's the second thing that we must learn to do when bad news comes. First build an ark, but then, push off from the shore.
Have you ever noticed that many of us tend to surround ourselves with an impressive ark, and to load it with everything that will sustain us in body, mind and spirit, and then to leave it sitting in the boat-house? We can have trouble trusting God to keep us afloat, so we do everything in our power to escape the experience. In contrast, Noah was faithful, he took the risk, and like Jesus himself, he pushed off courageously for Calvary's cross, and headed straight for the downpour of suffering that was to come.
And did it rain! According to Genesis 7:12, on February 17, the sky opened like windows, bad news even gushed up from inside the earth. It rained and it rained and it rained. On 9/11, the entire World Trade Center was destroyed in New York. Nearly three thousand people lost their lives. There was a war in Iraq. There were terrible terrorist attacks in many countries. The U.S. was on Code Orange. It wouldn't stop raining. There were warnings of collapsed fisheries, home invasions, poisoned water, disastrous investment conditions, energy shortages and smog alerts. Small children were being threatened with harm on the streets of Toronto. Air Canada even went bankrupt. In one week, the Prime Minister had to publicly eat Alberta beef in downtown Ottawa, and Chinese food in downtown Toronto.
The rain just kept pouring down! The devastation of SARS was everywhere. Several hospitals had to close. Medical procedures were postponed. Health care workers were stretched to the breaking point. Family members were prevented from visiting loved ones. Many thousands were placed in quarantine. Some died from the disease. The World Health Organization issued a much-feared travel advisory. Public events had to be curtailed. Hundreds who worked in tourism were laid off, and the economy lost millions. On top of all this, there were the personal bad news burdens that all of us are bearing, the disappointments, the frustrations and all the secret challenges that we are carrying quietly within us. The rain wouldn't stop.
It was 150 days before the news started to subside. But through it all, Noah remained steadfast. He didn't try to keep his vessel in dry-dock. He didn't shut off the television. He didn't cancel his subscription to the morning paper. He didn't get drunk or medicate himself. He didn't even hide under the covers. When God closed the door, Noah accepted the invitation. He pushed off, just as the pier disappeared like a rug pulled out from under him. This is what we are called to do. To head out in the Spirit of God to where all the bad news is coming from, to be found doing whatever we can possibly do for the sufferings of humanity.
3. Watch For The Rainbows
As you may know, the Chinese word for crisis is made up of two characters. One means “danger,” and the other means “opportunity.” Noah built himself a boat, he pushed off from shore, but then he watched for the rainbows. Despite the danger, he had faith that there were divine possibilities in the emergency. He never gave up hope. Again and again, he did what he could: He sent forth a lone dove in search of dry land. And as the waters began to go down, Noah saw the rainbow of God's promise in the sky. Just imagine the joy and excitement that he would be feeling as bad news was transformed before his eyes!
This was the same miraculous phenomenon that the first followers of Jesus saw when they were in similar circumstances on the threatening waves of Galilee. Their vessel wasn't called an ark, just a fishing boat. But as they faced into their own bad news, they too saw a rainbow, God's Eternal Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the beginning and the end of all our living, standing there on the shore of the news, with a divine power that can calm our troubles and despair, with a timeless presence that inspires a hope surpassing all our human understanding.
A rainbow hope that all our bad news will be changed to Good News through his life, death and resurrection. A rainbow hope that the Middle East road map will survive, and that terrorism will no longer be necessary. A hope that war will be no more, and that a cure for every illness will be found. A rainbow hope that “Holly's law” will protect our children from sex offenders. A hope that the economy will be strong, that freedom and justice will come to every nation. A hope that the church will flourish, that the hungry will be fed, that the homeless will find refuge, that the prisoners will be visited. A rainbow hope, by many, that every Canadian, regardless of gender, will have the civil and legal right to marry. And yes, a hope that the sick will find healing, as I did, and the dying their comfort.
But what can we do when there is no hope, when the floods keep coming and when the news is always awful? I suspect that some of you who are listening to this message, perhaps on the radio or by Internet, are feeling that hope has long been lost.
Last year, after a Prayer Breakfast here at the church, I was taken aside by a long-time and dedicated member of the congregation. It was just a few days before I went into hospital. “John,” he said, with his hand on my shoulder, “I, of course, hope that both your surgeries will be successful. But if for any reason, things don't go well,” he went on, “I want you to remember what you have often taught us. In the end, we are all headed to a much better place then this.” And then he smiled, shook my hand and said, “God be with you.”
Throughout the hell that was soon to come, I never forgot his simple but profound expression of Christian faith. For this is the faith of Noah. This is the faith of the early disciples. This is the faith of our fathers. This is the faith that gives us life now while the news is bad, and life later when the only news that we shall have is that nothing can ever keep us apart from God's love.
So tonight, and every night, as you watch the news, think about Noah. It's a story for these the strangest of times. It's a spiritual how-to parable about what you're seeing on television. How we all need the commitment to build a boat-full of life for the flood, how we all need in faith to push off from the shore to where the news is happening. And how we all need in hope to keep watching for those rainbows. So thanks be to God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.