May 20 2023
THE ARK, THE CHURCH, AND US.
Ojibwe/Chippewa Tribe
The story goes that the Great Spirit was unhappy with man and created a great flood. The only survivor was Waynaboozhoo who had made a raft of logs and sticks for himself and other animals that were alive. They floated around for over a month, but the waters had not gone down.
This account is only one of the many ‘flood’ legends that live in the indigenous communities of the world. The most prominent, of course, is the Noah story, related in Genesis 6, where God expressed his dismay with granting humanity such a powerful position on the planet, endangering its continuous viability. So, God decided to make a new start with Noah and his family: “Build a boat made from cypress trees”.
Cypress Trees?
I am not sure why Vincent van Gogh, that famous Dutch painter, who killed himself at the age of 37, adopted the Mediterranean cypress tree as a motif. Maybe because the tall, tapered, cone-shaped evergreen has always carried associations of mourning and death, and the FLOOD caused a lot of death. Of course, God knew the tree’s qualities, as they are like our cedar trees, light in weight and very durable. They grow tall and slim, easy to debranch, and, by divine design, excellent material to fashion a huge ship.
The Ark as a symbol of the church.
For many years the Noah family was busy in nowhere to construct this huge vessel: felling the trees, abundant in those days, where now there only is desert. Their act was a telling testimony, a warning, and, of course, also the butt of many jokes, just like today, when preaching for the Lord’s return is seen as odd, to say the least. The signs then were loud and visible: the signs now too are loud and visible. The decade-long Ark construction job, culminating in the mysterious march of the animals, failed to impress the people. Now the disappearance of the animals and the global heating out there too, is failing to change people’s mindset.
A New and Different World emerged.
After the waters had receded, God again spoke to Noah: see Genesis 9, the most under-appreciated passage in the Hebrew Bible:
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:“I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Two things stand out:
1. God included all animals and placed them on the same level as humans, worthy of being God’s partners: that’s what ‘Covenant’ means, a solemn treaty between equals.
2. No repeat of God’s direct intervention with creation: we are on our own: we are the new gods. God granted us absolute power over creation.
What is our report card so far?
Not too great, frankly. Great disparity between the rich and the rest, even in the so-called West, where I live. Christianity itself, is in deep decline, while the need for comfort and faith is at a premium. Statistics show that people who attend church live longer and more content, because human interaction is necessary for happiness. We need others; we need fellowship, but life is so busy, that there is no time to prepare healthy meals, and no time to exercise properly: so, paradoxically, we die much sooner.
Here is the problem.
The church, in general, sees the Bible as God’s only word, and the salvation of the soul of prime importance. Our treatment of the planet mirrors our own busy and unhealthy life, assuring its death as well. Our economy regards the state of the stock market and economic growth as the sole criterion for a profitable bottom line, and never counts the damage to creation as a cost. Now that cost is due: expect ever higher inflation, rapid economic decline and collapse.
The Ark, the Church and us.
Karen Armstrong in her latest book, Sacred Nature, traces how slowly we abandoned the concept of the holiness of creation, adopted the heaven heresy, preferring the Scriptures over God’s Created Word, even though the Book of Job and many Psalms affirm that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof, the world and all that dwells therein”.
John 3: 13 tells us that nobody goes to heaven, and John 3: 16 affirms that God’s love for creation exceeds God’s love for his Son.
Shouldn’t we do the same? Love Creation unconditionally!