A Reflection on the Narrative Lectionary text for September 7th

I was standing at the door, greeting folks leaving the worship service. A little boy came along clutching a crumpled sheet of orange construction paper.

“What do you have there?” I asked.

He held the wrinkled paper out to me. I could see it was a crayon drawing of Noah’s Ark.

“Oh, Noah’s Ark,” I smiled, admiring the boy’s artwork. “I can see Noah and his family here. And there are some of the two-by-two animals. And what a nice rainbow! Great job!”

Then I noticed some dark objects in the boiling waters of the flood. “What are these things here?”

“The people,” he solemnly answered.

“Oh.”

His mother interrupted. “He has a question for you, Rev. Go ahead and ask, honey.”

The boy looked up at me with an expression that was pure and innocent.

Shyly, he asked, “What about the children?”

“Well,” I replied in my best pastor-has-all-the-answers voice. “Noah’s children are on the Ark with Noah and Mrs. Noah. They’re safe and sound.”

“But…but…” the boy stammered, “what about these kids?”

He pointed to the dark forms flailing about in the tumultuous waves of the Great Flood.

“Well…”

______

Many years downstream from that uncomfortable moment in the doorway of the old First Church, an answer to that little boy’s question has started evolving for me- at least an answer I can almost/sort of live with.

What about those children who perished in the flood?

Well, first of all, the Noah story is just that – a story. It is a work of fiction based upon an ancient flood story popular in those days throughout that region of the world. It never happened the way Genesis tells it.

Its a story concocted by people who created a religion in which they cast themselves as God’s chosen ones and everyone else as – well, “sinners in the hands of an angry God” to quote Jonathan Edwards. It’s a “them and us” story underscoring why its better to be “us” than “them.”

And the God-ordained penalty for not being one of “us”… is death.

But for “us” – the chosen ones – it’s all lollipops…and rainbows.

_______

Think about ISIS. Convert to our way…or die.

Think about Hitler. The “Jewish Peril” formed the core of his Mein Kampf treatise that gave rise to the Final Solution – the annihilation of the Jewish people.

Think about Westboro Baptist Church and all the religious people out there who divide the world into “us” and “them” categories where the “righteous” are saved and the “unrighteous” are condemned to the fires of hell.

The Noah story is a story of religious genocide.

But it’s not exclusively an ancient story.

It’s a story that is re-written and re-told over and over again in our world today. Even worse, it’s a story that’s still lived out by people, families, communities and nations.

_______

Maybe stories like Noah’s Ark show us less about God and God’s promises and more about us and our prejudices.

Maybe God’s Word is giving us a good look at ourselves as we really are. Maybe the Bible is calling us to confession and repentance.

Of course, that will never preach.

Even so, “What about the children?” is a question demanding a thoughtful response.