September 11, 2022 - Un-Creation
Genesis 6:11-22; 7:17-18, 8:1-3, 9:8-17
Deborah Laforet
Un-Creation
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
I have this wall hanging in my closet at home. I was in 4-H as a young person. I lived in a farming community and 4-H was a club for anyone who wanted to learn new skills, whether that be learning to raise livestock, making homemade jam, or other homemade items. It was in 4-H that I learned how to cross-stitch and where I learned macrame, which involves creating projects with knots and patterns. This wall hanging in my closet is one of those macrame projects, and the reason it’s in my closet is that Jeff hates it. He thinks it’s one of the ugliest things he’s ever seen. It’s very small, maybe a foot long and a few inches wide, and woven within it are three glass monkeys. He really does not like the monkeys.
So, it hides in our closet. But I have a hard time getting rid of it. I created it with my own hands. It was one of the first projects I ever did. Throwing it away feels wrong. I could have brought it to show you but I think I’m a bit sensitive about others finding it ugly too.
We are starting a new year, and, as I explained in the spring, we will be delving into the narrative lectionary, which is a group of Sunday readings that attempt to make our stories from Sunday to Sunday have a bit of a flow, as we go from one end of our bible to the other. This year’s narrative begins with the story of Noah and the ark, a story where God decides to destroy what God created.
We read in our story that the earth had become corrupt and filled will violence. And this isn’t just humans. God sees that ‘all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.’ (6:12) God sees the ugliness of what had been created with beauty and love and hope, and decides to wipe it all away.
But God can’t quite do it completely. As we read from the very first couple of chapters of the bible, God created sun and moon, birds and fish, separated the light from the darkness, the land from the waters, breathed life into humanity, and saw it all as good, very good. So how does one toss away what one has created with such love and care? Especially the kind of creation that can’t be hidden away into a closet.
God decides to save a remnant. He finds Noah, who is described as “a righteous man, blameless in his generation,” (6:9) and God favoured Noah. We are not told anything else about Noah and why God would have favoured him. We know he had a wife and three sons, but nothing more. Was he one of the few who wasn’t corrupt or violent? It says he was righteous and blameless in his generation, which doesn’t mean he wasn’t violent in his righteousness, just that he wasn’t to blame for it.
What we do know is that God instructs Noah to build an ark, tells him why, gives him the dimensions, and then tells him to bring a remnant of all the creatures of the earth onto the ark. They will be saved from the great flood that will wash away all other flesh. We never hear a word from Noah. He and God do not converse in this story. God instructs and Noah obeys.
Noah does not ask questions. He does not try to change God’s mind. I have to wonder why Noah wouldn’t have protested God’s plan. Everyone was going to die, except for him and his family. His community, his friends, and any extended family would be washed away. How could he not have protested, even just a little? We might say, an all-powerful God was giving the orders, so maybe he was scared. Although later, we will hear Abraham trying to convince God not to kill even one person. The only time we hear Noah talk, is after the flood, when he curses one of his three sons. If Noah was the best of the bunch, maybe we can understand why God wanted to start fresh.
I know I am viewing this well-loved story from cynical eyes, but I have to wonder whether this story is really meant for the children who read it in their storybooks. The animals coming into the ark two by two probably captured the imagination of artists and storytellers and thought the idea of a large boat, filled with animals, was good material for children, but how does one explain to a child why God killed everyone? We can rationalize by offering the rainbow and the promise that it would never happen again, but it’s difficult to teach about a loving god who would send a flood to drown all land creatures, including the young ones.
We might look at the story in a different way. The book of Genesis is a story of creation, un-creation, and re-creation. The story of Noah and the ark specifically describes the un-creation, and the un-creating is always the scary part. Creating is exciting and new, and filled with hope and possibilities. Un-creating feels like a loss of possibility; it’s the loss of what was, the loss of stability and security, the loss of what once brought joy. What we miss sometimes though are the possibilities and hope found in the un-creating, the hope that brings the new and exciting ideas for re-creation.
Maybe we need to look at this story as a parable, a story with a message for us today. Rather than see a God who drowns creation because there is no other solution to the corruption and violence of the earth, we see a God who has to un-create, with sorrow and with grief, but with hope for new possibilities. The rainbow is a covenant, a promise God makes to the world, a world that is re-created after the flood, a promise never to do it again, no matter how violent and corrupt it might become.
The truth though is that we go through this process of creation, un-creation, and re-creation all the time. Luckily, our whole word has not been un-created, and with lots of work and hope, it never will, but through the ages and in our own short lives, we experience this cycle all the time.
I believe our society, along with our church, is going through a time of un-creation right now. Just as it did during the Reformation in the 1500’s, which is a time when the church and society were one, when the church was reformed and changed, and in some ways, it was a time when the church died to transform into something new. We are going through another big change now, where there is reform and change in our society and in our church, and in some ways, the church will die. This will bring sorrow and grief, fear and conflict, but we must remember that this also means that there will be a re-creation, with new and exciting possibilities, unique ideas, and hope for a new creation that will serve us even better at this time.
The story of the ark can guide us during this time of transition and un-creating. There are some things we can take with us on our ark, but most will have to be left behind. This period of 40 days of rain or 150 days on the ark, is a lengthy period of waiting, of grieving, of patiently waiting to see land. The rainbow express the hope of what may be, the beauty of possibility in the midst of storms.
Then the question becomes who are we in this story? Where do we see ourselves in this story? Are we the ones who will be left behind as the ark floats away? Are we on the ark, grieving our losses, scared and anxious about what is coming? Are we always at the stern, looking back, wanting everything to go back to the way it was? Are we at the bow of the boat, looking ahead, wondering what comes next? We might fit into one or two of these categories. We might fit into all of them at one point or another. It’s a big journey and we will feel lots of emotions and have lots of questions.
But we are all in the same boat, so to speak. We have each other. We are listening for God and waiting for guidance and wisdom. One day the waters will subside, the dove will find the green branch, we will find dry land, we will discover a rainbow, and the re-creating will begin. May it be so. Amen.