NOAH

 

As children, we all loved the story of Noah, beautifully coloured books with pop-up animals going into the ark, all the animals going in two by two, waiting in safety until the white dove comes back with the olive branch in its beak to signal the end of the flood.

However, as we got older, it slowly dawned on us that this was a far darker and deeper story than we were told as a small child.

Turner The Deluge National Gallery

Was there really ever a flood that covered the entire world? How would all the animals fit onto the ark? Would the God of love we read about in the story of Jesus really destroy all humankind from the face of the earth?

Would we just dismiss this as some primitive myth, or would we find a way of reading it, which was full of promise and meaning?

Myth is often thought of these days as an ancient story that is not true, when in fact myth is a vast resource for explaining the world. We find that every people group on earth has its own flood story, and something so universally remembered is probably true.

 

Most people on earth have experienced their own flood story this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed deluged our world, and we have all been cast adrift in our own little arks of self-isolation. Instinctively we have painted rainbows in our windows. Again, a folk memory of the sign of hope given to Noah, usually painted by children who are much more aware of the spiritual realities of our world than we more “sophisticated” grown-ups.

However, we have to remember that COVID is just a minor distraction in our lives from the real threat of flooding caused by global warming that could overwhelm all low-lying lands, and even total wipe out some low-lying islands. Whole populations could be displaced.   

We have been given fair warning of this disaster facing the whole earth. The question is: are we going to be wise like Noah and listen to what we are being told? We have committed the sins of greed and disregard for the wonderful creation which God has placed us in. Are we going to change the way we treat the world?

 I am sure that if the people of Noah’s day had repented, as the people of Nineveh did in the time of Noah, God would have relented from sending the flood. Let us quickly learn from this current pandemic how fragile our world is and change our ways before again it is too late.

Jesus Christ is indeed, “Mighty to Save”

Youtube: Hillsong " Mighty to save"

The wall demolished

 

Ephesians 2

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

 

The wall demolished

We are the bearded ones hammering on the gates of the inner temple.

Not allowed a seat on the bus.

A policeman’s boot across my throat

“I cannot breathe”, even the clouds of tear gas that smother me.

 

All my hope dashed and trampled, by the little mark on my chromosomes

that make me, “outsider”, the cockroach worthy to be crushed.

My life imperilled in a flimsy storm-tossed boat,

a rubber dinghy of hope sinking in a raging sea  

Like Jonah entombed at the bottom of the sea.

 

I sink, but at the last moment a strong hand grasps me

The man once in a grave far deeper than mine,

But now unleashed upon this stricken earth,

Triumphant, risen, to bring His new life.

To unite the two warring rivals into His one body of love.

Ian Hempshall 07/10/20