Trouble has been stirred by the new Noah movie. I haven't seen it yet. The trouble seems to stem from a portrayal of a gritty, certainly angst-ridden man instructed to build an ark. God is at work to save humankind.
The dumbest comment I have heard--and I thought about trying to soften the "dumb" but really, it was just dumb--is a female news anchor remembering the story from the children's Bible she read (as a child) where all the stories had happy endings. And children's Bibles tend to do that. We don't typically tell our children the story of the slaughter of the innocents after Jesus was born. Four year olds aren't ready to process that. Sometimes 40 year olds aren't either. From what I am hearing about the Noah movie, some adults aren't ready to process the reality of the text either.
The reality of the text is one of my favorite things. After the Easter celebrations in which every church puts on their finest clothes and music and resurrection joy, we return to lives that often are all too real. We hear and speak promises that God has defeated evil, has won the victory over death…and we still face the realities of death and evil in every part of our lives.
So if we read stories of a perfect Noah, the righteousness that got him attention, that enabled him to do the job God asked of him…and then if he is nothing but perfect, how do we understand the story? I might can sustain the obedience of righteousness until I can finish a task that God assigns, but I am more likely to slip, to forget the source of my hope, my sustenance, my focus. If the Noah story is about a perfect man, the guy who never fails, who always does the right thing, who lives the "happy ending," then what have I to learn? The story becomes about Noah, a man who I can never emulate, a man who lived a different reality than do I. Instead, the story is about God and God's work…and the moments of righteousness (obedience to God) that inspire our own obedience, perhaps. Certainly righteousness/obedience is not easy, especially if you are fully human and not some children's-Bible-cartoon character. (Though perfectly good for children!)
Regardless of what the sin will be once the ark comes to rest, there will be sin. Noah is not saved because of his ability to be sinless. Noah is saved because God's work is the redemption of humankind. Noah "comes home" to the same brokenness that God tried to wash away in the flood. Truth is, no matter how much we want it, we cannot escape the brokenness that surrounds us. We cannot wash it away. We cannot simply "get rid" of the broken "others" who mess things up for us (or so we would like to think).
Reality is, we continue to sin. Easter reality is God doesn't give up on us. Even in those moments deemed righteous, those moments of our finest and best, God knows who we are and remarkably, miraculously, loves us unconditionally, warts and all. Easter reality is God providing a righteousness that is dependable, the righteousness that never fails, the righteousness that is ours because we live in the body of Christ. Somehow in the mystery of God's work, we live "in Christ" and he in us.
There is no storybook "happy ending" in scripture. Even Jesus' resurrection is a series of brief, joyful appearances and then life goes back to reality. But the reality has been changed. The resurrected Jesus brings an invitation to live into and out of God's reality, that we really have nothing to fear, that nothing can separate us from God's love, not even ourselves. So now we can live in our "reality," our brokenness knowing that God's love wins…always…forever. Someday we will have the ultimate happy ending here on earth. Until then…living obedient lives out of an Easter reality just might change the world!
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