Title: “The Wife's Perspective”
Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17 (not lectionary)
3/30/03 Fourth Sunday of Lent (Yr. B)
Rev. Joy Haertig
{A dramatized piece from the perspective of Noah's wife, allowed me to give voice to my own struggle with the traditional theology found in this story.}
(Flower pot in hand, shovel near by)…
I thought we'd never make it.
Forty days and nights we have been living on a ship my husband Noah built. There we were Noah and I, our boys and their wives, and then all those animals too. You can imagine the stench! There were times I'd thought I'd never breathe fresh air again or that I'd never set my feet on dry ground.
Many-a-morning I woke up with hen feathers in my hair and a goat sleeping at my feet. After an experience like that you begin to realize that when it comes to survival, human beings are just as vulnerable as any other creature on earth. It was very humbling - I hope I never have to go through anything like that again! But here we are at last and I am ready to plant my first flower into this beautiful ground, feel the dirt between my fingers and give praise to God for having weathered the storm.
As you look back on such an experience it's hard not to ask yourself, why me? Why my family? Who caused such a flood, what was its purpose? Noah and I go 'round and 'round about it. He's always trying to convince me that God caused the flood to punish humanities evil ways. He's convinced that it was human rebellion that caused God to make the water rise to wash away the sins from the earth.
Noah claims that God gave him a vision - told him to build an ark and to save a remnant of creation.
I struggle to believe what Noah proclaimed about God, but I kept my doubts to myself most of the time. I wasn't the only one in our family that struggled with Noah's perspectives. After we were on the boat for a few days and Noah kept going on and on about how God was punishing the world for its sinful ways, one of our sons wrote on a T-shirt in great big letters: FLOODS HAPPEN. He never said a word he just wore it every day in front of his father.
I suppose I concur with my son. As the psalmist proclaims - the rain pours on the just and the unjust! When it comes to nature - no one is set apart.
I do understand my husbands' intentions however. He wants to make sense out of something so senseless. He wants to have some feeling of control over something so uncontrollable. We look for purpose in everything that happens, uncomfortable with the idea that God may not be in charge of everything after all.
This is where I find God - within the amazing grace of second chances. An experience such as the one we just survived has made me vividly aware of how vulnerable life is. We think that all we gather and store is permanent. We expect God to guarantee our lives with certainty and predictability. And then, seemingly out of the blue, all we know and love is gone and we are faced with our humble vulnerability. We realize that we are not in control, and that perhaps God isn't either. It isn't that God is absent, he's just not the Great Puppeteer we thought he might be.
And just when we feel that all that is worth living for is washed away, an olive branch is discovered. Land is found, and life - however slowly - is renewed
Just yesterday I noticed a beautiful rainbow in the sky. You know I've seen a rainbow before, but after all we've been through, it seemed to mean something else. It was like God was saying, “I've been with you all along.”
I know Noah would not agree with me - but perhaps God is not the destroyer, perhaps we are, with our often reckless and thoughtless actions. Or nature too, has a will of its own that can not always be contained by our clever designs and discoveries.
Perhaps God is the grace - the hope and the energy that helps us start over again - that enables us to re-build after destruction and loss. Of course neither Noah nor I can explain the mysteries of God, but we both turn our hearts and minds towards him in awe and wonder.
Today I plant this flower and give thanks for my husband and the wonderful ark that he built. I give thanks for our children, their strength and good humor. I give thanks for the animals that survived the trip and kept my feet warm at night. Most of all - I give thanks for a God of grace, hope and second chances. May the ashes of all that we have lost be transformed into building material for a new life.