The First Recorded Worldwide Catastrophe

“The First Recorded Worldwide Catastrophe”

Genesis 7:11-24; 8:6-14 GNT; from a Poem by Rumi titled “The Uses of Fear”

A meditation delivered electronically by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer, June 28, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic, no doubt, will go down in history as one of the worst worldwide catastrophes. It may take its place in history books alongside the so-called Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918.

Indeed, the present crisis was not the first such worldwide catastrophe, and it likely will not be the last. Hopefully, it will be the last in our lifetime, but we never know. 

Well, today’s reading from Genesis recounts what is probably the first recorded worldwide catastrophe – the great flood.  But we bring a lot of questions to this ancient, world catastrophe story, do we not?  Questions such as:

What is factual in the story?  If we go to the flood story focused on factuality, we may be disappointed, but we will also miss the true meanings contained therein.  We realize that Noah’s flood story is not about facts when it becomes evident that the facts within the story itself are contradictory.  In case we didn’t know, two different flood stories from two different Hebrew authors with two different agendas were blended together by the editor of Genesis in the four chapters dedicated to Noah and his family and everything involved in preparing for, surviving, and picking up the pieces after the great flood. 

If you have ever read these four chapters in one sitting, perhaps you have noticed the account repeats and does sometimes contradict itself.  In one story Noah is told to take into the ark two each (a male and female) of all land animals and birds, and in other places he is told to take seven each.  The two accounts (the Yahwist and the Priestly) use different names for God.  And there are time differences as well. 

And have you ever stopped to consider just how much space would have been required to contain two of every land animal and bird on the earth?  Such in itself is an impossibility.  The ark was actually not that big.  And as Suzanne hinted at in the children’s sermon, have you ever considered how much food would have been required for that many creatures, and how much manure would have accumulated in no time at all?

But all of these matters have more to do with questions involving a serious study of the biblical text and literature and the original purposes for when the accounts were written, whereas the event itself in general may be of more interest to us today. 

Second question: What is truth in the story?  My personal opinion is that at some point in ancient history there was a flood of epic proportions that affected the then known world.  You are aware, I am sure, that there are numerous flood stories and myths from all over the world.  So I think it is highly probable that an epic flood occurred at some point in ancient history.  And there may have been stories handed down from one Hebrew generation to another about a righteous man named Noah.

But, more importantly, perhaps, in the story of Noah and the flood, we see some common elements with where we have found ourselves in recent weeks – a disaster that has affected the whole world and has led to a massive loss of life and necessitated isolation from the rest of the world, to name just three.

As the poet Rumi observed, “There have been many soul-killing floods,

Many arks, and many Noahs.”

How long were Noah and his family on the ark during the flood?  Forty days?  That is what immediately comes to mind, perhaps.  But that is not what the text says.  It says it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.  But they were in the ark, isolated from the rest of the world, a lot longer.  The text says the water didn’t start to recede for 150 days after it stopped raining!  And then it was months after that before they could exit the ark. By my estimations, they were confined, sequestered with each other, for roughly a year!  Can’t you imagine that eight adults being housed up in a small watercraft with all kinds of wild animals making noise and reptiles slivering around would have frayed the nerves of all in no time flat?  If we view the story literally, that is.  But the point being, after the rains stopped, it was months and months before they could even think about coming out of their ark-house to face the world.  Sound familiar? Do you know how many days we have dealt with isolation and being at least somewhat sequestered and have not had in-person church activities? Answer: 105 days so far.

United Church of Christ minister colleague, John Edgerton, has noted, “The story of humanity’s deliverance from global devastation is a story of counting days and losing track of days . . . It is a story I am holding on to today, because it means I am not the first child of God to feel this way!”¹

Third question (and perhaps the most important question of all for our purposes): What is the role of God in Noah’s flood and other such world-wide catastrophes?  A lot of religious people have been asking why this COVID-19 pandemic is happening and where God is in all of this.  Week before last, in my Friday Faith Focus posting, I noted a recent  article in Christian Century magazine that reported that of 1,002 people surveyed, the majority responded that they either strongly or somewhat believe that God is trying to tell the world something through the current pandemic. 

Whenever any type of disaster affects the world – destructive hurricanes, illnesses such as AIDS, or massive floods – there are always those who attribute those disasters to an angry God.  It was no different with Noah’s flood.  In ancient times, any sort of natural disaster was attributed to a god angry with sinful humanity.  So, if there were, indeed, an epic flood in ancient times, it was only natural to attribute such to God, as does the story of Noah.

There has to be a reason for such things to happen, right?  Someone has to be in control of the world, right?  To think that such things happen apart from someone being in control, and being willing to entertain the possibility that sometimes bad things just happen, is more than some people can handle.  Some people cannot let themselves hold a theology or live in a world in which God is not in control of every detail, including a massive flood or world-wide pandemic.  Someone or some Power must be responsible, and ultimately that Someone is God.  So it was in Noah’s day; so it is in our day.

But could it be that God does not send suffering and disaster upon us?  Rather, that God enters into the suffering of humanity brought on by disaster?  Such, I believe, is the message we see Jesus, as we look to him as an example, as a point of reference, as the purist representative of God the world has ever known, as an embodiment of hope for suffering humanity.  And let us not forget that Noah’s story ends on a note of hope with God’s covenant and promise and the rainbow in the sky as a sign of God’s faithfulness (Genesis 9:8-17).

So, as with Noah and his family floating on the floodwaters month after month, not knowing how long their ordeal was going to last, here we are adrift some 105 days since we last met here in this Chapel together, not really knowing  how much longer this ordeal will last. 

But here’s my hopeful summation of the matter: God’s people have faced world-wide catastrophes before; God didn’t send this pandemic upon the world to punish us or teach us a lesson; Jesus teaches that God is good and that if the Divine is anywhere in this present crisis, it is alongside suffering humanity and in the compassion and healing of those who are giving their lives in service to others.  So then, let us not give up hope.  Amen.                                             

¹John Edgerton, dailydevotional@ucc.org, May 15, 2020.