In 1964, Bill Cosby produced an album with a comedy sketch in which Noah is sawing away in his basement when a voice out of nowhere tells him to build an ark.I thought it was hilarious: Noah can’t believe it’s God talking to him; then he’s worried about the neighbour’s reaction to this monstrosity going up in his driveway; there’s God trying to remember what a cubit is; and Noah “improving” on the Lord’s 4,000 day rain with a simple 40 days and nights of downpour waiting “for the sewers to back up;” and of course Noah’s hostile reaction when he sees the huge mess the elephants leave in the boat. But you know, watching coverage of the disastrous flooding in China, Australia, Brazil and several other countries this spring, and looking at the unseeded, waterlogged fields around Saskatoon, floods don’t seem so funny anymore. It brings back horrific memories of the Red River flood in 1997. I travelled with the Mennonite Central Committee through the devastation in southern Manitoba the following spring, trying to help flood-ravaged rural communities find hope.Nonetheless, I do find something reassuring (if not so funny) in the biblical story of Noah’s ark. I know it’s been used as a tale of divine retribution. And certainly some whose fields are lying half under water this spring may wonder if they’ve angered God. Others will suggest the dramatic weather is repayment for our heavy burning of fossil fuels.But in my own religious tradition, Noah’s ark is a story of rescue and renewal.It harbours an ancient conviction that the earth we inhabit is powerful, dynamic and not always amenable to human interests. It reminds us that we do well to pay close attention to our planet because sometimes its natural expressions will tear through our human settlements with destructive force. In fact, scientists claim that “natural disasters” have punctuated the whole long history of life on our planet. At least five times in the past they say there have been events of such enormous proportion (gargantuan volcanoes, asteroid strikes) that a large percentage of the earth’s living species perished. Why, then, with all that flood, fire and tempest, isn’t our planet a barren wasteland, devoid of life? Because somehow from all those disasters, like an ark bobbing up out of the flood waters, new forms of life have emerged. And not just leftovers, not just sad remnants of once great species or civilizations, but truly new beings and new communities, more resilient and intelligent.I don’t know what will happen to our farms, to the businesses that supply and depend on them, this summer. Looking at seed rotting in flooded fields or fields never sown, it may be hard to believe there is a future for your family or community. But I am convinced that if we have the courage to hang together, support one another, there will be new signs of life for us when the waters finally subside.
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