Reconciling our Inheritance: What I learned from Noah and his ark

Last Sunday evening I went to hear Severn Cullis-Suzuki (David Suzuki’s daughter) speak at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and what she talked about has been on my mind this week. It was pretty challenging, it really got me thinking and so I want to share some of that with you.
Her talk was entitled “Reconciling our Inheritance: Finding opportunity in the challenges of the 21st Century.” For those of you who are familiar with Severn Cullis-Suzuki, you will know that like her dad, she is also a passionate environmentalist. Cullis-Suzuki did a great job of getting the audience to think about what it means to us when we hear the words “the environment.” And what she was trying to do was broaden our understanding of environmentalism and our understanding of our relationship as humans with the environment. This is an idea that I’m going to expand upon a little later in the sermon.
Cullis-Suzuki presented some of her recent research from her Masters degree in ethnoecology; this is the study of the environmental knowledge of indigenous or local peoples. Her research involved comparing what she calls traditional ecological knowledge with the western scientific study of ecology. And so she studied the traditional practice of harvesting seagrasses by the native peoples on Vancouver Island to determine whether or not this was a sustainable practice. When she first mentioned seagrass harvesting I have to say I was not quite sure what to expect. But what Cullis-Suzuki went on to present was really quite intriguing. Her research showed that this traditional practice of harvesting seagrasses and the methods used, actually had what we would call ‘scientific basis’ to them.
In other words, the traditional knowledge of these First Nations peoples meshed with our contemporary scientific knowledge of what this ecosystem, these seagrass beds, could sustain in terms of harvesting. And in fact, the methods used by these peoples actually resulted in these seagrass beds becoming more productive. The philosophy that guided the actions of these First Nations communities was what Cullis-Suzuki referred to as ‘Keep it Living.’
There lots of conclusions that could have been drawn from her presentation, but two things struck me after hearing her speak. The first is that this philosophy of ‘Keep it Living’ is an important one for us to take from First Nations Peoples. I also think that this is a very Christian philosophy – keep it living. I mean, Jesus was all about giving people life through healings and liberating teachings. The second thought I had was, “how do we as Christians reconcile our inheritance, that is, our traditional knowledge, with what we know about the world today because of science.” What follows in the sermon are just a few of my thoughts about how we might ‘reconcile this inheritance.’

When I saw the scripture readings for today, particularly the story of Noah’s Ark, shortly after hearing this lecture my brain was firing away. I was wondering, what does Noah’s ark teach us about our relationship with creation? What does Noah’s Ark teach us about facing the challenges of today’s environmental and ecological problems?
So let’s start with the Bible. When you’re telling a story it’s very important to set the stage. You need to give your audience some understanding of what the circumstances are behind what is about to unfold. So here are the circumstances or reasons presented for Noah’s story: The earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth.
The word corrupt appears three times in these two sentences from Genesis. I think that this is a pretty good indication to us that things in Noah’s time were indeed corrupt. And I think that corruption is an important concept for us to think about. What does it mean to say that the earth was corrupt? First of all, it certainly doesn’t seem to be a good thing. When I looked up corrupt in the dictionary some of the other words used to describe it included: debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked; evil. All very negative words.
Yet, I find that for me, the most helpful way to think about corruption is not necessarily with these negative words but rather to think about a system. For example if you think about a system, something that has different pieces or parts working in relation to one another, such as creation. In a system all things have an intended purpose and role to play. And so, when a part of the system is either not performing duties as it was originally intended to, or it is performing them in an improper way, to the detriment of the system's original purpose; the system is corrupted. So, for me it is most helpful to say that in Noah’s time creation was corrupt because it had evolved in such a way that it was no longer functioning as God had intended it to.
God created the universe and all things in it with a divine intention of harmony, peace and love. We have visions and images of this divine intention throughout the Bible. The image of the lion laying down with the lamb. The image of peaceful co-existence in the Garden of Eden. The image of a place where God wipes every tear from our eyes. But in Noah’s time, this was not the reality. In Noah’s time, relationships between humans had become broken. We’re not given the details about what was actually going on but we are told that there was a lot of violence. Relationships between humans and the rest of God’s created order had also become broken. So much had God’s creation fallen out of order that God decided it was time something be done about it.
With a huge flood, the world as Noah knew it was destroyed. The created order was upheaved and tossed about. Nothing was left as it had been.

It’s pretty hard to be alive today and have no sense of the corruption of our own time. In many ways the state of our world is no different than the world that Noah knew. This is no Garden of Eden. Looking around ourselves we see broken relationships. There is a disconnect between us, how we live on this earth, and the rest of creation. We can see that the relationship between ourselves and the rest of the created order is not as God intended it to be.
As I mentioned before, one of the things Severn Cullis-Suzuki did in her talk was to ask the audience what kinds of things people might think of when they hear the word ‘the environment.’ Some of the answers she received included, “climate change,” “the rainforests,” “it’s not my concern,” “endangered species,” and so on.
As she pointed out, the one thing all of these answers have in common is that they envision ‘the environment’ as something external to humans. In other words, there is ‘us’ and then there is ‘the environment,’ somewhere out there. But is that really true?
In Saskatchewan we have a history of agriculture and of being connected to the land for our sustenance and survival. This connectedness was an essential piece of what enabled our ancestors to live and thrive in this land. The original peoples of this land, the First Nations people, also recognised the integral connectedness of humans with the land they inhabit. The indigenous worldview does not see humans as separate or apart from the natural world we inhabit.
The best way I can think of to explain this worldview is to tell you about the totem pole that I saw raised at the Vancouver School of Theology when I was visiting Vancouver last year. This totem pole, which was a gift to the school, is carved out of beautiful cedar wood and has images of dozens of different animals. It is called ‘All my relations,’ which to me illustrates that sense of deep relationship and connectedness to the natural world. My relations are everything that exists around me.
But this connectedness and interdependence is hard to comprehend once we are no longer close to nature or the natural world. Around the world there is a trend of people moving to cities. As a result, our connections and closeness with the natural world is being lost. I think about where I go to school in downtown Toronto and although there are many things I love about Toronto, it’s easy to forget how my life connects to the natural world when I’m in the middle of that concrete jungle. ‘The environment’ is not something external to us. Our wellbeing and health depends upon the wellbeing and health of our surroundings, of ‘the environment.’
When I think of this trend, the growth of cities, I find the word corruption to be helpful one. Corruption in the sense I defined before.
Cities are not a bad thing, they are not wicked or evil or perverse. Yet the reality about cities is that they don’t allow us to very readily see our connectedness and interdependence with the rest of creation. In cities we are cut off from our natural surroundings. We either forget, or never even knew, about how much we depend upon and are connected to the rest of creation – plants, animals, water, air, natural resources. We do not know ‘all of our relations.’ The harmony and peaceful co-existence God intended for creation is not a reality in our world.

I think it’s interesting that in the bible story God gave Noah some very detailed instructions on how to build the ark. God said to Noah, “Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch.” God said, “This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks.”
This may seem like a small or unimportant thing for us. I mean, who really cares about these kinds of details unless you want to try and build your own ark. I don’t know. Maybe you do. But I think these details are important for another reason. What is significant about the fact that God gave Noah these instructions is that it shows God’s intentional action in Noah’s life. God showed Noah what had to be done in order to survive the destructive flood that was coming. God gave Noah the knowledge he needed in order to survive
Not only did God tell Noah how to build the ark, God also gave Noah the knowledge to know what needed to be taken into the ark before the flood came.
God instructed Noah that, “of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” God said, “Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up.”
God’s purpose for creation in Noah’s time was that it continue to strive towards the goal for which God intended. God wanted human relationships to be mutual and loving. God wanted creation to exist peacefully and in harmony. God wanted creation to continue as it had been created. And so God also established a covenant with Noah. God promised Noah that there would never again be such destruction.

That promise can be hard to hear when we look around us and see the devastation that hurricanes and earthquakes are causing in Burma and in China. When we hear a story like Noah’s ark we have to ask ourselves whether we believe God actually does cause natural disasters like these. Personally, I hold strong to the covenant God made with Noah, the promise to never again cause such destruction. God doesn’t cause hurricanes, or earthquakes, or tornadoes or tsunamis. In fact, science is teaching us it is very likely that human impact on the earth can and does effect the frequency and severity of these natural events. It is us, not God, who have a negative impact on the natural world. God has made this covenant with us. We need to ask ourselves, are we holding up our end of the deal?
God cares deeply for the wellbeing of creation. How do we as God’s intelligent and creative beings share in this deep caring? Just as God told Noah how to build the ark and how to fill it up, I believe that the human capacity for knowledge, intelligence and wisdom is a gift from God. Our science continually reveals the mystery of God’s creation, but it also teaches us how we can make a positive difference in the world. Our scientific knowledge is a gift and we have been entrusted with this gift for the glory of God, and for the glory of God’s creation. God has created this marvellously complex, mysterious and wonderful universe, and God has graciously given us some capacity to understand small pieces of this world. So as science progresses and we gain greater understanding of how human life impacts the rest of creation, what is our responsibility?
I would say that part of this responsibility is to open ourselves to the reality that humans are just one piece in this web of life. We like to think that we are the most important part, because as humans we tend to think of ourselves first, but we need to remember that we could not survive without the rest of creation – without plants, animals, air, water and other natural resources. We need to remember that God didn’t save just Noah and his family – God saved the plants and the animals too.
Thinking about ‘the environment’ can be overwhelming but like with anything, we need to start with the small things. Something like buying from the farmer’s market here in town can help us to reconnect with our natural world, with ‘the environment.’ Meet the people who grow the food you eat. Find out where your food came from and how it got to the market. Or if you are able, grow some food in your yard or in a community garden. The act of planting, tending and harvesting is just one way of regaining some connectedness with our natural world in a practical way.
That’s just one example and I’m sure you can think of others. If you could only take away one thing from this sermon, I would like you to think about what actions in your life help you to connect with your environment, with nature. Just like Noah and his ark, what things can you do to keep God’s creation living?