lenten blog | March 7, 2024

Noah and Nukes

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for March 7th:  Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; and Ephesians 1:3-6.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Geology made the news this week, which doesn’t happen all that often.  A vote was taken by an official body that rejected the creation of designating a new geological era.  The geologists who lost the vote argued that the human impact on a global scale is so significant and pervasive that it deserves to be recognized as a new geological era.  They were arguing for the naming of the Anthropocene Era with a start date of 1950 based on the worldwide markers of the remnants of nuclear testing in the atmosphere.

As I mentioned, the proposal failed.  We continue to live during the Holocene Era, which began with the retreat of the last ice age about 11,000 years ago.  This period of a relatively stable climate has allowed for human civilization to develop, and with this a loose sort of collective memory begins to form.

It’s interesting that in the four and a half billion-year history of our planet, geologists record five mass extinctions.  The most complete of all of them was about 250 million years ago and it ended the Paleozoic Era as unimaginably large and long-lived volcanoes changed the climate.  Almost 90% of all species died at that time.  Much more famous is the extinction that brought the Mesozoic Era to its demise.  This is the end of the dinosaurs as an asteroid plunged into the earth around the Yucatan Peninsula. 

Obviously, we have no memories of such things.  Humans and dinosaurs are separated by some 60 million years, my apologies to fans of the Flintstones.  Evidence is found in what lies within the earth as consequences of these events, not memories.  However, the rise of human civilization allows for story-telling to be remembered, and to be shared.

One of those stories comes from the 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian Gilgamesh Epic.  Therein we can read of Utnapishtim who boarded his family and animals on an ark as the angry god Ea flooded creation.  The Noah story comes along later and picks-up and shares much of the plot.  There is no geological record of a universal flood during the Holocene Era.  However, as the climate warmed, as glaciers retreated, as ice-dams gave way, shorelines could change dramatically.  Entire communities of peoples could be forced to evacuate coastline settlements as waters rose above their usual boundaries.  Such a locally destructive cataclysm could be told in all honesty as a world-changing event.

The power of myth is not based on its factuality, but on its message.  Did George Washington cut down a cherry tree?  Probably not, but the message of truthfulness remains.  The Noah myth may well be based on some ancient shared memory of cataclysmic flooding, but today’s message is of God’s life-affirming statement of covenant:  “‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark.’”  The Noah covenant is the first in the Bible and it speaks to us of God’s respect for all life, not only human life. 

There have been five mass extinctions in earth’s history.  Somehow life has clawed back, but never the same.  Mammals had a chance to become dominant once the dinosaurs went extinct.  No lifeform is exempt from cataclysmic extinction.  Humans have been around for say five million years.  Seems like a long time, like we are destined to be at the top of the food chain forever, but the dinosaurs were around for almost 200 million years and now they’re gone. 

The Bible holds up for us today the revelation of a life-affirming God.  Life borders on the miraculous.  It is blessed by a divine covenant.  Life is sacred.  I see this truth even in the death of Christ.  The cross does not glorify death.  It glorifies Jesus’ devotion to the value of life, all life, even the lives of His executioners.  Jesus even prays for them.  All life matters.  Jesus would rather die than profane the sanctity of all life.
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With this said, I don’t know if you’ll be able to read the article or not, but the New York Times is running a series on “The risk of nuclear conflict is rising.”  (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/04/opinion/nuclear-war-prevention.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20240304&instance_id=116751&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=54596592&segment_id=159857&user_id=217c057fdd20aad15e30baf2520d4e00 )  Nuclear war is becoming more tactical where once it was called Mutual Assured Destruction, MAD.  The Times writes, “Nuclear war is often described as unimaginable. In fact, it’s not imagined enough.”  It is a scary and depressing article, but the topic cannot be ignored, especially by people of faith who trust in God whose first covenant is life-affirming across the board.  May we live into that covenant before we bring on ourselves the possibility of the Sixth Mass Extinction.   
 
If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.