Simon Says, October 23, 2020

     Roger Ebert defines an “ark movie” as a “mixed bag of characters trapped in a colorful mode of transportation.”  The “Airport” movies were ark movies.  “Poseidon” was an ark movie.  “Snowpiercer” was an ark movie.  And this week we read the granddaddy of them all, Noach.

     Noach (the Parashah) raises a lot of interesting questions.  Is God infallible?  What does it mean to be the righteous man of his generation?  Is the curse “Cursed be Canaan” responsible for the enslavement of Africans?  Is God’s reaction to the building of the Tower of Babel is the same as God’s reaction to Adam’s and Eve’s eating of the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil?  Did God resent human advancement? 

     Each of these questions is fodder for a year’s worth of discussion.  But let’s postpone these discussions to revisit the first paragraph:  ark movies.

     Planet Earth is the ultimate ark, and we are living in the ultimate ark movie.  Like the flood that God brought to cleanse the world, the hurricanes and wildfires are a warning to us to cleanse this world.  Many scientists think that we are near to a tipping point:  the world’s temperature is rising so high that within a few years we can’t undo the damage. 

     The episode of the flood ended with a dove finding her footing.  We need to work together to have the same ending to the Planet Earth ark movie.