A Question for Such a Time As This
A Question for Such a Time as This
I’ve taught Sunday School, mostly to adults, in a Presbyterian Church for over 40 years, and was taught in a Baptist one before that. Although I’m no theologian, I do know a lot of Bible stories. There are two that come to my mind as pertinent to this present time. The first is the story of Noah and the flood.
God told Noah to build an ark because bad times were coming. Noah was unique for his time, because he listened to God and did as God said. The rest of the people around him were partying hard and living the life. When they saw and heard what Noah was doing they laughed at him and called him a fool. A little rain never hurt anybody, right? So when the rains came they moved the party inside. But Noah was right to listen to God, because the rain didn’t stop for forty days and forty nights. And all the party people drowned in the flood. Then God started over with Noah’s family and all those animals. (I do wish he’d been able to find that unicorn, though.)
The other story that comes to mind is that of Jonah. Nineveh was another place where people were ignoring God and living the life. God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell the people to cut it out and repent, or God would destroy that city. Well, Jonah didn’t think the people of Nineveh deserved salvation, so he just ignored God and got out of town, via boat. But God, being God, didn’t let Noah get away with ignoring Him, so He sent a storm to threaten to capsize the boat. Jonah finally admitted to the crew that the storm was because God was mad at him, and they threw him into the sea where he ended up in the belly of a whale. Evidently the whale didn’t care for a Jonah-flavored dinner, and spewed him up on dry land. So Jonah reluctantly decided he’d better do what God commanded him to do. He went to Nineveh, walked across that city for three days and told the people to turn or burn. Much to his chagrin, the people and even the king of Nineveh believed him and repented.
Our world, our planet, is at a tipping point. We have exploited the Earth rather than tended it. Climate crisis is upon us with more and more extreme weather. Our air isn’t fit to breathe for a lot of people, our water is dirty. We have encroached on natural habitats at our own peril, and we pollute everything with chemicals. We are in the midst of a pandemic probably worse than anything in human history, including the plague. Our technology will not save us. Our politics will not save us. The economic will not save us. Metaphorically speaking, the flood is upon us. God, by any name, has thrown down the gauntlet and told us to repent or be destroyed, not by God’s hand but by our own.
The question for our time is this: Will we be as foolish as the people in the time of Noah, or as wise as the people of Nineveh?
