| "Few narratives in all of the Old Testament have captured the imagination of the Western world in the way that the story of Noah and the ark has. And it's not just our own civilization that has a widely known story about a flood. A great many of the earth's cultures have had one. For example, Australia's indigenous people tell a tale of a giant frog named Tidilick, who drained all the water in the vast region known as the Outback. After that, all the kangaroos grew very dry and thirsty, and they didn't know what to do. Finally, one of them thought of tickling Tidilick. And sure enough, the frog laughed, and all the water he'd swallowed came gushing out. But so much water came out all at once that every living being was flooded out of its home! But back to the story of Noah and the ark. Children in our society learn this story even in secular nursery schools, and teachers use pictures related to it to educate children about a whole lot of things: "How many elephants do you see?" "I see one, two!" "How many different kinds of animals do you see?" "I see one, two, three, four, five …" "Can you name those animals?" "Monkeys, giraffes, hippos, lions, polar bears …" Furthermore, teachers use the Noah story even for rudimentary sex education, as the teacher says to the child: "There's mama sheep and papa sheep, and together they'll be able to have new baby sheep so that there'll always be sheep on earth. And there's mama deer and papa deer, and together they'll be able to have new baby deer so that there'll always be deer on earth." Well, since children learn so many things from the story of Noah, I was inspired this past week to spend some time myself reflecting on some of the things I've learned from Noah. And in reflecting on the simple but profound lessons of life that I first learned from this story when I was a child, I was reminded of a book by Robert Fulghum-his 1988 classic, entitled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. I'm sure most of you have heard of that book, or even read it. Fulghum reminds us of all the simple but profound lessons of life that we adults first learned in kindergarten, that we need to be reminded of constantly, lessons like: share everything; play fair; don't hit people; put things back where you found them; clean up your own mess; don't take things that aren't yours; say you're sorry when you hurt someone; wash your hands before you eat; flush; when you go out, be sure to hold hands and stick together. Now, lessons like these, that make life qualitatively better, are simple enough to be learned in a basic kind of way at quite an early age. So school teachers work on instilling them, and our Sunday school teachers work on instilling not only these but also the simple religious lessons that can be learned from stories like Noah, the simple religious lessons fundamental to good living. And, as Fulghum understood, we adults need continually to be reminded of those simple lessons that we first learned as children. So, although I'm not going to stand here today and claim that all you really need to know you can learn from Noah, still I'm going to remind you of some of the basic religious lessons of life that are found there. And if you'll indulge me, I'm going to employ as my teacher's aide this morning, none other than that master of comedy, Bill Cosby. You see, while Margaret and I were in seminary in Chicago forty years ago, we used to love to go to a coffee house called the Gate of Horn, where on Tuesday nights, for a $1 cover charge and the price of a couple of cups of coffee, you could hear really great entertainers. Well, way back then a bunch of us seminary students went down to the Gate of Horn one Tuesday night-while we were studying the Book of Genesis. We wanted to hear the then-quite-young comedian Bill Cosby. And, wouldn't you know it, one of the comedy routines he performed that night was "Noah." So, with Bill Cosby as my teacher's aide, let me share with you now three of the basic lessons of life I've learned from Noah. And the first lesson is this: keep your ears open, and listen for God; keep your ears open, and listen for God! (Extract from "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow, Right!") Right! Keep your ears open, and listen for God, because God has important messages to give you. (Extract from "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow, Right!") Keep your ears open for important messages from God. Now, on we go to a second lesson of life I've learned from Noah: keep on serving God, even when you're discouraged, keep on serving God, even when you're discouraged. (Extract from "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow, Right!") So, to recapitulate, two of the basic religious lessons of life are: keep your ears open for important messages from God; and keep on serving God, even when you're discouraged. And now finally, a third lesson of life that I've learned from Noah: follow God's will to the very end, and you'll be glad you did; follow God's will to the very end, and you'll be glad you did. (Extract from "Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow, Right!") Follow God's will to the very end, and you'll be glad you did. So there you have it: three religious lessons of life that I've learned from Noah. Now, this morning, with the help of Bill Cosby, I've sought to present these learnings to you humorously. But the truth is that, like Robert Fulghum, I hope you'll take the simple lessons I've reminded you of with utmost seriousness. I hope that, throughout your lives, you will remember: to keep your ears open for important messages from God, to keep on serving God, even when you're discouraged, and to follow God's will to the very end, for you'll be glad you did. Let us pray: Amen |
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