Showing posts with label Ashura. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashura. Show all posts

Monday 9 June 2014

A Story to Unite the Human Race



I was first introduced to The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling at about the age of Six. These accounts of how certain animals were modified to gain their current form were to be found in the somewhat heavy, rather intimidating, " Children's Treasury of English Literature" I received on my sixth birthday. It was some time before I ventured beyond the traditional nursery rhymes because for some reason the print gradually went smaller and all the illustrations mysteriously turned black and white!

When I first read about how the camel gained his hump, it seemed a bit unlikely although I didn't like to say. Through being brought up in North Africa, I was used to seeing these somewhat grumpy animals with a tendency to spit at you about. Leopards however seemed even more amazing once the writer had drawn attention to their spots. I was told how the rhinoceros got his skin, about the whale's digestion, and that tragic account (made considerable worse as I believed it at the time!) of how a baby elephant gained his trunk. It suddenly occurred to me that through these improbable accounts I was being quite deliberately provoked to ask questions.



As an adult I have continued to ask questions. It seems more helpful for me to interact with the Scriptures, rather than just read them. At times I will ask the writers "Why are you telling me this story?" "Is this simply because you wish to provide a historical record, or is there a different reason?"

My understanding of Bible stories is that they often have a tendency to work backwards. Someone notices something. It may be about their environment, a person, or something that has happened, then a story is built up around it. For me the story of Noah's Ark is comparable to those I read as a child which filled me with a sense of wonder about animals I had never seen and encouraged me to ask questions.

Some years ago I whilst teaching five year olds, I was amazed to see the story of Noah's Ark set as part of the curriculum. There seemed a distinct risk of totally freaking out a class of impressionable young children by this terrible account of how a vengeful, very disappointed God eliminated the entire human race with the exception of one family and brutally culled the animal population whether or not they were good.

Children these days are much more aware of natural disasters conveyed through the innovations of television and the internet. Perhaps this makes them steadily immune to the suffering of others, or else broadens their perspective in a way I couldn't possibly have imagined as a child. The Japanese tsunami in December 2004 during which thousands of people lost their lives, may have seemed to a great many horrified onlookers as an arbitrary act of God.

When my colleagues enthused about the art possibilities associated with painting a very select few happily climbing onto the ark, I wondered if we might be presented with pictures of drowning people and animals to put on the classroom walls. Would this story also seem about about an uncompromising God, distributing justice on an undeserving world not entirely unlike our own?

In linking this story to the rest of the curriculum, we thought about design, technology and how journalists would report the events. Although journalism may have been a particularly saintly occupation in those days, enabling them to escape the flood, it seemed as if we teachers might be missing the point. This seemed particularly apparent when my colleagues got enthusiastic about ancient maths (my most hated subject), as if we hadn't got enough of it already!





Scientific discoveries during the past hundred years have also impacted upon the story of Noah's Ark. Most children for example, know something about dinosaurs yet these are not the animals usually associated with the ark. 

Among archaeologists there have been strenuous attempts to locate remains associated with Noah's Ark. It is debatable how much they have succeeded. I am most definitely not in a position to pass judgement upon their investigations nor should I wish to do so. To me, this search for historic truth may provide fascinating discoveries but can also distract from the main purpose of this story.




Instead I would like to imagine some child in the very distant past, seeing all the diversity and wonder of the animal kingdom, the way in which human beings all seem to be connected, a shared morality and perhaps even that rainbow in the sky and then asked for a story about how we all came to be sharing the same earth together.

To me the most important aspect of the story of Noah's Ark is that it came to be remembered, perhaps many many generations before it was written down. I do not think this was because of its historic accuracy, association with justice or through the ecological implications and our present risk of global warming. To me this ancient account of a man building a boat and then filling it with animals is about human identity and the possibility of creating new beginnings, both in the time of Genesis and now. What better story to draw the human race together! We are all Children of Noah, one family, one fantastic opportunity of freewill and life upon this earth, with laws drawn up for our own safety and happiness, and all in the same boat together. Together we have one God, with a responsibility to be honest about our understanding of the divine, honouring and keeping the laws we have been given. If our focus is upon God, we will see his promise, that rainbow of many colours in the sky, all united in a single purpose, just as we are one family one earth.


Written with many thanks to my local branch of the Friendship Dialogue Society for inviting me to share Ashura with them and then sending me back to my family with lots of Noah's Pudding to share!