I feel I can now enter the Noah debate having just seen it. I’ve been following the swirl of emotive
writing and response to it over the last few weeks. I don’t have anything
wildly revolutionary to contribute (which is fine, because I think my
readership numbers about three on the average post J) but want to respond to and
process what I’ve just watched.
I went with a friend to the 2:50pm movie on Saturday at
Eastgate downtown. We have three movie theatres in Harare. Eastgate is the
oldest one. It’s downtown and many of the white people (and middle to upper
class coloured and black people) I know have never been and won’t usually go –
“too dangerous/busy/noisy/far-away”. There is another in Westgate that is
frequented by everyone too nervous/lazy/unwilling to go into town. Eastgate is
slightly cheaper. Another movie theatre has just opened in Borrowdale – an area
in the upper class side of town. Apparently it has leather seats and costs
double what Westgate does. Eastgate was showing Noah in 2D, rather than 3D at Westgate (3D is always a touch and go
experience in Zimbabwe) and so I proposed going there.
My friend brought her sister and we met at our church so
that we could drive in one car and avoid paying parking for all our cars. They
were late. And then we had to wait for the friend they had invited. We parked
at Meilkes Hotel – safest parking near the movie theatre. Inside the movie
theatre, there were long lines at the ticket counters. Correction: there was a
clump of people crowded around the ticket counters. It was 2:51pm. Darn. Movies
are the one thing that usually start on time in this country. I stood at the
back of the clump between the two open ticket windows, unwilling to commit to
one side of the clump until I had done a better assessment of the situation. A
barefoot little girl asked me for money: street kids in the movie theatre is
new – perhaps because it is school holidays? I said, no. Her little sister
tried her luck.
The clumps parted and I stood behind my friend’s sister who
bought all the tickets – there was a little debate about buying 3D glasses
because the sign said it was 3D but my info from facebook said it wasn’t. The
ticket seller confirmed facebook, and not the sign behind her, was correct.
Upstairs a dove had got in and was madly trying to get out
the closed windows, eventually perching high on a ledge near the ceiling. We
joined another clump for drinks and popcorn. 2:59pm. Clumps (and white skin)
are often advantageous in this place: my friend’s friend was served quickly and
we made it into the movie, drinks and popcorn in hand. 3:01pm. As we entered
the pitch black theatre, Noah was holding a weird glowing rock… unfortunately, those rocks make it onto the
ark and we are totally confused about them. Oh well.
So, after finally making it into the theatre, and watching Noah, in mostly peace and quiet (one
lady at the front of the theatre took a call for about 10 minutes—I’m sure her
sister was having her baby, or her dog had died, or her husband needed to know,
urgently apparently, what was for dinner), I left feeling very positive towards
it. Maybe in all my reading I had prepared myself for the worst (or the best)
but I left thinking, and I took away, and I hope many others who watch will
take away, some very valuable reminders of, and lessons in, important truth.
Here are three that stood out to me particularly:
1. Creation is good. So very good. And we “broke it”.
I have to admit my vegetarian heart was deeply warmed to see
how high up God’s creation (and a vegetarian diet J) was held in this movie. I
think it is unfortunate that this truth of the beauty and goodness of creation
seems to have been lost in the debate over animals verses humans. I did not
leave thinking that animals were more important than humans. I left reminded
what a good and beautiful place this is that God gave us to live in and look
after, and also what a mess we make of it! Every time. Then – the darkness and
starkness of the landscape at the beginning of the movie was startling and
painful to see – and now – the rate at which we are consuming resources and
destroying the earth and those we share it with should pain us. As a few of the
characters say in the movie, “we broke it”. We did, and are, and that should
make us sad and upset!
2. God is a God of justice and love
What an amazing truth told to the world through a Hollywood
blockbuster! The criticism that God’s name is not mentioned is not even worth
addressing. I thought it was very clear that God is centre stage of this drama,
working through Noah who is trying to discern His voice. Ultimately, I was
reminded that God is a God of justice – I don’t think I’ve thought before how
bad things must have been for Him to have decided to obliterate the entire
world. But He didn’t just judge, destroy, and walk away. He is also a God of
mercy and crazy love who chose to give us a second chance. To continue to love.
Noah’s growing belief that God wanted to eliminate all humanity (and the
horrifying implications of that) is a disturbing part of this movie. But Noah
doesn’t stay there. He “chooses love”. Some have seen this as heretical distortment
of free will – Noah was given the power to choose to save humanity, or not –
and this would be a disturbing message indeed, which is perhaps there, but I did
not see it this way. Noah could not carry the implications of his belief
through in the end and tells God he cannot. The final scene allows us to see
God’s view of this lack of action on Noah’s part. At the dedication of Shem and
Ila’s babies the rainbow breaks into the sky – God’s blessing on Noah’s choice
(which was not actually his choice in my opinion but his following God’s will
accurately). And this is the redemption story in all its glory. God created the
world beautiful. He made us in his perfect image. We broke the world and His
image with sin. Rather than destroy us as we deserve, He chose and chooses
love. He chose to send His Son to take our place and redeem and renew this
beautiful world. Could there be any more amazing truth to communicate in a
movie?
3. The Bible characters were real people.
Yes, maybe Noah wasn’t Russell Crowe’s version of Noah, but
the truth is, he was a man. A good man, yes, but a sinful, imperfect man, with
emotions, who made mistakes. I, for one, am grateful for the reminder that the
people in the Bible were real people who faced real challenges and struggled to
understand what God was saying and who sometimes got it wrong. What a
comforting truth for us Christians (and everyone around us shaking their heads
at us and the ridiculous things we do sometimes): hey, we’re real people, with
real challenges, who struggle to understand what God is saying, and who get it
wrong sometimes! And that’s okay.
There were aspects of this movie I did not like: the strange
fallen rock angels (though, gosh, that would have made the ark-building a whole
lot easier!); Methuselah and Noah sitting down to tea – tea?! really?!; the
absence of wives for Ham and Japheth (though again, this helped the movie to
explore Noah’s conflict and the pain of his decision in a powerful way); Tubal-Cain’s
presence, especially on the boat, even though it provided some interesting
counter ideas, action and dialogue; Methuselah’s strange powers; and, of
course, the baffling glowing rocks.
But, I think that the large truths in this movie are worth
engaging with and talking critically about – and being grateful that they have
been presented to the world in a Hollywood movie – and we cannot do any of that
– engage, talk and be grateful – if we do not see it, or are not open to
discerning these truths within it. There is obviously much more that could be
said about this movie and the value or lack of value in watching it but that is
for another blog post, or perhaps another blogger.
One final thought: one of the saddest images in the movie to
me was Noah standing on the ark, staring up at the grey sky, desperately asking
God to speak to him. Sometimes God is silent and we don’t know what to do or if
what we’re doing or where we’re going is the right thing or the right place. It
is often difficult to follow (and sometimes even to see!) His path and many
times I’m not sure if I’m even on the right road, never mind facing the right
direction. And so often I wonder why the world is in such a state: why are
there barefoot street kids with empty stomachs and people eating popcorn in
movie theatres? Why does my skin give me unfair advantages, again and again?
Why do innocent doves get caught inside buildings? And why do we not care? And
when we do care, how do we deal with the weight of the answers? I don’t know.
And when I’m in this place and when God does not seem to answer in the rain and
through the grey clouds, I have to trust what He has told me in the light, and
to trust that the sun is still there, behind the clouds, even when it feels so
dark.
