Friday, April 18, 2014

Noah: truths I’m grateful for

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.

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