The Ark and the Flood

We heard a great sermon this morning on Noah and his ark. We all have heard this story, but do we really know this story was the question of the morning.

The story we know is a children's story; we all have vivid pictures of the cute little ark rolling with the waves as the animals and an older man with a white beard wave from a window... that is not the story of Genesis.

According to Genesis 7, the story is no children's fairy tale. It is the picture of promise, judgment and salvation. The Lord made a promise, to blot out all that He created except those confined to an ark made by one who was faithful, not perfect but faithful.

The Lord fulfilled His promise by sending water, not just rain but all the water from everywhere, upon the earth. The Lord, through the fulfilling of His promise, brought judgment to those who rebelled from Him, held no reverence of Him and worship others and themselves over Him.

The ark represented salvation for eight who He claimed as His own. It represented the salvation God gave those eight on His own accord. The eight, along with many animals, endured 150 days as Genesis states while the waters prevailed. The waters prevailed over all the mountains and at such heights that the ark never touched even the highest of mountains. And, while the ark endured, Genesis states very clearly that all the flesh died that moved on the earth along with all animals and other living things... everything and everyone died except those He chose to put on the ark. This is the God we worship!

We like to reduce Him down to one of us. We tend to focus on those attributes that allow us to live our comfortable lives the way we want to live them. We forget that those who are truly in Christ rest in the ark, and the ark is not a pleasure palace, by any means. Those days on that ark were not comfortable. Noah and his family did not spend time on the upper deck getting a sweet tan while the Lord protected them and delivered them to a paradise built just for them. No, those days were filled with hard labor as the animals had to be feed and watched. The ark had to be cleaned and swept and washed almost all the time, and during all of this, they still were to take time to worship the God of all as Genesis is clear, clean animals were to be taken on to the ark for sacrifice.

We have taken this story and done to it what we do to God... reduce it to the story that we want to hear; the one that relieves us of our guilt and responsibility. This story is God the way He wants Himself presented. He is not safe for those outside the ark. One last point about the ark... in relation to all things, it is not large enough to house everyone.Its size should point to Jesus and his statement concerning the sheep and the goats. There are many who will claim Him as the Lord, but in the end, He will say to them, I hardly knew you.

Have you ever thought of those who did not end up in the ark? The earth was populated at this time with people just like Noah. People who treated others with respect, who had friends, who worked hard and who tried to do what is right.We tend to think that Noah and his sons were the only moral people on the earth at that time. The scripture does not say that.When the rains came families, nice people, villages... all of these were swept away by the water and perished. Again, what does this say about the God we worship?

What it says to me is that there are a lot of important things in this Christian walk, but there is nothing more important than God's Son, Jesus Christ, and there is no other book that teaches more about His Son than the Bible. I feel strongly that I was meant to hear this sermon today. All that has come down on top of me recently was still for a purpose, and that purpose is for me to hear that God is who He is in His story found only in scripture. He is not found in theology, tradition, or any one denomination. God is found in the place He has chosen to be found - in His Son, Jesus Christ!

The Ark and the Flood is the story of God, His character and His love for His people. Noah, while finding favor with God, was the beneficiary of a loving God choosing to exercise His grace on him. The Ark, floating on the waters, was God's grace to His people all wrapped up in His character, His promises, His judgment and His salvation!  

Good Advice

Existentialism and Christianity

Can one be a Christian and believe in existentialism? We must first define this philosophical theory, but that will be like nailing jello to the wall.

Existentialism is a search for one's existence, and along the way on that search, existentialists have asserted ideas that have become attached to existentialism. Existentialism is usually referred to as a distinct philosophy, but it is impossible to give an exact definition or to even refer to it as unified and identifiable school of thought. There is not a single doctrine on which one "Existentialist" thinker would actually agree with another, and several of those included in the movement have rejected the "Existentialist" label all together.

If we were to define it beyond the search for one's own existence, we might get a majority of those involved in the moment to agree on some of the following:

• Existentialism is a 20th century movement that asserts that God nor absolute truth exist.
  
  
• Existentialism believes in the total autonomy of a person from a world and life view.
  
  
• Existentialism states that the world is absurd, and there is no hope.
  
  
• Existentialism asserts that man is free from imposed moral values.
  
  
• Existentialism asserts that each person is their own authority concerning truth. .
  
  
• Existentialism believes that existence precedes essence.

Existentialists denounce any objectivity as illusory. According to Existentialism, there is no independently existing order or structure on which one could rely for ultimate purposes or guidance. Any honest reflection will reveal, according to most Existentialists, that the universe is unknown, and the experience of nothingness is an inescapable characteristic of all human existence. As Christians, we must reject these notions.

Ralph Harper, in his book, The Existential Experience, reveals that there is indeed a relationship between existentialism and theology. Soren Kierkegaard, a Christian who was labeled as an Existentialist, highlights this fact: to him, existence begins and ends with choices. Existence, to Kierkegaard, involved both the isolation of self and the choice of self, and he maintained that existence is only understood according to the choices we make.

This is an area where I believe we can gain some wisdom from existential thought. Choices do define us but in today's world we do not consider the ramifications of the choices we make beyond our own being. Existentialists would reject this notion because of the extreme importance they place in choice. They believe you are defined by the choices you make even though those choice do not interrelate. Choices do define us and reveal who we are. Scripture teaches us that we will be held accountable for our choices one day. We tend forget this passage, but Revelation chapter 20 has much to say to us:

"Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
(Revelation 20:11-15 ESV)

No, we can not accept that which existentialism presents, but we can applaud their efforts in the honest assessment of life without Christ they offer. There is no hope without Christ and every choice made without Christ is hopeless and without direction. Sadly, we make choices every day that communicate to those around us that there is no hope. Every choice we make that does not consider others beyond our own self is a choice rooted more in the characteristics of existentialism than Christianity. Praise be to God for your salvation that is found only in Jesus Christ and be thankful that He made a choice for you!

Liespotting: Another TED Video

Democracy

Benjamin Levin, in his article, The Educational Requirement of Democracy, defined democracy as that which involves participative processes at the action level. His thought is that democracy is about this idea that people should be involved in making decisions that directly affect them. John Dewey, who I am studying on a regularly basis these days, had much to say about democracy and education.

Dewey attempted to link education with democracy because he believed we prefer democracy because it promotes a better quality of human experience for the maximum number of people. Dewey felt strongly that the traditional school had grown out of a nontraditional social order, and not an order where true democracy reigned supreme; the new school needed to reflect this true democracy. Dewey called his new schools, democratic schools; they were to be schools for all with a broad social environment, broader than anything the child could experience anywhere else. The major ingredient in Dewey's school was the most interesting. Dewey believed that each student must understand objects, events and acts in ways that provide the student the means to participate in society. Dewey calls this "social intelligence."

What does it mean to have social intelligence? I think Levin would say that it has a lot to do with how much authority one has to exercise. Before one can exercise authority one must learn to wade through situations via study, inquiry, debate, discussion and decision. This is democracy at its purest; it is a process that involves conflict and disagreement that leads to agreement and decision. Trustworthy authority is that authority that withstands challenges. Levin writes, "We cannot abolish authority, or give it away, but we can and should create in our institutions the conditions that allow authority to be challenged, and to be taken over by others who are ready to use it well, because it is what is required for a democratic society to operate." This is what builds social intelligence and provides the means to act in ways that are participatory in society. If we do not allow this action to exist in our schools how, then, can we hope to have it prevalent in our society.

If we remove social intelligence from our schools then we produce a culture void of debate, disagreement and conflict. At first glance, some would say this is Utopia; but upon closer examination, this is anything but Utopia. A culture where everyone gets along and no one argues is a culture dominated by one idea, and one where all other ideas are banished. The education we offer our children carries with it our statement on issues like authority. The discipline we use in our schools with our students communicates to them our views on authority and who gets to be involved in the decision making process. Does this mean that we turn over control of our schools to our students? No, and Levin would not advocate such an action either. But, he would say that a good idea is still a good idea whether it comes from a faculty member, a principal, a student or a parent. Levin writes that, "We can start to treat students as community members with a stake in what happens, and as people who can and will learn as they deliberate and act."

In sum, Levin advocates and Dewey would agree that the practice of democracy is tied closely to a school and its program. The decisions we make are made in the deepest parts of our souls. Often, when we are apathetic in regard to a decision we need only look within for the reason why. Levin believes that for a democracy to develop a realistic stance toward the world that democracy must require and produce high ideals, and high ideals are only found deep in your soul. Their formation begins in the early stages of development inside the process of learning... inside education.

Ideals are not formed by math, science or English, but by the teaching of those subjects to a student by an adult who is trusted to instill this information. It is the process, but it is much more. It is also the relationship between a teacher and a student that builds ideals in conjunction with the family. This teacher/student relationship is one of the first relationships built outside of the family structure. The student will learn about trust, respect and empathy in this relationship as the student experiences things first hand. It is this process that actually teaches ideals more than the products of the disciplines taught. This is where we create the ideals that provide us the foundation to make the hard decisions that ultimately build individual character and trustworthiness. Dewey linked education with democracy because education produces democracy, and a democracy will only work correctly if those living by it live according to deep rooted ideals like character and truth.

Can democracy survive without education? Dewey and Levin have their answers. What is yours?