Future

The animals came, two-by-two.

We love this part of the story. It’s on many nursery walls because it’s all about animals. God sends all animals, two by two, each according to its kind, to be saved by Noah in the ark.

Growing up, I remember watching National Geographic Explorer. I loved the Disney nature documentaries. Jack Hannah’s Animal Planet.  One Christmas, my mom adopted a wolf for my sister. We got a whole packet detailing this wolf and its personality, as well as stories about the other wolves in the pack. Those wolves ended up being re-released into Yellowstone and made an amazing impact.

The wolves literally changed the shape of rivers. The presence of the wolves increased the beaver population, brought back aspen, and vegetation. How? Yellowstone rangers and biologists noted that without wolves, the elk population did too well. The elk pushed the limits of Yellowstone’s carrying capacity, and they didn’t move around much in the winter-browsing heavily on young willow, aspen and cottonwood plants. That was tough for beaver, who need willows to survive in winter.[1]

Make one change, it sets off a whole amazing sequence of things. Wolves hunt the elk, aspen comes back, beaver population thrives, and they change the course of rivers. Yellowstone is healthier now, thanks to the reintroduction of wolves back in 1995.

I’m an animal lover. A tree-hugger. Conservation-minded. I’m all about reducing, reusing, and recycling. Part of this is because I grew up in the late ’80s and early ’90s when all of this was in our Saturday Morning Cartoons like Captain Planet. I was a Boy Scout and all about leave-no-trace camping and conservation. And my mom is all about nature and wild places.

The Iroquois nation used the 7th Generation principle. The Seventh Generation Principle today is a line of cleaning supply products… but they get their name from this idea the Iroquois had in regards to decisions about energy, water, and natural resources, and ensuring those decisions are sustainable for seven generations into the future.[2]

We can see that here in Noah’s ark. The boat is built. God says, I’m sending two of the animals. There’s another version in the next chapter which says 7 pairs of clean and 6 pairs of unclean animals. This is conservation. This is 7th generation thinking.

And God says, “I will establish a covenant with you.” Meaning Noah has to do a lot of work to know what the promise will be. It is future oriented. Everything here is future oriented.

It’s hands on dirty work for the benefit of future generations. Protecting God’s world requires hard, sometimes unpleasant work now. Noah didn’t just load up the ark and sail worry-free–he worked without rest during the entire year of the Flood. For example, according to the Jewish Midrash Tanhuma, “throughout those twelve months, Noah and his sons did not sleep, because they had to feed the animals, beasts, and birds.”[3]

I lose a lot of sleep after watching some nature documentaries. Documentaries that detail the devastation of the environment. Or how Superfund sites came to be.[4] Or how corporations pump harmful chemicals into the water supply.[5] Or how species are dying off at record rates.[6] There’s a specific word for this. It’s called sin. It goes against the story of Noah. It harms God’s creation. Yet there’s a lot of money to be made, so folks look the other way. Or vigorously defend and explain away these actions.

My hometown is flooded with fracking. It’s the first-time money has come into town since the factories closed down and the railroad left. Yet the environmental impact in exchange for the money has been downplayed or completely written off. In some places in the country, the local water coming out of the tap can be set on fire. In other places, crops fail. In others places like Oklahoma, earthquakes occur where there haven’t been any in recorded history. [7]I see friends and family members getting paid. I see rural economies thriving. Those are good things. Yet I wonder if this is in our best interest in the long term. Seven generations from now, will we look back on this and say it was a good thing?

I’ll keep asking that question. I’ll keep saying climate change needs to be dealt with. I still think we should reduce, reuse, and recycle. It’s how we got through the Great Depression, and “waste not, want not” is a good proverb, even if it’s not in the Bible.

Think about the future because we’re all on the same ark. This world is our only boat and we’re all on it with all God’s creatures and children. We’re on this pale blue dot hurling through the expanse of space and there is no Earth 2 back up planet. Can you imagine what it was like on that boat? All the care the animals needed. All the noises and the smells. Goodness gracious! The smell! How the crew of 8 people would have to work, and reduce, reuse, and recycle. They couldn’t stop at the local store to get more supplies. All the 7/11s were under water!

We are called to be stewards of creation. You will live on in your decisions for others, for 7 generations. Think of all the lives that have brought you to this moment. All the care and time spent, and sleepless nights that others have taken on for your benefit.

We are one another’s ark. A safe place in the flood of all that is coming at us. We will hold one another through this, for the benefit of generations we won’t ever get to know. Here at the church, we care for our building. Our property & grounds group keeps up our building so well. They take their time, they make sure their projects are done right and will last generations. Bruce, Dick, and those guys aren’t messing around! They want this place to last. So that our message of stewardship and creation care gets out.

Now maybe you don’t recycle. Maybe you can start. Or maybe that’s not the right way to go. Maybe you’ll compost. Or switch to LED lights. It’s about being smart. Caring for the planet just as we care for our building, to make sure it lasts and it’s around for 7 generations.

Thanks to the work of Jack Sharp, our maintenance man, we’re switching to LEDs and becoming more energy efficient. Doing so makes good financial sense so that more of your tithes can go to mission and outreach. Less spent on energy means more spent on our neighbors.

The decisions we make today help write the unknown future. There is no way to keep up with the future, it’s always changing.[8] Yet our decisions can help set up those who come after us in the best possible way. So that is our prayer. Take what comes to us, and keep it alive. Things like faith, hope, and love…

We will hear about the future dreams from our families. I can’t wait to hear about what dreams you have for our future together! May we give of our time, talent, and treasure and steward this place so that it’s around 7 generations from now. As God said to Noah in today’s passage, “For two of everything will come in to us, to keep them alive.” Stay alive. Work to keep one another alive. Work to keep life on the planet alive. This is our work together.

Works Cited

[1] https://www.yellowstonepark.com/things-to-do/wolf-reintroduction-changes-ecosystem

[2] https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/seventh-generation-principle

[3] https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/a-paradigm-for-environmental-consciousness/

[4] PBS Doc, Creek Runs Red: https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/creekrunsred/film.html and HBO’s Mann V. Ford, and Wasteland by National Geographic.

[5] Robert Bilot’s story about DuPont in Parkersburg, WV (not too far from Athens, OH) is covered here: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html and became a movie called Dark Waters.

[6] Attenborough’s Extinction: The Facts, based on https://www.businessinsider.com/signs-of-6th-mass-extinction-2019-3

[7] Gasland documentary and Gasland Part II

[8.] Like how EPCOT and Tomorrow Land quickly become outdated: https://youtu.be/tKYEXjMlKKQ

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