Thought for the week (we 13th April 2014)

‘Noah’ hit the big screen last weekend. A Biblical story of epic proportions given the Hollywood treatment will I’m sure will be something to see.

In the main the reviews have been favourable, although the religious press in America has been a bit at sea (forgive the pun!) in their reaction to the film. Some church leaders gave it great acclaim while others saw it as a distortion of the Geneses narratives.

Prior to its opening in the UK Australian actor Russell Crow who took the part of Noah has been on nearly every TV chat show and attended every national premiere to publicise this epic story including a visit to Cardiff to the delight of the hundreds of fans who turned out to see him.

Noah must have seemed a strange character. After all to have built an ark of such enormous proportions so far from the sea surely made him the laughing stock of his countrymen.

He is, however, described in the Bible as a righteousness man who walked with God. His obedience to God’s calling saw him in the end well equipped as the rains came and the waters arose and the ark began its perilous journey over the deep waters which engulfed the earth.

It may seem a strange analogy but the story of Noah is so very near the message of this Lenten season. Noah’s ark was the means of salvation for just a few, while the message of the Cross and resurrection is God’s offers salvation and forgiveness to everyone who believes.

The day the ark came to rest God promised Noah that never again would the waters destroy the earth. Through the death and resurrection Jesus God extended that covenant of new life to bring a lost and sinful world back to himself and to the ways of peace love. and reconciliation.

In Noah’s day the sign of this covenant was a rainbow – this Easter it is an empty cross and more empty tomb. As Noah walked with God so we too can walk with him and be led to the loving arms of Jesus who will turn no one away who come to him – There’s room for us all!