Thoughts for Thursday 14th May, 2020

Psalm 66:8-20; Genesis 6:5-22; Acts 27:1-12

 Thursday 14 May - Rev. Jerry Eve

 Our readings today have a nautical theme. Psalm 66 refers to a flood at verse 12, Genesis 6 has part of the story of Noah, and Acts 27 part of Paul’s final journey by sea to Rome.

 If I can begin with Acts, this is part of one of the so-called ‘we’ passages in Acts. These can be found at 16:10-17, 20:5-15, 21:1-18, 27:1-37 and 28:1-16. As you’ll see, they are all in the first person. This has prompted a lot of speculation. Why, for example, isn’t the whole of Acts written in this way? Are these passages by the author, or are they eye-witness accounts by someone else which have then been inserted into the text by the author? Were they written for liturgical purposes, so that the stories they tell could be acted out in a Church setting for worship purposes?

 The authorship of Acts is contested. From earliest times, there has been a strong tradition that the author of Luke and Acts was one and the same, and this makes sense since they both begin, ‘Dear Theophilus.’ Furthermore, there is also a strong early tradition that they were written by someone called Luke. But who was Luke? The strongest view is that he was a co-worker of Paul’s (see Philemon 24), while a weaker one is that he was Paul and his companions’ ‘dear doctor’ (see Colossians 4:14).

 There’s also a (non-Biblical) tradition that he was an artist, and painted the first icon (of the Virgin Mary and child). Whatever we think about who the author might have been, though, whoever he or she was they were clearly a vivid and compelling story-teller. The details we have in this passage give us a strong suggestion that they were actually there at the time these events occurred.

 Moving to Genesis, as with all patriarchs, Noah had ‘feet of clay’. Despite the verse which tells us that, ‘Noah had no faults and was the only good man (person) of his time,’ if you’d like to follow up on what he gets up to after the flood waters have receded, you’ll discover that sadly he was clearly flawed.

 Attempts have therefore been made by theologians throughout the Common Era to excuse his behaviour. This has been thought to be important by Christians especially because of the (glowing) references to Noah we have in the New Testament. In 1 Peter 3:20-21, for example, Noah is invoked (together with all that water) as a symbol pointing to baptism; and in Hebrews 11:7 Noah is described as obedient and righteous.

 I personally, however, do prefer (for the reason that only Christ is without sin) to think of him as the archetype for the legendary ‘Drunken Sailor’.

 Let us pray:

 A Sailor's Prayer

 Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Grant that before I wake

No other sailor my shoes and socks will take

Lord watch over me in my slumber
And see that my hammock stays on its number.
See that no clews or lashings break,
To let me fall before I wake.
Keep me safe within Thy sight
And let’s have no fire drill tonight.
In the morning let me wake,
Breathing scents of sirloin steak.
God protect me in my dreams,
And make this better than it seems;

Grant the time may swiftly fly,
When I shall rest on high.
In a soft and snowy bed,
Where I long to rest my head,
Far away from all these scenes
And the odours of half done beans.
Take me back into the land
Where they don't scrub down with sand,
Where no Demon Typhoon blows,
And the women wash the clothes.
Lord, you know all of my woes,
Feed me in my dying throes,
Take me back, I'll promise then
Never to leave home again,

 Amen (John William Babbs, 1942)

 

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