Noah's Ark Enacted
(This interpretation of the story of Noah's ark was written to be used on Holy Saturday at the Great Vigil as the second reading. It was designed to be staged in a specific setting, but the staging can be easily changed to suit almost any setting.)
Cast:
Narrator/Reader
Noah
2 Water Dancers
Props:
Laundry basket (preset to discreet spot in the front of the worship space, Under the altar?)
2 twigs (preset to discreet spot in the front of the worship space, Under the altar?)
Various small stuffed animals (preset to pews in the congregation)
Small image of Noah’s stick figure family as might appear on the ark’s rear window (preset to discreet spot in the front of the worship space, Under the altar?)
1-2 strips of blue “water” fabric (preset to discreet spot in the front of the worship space, Under the altar?)
Small table (preset to discreet spot in the front of the worship space, Under the altar?)
Fresh olive leaf, perhaps a palm left over from Palm Sunday (preset with Noah)
2-4 rainbow ribbon wrist elastics (preset in water dancers’ pockets)
(As the reader comes forward to the podium the water dancers will come forward and take their places on the other side of the altar.)
When the children of Adam began to multiply on the face of the Earth God saw that the wickedness of humankind was great, and God’s heart grieved. So, God said, “I will blot out from the Earth what I have created and make a new creation”.
(Enter Noah from the back of the congregation. During the next paragraph Noah will be given a laundry basket and two twigs by the water dancers. During the building instructions Noah will weave the twigs into the basket, creating something that suggests a cross.)
But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord, for he was blameless and walked with the Lord. God spoke to Noah, saying, “I am going to bring a flood of waters on the Earth, but I will establish my covenant with you. Therefore, make yourself an ark of cypress wood and cover it with pitch. Make it with a lower deck, and a second deck, and a third, and put a door on the side of it.” So, Noah did as the Lord commanded him.
(During the next paragraph Noah will carry the ark through the congregation, collecting small stuffed animals.)
And God said, “You shall bring flesh of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive. You shall bring every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth, and every bird of every kind. And they shall come in to you, to keep them alive.”
(During the next paragraph Noah will be given the stick figure image by one of the water dancers, will show it to the congregation, and will place it in the ark.)
Then God said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your household, and take with you every kind of food that is eaten.” And Noah, with his sons, and his wife, and his son’s wives, went into the ark to escape the flood. So, Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him to do, and when they were in the ark, God shut them in.
(During the next paragraph the water dancers will bring the blue fabric out and create waves in front of Noah, while Noah, holding the ark, sways to and fro with the currents.)
Then God opened the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens, and the waters increased greatly on the Earth and bore up the ark to float on the face of the waters. The waters swelled so mightily on the Earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The flood continued forty days on the Earth, and the waters covered the Earth for one hundred and fifty days.
(During the next paragraph one of the water dancers sets the blue fabric aside while the other one brings a small table out and sets it in front of the altar, then Noah places the ark on the table.)
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God closed the fountains of the deep and the rains from the heavens were restrained. Then God caused a wind to blow over the Earth, and the waters subsided, and the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
(During the next paragraph Noah pantomimes the flight of the dove at the appropriate moments and produces the olive leaf on the return of the second flight.)
When the tops of mountains began to appear, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a dove so see if the waters had subsided from the face of the Earth. But the dove found no place to set its foot and returned to him in the evening. Noah waited seven days and again he sent out the dove from the ark, and in the evening the dove came back to him with a fresh olive leaf. So, Noah knew that the waters had subsided. He waited another seven days and sent out the dove, and it did not return to him anymore.
(During the next paragraph Noah removes the animals and his family from the ark and sets them around it on the table and the floor. The water dancers move to a spot behind the altar and discreetly put the rainbow wrist elastics on their wrists.)
Then God said to Noah, “Go out of the ark, you and your household. Bring with you every living thing that is with you, birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth, so that they may flourish and fill the Earth with life.” So, Noah went out of the ark with his wife, and his sons, and his son’s wives, and with every kind of bird and animal and creeping thing that moves on the Earth.
(During the next paragraph Noah looks to the heavens and at the appropriate moment the water dancers raise their hands above their heads and wave their arms back and forth so that the ribbons create a rainbow effect behind Noah.)
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and worshiped the Lord. And God said to Noah, “I am establishing my covenant with you, and with every living creature that is with you, as many as came out of the ark. Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood. This is the sign of the covenant that I make, I have set my bow in the clouds. When I bring clouds over the Earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember the covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of the Earth for all generations, and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”
Notes
This interpretation of the flood story is based on the idea that the ark is a kind of prefiguring of the cross as a means of salvation. That is why the sticks that are woven into the laundry basket to create the ark are woven in the pattern of a cross. Ideally, this pattern should suggest a cross without being too obvious. This is also why the olive leaf can be represented by a palm from Palm Sunday. It is a kind of hopeful announcement of the finished salvation that has nearly, but not quite, been completed.
This interpretation also aims to make the story more meaningful to the LGBTQ community. Noah’s Ark is often seen as Biblical proof of the importance of heteronormativity, putting a great emphasis on biological procreation and enshrining the heterosexual nuclear family as a divinely ordained institution. This story can be used as a weapon or a text of terror against the LGBTQ community and as such is often ignored or avoided by queer folk. To take the sting out of the story I have ignored most references to “male and female”, or “two by two”, or direct references to procreation, and placed an emphasis on diversity and inclusion. I have done this by focusing on the inclusion of all types of animals, as seen in the opposing dichotomy of wild vs. domesticated animals. I have also included the storytelling technique of repetition of phrases such as “every ___ of every kind”, as well as including full lists when I could find them in scripture. Finally, I have emphasized the universal “all” of the covenant in the last paragraph, which shows humanity as just part of those with whom God made a covenant. This covenant with “every living creature” removes humanity from our supposed superior position in creation and suggests a more egalitarian creation where all creatures are equally important to God. This most clearly has implications for eco-theology, but could also be seen to extend to the supposed superiority of heteronormativity and be seen as a way of placing queer identity on an equal footing with heterosexuality in the sight of God. (This last part is a bit of a stretch, but it might prove an interesting line of thinking to follow.)
The final note is just a tidbit that I discovered while doing some background on this story. The bow of the rainbow was probably based on an ancient tradition that signified the end of hostilities between warring peoples. As a sign that hostilities were ended, a king or tribal leader would hang his bow horizontally in a prominent place where it would be seen by all. As such this indicates that God has been at war with humanity since the fall, and with this final extreme act of wrath, God has finally exhausted the need for vengeance. This is an interesting idea, but since the two stories that immediately follow this one include the cursing of one of Noah’s sons and then the confounding of human language at the tower of Babble, this time a universal curse, it seems God has not quite finished with hostilities toward humanity, just with large scale floods.
