Creationity

Wednesday is for words, and this week's word is creationity.
Has kind of a truthiness feel to it, doesn't it?
I saw Noah tonight with some junior and senior high sheep and their shepherds, and I was mightily impressed with Darren Aronofsky's attempt at telling an old tale in a new way.
First, I don't go to the movies to test the filmmaker's theology - I go with my theology to see what the filmmaker can add. Thank you, Martin Scorcese, for the indelible image of a happy Christ dancing at the Wedding of Cana; thank you Franco Zeffirelli for casting Robert Powell, who got the timbre of his voice just right; thank you Cool Hand Luke for a modern re-telling of the Christ story.
Aronofsky got two things perfect, and neither of them had to do with the actual story of Noah and the flood.
The first story he got right was the creation. Noah told it to his family while on the ark and the movie stopped
all of its contrivances about Rock versions of Tolkien's Ents and gave us a story the way Noah probably actually told it- the same way it was told to him from his father Lamech and grandfather Methusaleh.
Along with Crowe/Noah's narration, Aronofsky did in five minutes what the rest of the film failed to do - bring the Bible to life. Can we now just stop all of the creation/evolution nonsense and just watch that happy snippet?
Done.
The other story Noah got right was (wait for it) Abraham and Sarah.
This requires some explanation, and a little spoiler.
While any casual reader of Scripture can tell you that God spoke to Noah and directed him down to the last minute detail about how and why he was building the ark, the filmmakers decided to let Noah take God's vision of a destroyed world to its logical conclusion. Since man has screwed up the earth, Noah and his family were to be the last family. That is, Noah's sons were alive in order to bury their parents, who would then be buried by their youngest brother, Japheth. Since God was sparing no expense in making sure the animals were safe - because they hadn't screwed up creation, mankind had - then Noah believed God was implying, last human out, turn off the earth.

So when his daughter-in-law turns up pregnant, he believes it's God's will to kill his new grandchildren.
As he's setting out to do this act of God's will, his wife Naameh (played wonderfully by Jennifer Connelly) tells him that if he does this "act of God," that God may forgive him, but she never will. That this is absolutely not God's will, but his deranged mania. She begs and pleads or him not to kill his grandchildren.
And I thought, "That's probably when Sarah told Abraham when he went to sacrifice their only son Isaac on the mountain. A mother is not going to let a little thing like God's will get in the way of the love for her child. It was a magical film moment.
There were other clear wins in this film, led by the look on everyone's face when they could hear the screams of those who couldn't get on the boat, knowing full well that they were the ultimate death panel for the world. That Noah turned to drink after this made absolute sense.
The fact that he referred to God as "Creator"? Big whoop. God didn't say his name until Moses, and if you're only 10 generations from The Creation and God hadn't made a covenant with you (that's Abraham) or freed your people from Egypt (that's Moses) and appeared to you in visions, then yeah, Creator is a pretty good name.
I don't know if there is a natural anesthesia that could knock out an ark-full of animals, but I thought it deserved a B+ for creativity. And the fallen angels/rock men helping? That would speed up the ETA considerably. And Origen, if no one else, probably cheered that the fallen angels got to return to God at their life's end.
In talking with regular people about this film, remember to stress that Noah got it wrong and his wife and daughter got it right - God is a God of mercy, and her children were a sign from him that this was a new beginning, not just for the animals, but for people too.
Last thing, and then I'll stop. Michael Gerson's article is an excellent read, although he disagrees with me. (Dude, Noah WAS a "brooding, misanthropic vegan.")
I also agree with everything Pastor Robin Dugall says in his blog.
Sorry I was late - had an all-night hearts party tonight.