Prove There is an Audience!

We have a unique opportunity to prove there is an audience for better--more beautiful, more just, more virtuous--faith stories. Purchase our dramatic reading of the Cain & Abel and Noah sagas. I promise a person doesn't have to be Christian to appreciate these stories--virtue is virtue.

Give them as gifts to random young people... and adults. Guilt your parenting friends into buying it. Insist every youth person at your church each have their own copy. Let's change the world to reflect the real virtues of our faith traditions one sacred myth at a time!

By the way, v.1 can be found here.

Makes Me Wanna Holla!

<<Read the sixth episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 7—a story of creation)

I'd like to think someone, some two or more said yes they would join Noah and his family on the ark. The way the story has been handed down to us leaves just enough room to imagine this possibility, even though the Bible does not explicitly say so. . . . Finish the story!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner... or Not—Episode 4

<<Read the fifth episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 7—a story of creation)

There was a lot of back and forth about whether he should, but the decision had already been made. Noah saddled the mare. Though not quite as fast, she was much more sure-footed and not as skittish as her mate.

One of the large heavy doors creaked open, Noah dashed out. Ham move quickly to close it. Watching the water roll back toward the opening, he couldn't help but think that slanting the deck for the first five feet of the entrance was a stroke of genius on his wife's part. . . . Finish the story!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner... or Not—Episode 3

<<Read the fourth episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 7—a story of creation)

Pair by pair Noah and Naomi, Shem and Varda, Ham and Ital, Japheth and Nitzan led the walking animals into their stalls or cages 14 clean (as in kosher to eat) animals of each species and 2 unclean (not so kosher) or two-by-two, depending on which part of the biblical narrative you're reading. The flyers found space to roost for themselves.

It had to be more than a little unnerving to escort the first predator across the gangplank. Do you push them? Do you pull them? How much force is too much? If you you tie a rope around their necks and pull, how much lead do you give yourself? Do you dare turn your back to them? Do you think they've eaten already? . . . Finish the story!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner... or Not—Episode 2

<<Read the third episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 7—a story of creation)

Meanwhile, Naomi, Noah's better half, took her three daughters-in-law around the side of the ark. Sadly, through the years as these stories have made their way down to us, many of the women in them lost their names and their contributions. That's an injustice that has happened all too often. We should lament that. We should also give them new ones.

. . . Finish the story!

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner... or Not—Episode 1

<<Read the second episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 7—a story of creation)

The thing about friendship is that it's often easier to recognize it's absence than it's presence. For many of his neighbors, Noah was just the kindly old kook who lived across the way. Sure he always had a encouraging smile, a helping hand, a listening ear, good humor, sage advice and food to share, but sadly, at their own loss, few labeled that "friendship," although all benefited from it.

Because we place so little significance on friendship itself, more on its absence, it's hard to think of the quiet grace of friendship or neighborliness as being a major theme of the Noah epic. In fact, neighborliness is such a quiet grace that we would likely not have the Noah story if it were not for the dramatic ironies that come in to stir the pot. . . . Finish the story!

Saving Grace—Episode 2

<<Read the first episode in the Noah saga.

(based on Genesis 6—a story of creation)

So building pretty much proceeded according to spec: 400 some-odd feet long and... wide and... tall. That was easy. Noah's family tackled what they could, and for the really technical stuff, they hired craftsmen. The challenging part wasn't the building: it was learning to extend grace to those who just couldn't see what Noah saw coming. . . . Finish the story!

Saving Grace—Episode 1

(taken from Genesis 6—a story of creation)


"Now it came to pass, when humans began to multiply on the face of the earth... the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not always strive with humanity, [nor shall my breath remain in humans forever, because they are only flesh and blood].'

"Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."

"Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." This is one of the iconic phrases in Judeo-Christian tradition. It is the first time we are given this word "grace"—one of the unique treasures of the way of Jesus. Grace works in two ways. First, by not limiting the good we receive to only what we deserve in light of our shortcomings. For example, even though we poison our land with chemical fertilizers and pesticides that make it hard for anything to grow without more and harsher chemical fertilizers and pesticides, Elohim allows the food we grow to have enough nutrients to keep us alive. Second, grace also allows the good that we are able to do to not be limited to just our own shortcomings. Again, for example, if after years of poisoning the land we decide we want to do better by honoring the natural rhythms by which things grow, we can reintroduce worms to our poisoned land, feed them leftover scraps from our dining table, and before long, they will aerate and naturally fertilize the land, making it again hospitable to all the other good insects and plants that keep the bad insects away.

So when the Hebrew storytellers say "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," they are saying that Noah looked "into the face of God and [saw] the truth of his own dignity."
. . . Finish the story!

"Is God Mean?" by Tim Seitz

Tim Seitz, a wonderfully creative yet meek soul, offered this beautifully simple window into the subversive nature of God, as seen through a paradoxical understanding of the flood. Doesn't scripture say something about using the simple to confound the wise.