Uncomfortable S2 - Day 2

The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.) 19 From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth. 20 After the flood, Noah began to cultivate the ground, and he planted a vineyard. 21 One day he drank some wine he had made, and he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers. 23 Then Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, and backed into the tent to cover their father. As they did this, they looked the other way so they would not see him naked. 24 When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done. 25 Then he cursed Canaan, the son of Ham: “May Canaan be cursed! May he be the lowest of servants to his relatives.” 26 Then Noah said,“May the Lord, the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant! 27 May God expand the territory of Japheth! May Japheth share the prosperity of Shem,-and may Canaan be his servant.” 28 Noah lived another 350 years after the great flood. 29 He lived 950 years, and then he died. Genesis 9:18 

This has always been an uncomfortable story to me. There are a few reasons why. First, just the fact that he grew a vineyard first, and then got drunk pretty quickly (I mean, it would have taken months) seems pretty significant. Did he plant anything else? Was he willing or able to grill up some vegetables as well, or was it just straight to the wine?

Also, the fact that a son saw the father naked. Always weird. 

But then the punishment was because the son viewed the father naked. Is that fair? Noah put his son in this sort of situation, and yet the son was punished for it. Did the son know when he entered the tent that Noah was naked? It seems like it might have been so uncomfortable for him that he went right out and told his brothers they had to do something to fix the situation. Either way, it seems we are left with a dilemma; what do we do with this text and this deeply uncomfortable situation?

First, Noah needed to take responsibility for his drunkenness rather than pass the punishment to his son. I’ve never been comfortable with this. Secondly, why didn’t the other sons stand up to Noah for the sake of the son who saw him naked? Couldn’t they have intervened and helped a little with this awkward family situation? 

For whatever reason, the biblical narrative doesn’t let us know anything other than what we have just read, so we are in the midst of something uncomfortable without many opportunities to make things less uncomfortable. 

Throughout my years of pastoral ministry, I have been in the midst of some pretty uncomfortable situations with families and have been surprised at how willing some people are to bring one more person into their awkward situations. It is when you must find patience, wisdom, and sometimes compassion for those you minister to. 

We all probably become comfortable with a certain level of  family and the strangeness that comes with every family system, but when we are introduced to a new one, it seems even crazier! This is the issue when you marry someone. You are used to YOUR family’s crazy, not someone else’s families crazy. 

All of this to say that we are going to have to get used to awkward and uncomfortable situations because Jesus has called us all together to be a community.

JOURNAL:

1. What is another awkward story from the Bible that has always bothered you? 
2. If you are married or dating, what do you think is crazy from your partner’s family? 
3. What do you do in your family that you can be sure the partners your kids choose will find weird and awkward? 
4. How can we learn to be in a community with all this crazy happening?