NOAH: A Model for Advocacy?

Paper cranes - frequently used as a devotional object, including
in connection with the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Japan.

Noah built an altar to GOD. He selected clean animals and birds from every species and offered them as burnt offerings on the altar. GOD smelled the sweet fragrance and thought to himself, "I'll never again curse the ground because of people. I know they have this bent toward evil from an early age, but I'll never again kill off everything living as I've just done.

"For as long as Earth lasts,
planting and harvest, cold and heat,
Summer and winter, day and night
will never stop."

- Genesis 8:20-22
(translation from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language by Eugene H. Peterson)

Noah made an offering to God. Was it an offering of thanksgiving, for the end of the ordeal? Or an offering of supplication, that he not be subjected to the ordeal again?

These days, at least in US culture, we do not have the custom of selecting birds and animals to make burnt offerings on an altar. And yet we do hold solemn observances to reflect on where we've been, and where we're going, and to offer prayers of thanksgiving and supplication.

One week from today, I will go to Madison, WI, for a remembrance of the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima. (There will be events in other cities, too.) There will be time for quiet reflection, time to share stories, time to pray.

Every year at these Hiroshima commemoration gatherings, I wonder: are we mainly grateful that nuclear weapons haven't been used against people since 1945? Or are we mainly hoping and praying that they will never be used again?

This year, in addition to the quiet reflection, and the story sharing, and the praying, there will be calls to action. People will be called to work to pull the world "Back From the Brink" and prevent nuclear war.

Perhaps it's more accurate to say that part and parcel of the prayers will be the call to action to support the "Back From the Brink" campaign. Pope Francis has said, "You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works." Knowing that Pope Francis is a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament, I believe he would endorse this paraphrase:

You pray for nuclear disarmament.

Then you get to work as a 

"Back From the Brink" advocate.

This is how prayer works.

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Related post:

"To see the atom bomb museum," I said. And again I wondered, what can a child in Nagasaki think when they see a person from the US who has come here to see the atom bomb museum?

(See Encounter in Nagasaki )