Noah's Ark in Dordrecht, Holland

I went to go see the full-scale replica of Noah's Ark that someone built in Dordrecht, Holland.

Here is a picture I took of it:

It is a creation museum with a lot of exhibits directed to children.

I was curious about it and definitely more interested in seeing what a full-scale replica of Noah's Ark looked like in person.  It had a lot of exhibits on the Book of Genesis and the Bible.  I understand it had a bias towards a literal interpretation of Genesis as history.  I do not share this perspective, but it is their museum and they can design as they want to.

Likewise, I respect the magnitude of work involved in making it.

As far as the museum itself, I felt disappointed.  There also was nothing on environmental protection in the whole thing.  I find that sad because the story of Noah's Ark lends itself to discussing the state of the planet and nature.  The movie Evan Almighty picked up on this theme, whereas this big Noah's Ark replica and museum did not.

Yet, the exhibit designers felt it more important to talk about how humans and dinosaurs coexisted.  In all honesty, I found that disturbing.

Environmental stewardship is part of the Genesis story as well.  Genesis 2:15 states, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it."  Man's role in taking care of the planet should be taught to children.  If we are going to talk about Genesis, we cannot neglect this.  

Galatians 5 and 6 (reread)

I think it is hard to separate these two chapters from each other.  So, I will deal with them together.

Having discussed at length the nature of salvation through grace and not works, Paul turns to the responsibilities, manifestation, and benefits of the Christian life.  The common link is love.  Love of God and love of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Love transforms us.  It gives us joy and washes out our selfish desires that harm other people.

I think it is common to read the list the acts of sinful desires that appear in 5:19-21 as a checklist of things to avoid as a measure of salvation.  The danger I see in the checklist mentality is that people can replace circumcision as a precondition for salvation with this checklist of abstinence and restraint.  Either salvation comes from faith or it does not.  If salvation comes from faith, then we should not read into this a checklist of abstinence to earn salvation.

Another danger I see in this is that it tends to keep people out of church.  All too often, churches condition attendance of their church with certain lifestyle requirements, using lists like these.  It does not always happen explicitly.  It can be subtle and implicit.

I think it also is common to read them as a continuation of the "moral code" of the Old Testament into the New Testament era, whereas the ceremonial code is done away.  That logic bothers me for a number of reasons.  For starters, the Bible does not specify what exactly is "ceremonial" and what is "moral" of the Old Testament.  So, it becomes subjective to the reader.  But also if we consider Galatians 5:3, although the example is circumcision, but I think it stands for the notion that if we hold onto any part of the Old Testament law as applicable law, we need to do the entire law.

Another problem with that is that Christians mess up all the time.  They have fits of rage, factionalism, or envy, which are things mentioned to avoid.  But if the list is linked with salvation, then when they mess up, the Christian might feel unhappy, depressed, or question his or her salvation.

Here is my take on this checklist of acts of sinful desires that appears in Galatians 5.  I think they must be considered in light of the context of these two chapters.

For starters, yes, avoiding them becomes a "work" of human effort.  But we do not avoid them to earn salvation, lest we be able to boast.  We avoid them because the actions harm ourselves and  others around us.  If we sow them, we will reap destruction (6:8).

Paul contrasts these two with love and the Spirit.  Serve each other with love and love your neighbor as yourself.  (5:8-9).  Likewise, sow into the spirit and reap eternal life.  (6:8).  The specific examples of fruits of the spirit are tastes of life that God has in mind - love, joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  (5:22).

Note, this list of nine stand in direct opposition to the abstinence checklist earlier in the chapter.  Whereas the abstinence checklist can be summed up as selfishness and indulgence, these nine fruits are about love and self-control.  They are also considered "fruits", meaning that they do not develop overnight, but sprout out automatically, naturally, and over time.

I think this is the Christian walk and what Paul means.  By embracing the spirit and God's love, the fruits of joy, peace, and the like will emerge.  These fruits will drown out our desires to even do the acts of the sinful desires.  Thus, the measure of the Christian walk is not so much how well we avoid all the things in 5:19-21, but also how much joy, love, and other fruits we have.  For it is these, from the holy spirit, that will transform our hearts and how we inter-relate with the world,

A few other things stand out:

I wish [the circumcision advocates] would go emasculate themselves.  (5:12)

Ouch!

Burdens and loads (6:2 and 6:5)

 I have heard it from several sources that "burdens" as used is analogous to boulders whereas "loads" is analogous to small backpacks.  So, when we have major life events that are difficult to bare alone, we are to help each other.  In contrast, the daily activities and personal responsibilities of life, we should not be selfish and make others do what we should do.