This movie The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark made an impression on me as a boy.. An unemployed down-and-out pilot is offered a job to fly a cargo of animals to a remote Pacific island aboard a timeworn B-29 bomber. He is accompanied by a missionary, along with two children from her orphanage. The bomber goes off course for whatever reason, which forces a crash landing on an uncharted island.
Soon after they land, they run into two elderly Japanese holdout soldiers from World War II. They have lived alone on the island for 35 years. This first contact after so long is threatening. They still believe Japan is at war with the United States. When things get “heated” between the pilot and these elderly soldiers, the missionary becomes an ambassador. She is patient and kind, and where there was once outright hatred, both sides make up.
Differences were reconciled. Instead of being divided, they come together in a mutual spirit of closeness and support. They were able to resolve, where there was once hostility and hurt.
It made for a good story, because this isn’t just fiction. Conflict is rife within the world, and prevalent in all relationships. We have felt it, and it even seeps its way into God’s church. But thankfully this: “Christ [Jesus] reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that it, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
(2 Cor 5:18-19)
This is God’s will for us. To make amends, patch up and resolve – all who are estranged from God, and from each other. God came to this world to reconcile us to Himself through and in Christ Jesus. Through us, God’s Word and Spirit rises to the challenge in light of our worldly point of view.
How so? Each of us according to the flesh have a worldly point of view, wherein dwells a critical internal voice. Sometimes this voice is quite loud. Sometimes this voice is muffled. This voice evaluates every single person (ourselves included) according to a standard of acceptance.
This standard comes up with a value which measures worth. When we feel like a success, others don’t measure up as well as we do. That’s delusional pride. When we feel like a failure, we don’t measure up at all. That’s delusional despair. Either way, the critical internal voice tries to henpeck its way on top through the spoken voice: by blaming others, by putting down others, by gossiping about others. This is the fuel of antagonism that drives us apart, all because we KNOW we don’t measure up.
How is that sinful internal voice silenced? St. Paul wrote: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(2 Cor 5:17)”
Who you are (as a new creation) is the outcome of being transformed. Who you are in Christ Jesus comes first. What you do, in response, then follows by the sanctifying presence of the Spirit. When possessed by the Spirit that is like Jesus – you are pure, gentle, sane, wise, and loving.
In that movie, The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark, the old bomber aircraft becomes a means of escaping a deserted island. The senior aged Japanese soldiers convince the rest. Their only chance of survival is by leaving the island. The crashed bomber is flipped over, and fashioned to be a boat. That which once dropped bombs to kill life, now floats to save life.
Once floating, the group ventures to build a sail with whatever cloth is available. In a touching moment, the senior aged soldiers honourably step forward offering an unspoiled, unsoiled flag of the Japanese Empire. Again, the missionary turned ambassador, respects their sacrifice. She sews the flag on the uppermost part of the sail.
Following that example, where is God sending you to be an ambassador of reconciliation? Where can you sow peace where there is unrest?
We are the ongoing flight of Noah’s ark. We are sent to the uncharted life of any lost soul, stranded on the deserted island of sin and death, bearing the message of reconciliation. We are honored to be our Savior’s ambassadors, to save others from the ravages of their own destruction in pointing to Jesus. •
— By Pastor Neil Stern
Grace Lutheran Church, Edmonton