Covering Our Fathers

Noah: Eating the Fruit Again

This story seems to beckon us once more to return to the Garden of Eden, to reflect on the fallen nature of humankind. This is a story we like to skip over, because it makes us uncomfortable. It hits a little too close to home for many of us. It is, afterall, a story of how sin slips into the very structure of family relationships, and tears it all apart.

Noah, having walked with God, is placed in a renewed creation. The waters parted, dry land appeared, and God blessed Noah and the other ark-riders, “Be fruitful and multiply”. And so Noah, a man of the soil, plants a vineyard, a kind of garden. This story seems awfully familiar already, does it not? It is, nevertheless, a little hard to hear what happens next. Noah, who up until this point has been an exemplar of faith, a rightoeous man and blameless in his generation, takes the fruit he has grown, and eats. He becomes drunk and lies “uncovered” in his tent. Just as Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and knew that they were *naked*, so now Noah has become drunk from the fruit of the vine, and lies *naked*, exposed, guilty.

There’s nothing here to suggest that the drinking itself was bad. Noah started off doing the right thing. He was a *man of the soil*, just as God had created humans to be. He planted a garden and tended it, just as he was made to do. And this was not a forbidden tree that he ate of, it was not the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Nevertheless, humanity has an extraordinary ability to take the good creation God has gifted to us, and to find ways to twist and distort it for evil. In a sense, Noah here is fulfilling Lamech’s prayer that he would “bring relief from our work and the toil of our hands”. There’s no doubt that, for many, alcohol does bring relief, relaxation, and *rest* at the end of a long day. Yet, as many of us may know painfully well, when taken in excess, alcohol can utterly destroy a person, and even families. Noah was not wrong in planting a garden, or growing a vineyard, or even in drinking. It was in his excess that Noah sinned. He became so drunk that he was not in his right mind anymore: he strippe naked and fell out inside of his tent.

Ham’s Sin

And in walked his son, Ham. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.” Noah’s drunkeness, Noah’s sin, has now opened the door for his *son* to sin. Noah’s sin was not isolated, it was not individual, it had an effect on the people around him.

So what is going on with Ham? What is the big deal here? Some scholars have suggested that Ham seeing “his father’s nakedness” might be suggesting more than what is explicitly stated here. In Leviticus, for example, to “see your father’s nakedness” can mean to sleep with your father’s wife, that is, your mother. That’s one possibility of what’s happening here, however, I think that is reading too much into the text. The context, especially Shem and Japheth’s response to Ham’s sin, seems to indicate that the passage is saying precisely what it wants to: Ham looked into Noah’s tent, saw him lying naked and drunk, and told his two brothers what he saw.

So why would this be such a big deal? This passage makes a lot more sense when we understand that the authors of the bible, much like Mulan, lived in an Honor/Shame culture. The word for “nakedness”, ervah, is often strongly associated with shame. It was shameful to be seen naked, it was shameful to be seen drunk. It brought great dishonor on your whole family, on you, and dishonor on your cow.

Even so, it was not *seeing* the shame of his father that was Ham’s sin. It was revealing his shame to the whole world outside the tent. It was exposing the shame of Noah to his two brothers, and thereby bringing even more shame onto his father. The Hebrew shows that this isn’t just “telling” his two brothers what he had seen, it is inviting them to see Noah’s shame as well.

Shem and Japheth: Covering Nakedness

But Shem and Japheth will do no such thing. Instead, they turn their backs to the tent, and go so far as to walk backwards towards their father with a blanket to cover his shame. By doing this, Shem Japheth aren’t *ignoring* what their father has done. They aren’t trying to tunr a blind eye to the sin and shame of their father. They are, however, refusing to perpetuate that shame. Unlike Ham, they refuse to spread that shame out to the rest of the world. And, in doing so, their honor covers their father’s shame. They take action to repair the damage their father has done.

And in doing this, they uphold the law that is yet to come, to “Honor thy Father and Mother”. This fifth commandment is one we often use to make our children behave. The way we read it, we equate “honor” with “obedience”. Sometimes, that might be the case. But Honor is *not* always the same as obedience. In an Honor/Shame culture like the one found in scripture, to “honor” someone means to make their name and reputation great. It means to act in such a way towards a person so that other people will think more highly of them. The same is true of this command, to “Honor thy father and mother”. Sometimes, being obedient may in fact bring about great *shame* on your parents. They may request us to do something that is unwise or even *immoral*. In the case of Shem and Japheth, at least, honoring their father had very little to do with obedience, because Noah was too drunk to make any demands of them! In fact, honoring Noah, for these two brothers, first meant that they had to recognize the poor state that he was in. It meant that they had to come to terms with the fact that their father was a drunkard, that he was lying naked in his tent, and that he had brought shame on himself, and that he was incapable of helping himself. It was only in recognizing the shame of Noah, their father, that Shem and Japheth were able to respond in a way so as to honor him.

So they “covered” Noah’s shame with their honor. They did not repeat the mistakes their father had made, but instead acted righteously so as to repair the damage their father had done. They saw Noah’s need, and they chose to meet that need. In this way, Shem and Japheth are imitating the character of God. When Adam and Eve were naked in the garden, God covered them with animal skins. Likewise, when their father was naked and ashamed, Shem and Japheth covered their father. Sometimes, then, to “honor” mother father might mean *not* following in their footsteps. It might mean recognizing their need, their desparation, or even their sinfulness, and working to repair the damage wrought by their sin, or even just their humanity.

Jesus: Covering Nakedness

This is, afterall, precisely what Jesus has done for us. Seeing the nakedness, the shame, the great dishonor of humanity, Christ came down to take that shame upon himself, and in doing so, to honor us. The author of Hebrews says:

“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,

or mortals, that you care for them?

7 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;

you have crowned them with glory and honor,

8 subjecting all things under their feet.”

Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, 9 but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Jesus endured the shame of the cross. He took on the consequences of *our* sins, of *our* evil, he took on *our* shame, in order that we might recieve glory and honor.

Honoring our Ancestors

So, just as Jesus honored us by taking on our shame, we are called to model the love he had for us in our own family relationships. Not only with our mothers and fathers, but also with our children, our grandparents, our aunts and uncles, and with our brohters and sisters in Christ. We are to follow Christ into the shame of those around us, and, taking it upon ourselves, to cover their shame with our honor, which we recieved from Christ. As we recognize the sins and shame of those around us, like Shem and Japheth, we allow our righteousness and honor to cover the shame. When we see our father has a drinking problem, we not only seek to get him help, but we may even be called to go so far as to speak out against the misuse of alcohol in general. We might seek to support programs like AA, or even to become workers in an AA program ourself, so that our honor might cover their shame, so that we might fix the damage done. In recognizing our grandmother was harsh and abusive in raising her children, we might not only console our parents, who had to suffer that abuse, but we might also speak out against child abuse, to do everything in our power to prevent such abuse from happening again, maybe even starting or joining a foundation that works to prevent child neglect and abuse, so that our honor covers their shame, so that we might fix the damage that was done.

Honoring our parents may not always look like recognizing their sin, either. It may look like seeing our parents, in their old age, unable to care for themselves. So we take it upon ourselves to wash them, to clean their home, to pick up the groceries, or to hire professional help to support them in their old age. So that our honor covers their shame, and so that we prevent or repair the damage that might be done.

Notice that this has very little to do with “obedience” to our parents. If it has anything to do with obedience at all, it is obedience to God, obedience to our Lord and Savior who calls us to immitate his self giving example. And this is, perhaps, where the Bible might offer a critique of honor/shame culture. “Honor your mother and father” may not always mean bringing them honor in the eyes of men. After all, the cross was a terrible and shameful thing. Mary gained no honor by having her son crucified. And yet, she was greatly honored in the eyes of heaven. Likewise, we should not seek to bring earthly honor to our parents, but honor from our Father in heaven.

Curses

What if we don’t, though? What if, in seeing the shame of our parents, we immitate Ham? We go out, and reveal that shame to the world? What if, when we see our father has an alcohol problem, we announce it to the world that he’s a drunk? We kick him while he’s down? We do nothing to help him? Or, even worse, we perpetuate the same drunkeness, and invite that brokeness into our own lives and families?

I grew up in Mississippi. When I was in school, the Civil War, slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement were all taught in schools. Only, my teachers didn’t tell me the truth, or they tried to cover it up. We very breifly skimmed over slavery. The daily tortures, the brutality of the Southern plantations, was barely mentioned, if at all. I was taught that the Civil War was about state’s rights, and slavery had nothing to do with it. I was taught about Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., but no one bothered to mention that the rest of Mississippi hated the man, that we attacked him with bombs, that we sent dogs after black children, that we mutilated Emmett Till, a young black boy, by shoving him through a cotton mill. No one wanted to tell me that the Mississippi state flag, and the numerous confederate statues dotting the cities in Mississippi, were put there by Klansmen in hopes that they would scare off or intimidate the black people. No one wanted to mention that many of our State monuments, buildings, and parks, like the Ross Barnett Reservoir, were named after some of the most vile and racist politicians who did untold harm to the African Americans living in Mississippi. And no one wanted to bring up the fact that many African Americans still live in despair and poverty in Mississippi today because of how we underfund their schools, we still segregate towns and attempt to keep black people from moving into white neighborhoods, and institute laws and regulations designed to prevent minorities from voting.

I understand why no one told me these things. It’s because many of the Klansmen and racist politicians that did these things were our grandparents and great grandparents, our aunts, our uncles. The people who did all of this harm, who participated in such evil, were the family members we loved so much. The people we desparately wanted to remember fondly. But by covering up their sin, we have not brought honor to our ancestors, we have only perpetuated and multiplied their shame.

It can be very, very hard to recognize that those we love are less than perfect, to see that they were sinners just like we are. It can be very hard to confront the damage those we love have brought about, to see the kind of hurt and pain they caused. It’s even hard just realizing that they’re human, that they’re getting old and can’t do the things they used to be able to, to recognize that they need help. But if we don’t cover their shame, and instead attempt to cover up their shame, we do them a great disservice. It’s hard because it means doing away with the rose tinted portrait of them we want to cling to. It’s hard because it calls us to step up and take action to cover for our parents, or uncles, or whoever it might be. But the first step to glory, is to see our shame. The first step to honoring our parents, is to recognize their need to be honored. Could you imagine if God had looked at his creation and simply ignored what we had done? “Oh, these are my little babies! They haven’t done anything wrong, they’re just fine!” Could you imagine if God had attempted to cover up instead of covering our sin? What a mess we would be in. But praise be to God, he did not turn a blind eye. He recognized that we had messed up, that our shame needed to be covered by honor.