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See this blog, at https://www.abccampus.ca/2021/06/09/baptism-as-sacrificial-worship/

https://glenelmadventblog.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/our-deepest-hope/

AND BEYOND THIS there lies in the ocean, turned towards the west and north, the island of Niatirb which Hecataeus indeed declares to be the same size and shape as Sicily, but it is larger, though in calling it triangular a man would not miss the mark. It is densely inhabited by men who wear clothes not very different from the other barbarians who occupy the north-western parts of Europe though they do not agree with them in language. These islanders, surpassing all the men of whom we know in patience and endurance, use the following customs.

In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound they have a great fes­tival which they call Exmas, and for fifty days they prepare for it in the fashion I shall describe. First of all, every citizen is obliged to send to each of his friends and relations a square piece of hard paper stamped with a picture, which in their speech is called an Exmas-card.. But the pictures represent birds sitting on branches, or trees with a dark green prickly leaf, or else men in such garments as the Niatirbians believe that their ancestors wore two hundred years ago riding in coaches such as their ancestors used, or houses with snow on their roofs. And the Niatirbians are unwilling to say what these pictures have to do with the festival, guarding (as I suppose) some sacred mystery. And because all men must send these cards the market-place is filled with the crowd of those buying them, so that there is great labour and weariness.

But having bought as many as they suppose to be sufficient, they return to their houses and find there the like cards which others have sent to them. And when they find cards from any to whom they also have sent cards, they throw them away and give thanks to the gods that this labour at least is over for another year. But when they find cards from any to whom they have not sent, then they beat their breasts and wail and utter curses against the sender; and, having suffi­ciently lamented their misfortune, they put on their boots again and go out into the fog and rain and buy a card for him also. And let this account suffice about Exmas-cards.

They also send gifts to one another, suffering the same things about the gifts as about the cards, or even worse. For every citizen has to guess the value of the gift which every friend will send to him so that he may send one of equal value, whether he can afford it or not. And they buy as gifts for one another such things as no man ever bought for himself. For the sellers, understanding the custom, put forth all kinds of trumpery, and whatever, being useless and ridiculous, they have been unable to sell throughout the year they now sell as an Exmas gift. And though the Niatirbians profess themselves to lack sufficient necessary things, such as metal, leather, wood and paper, yet an incredible quantity of these things is wasted every year, being made into the gifts.

But during these fifty days the oldest, poorest and most miserable of the citizens put on false beards and red robes and walk about the market-place; being disguised (in my opinion) as Cronos. And the sellers of gifts no less than the pur­chasers become pale and weary, because of the crowds and the fog, so that any man who came into a Niatirbian city at this season would think some great public calamity had fallen on Niatirb. This fifty days of preparation is called in their bar­barian speech the Exmas Rush.

But when the day of the festival comes, then most of the citizens, being exhausted with the Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much supper as on other days and, crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas they are very grave, being inter­nally disordered by the supper and the drinking and reckoning how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine. For wine is so dear among the Niatirbians that a man must swallow the worth of a talent before he is well intoxicated.

Such, then, are their customs about the Exmas. But the few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of the Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast. And in most of the temples they set out images of a fair woman with a new-born Child on her knees and certain animals and shepherds adoring the Child. (The reason of these images is given in a certain sacred story which I know but do not repeat.)

But I myself conversed with a priest in one of these temples and asked him why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas; for it appeared to me inconvenient. But the priest replied, It is not lawful, O Stranger, for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and the Rush dis­tract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left. And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, It is, O Stranger, a racket; using (as I suppose) the words of some oracle and speaking unintelligibly to me (for a racket is an instrument which the barbarians use in a game called tennis).

But what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, is not cred­ible. For first, the pictures which are stamped on the Exmas-cards have nothing to do with the sacred story which the priests tell about Crissmas. And secondly, the most part of the Niatirbians, not believing the religion of the few, nevertheless send the gifts and cards and participate in the Rush and drink, wearing paper cars. But it is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and great things in honour of a god they do not believe in. And now, enough about Niatirb.

C. S. Lewis

From The Collected Works of C. S. Lewis (New York: Inspirational Press, 1970), 505–06.

Are you tired of the back and forth on the Noah movie yet? I am. No, that’s not quite right. I was before it started. Most of what I have read runs along the lines of should we see it–no, I won’t–yes, I will–it does not follow the Bible–it brings in other traditions–an atheist made it–for crying out loud, it’s a movie–it’s too ecological, its too fanciful, ad infinitum. However, few have noted how much beside the point the whole debate actually is. And those in the debate are all really talking about much more than the merits of the movie. You might get the impression that future of civilization as we know it is at stake.

An analogy might be helpful. Imagine a group of kids playing marbles at the entrance of the Superdome in New Orleans just before a Saints game is about to begin. Further imagine that the kids are so intense in their game, that they are oblivious to what is going on around them–all those very loud Who Dats working their way around the kids playing marbles. Now allow me to stretch the image a bit more: the kids really believe there is only one big game and it is the one they are playing right now–their game of marbles! Of course, this is not likely to happen ever, nor should it really. But in a way it has.

Only a few weeks ago, a substantive movie won the Oscar for best picture, worthy of the amount of debate the Noah movie has received but unlike, the Noah movie, it is the real deal. Of course, I’m speaking of “Twelve Years a Slave,” the story of Solomon Northup. But it would appear that the frivolous movie and the flood of reviews it provoked overwhelmed the more substantial movie.

We could point to the respect for historicity (or at least respect for the narrative as Solomon told it) as one of the distinguishing features between the ways the two movies told their respective tales, but what I have in mind is much more important than this. Both movies are about sin, punishment, and the possibility of new beginnings. Both are about the human destruction of God’s creation.

However, the Northup story deserves far more attention from thoughtful Christians than the story of Noah as (mis)represented in the movie of Noah. All the debate in the world on the historicity of Noah, the reliability of the biblical story of Noah, or the proper way to read the Noah story is likely to change no one’s mind. And even if people do change their mind in either direction, either pro- or con about Noah, nothing substantive will have change in our world. At best, we are amusing ourselves to death, and, at worse, we are avoiding through our pseudo-intellectual debates, issues that actually require thoughtful Christian attention: how we treat others (or the other).

Almost biblical in his prophetic proclamation, the liberator of Solomon, in the book and the resulting movie, Samuel Bass, warns the obstinate master, Edwin Epps, thus: “There’s a sin, a fearful sin, resting on this nation, that will not go unpunished forever. There will be a reckoning yet—yes, Epps, there’s a day coming that will burn as an oven. It may be sooner or it may be later, but it’s a coming as sure as the Lord is just” (268 in the original 1853 ed.).

Frankly it is easier to talk about the historicity of the biblical text or how the movie misread the biblical story of Noah than it is to talk about the fearful sin, as Sam Bass called it, and its lasting consequences on the real world in which we live. So have we bound Solomon to set Noah free?