The mystery of Noah, a pastor’s suicide, and the Mental Health Summit for clergy
Why would the famous story of Noah conclude with Noah lying in a tent next to his vineyard naked, drunk and completely unconscious? See Genesis 9:20-23. His son Ham discovered him and told his two brothers, Shem and Yafet, who covered their father with a robe as they looked away from Noah.
What does Noah do when he wakes up? He lashes out at his grandson Canaan for discovering him in his state, but praises his son Shem. The Torah concludes by simply saying Noah was 950 years old when he died.
How tragic that this devoted servant of God who performed courageous service by building God’s ark and protecting the animals and the existence of humankind would be portrayed as a naked and drunken man. Yet, the story simply ends with Noah lying naked in his tent drunk. Does this make sense?
Could Noah have been experiencing post traumatic stress syndrome from the catastrophe of the Flood? Scriptures say he became a farmer after the Flood and grew grapes for wine. Is it possible that it took him time to contemplate the enormity of the loss of life? Is it possible that he was experiencing severe depression from the events of the Flood? Finally, was this history’s first example of human burnout?
Noah is not a religious leader but the text says he was a righteous and decent man. Most importantly, he was human despite his special relationship with God, and vulnerable to the cataclysmic consequences of the Flood and the destruction it caused to the world. Does he deserve our compassion and understanding, even though he is found disrobed and intoxicated?
Wheaton College
Leaders of people, especially clergy, are subject to the same pressures and stresses that people in all other occupations experience. Clergy get depressed and clergy often live in an emotional state of isolation from those they serve. Their emotional distance from their parishioners is, in one respect, unavoidable in order to serve their congregants in difficult times. It is not surprising that the gradual impact of these stresses and strains will, at some point, erode their coping skills.
Religion News Service recently covered a conference sponsored at Wheaton College, a respected Christian evangelical college in Illinois. The conference was organized when a popular and respected pastor from California committed suicide. How can a pastor succumb to depression while serving his congregants? This led to the Mental Health Summit for clergy.
“Today, we join a conversation already in progress, often in the mental health community, but less so — and sometimes tragically so — the conversation has not yet made it into many of our churches,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Wheaton.
Four hundred Christian ministers participated and it was live-streamed to many more clergy and churches. The conference was called “Facing Hard Truths and Challenges of Pastoral Ministry.”
In addition, two verses from the Hebrew Bible formed the spiritual foundation of this summit: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Deuteronomy 6:5), and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18 and Mark 12:31 and Mathew 22:37-39).
Today’s clergy
The clear message is that clergy need to find ways to cope with profound emotional challenges, from a life of service to God and in their own personal lives. Congregations across the religious spectrum should be more proactive in supporting their clergy’s well-being.
How is it possible that clergy, who in many cases are honored and respected and too often put on a pedestal of prestige and communal respect for their skills and service, end up in deep depression and lose faith or hope in their own ability to stay above the suffering and personal losses and pressures of the clergy role?
Clergy have their own personal problems and the title of rabbi, imam, father or reverend does not exempt or shield them from the same kinds of afflictions of the soul that their congregants experience.
Was Noah overwhelmed with the enormity of the Flood experience and unable to cope any longer, even though he apparently lived a long life? We do not know if he recovered from his own melancholy.
What we do know is that today’s clergy, who embrace suffering in the lives of their congregants while contending with their own life issues, deserve the same amount of compassion and understanding from their community that is expected from them.
Rabbi Brad Bloom of Hilton Head Island writes commentary on matters of faith.