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Translating the TraditionSermons from St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church Author: Fr. Justin (Edward) Hewlett
Sermons and miscellaneous musings from St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church in Vancouver, BC, Canada - mostly by Fr. Justin Hewlett. translatingthetradition.substack.com Language: en Genres: Christianity, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The First Sin after the Flood
Monday, 23 March, 2026
So on this Wednesday of Great Lent, we’re given the story of Noah just after the flood to meditate on. The story is about the first recorded sin after the flood. Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth come out of the ark, and God blesses them. It then notes that Ham was the father of Canaan, and these three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. You have a brand new start where everything is clean, fresh, and literally cleansed. And here you have Noah and his three sons, and now the son of Ham, Canaan, and the first recorded sin after the flood. And Noah begins to be a farmer. And he planted a vineyard. And then he drank of the wine and was drunk and became uncovered in his tent.Causes of SinWe don’t know why or what was the cause or exactly what was the temptation for this particular sin. Whenever we think of alcohol and drunkenness nowadays, we tend to think of alcoholism and addiction. Not all sin is addiction, but all addiction is sin. As the Apostle Paul says, “All things are created good, but I will not be mastered by anything.” If we allow even good things like video games to master us, then they become for us something that takes us away from God and therefore is sin. It could be that Noah had a bit of an addiction and was waiting to get the first fruits of the harvest so that he could make some wine and just drank a little too much.Or maybe it was one of the more recent suggestions I’ve read: survivor’s guilt. He just survived an incredible catastrophe, and he and his family are the only human beings left alive; you might feel angry, bitter, or wrestle with “Why me?” Possibly then, instead of turning to God with that, he drowned his sorrows in alcohol.Perhaps even more likely, knowing myself the way I do, when God blesses, we have this tendency to take those blessings for granted. It’s like, “Wow, everything’s going great. Isn’t this wonderful? This is how things should be. They should always be this way.” And then as we think of those things separate from or apart from God, they become sin for us because they’re leading us away from that attitude of gratitude that is supposed to characterize our every interaction with this world that God has given us.Responses to SinWhatever the reason, Noah got drunk and was literally fall-down drunk in his tent, naked. Then, Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth [the other two brothers] took a garment, laid it on their shoulders, went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away and they did not see their father’s nakedness.One thing sin always does is expose our shame. As other people around us see what we’ve gotten ourselves into, they too see that shame. Then the question is, “How do we respond when we see that shame of sin?” It’s one thing when it’s us, but it’s quite another thing when it’s somebody else. We’re really good at judging. Because we, of course, never sin, and that other person over there, well, that’s just really shameful. That seems to be something along the lines of Ham’s response to his father’s nakedness. He goes to his brothers and says, “Wow, do you see what dad’s like? He’s just dropped down drunk in the tent over there.”But when Shem and Japheth hear this, they take a cloak, hold it between them, and walking backwards into the tent, cover their father’s nakedness so they can’t even see it. This speaks to us of our response, particularly to the sins of others. We can highlight it, point out the shamefulness of it, maybe even mock it and judge it. Or we can do everything in our power to cover for the person, to honor them in whatever way we are able to honor them, even in the midst of this failure of theirs. If we, like Shem and Japheth, are going to do this, we need to adopt a backwards approach—something that is maybe not quite natural to us—and backing up, cover up the failure of our brother or our sister. This is a better way.The Curse of Canaan and the Church FathersNow Noah wakes up from his drunkenness. And he knew what his younger son had done to him. And he says—and this is interesting, because as I was reading through some of the early fathers of the church, they’re just as confused about this as I am—“Cursed be Canaan.” Wait, what? “Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants, he shall be to his brethren.” I find it just a little bit heartening that some of the great fathers of the church are all like, “Hmm. This is kind of weird. Not sure what’s going on here.”My patron, St. Justin the Martyr and Philosopher, suggests that God did just bless them all as they came out of the ark, so maybe Noah didn’t want to overturn God’s blessing. St. John Chrysostom suggests that if you want to make a father really sad, you don’t curse him, you curse his children. I actually rather like St. Ephraim the Syrian’s version—or at least something he heard. He suggests that if you look at the story, you’ve got Shem and Ham and Japheth, and that’s always the order. So the traditional order would be the oldest is Shem, Ham would be second born, and Japheth would be third. But Noah wakes up and sees what his “youngest son” had done to him. Wait, that would be Japheth, wouldn’t it? Or, if you’re thinking about this in more Hebraic terms where you use terms like sons and brothers more loosely, it could be—St. Ephraim the Syrian says—that what he’s actually referring to is the youngest one who’s been named so far, which is his grandson, Canaan. So the speculation goes that quite possibly it was Canaan who saw and told his father, Ham, and then Ham said, “Oh man, we’ve got to tell Shem and Japheth about this.”Whatever the case, we don’t know, and sometimes it’s obscure and that’s okay. We don’t have to understand everything, but for us, I think the most important takeaway should simply be that we need to be on our guard.Be on GuardWe need to be on our guard against bitterness, anger, and addiction. That’s why we’re in the middle of Lent trying to disrupt those cycles somewhat. We need to be on guard against ingratitude and taking things for granted. And above all, we need to be on guard, especially during this period of Lent, against judging our brother or our sister.If we aren’t, there’s a curse. But if we are, there’s a blessing for us, because Noah then goes on to bless Shem and Japheth and all of their descendants. That blessing then carries forward through the Scriptures as God’s blessing carries forward in our lives as we seek him above all and in all and seek to glorify him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.Scripture readings referenced:* Genesis 9:18-10:1 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit translatingthetradition.substack.com
