So, what’s the advice we can glean from the story of Noah?
- Be kind – we ARE all in the same boat.
- Plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.
- Build your future on high ground.
- For safety's sake, travel in pairs.
- Remember that the ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic was built
- No matter how bleak it looks, there's always a rainbow on the
Ah, Rainbows! Who doesn’t love them?! “My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky ” William Wordsworth once wrote. It’s true. Rainbows make people stop in their tracks, even on a busy street. Our children’s artwork is full of them. Who hasn’t hummed along with Judy Garland’s “Somewhere over the Rainbow” when she reminds us: “Somewhere over the rainbow… skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.” Next month, as St. Patrick’s Day approaches, we will probably see colorful pictures of leprechauns chasing a rainbow to catch the pot of gold that legend tells us lies on the other side.
Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu, wrote a book called “The Rainbow People of God” uses the rainbow as a symbol of racial harmony and ethnic harmony. The rainbow flag is used as a symbol of pride and diversity within the Lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community. The rainbow appears in world-wide mythology, for example, Buddhists see the rainbow is "the highest state achievable before attaining Nirvana, where individual desire and consciousness are extinguished." Others see rainbows as “floating bridges to heaven” or a “Pathway of Souls.”
Pots of gold. Dreams coming true. A symbol of unity, diversity, spirituality, hope. No wonder the rainbow, or the bow, is a symbol of the first covenant established by God. In the Noah story, we find the first instance of the word “covenant.” In our passage alone, God mentions the word “Covenant” seven times. God wants to be clear. God is initiating a universal, unilateral agreement with all people, all animals, all of creation, for all times. No matter what we do or say, God will never again send a flood to cover the earth. And God set his bow, his rainbow, in the sky as a sign of his covenant.
It’s a beautiful concept. But honestly, what good has God’s promise done? Has it stopped people from being less wicked? Evil continued to flourish after Noah. God continued to make covenants. With Abraham and Sarah. With Moses and the people of Israel. With King David. God sent prophets. God allowed foreign conquest and exile to teach his people a lesson. But still violence was not blotted out from the human heart.
So instead of sending another flood, God sent Jesus. Jesus, like the rainbow after the storm, emerged from the waters of his baptism as the Covenant, made flesh. Just like the earth had its 40 days of rain, Jesus had his 40 days in the wilderness, tempted and tested.
At the risk of sounding trite -- Jesus is God’s rainbow. Remember the origin and divine function of the rainbow. The rainbow appears close to a storm. It emerges in precise relationship to the raindrops’ relationship to sunlight. And in the storms of evil and sin we continue to produce, Jesus refracts the light of God in the midst of it all. Never again, and so for that reason, Jesus went to the cross. Jesus took in his own body the violence and sin of humankind.
We are a Covenant people. As a result, we are also called to be the rainbow in the storm. So, the rainbow we are in the world is in direct relationship to God’s light in the midst of our trials. The rainbow is not cutesy symbol. The rainbow is as costly and painful as the cross. The rainbow is as potent as the empty grave.
This time of Lent is our 40 days, a time to be tested and tried, just like Jesus was. Now is the time to find out really what are our dreams and wishes as a people. Lent asks us: will we choose to master destructive powers? Will we hang up the bow? Will we choose the way of the cross, like Jesus did? We are tested like Jesus was, not as punishment -- but to awaken us to the path that Jesus took. To be God’s promise in the flesh. To incarnate, like Jesus did, the promise of the rainbow – in midst of the storm.
So, just as a raindrop refracts the sun’s light so that a rainbow appears, so we refract the light of God in the world. When we shine with the light of God, we are God’s living, walking rainbow on earth.
You have the power to be God’s living rainbow, by choosing to live the covenant of peace and reconciliation embodied in Jesus. We can choose not to destroy. We can choose to give up the power games. We can give up the fight. Hang up the bow. We can choose to refract the light of the Son of God.
Rainbow people of God, choose to be present in the storm of our world. Live in such a way that God’s light can refract through you.
Let us dare to be the people, a covenant people, a living holy rainbow, where dreams, that we dare to dream, really do come true. Amen.