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The
First Sunday In Lent
Readings:
Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-9; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15 “Why
are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other
side?” sings Kermit the frog. “Rainbows
are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it.
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection, the lovers, the
dreamers and me,” the song goes on.
It is a truly heart-warming song, full of lovely sentiments.
Yet that rainbow connection of which it speaks is a connection
that has already been made, a connection between God and humanity.
For the rainbow is the symbol of the covenant between God, Noah
and his descendents. Today’s
Old Testament lesson makes that rainbow connection.
It
is a story of renewed relationship with God.
Humanity has brought judgement on itself by refusing to follow
God's ways and by working for its own selfish means.
But through Noah and his family God offers a new creation.
God makes a covenant with Noah that is extended to all of us.
It is a gracious gift of God on behalf of a world that did not
have to ask for it, or earn it, or even respond to it.
The rainbow becomes for all future generations a reminder of that
covenant. Through
our baptism we become people of the covenant, a covenant that
encompasses the death and resurrection of Christ.
Making
that connection in our own lives helps us to understand that God not
only creates us, but also enters into relationship with us.
It gives meaning and hope to our existence.
It is no mistake that a rainbow should make that connection for
us. A rainbow stretching
from one side of the horizon to the other is an amazing sight.
We need to rethink it as a symbol of our solidarity with God and
all of creation. It is an
intuitive association, in the realm of Kermit’s visionaries and
dreamers, which we would do well to reflect on.
At the same time, it raises some real questions in the Christian
about our relationship with God that need to be answered.
God’s
promise to Noah is never to destroy creation.
What does that speak to us in the light of the terrible
destruction we have witnessed over the past year – the tsunami,
hurricane after hurricane, earthquakes and mudslides?
So many deaths! Sometimes it seems as if God is unleashing terror
on humanity, as if God is bent on destroying creation. What
we often fail to acknowledge is that a covenant is a two-way agreement.
God’s promise to us is never again to destroy creation.
Can we make that same promise?
Our generation as no other has the power to carry out that
destruction. As if power is
not enough, our greed as consumers is destroying the earth and its
atmosphere. We hear every
day of new threats to the ecology.
It gives us a new responsibility, a new vocation as stewards of
God’s creation. We need,
more than any other time in history, to form a vital covenant between
God and us. We are called
to form and to paint the rainbow with God.
It is a call to stewardship of the earth’s resources.
It is a call to active peacemaking.
There
is in the Gospel another rainbow connection.
Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan River. As he comes out of the water the heavens are torn apart.
The Spirit descends like a dove on him.
A voice comes from Heaven. Like
the rainbow across the sky, a connection is made between earth and
heaven. God speaks.
“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
God is once again in full relationship with humanity.
The covenant is renewed. The
connection is made. And
once that connection is made, the Spirit takes over. Mark
simply tells us that the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness for
forty days. What
follows for Jesus is a time apart; a time of reflection, for
this deepening of his relationship with God marks the beginning of his
public life. It is for
Jesus as it would be for any of us, a time of decision, of pressure, of
anxiety. He faces all of that with a time of prayer and fasting.
We
all face such times in our lives. They
may be times of change and growth.
They may be times of disaster, or times of uncertainty.
They may even be times of great joy; the birth of a child; a
death in the family; moving to a new place; changing jobs; a time of
unemployment, sickness or retirement.
All are times of risk, times when we risk losing control, times
of fear, of vulnerability. And
all are opportunities to draw closer to God.
All are opportunities for spiritual growth and recommitment.
All are rainbow times. Lent
offers us such an opportunity to make some of those rainbow connections.
It is an opportunity to develop and rekindle our relationship
with God. For
Lent is a time of self-examination, of checking our focus, of sorting
our priorities. It is a
time to reflect on God's promises.
It is an opportunity to recognize our failure to live up to our
part of the relationship. It
is a time to begin anew, through repentance, through seeking God's
guidance, through struggle, through renewed commitment, through allowing
ourselves some time to make those rainbow connections.
We are called to be ark builders.
We are called to be rainbow makers.
We are called to live out our baptismal covenant. This Lent offers us an opportunity to reflect on God's promises and to renew our own commitment to God. We recognize our failure to live up to our part of the relationship. We seek God's guidance. We renew our commitment. Hopefully we begin to rely on God. May it be a time of renewal and hope for each one of us!
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