When We See Rainbows

“What do we see when we see rainbows?”
Genesis 9:8-17
1 Peter 3:18-22
Year B
First Sunday of Lent

My favorite song about rainbows is the Muppet movie – where Kermit sings, why are there so many songs about rainbows. The rainbow connection is a wonderful song about love, beauty, and a belief that one day we will all live in harmony. I think that is what rainbows mean for many of us – harmony and living together.

And Kermit was singing a question that people have asked since the beginning of time. What is it that fascinate about us about rainbows. Almost every culture in the world has created songs and myths of why rainbows are in the sky.

The aboriginal people in Australia believe that in dream time – the time of the creation of the world- that the rainbow serpent created everything. The native Americans believe that the great father used a rainbow to create the world.

The canannites believed that the rainbow was a sign of war. The rainbow was God’s bow that he laid in the sky to signify that he was prepared to fight and that there would be war and fighting somewhere in the world.

Actually this is the story that Noah and his generation would have grown up with. Their God Yahweh was a war God, and he protected them by winning battles. The bow was a sign of his strength and his ability to defeat others.

Rainbows did not give you a warm fuzzy feeling of harmony – but it scared you, worried you . In those days,you took it as a sign that things were about to get serious. And you needed to be prepared.

Perhaps it was this feeling of something bad to come that made Noah start building the ark. We know the story from here – of Noah building the ark and gathering his family and all of the animals and sailing the world – as God destroyed everything in a great flood.

We tell that story on the first Sunday of lent because our theme for the next six weeks will be the promises of God. God made some very important promises to the fathers of faith in the Hebrew bible. His first promise to us was in the form of a rainbow.

I think it is interesting that the Noah story is in the book of Genesis. In the scheme of things, this is a part of the original creation story. As soon as the world was created and man came to understand their place in creation, man started to ruin creation with sin. Within a few years, man was out of control, doing what we wanted, destroying what we wanted, totally oblivious to ourselves and to the world and to the one who created us in God’s image.

Not knowing what else to do, but to kill us and start all over again. We get the story of Noah and the flood. Since this story has come up already twice in one year – I want to save this story to tell you for another time, but there is a wonderful midrash about Noah having to leave his friends behind, and crying as he had to watch them die in the flood, while he and his family was safe in the ark.

Obviously, after the flood was over, - Noah must have shared his grief with God. He must have defended his friends, even though they did not care about their relationship with God- they were still people, they still has a life, they still were wonderful friends, and they did not deserve to die – without a chance to know why they were being destroyed, and particularly without a chance to change.

God agreed – and put a rainbow in the sky – explaining that what was once an ominous sign – is now a sign of hope. God’s promise was not only to Noah, not only to people, it was a promise to all of creation. Scripture says “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and all your descendents after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals.

Speaking of rainbows, we have all heard that leprechauns had access the pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. I bet you didn’t know that the legend actually says that the only person who can get the gold at the end of the rainbow is a man in the nude. Not relevant to the story - but I thought it was a story that would wake you up.

But anyway – the big point of our scripture is that this promise is not just to us – to all flesh. God does not care about us, but about all of flesh.

Lent is about us learning to love the things that God loves, and getting in touch with all of life, to not be so concerned about our needs, but the needs of all of the things that are important to God.

I think that is the importance of this story of destruction being so close to the story of creation. The sin that God was concerned about eliminating was us developing our lives outside of nature. We have developed and eat foods which are made in a laboratory and not in the ground, we drive cars, and live in houses which are destroying the environment. We use everyday products with no regard for how others are affected by those products. I learned this year that there is a garbage heap the size of Texas swirling around in the Altantic Ocean – this heap is filled with water bottles and other debris that people just carelessly through away with no regard for where they end up.

How does God get our attention, and help us realize that our actions are wrong, hurtful and need to be changed? God’s first promise to all flesh was that we would never be destroyed for our wrongdoing.

Lent is a chance for us to think about our actions and how they affect others. A chance for us to put our relationship with God first again, and to remember to care about the things that God cares about. To think about how we are connected to all flesh, and all nature. And even in our modern day living - to take that relationship seriously.

God made a promise to us – what promises have we made to God in return.

On Ash Wednesday, I talked about lent in tough times. The economy is forcing many of us into a period of self denial and reflection already – that goes far beyond the 40 days of lent.

If we are in self denial – how to we impose even more self denial? Lent is about self denial – but it is also about relationship, about promises, about grace, and about our response to grace.

Lent is a promise that darkness will turn into light, that death will turn into life, that winter will turn into spring, that tough times will turn into happy times.

It is God’s ways of getting our attention, of reminding us that our lives have been spared, a request that when things finally do change, that you change too. It is God’s request that you not return to the old habits, the hurtful ways, the insensitivity to how you actions were affecting others. That when good times return – that you will be a better person because of it.

I don’t know what you have planned for the lent season- whatever you do – all God asks is that you learn something. Something about yourself, something about the world, something about God, Something about God’s plan for you.

My favorite rainbow story is the Norse belief that a rainbow is the bridge between heaven and earth. The only ones who can cross the bridge are the righteous. I also bet you didn’t know that no one can see the same rainbow. A rainbow – a reflection is only visible in the eye of the beholder – it is not something that you can reach out and touch in reality.

So the rainbow that I see if not the rainbow that you see – or you see. It is God’s gift to each of us, and God speaks to each of us in many different ways.
During this Lenten season – look for your rainbows, and know that God’s words for you are not far behind.

Let us pray….