What is so special about Rainbows

February 21, 2021 First Sunday of Lent Genesis 9:8-17 What’s so special about rainbows? Year B Opening Song Call to Worship (Psalm 25) We trust in you, O God, for you are faithful. Show us your ways and teach us your paths. We wait for you. Lead us in your paths of truth. Do not remember our failures. Out of your merciful grace, forgive us. You are faithful, O God. Your love is steadfast. We lift up our souls to you, and praise you always. Welcome Opening Prayer The season of Lent is here again and, as with so many times before, we find that we are not really ready for this journey of discipleship. So many things claim our lives and prevent us from being ready to take the steps in faith. As we look at our barrier of readiness, help us to remember that Christ is with us, every step of the way. We are not alone. Christ will help lift our hearts and spirits and direct our paths. Enable us, loving Savior, to take this journey of faith to new life with you. AMEN. Stewardship Moment As we begin this Lenten season, we have a golden opportunity to use these weeks to re-order our priorities. As a congregation, we’re enthusiastic about ________________________ (name your particular focus). If you don’t have something already in place, consider making copies of the Simple Living/Alternatives calendar (from above) available, with encouragement for each person to creatively use a few minutes every day to focus on this daily stewardship. Prayer of Thanksgiving We are called to share the gifts God has given to us with the people of God. So in this Lenten season, let us offer what we have for our neighbors (both near and far), and for building up the Realm of God on earth. God of mercy and grace, thank you for this time of sharing our gifts and resources while we mark this season’s beginning. May your Realm continue to come near even as we daily seek to repent and believe in the good news which Jesus proclaimed. AMEN Offertory Prayer Righteous God, we mark these early days in the Lenten journey with reminders of your covenant with your people. In your judgement, you sent upon creation the great flood – yet you saved a faithful remnant. You followed with a covenant not to use the flood again. As we prepare to offer our gifts to you, we are reminded that we have been spared from judgment by the one, your son, our Savior, who took on our guilt and bore our judgement. May gratitude for his sacrifice move us to offer not only money, but our whole being. In Christ, we pray. Amen. (Genesis 9:8-17) Special Music Scripture Genesis 9:8-17 Common English Bible 8 God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “I am now setting up my covenant with you, with your descendants, 10 and with every living being with you—with the birds, with the large animals, and with all the animals of the earth, leaving the ark with you.[a] 11 I will set up my covenant with you so that never again will all life be cut off by floodwaters. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. 16 The bow will be in the clouds, and upon seeing it I will remember the enduring covenant between God and every living being of all the earth’s creatures.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I have set up between me and all creatures on earth.” Sermon – What’s So Special about Rainbows? 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. Last week we heard of the Chariot of Fire – a sign of destruction used in war. This week we hear of the bow. The bow was a sign of his strength and his ability to defeat others. In every generation, there is an indestructible weapon used to show God’s favor for those on his side. Thor had his hammer, Zeus had a thunder bolt, Poseidon had his trident, King Arthur had a sword, even cupid had his bow and arrow Now we have crosses and rainbows to fight our battles. 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. 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. No one has ever made it to the end of the rainbow. And if they did, the leprechaun’s job is to trick you into giving it up and forgetting you ever found it. 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. 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. We are about to enter a season where we will see a lot of water, so there will be a lot of rainbows. Rainbows are our chance to remember the promises of God: I will be with you, I will make you a people, I will give you salvation, I will hear your prayers, I will give you strength, and the list goes on. My cousin says that God’s promise to her was that there will never be a mouse in her house. A 7 year old was kidnapped, but the boy kept singing gospel music so the kidnapper released the boy. The mother was overjoyed, she said God promised to never forsake her. What promises has God made in your life? Lent is a time to reflect on the promises of God that sustain us. But we also have to remember that the covenant of God goes both ways. What promises have we made to God? The power of a promise. Some of you know about the power of a promise kept. You saw it in your parents’ marriage. You’ve seen it in your own spouse. You’ve seen it in the faithfulness of good friends. Some of you have experienced it in those dark hours when you most needed God’s power and you discovered God was there. God is a promise keeper. Willie’s mother was right when Willie was returned to her unharmed. God keeps His promises. And He doesn’t need a rainbow to remind Him of His promise: “I will never forget you nor forsake you. I am Abba, Daddy, and I love you more than any earthly parent ever could.” That is what the cross is all about. The rainbow may be a reminder to God, but the cross is the reminder to us that God so loved the world that He gave His son for us. Prolific author Lewis Smedes once wrote something that ought to be engraved on every Christian’s heart. It goes like this: “Somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God. “What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty. When you make a promise, you take a hand in creating your own future.” (4) What are the promises you have made in your life? Have you kept them? If you haven’t God’s grace is sufficient for you. That is His promise and that promise will never fail. But I hope you are working on being a promise-keeper, just as God is a promise-keeper. I guarantee you that if you will, the world will be better for it. Prayer of Confession We have lists of things to do, for all the areas of our lives. Our lives are so time bound and duty bound that we feel imprisoned in them. Now we are challenged by Christ to take a journey of discipleship. We don't feel ready for this journey. We need more time. And we complain and cry about how much we have to do. Forgive us, Lord, when we place so many "duties" in the path to serving you. Reset our priorities so that we will be ready to commit our lives in your service. Lord, help us to be ready when you call us. Help us to courageously answer the summons you bring. Let us place our trust in you in all things. AMEN. Assurance of Pardon Loving, Creating God, you are in covenant with your people. You have pledged to be our God and ask us to be your people, trusting in you in all our ways. But we find many excuses to prevent us from really trusting you. We erect barriers before our faith journey even begins. Our time, obligations, energy, all become part of the bricks and mortar which fashion this barrier. We can give lip service to the journey; we can daydream about what it would be like to truly place our hands in yours and follow you. But when it comes to actually making the journey, our time constraints and weak commitments loom largely before us. Help us to tear down this barrier. Make us ready for the journey by replacing the fear in our hearts with a sense of joy and challenge of self-discovery and discipleship. Remind us that in service to you, helping others, we will also find our selves made more fully whole. As we have spoken the names of our friends, and family members, and others situations in which healing and comfort are needed, let us remember that we, too, stand in need of prayer and healing. Make us ready to receive your good news and then to be witnesses to your love to all your people. AMEN. Song of Reflection Blessed Assurance UMH 369 Announcements Benediction The first step on the journey, that of readiness, is one of the hardest. We keep thinking that we have forgotten something. God has called you by name, to this journey. You will have all that you need. Go in peace, and know that God is going with you. AMEN. Children’s Sermon Object: Ribbons tied into bows. Lesson: Covenant; God's care. This morning I need all of you to help me understand a verse of scripture. It's from the ninth chapter of Genesis, verse 13. It says, I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When God said to Noah, "I have set my bow in the clouds," what kind of 'bow' did God mean? Was it the kind of bow you shoot arrows with? The eight girls and one small boy seated on the chancel steps grin at my silliness and shake their heads to indicate no. Was it the kind of bow some folks wear in their hair, like these? I point to the pink ribbons I've tied to the ends of my braids for this discussion. Again the heads shake no, while some of the children say, "No!" with a giggle attached. Was it the kind of bow Stephanie has tied in her shoelaces? The children now eye Stephanie's feet, then assure me it wasn't that kind of bow either. No? You all keep saying, 'No!' Well, then, what kind of bow was it? A rainbow!" says one little girl triumphantly. Why did God set a rainbow in the clouds? I'll give you a hint -- it was after forty days and nights of rain. To let Noah know the rain had stopped?" one of the children states with a question in her voice. "Yes, and to let Noah know that never again would God destroy everything on the earth with a flood. The rainbow was the sign of an agreement between God and all of creation, a sign that said, 'I will remember my agreement with you whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, because I love you.' It rained on Friday. Did anyone see a rainbow that day? No? Why not? Did the sun ever come out on Friday?" Several children shake their heads indicating a negative response. "The sun never came out on Friday. The sky was cloudy all day, from before the sun came up until after the sun went down. Does that give you a hint about why there were no rainbows?" "Because there was no sun?" comes a tentative, questioning response. Right, because there was no sun! We have to have sunlight in order to have rainbows. Do any of you know what clouds are made of? I ask with an abrupt change of direction. "Rain!" says one of the children emphatically. Yes, I agree, clouds are made up of little drops of water. And when the sunlight shines though them what do we get? "A rainbow!" several of the children declare. That's right. Now, who made the sun, and the clouds, and the rain, and all of creation? "God did," they answer. So, if we have to have sunlight and droplets of water to make rainbows and God made the sun and the rain, I guess it must be God who makes rainbows, just as we read in the verse from Genesis. Now, once again, what is the rainbow a sign of? "God's agreement with Noah?" Yes, but not just with Noah. It's a sign of God's agreement or covenant with every living creature on the earth. It's a sign God made to remind all of us that never again would God destroy everything with a flood. And it is one of the many ways God has of saying, 'I made you and I love you.' CSS Publishing Company, Inc, Cows In Church, by B. Kathleen Fannin Additional Illustrations