Genesis 9:8-17; 1 Peter 3:18-22; February 18, 2024; First Sunday in Lent
Remember when you were a kid? The first time you saw it?
Maybe you were in the car with your mom, driving to some chore, searching for this item or that. The rain had just passed and the sun was creeping out from behind a cloud. And then your mom cried out, “look over there! No, to your right! Do you see it!?”
And then you did. And your eyes opened wide and you wondered how this could possibly be. An archway in the sky, stretching from some undefined point up high right down to the ground. But it wasn’t just any archway, something grey and concrete and manmade. No, this was a curved array, made up of red, and orange, and yellow, and green, and blue, and indigo, and violet.
And then immediately you asked your mom, wait, is this what I’ve seen on those cartoons? Is there a leprechaun hiding somewhere, and a pot of gold nearby? To which of course she said, “No, silly. Leprechaun’s aren’t real. And you still wouldn’t be rich.”
[Wait… you mean, that’s not how it went for all of you when you saw your first rainbow?]Well, of course, now, as adults, richer or poorer, rainbows are just a thing we’ve gotten used to. Something that we maybe get excited about when in the presence of kids, that is, if they’re lucky. But the wonder, and the mystery of it all, well, it’s just not as special as when we were younger. No, at least, not like that first time anyway…
But I’m here to tell you all today, that this old, jaded view of rainbows is plainly wrong. For rainbows are awesome. And they are even more awesome the more you know about them.
As Tani Schwartz-Herman writes in her Torah Commentary: “the colors of a rainbow are always present but are only revealed to us at particular times. A reminder that there is beauty everywhere; even if we don’t have the ability to see it. So, when we’re going through challenging times in our lives, when it seems like it’s raining every second of every day, we can yet trust that there is beauty out there, somewhere, ready to break through, the moment the sun starts shining.”
I love that… don’t you? That rainbows are an everyday reminder of what always exists, ready to break through, even if we can’t see it… Sounds a bit like God and God’s Kingdom, doesn’t it? …When did you last see a rainbow?
Schwartz-Herman continues, saying… “There are no loud sounds calling our attention to the rainbow, such as thunder. It doesn’t even appear immediately in our view—no, we need to look up and around and into the sky to see it. Perhaps then, assigning the rainbow as a covenant, is God’s way of calling upon us to be an active partner;” to look up, and out, and to seek out all the beauty in God’s creation which God has planted all around us, even in places beyond our view.
Even… in people beyond our view.
Those people, you know, who are beyond these walls. Those people, even, who are beyond this faith. Up, and out, and everywhere beyond our view, where the Spirit of God is at work in the world. And, especially with those people suffering in Israel and Gaza right now. With those people languishing in Ukraine right now, cut off from aid by a House here held hostage. With all those people who are right now facing bigotry, and racism, and sexism, and nationalism, and all those other isms where suffering is the calling card of those who wield power. To all of those people who are experiencing a flood from endless rainy days, they and we are told yet that God is there with us all. Always present, even if unseen, ready to break through, for God has made a covenant with all of us! With all of us. No matter our place, no matter our station.
It is written in our New Testament lesson this morning from 1 Peter that Christ suffered for all of our sins. For all of our sins. The righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring everyone back to this redeeming God. The righteous and the unrighteous together. Never forget that.
But 1 Peter goes even further to say that Christ makes a proclamation to those spirits who are in prison, to those who never obeyed or even ever knew God in the first place. For every soul then who has ever traveled or been born into this world, Christ came to love, and suffer, and rise, so that everyone who also suffers might also rise and love and live with him. This is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, my friends. Not some tokens or trophies or coins or crowns, but rather, the gold standard of unconditional love and amazing, uncontained, uncontrollable grace.
And this pot of gold, this covenant of grace, is not exactly new either. But has been around since the beginning of all time, since the very moment that God birthed life into the world; and then again when the covenant was re-established in those early days of Noah. Those days where God no longer found division between any living creature, but where all, even the little critters and the wildest of beasts, would be known as God’s own: as God’s created, as God’s children, equally loved and equally blessed; never to be cut down again, drowned, nor separated, but always to be bound and united together by the unifying work of the Spirit and the unyielding love of Jesus Christ.
Because that my friends, is just how God works! Isn’t it? In wonderful reversals and amazing renewals. Whereas where once water was an instrument of destruction and separation (from the days of the flood, and the Red Sea swallowing the Egyptians); in this renewed covenant, which was improved forevermore when John baptized Christ, water brings life to all, even rain to the bow, such that when the colors in the sky break out, they are now seen as the ultimate symbol of inclusion and peace.
My friends, we should all be flying our rainbow flags with pride. With joy, and with pride.
Before I end today (and yes, I preach short), I should say that the rainbow did not always carry with it this positive connotation.
Keshet, the word used in the biblical narrative for rainbow, is also the same word used elsewhere in scripture for bow and arrow. An instrument of death then. As Nahum Sarna writes, “our understanding of the rainbow as a covenant of life is a rather remarkable reversal, transforming that which was known to ancient Near Eastern traditions as a sign of war, military victory, and dominance, into a symbol of hope and reconciliation, such that nevermore will God bring chaos and death to creation, but instead, only peace, wonder, and life.”
My friends, even then in these long days that feel endlessly dark and stormy, where it feels like it’s always raining some horrible, awful, death-dealing news, we can yet trust that beauty is still out there, somewhere, and that God’s light and peace will ultimately shine as the sun begins to break through.
You might not see it today.
You might not see it tomorrow.
But hopefully one day soon, we will all look over to the right, and say… ah, yes, I can see it… there it is.
So let it be.
Amen.
