St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Year B ▪ February 21, 2021
Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15
Early in my ministry as a college chaplain at USF, I conducted a weekly Bible study with our group of students. Our scripture passage happened to be this morning’s Old Testament reading from Genesis. This group consisted of college students who had been formed in the Christian faith (who would have known the story of Noah’s arc, the great flood, and the rainbow from their childhood Sunday School years). The group also consisted of students who were led to explore scripture differently and those who had not previously engaged scripture at all.
When we read about God’s purpose for the rainbow, one student had an audible gasp, causing everyone to look up. As if blinders had been removed, the student with enthusiasm said, “Whoa! I never knew that. I’ve never heard that the rainbow is a sign of a promise that God made to us.”
Then, I said, to myself, “Whoa, look at the power of scripture to enlighten the minds and hearts of those willing to hear.” Having grown up in the church, I had taken the power of this scripture passage for granted. But that student’s epiphany inspired students, who knew the narrative, to engage with it differently, with the mature lenses of emerging adults, rather than with the eyes of Sunday School children. That student participated in more Bible studies; participated regularly in worship; and eventually became baptized. On a particular night, on a particular college campus, in the gathering of particular souls seeking God, the sacred and the secular collided so that we could experience the shared witness of God’s universal love and mercy for all—and it was an awe-inspiring sight to behold.
Our passage in the ninth chapter of Genesis emphasizes the creation and purpose of the awe-inspiring sight to behold, known to us as the rainbow, although it is not named as such in the passage. Recall that Noah’s family and the animals that Noah gathered into the arc, in obedience to God’s direction, were spared from death by flood. Today’s passage occurred in the time after the catastrophic destruction of the earth. In this post-flood passage, there is no dialogue; there is only God’s monologue directed to Noah and his sons. “…Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth,” said God (v.11).
While God’s declaration of his established covenant was spoken exclusively to Noah and his sons, his established covenant was inherently inclusive of all of God’s creation—humankind and every living creature of the earth. God’s sign of his eternal covenant was his bow set in the clouds. The bow, being the traditional image for war, had been transformed into God’s eternal sign of peace. The bow would forevermore be, “…A sign of the covenant between me and the earth,” said God (v.13).
This wording is significant because it emphasizes that the bow, set in the clouds, as beautiful as it may be for the human eye to behold, exists to serve God’s divine purpose, as a reminder to God of his life-preserving covenant with the earth. And, it also underscores the universal impact of God’s particular promise made once, for the restoration to wholeness of all of God’s creatures and for all of God’s creation.
The rainbow is, for people of faith, a powerful phenomenon that at once exists in both the cosmic and temporal planes. This scripture indicates that the bow set in the clouds is both seen by God and witnessed by humankind. The rainbow is merely one way in which God’s faithful people glimpse moments of the inbreaking of the divine into the mundane. When we witness rainbows, we witness them with great awe and reverence, as the boundaries between heaven and earth appear indistinguishable.
In our gospel passage in Mark, we witness such an inbreaking of the divine into the mundane when the boundaries between heaven and earth met in a holy collision after the human Jesus was baptized in the earthly element of water. Emerging from the water Jesus saw the heavens torn apart; watched the Spirit descend upon him; and heard the voice from heaven, “…You are my Son, the beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:11). Through our baptism into the death and resurrection of God’s beloved son, Jesus, the children of God are reminded that we, too, are his beloved.
As we journey through the wilderness of Lent, I invite you reflect upon the universal impact of God’s inbreaking into his creation in the particular person of Jesus Christ. Christ, fully divine and fully human, died on the cross once for all, so that all people might be restored to unity with God and all of creation through him.
Reflect upon your mission, as the body of Christ, to bring those who do not yet know Jesus to a knowledge of him. Do not assume that people, even faithful people, are able to engage scripture, or the symbols of the Christian faith, with lenses that reflect a mature faith, and not the immature lenses of childhood. Sometimes we need to re-evangelize the church. Point to moments of the inbreaking of the divine into the mundane that are happening all around us; witnessed by those who have the eyes to see; the ears to hear and the hearts to receive.
Perhaps you can share this Genesis story the next time a rainbow is witnessed in the company of others. Might you share the deep meaning of the cross when complimented on the cross worn around your neck. It is imperative that God’s faithful help those seeking God to witness his abiding presence in this created world, and God’s powerful movement within the created human beings.
God spoke to Noah and his sons in the post-flood world. We, too, live in the post-flood world, and God still speaks. What might God be trying to tell us in this world, currently ravaged by the pandemic of a death-dealing virus?
It is within the community of faith that signs, symbols and language, specific to our faith, find their meaning and are sources for meaning-making. Apart from the church, the rainbow, amongst myriad other things it is associated with, is nothing more than a magical roadmap to the earthly treasure of a pot of gold. Some people may assign “Taste the rainbow,” a catchy jingle for the popular candy, Skittles, to the heavenly phenomenon.
Our job is to share the biblical narratives, so that those who are unaware are not seeking to taste the rainbow, but hunger to taste the truth of God’s eternal mercy and unconditional love through Jesus Christ. Seek out the holy collisions of the divine and the mundane in the places where you show up in the world, with hopeful anticipation, of God’s awe-inspiring sights to behold.
Amen.
