The First Sunday of Lent, Year B

The Rainbow Connection

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. More importantly, it is a reminder to God of a promise made to humanity, a commitment to preserve the diversity of life.

In our baptism we became 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 in recent years – the tsunami, hurricane after hurricane, earthquakes and mudslides, devastating cold? So many deaths! Sometimes it seems as if God is unleashing terror on humanity, as if God is bent on destroying creation. And so I wonder sometimes if God is looking at the rainbow and weeping.

God’s promise to us is never to destroy creation. Can we make that same promise? Our generation as no other has the power to carry out that destruction. That same power gives us a new responsibility and vocation. 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 calls us to form and to paint the rainbow with God, to renew that rainbow connection. We are called to active peacemaking. We are called to be ark builders. We are called to be rainbow makers. We are called into a covenantal relationship with God.

In the Gospel there is 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 wilderness 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.

This parish is going through one of those rainbow times. Many of you were shocked and devastated at last week’s vestry to learn that the budget in its present form cannot support full time ministry. It is a time to make that connection to God, to draw closer to God and one another, and to make a commitment to the life of this parish. Much work has gone on over the past week by your leadership as they looked at possibilites. There is much more to do. But there is hope. It will take the time, talents and treasures of all of us. It will take prayer and commitment.

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 through the renewal of 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!