Sermons for the Month
The Rainbow Connection
DATE: March 9th 2003
SERVICE: First Sunday In Lent
TEXT: Genesis 9:8-17“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
You would have laughed had you come into my office on Tuesday morning. Coming from my computer on that day was a quivery, green voice singing about rainbows. Does anyone know who it was? Kermit the Frog, of course, of Muppet fame who some years ago proclaimed in song, "Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side? 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." Kermit was looking for something better, something beyond his current reality, as was Dorothy of Kansas and Oz who wanted to fly with the bluebirds over the rainbow. Remember? "Somewhere, over the rainbow, bluebirds fly…." She too wanted a rainbow connection. And I suppose we all want it, the promise of something better, something beautiful in our lives. How soon we forget that it is already ours'. As this Season of Lent begins our focus will be on that Rainbow Connection, that is on God's promise to us and our response to that promise. Today's first reading tells the end of an "oh so familiar" story that the children have helped us remember with that "The Lord said to Noah" song. You know … "The Lord said to Noah there's going to be a floody, floody…" and indeed it was true. It seems that the people who God created had forgotten their creator. In Chapter 6 of Genesis we read that "…every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually." And God was sorry he made people; it grieved him in his heart. The solution, then, was to blot out from the earth the people together with the animals and creeping things and birds of the air. BUT…and it's a big but … Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. Thus, to make a long story short, Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives boarded the Ark with a pair of each living creature. This is the point at which we can get bogged down in the details. What about the polar bears and penguins, how did they arrive and survive on the Ark? What about the smell? How could they stand it? Why didn't the lions eat the rabbits? My advice is, don't go there. Instead, think about the big picture. What we are being told here is that even though our Creator was grieved over the condition of the world and the people in it, and even though God had every right to destroy what God had brought into being, God did not do it. Instead, God opened the door for a new beginning. There are so many details we could focus on in the first part of Genesis 9, but today let's focus our attention on that new beginning, the promise - or covenant - that God made to Noah and to us. It's really an amazing thing. God says, "As for me, I am establishing my covenant…." In other words, the promises that are being made are initiated by God, and God set the terms. One of those terms is that the promise is being made not only to Noah and his contemporaries, but to all successive generations. And it's being made not just with people, but with all living creatures. Then, to top it all off, it's an unconditional covenant. In other words, we don't have to do anything to make it happen. And what was the covenant - the promise? We've heard it so many times that we don't consider the full meaning it carries. On the face of it, the promise of God was to never again destroy the earth by a flood. But I think there's more to it than that. I think this story is telling us that God's intention always is to save, to give life not to destroy. There always is the opportunity for a new beginning. The reminder of that is the rainbow. But who is the rainbow intended to remind? Did you listen carefully to the text? God says, "I have set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you…." Did you catch it? The rainbow reminds God of the promise. Even in the midst of great frustration over the wayward creation, the rainbow reminds God to continue giving life, hope and new beginnings. I'll never forget the words of a professor that I wish I had spoken, "The force of forgiveness is flung across heaven and earth in the rainbow's arc. Forgiveness is God's way." And if the rainbow was intended to remind God of that great truth, then the cross is our reminder. And that, my friends, is the Rainbow Connection. If I had the time and funds, I would have illustrated that Rainbow Connection in vivid ways. I would have asked people, led by the processional cross, to gracefully move among us, in and out of the pews and aisles waving scarves in rainbow hues. Or, I would have draped rainbow streamers from the cross, into the rafters and back down again so that they cascaded down among us. I would have painted a huge picture of the rainbow emanating from the cross and encasing us with its glow. And as the scarves brushed our faces or the streamers tickled our ears or we basked in the warm glow of rainbow colors the voice of God would have proclaimed a new beginning in the midst of our broken lives. We who, like the people of Noah's day, fall short of God's hopes and dreams for us; we who face loss, and disappointment, and confusion; we who often wander aimlessly in seemingly pointless lives would experience the rainbow, and the cross, and know that God's promise made to Noah and to us stands firm. Forgiveness, life, hope, new beginnings are God's way. We have found the Rainbow Connection. There it is … the cross … the continuation of God's intention always to save, to give life and new beginnings. As we walk with Jesus toward the cross in Lent we must consider what God's promise means to us. How does it change us? As disciples who are connected by the rainbow to the cross how do we bring the promise of new beginnings to others? There are many Kermits and Dorothys who are searching for it. "Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what's on the other side? 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." Kermit is right, it's not just a vision or an illusion, the rainbow connection is the real promise of God's love and of constant new beginnings. It is for all lovers and dreamers, indeed, it is for us. AMEN