Genesis 9:8-17
Lent 1 – Year B
Often Lent comes in a negative fashion – we see what we need to give up to be prepared to move on. Sometimes we need an incentive or a picture to move toward rather than a present to move away from. A Rainbow Sign is one way in which we are encouraged to keep making one more incremental changes that we need to make.
Let us count the ways in which we shall not die. By water (rainbow) and word (resurrection).
Let us count the ways in which we shall die. Too many to count.
While in the midst of death, may we experience that which brings life.
Rainbows take a moment of light in the presence of suspended water and diffract such light into many lights. From one comes many. When we have our rainbow lenses in place we find our own life and that of others to be scattering many-hued evidences of opportunity. When we have our reverse-rainbow lenses on we try, ultimately unsuccessfully, to bring all those colors back to one (our own), as though life does not advance into the joy of greater complexity.
When the word of resurrection hits us, it blossoms this way and that. We receive the Roy G. Biv Award for living as though we will not die. Not risk-free but freely risking death for the sake of better living through resurrection.
When we catch sight of a rainbow we remember an ancient promise to honor the image of G*D that is our self and that is another. In so honoring we recognize our part in the flood of war and pain in the world and promise to no longer participate in it.
Of course this resolution falls apart pretty quickly with the slavery image and blame and castigation of Ham for something over which he had no control. It further falls apart with Babel and the setting loose of a rainbow of languages but not a concomitant gift of listening to such a rainbow.
When the story picks up one rainbow strand, that of Abram and Sarai, it finds, again and again, a holographic image of all within the one. Likewise, when we pick up one strand of Jesus and find a holographic image of all. Within the particulars, at their and our best, we find a rainbow of the rest of the stories of life. May the whole rainbow be found within your one part of the spectrum - a rainbow within a rainbow that heralds better things to come.
- - - - - - -
One of our faithful readers, Katherine Hawker, adds to this posting:
I'm captivated by the bow. Steve Patterson suggests that God hangs up the weapon, inverted and useless. This is a people who have been at war with God and lost (flood, et al). Now they see God disowning the instruments of war. What does it mean when a people recognize that they are no longer at war with God? Does this enable us to make peace with one another?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/march2003.html
Covenants change. A prior covenant had folks being vegetarians. Here the covenant shifts to that of our being omnivorous (vs 3). This leads to a trick covenant. God covenants with all living things not to drown them out again (maybe a fire next time, but not a flood). Instead we can do one another in. Humans can eat enough chickens that it becomes a commercial enterprise with only a bottom line to care for, not the care of chickens that their legs be strong enough to hold them up before they are slaughtered. Chickens are slyer than they look. They can't battle themselves out of cages but they can sneak a bird flu through the bar to do in their tormenters. The next generation of chickens may well be truly free-range.
When was the last time you connected the rainbow with Gaea setting things right, providing justice for chickens?
The rainbow is a covenant to fast from flooding. Made in G*D’s image we, too, are to fast from flooding others out when they don’t measure up to our desires. What is a positive corollary to the rainbow? What are we fasting toward here? Has the prettiness/form of the rainbow obscured its result of watering down a prior covenant? Is this an early example of fooling us with forms/titles like Healthy Forests so old growth forests can be cut, Clear Skies to allow more pollution of the air, and Iraqi Freedom to preemptively destroy the infrastructure of another nation?
What disingenuous language is going on in your congregation and how might it be brought to light?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/march2006.html
For many the radio stimulates the imagination more than does television. This is in part the way we receive the two senses. The wilderness temptation of Jesus has overtones of G*D’s temptation before the flood to take things in his own hands and destroy the temptation. Mark’s radio silence on the temptations brings more possibilities to mind than the traditional three television scenes in Matthew and Luke. Mark also reminds us that this was not Jesus and Satan, mano a mano, but Jesus attended by angels even during temptation (not just to soothe afterward).
If so attended, what does this do to the hunger and jumping off temptations mentioned elsewhere?
A connection with angels connects us with time beyond ourselves (you may want to refresh your reading of some of Madeline L'Engle’s supposed children's books - her Wrinkle in Time series).
If we are connected beyond one current time, we might begin to wonder about Christ suffering once and salvation through water (Noah and baptism) as singular events.
During Lent we may wonder about what it means to be a sign of reconciliation between G*D and creation. Whether that is a one-time sign or repeated, it is a lifting of soul - ours and many. One sign is not shying away from temptations that we might slyly defeat them through avoidance, getting overly busy with something else, or nit-picking the language of the temptation.
- - - - - - -
it has been said
we are built to buffer bad news
defense mechanisms are a gift from Godtrying to make bad news Not True
requires a special attitude
this-isn't-happening-to-menow comes an intriguing question
can even this situation be turned around?
facing it is a first step to saying Yes[this fragment is based on a bit of Unbinding the Gospel, by Ched Meyers, pages 24-25]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
What do you use as a sign of a covenant between yourself and the rest of creation? G*D copyrighted the rainbow for universal covenanting purposes. This still leaves lots of other ways in which you can remind yourself that (positively) you are tied in with everything and that (negatively) you will refrain from being destructive.
My “Camping” model Swiss Army Knife does some of that for me. It reminds me of when G*D tented among us, my enjoyment of living creatures in their element, and tinkering with things to get them back to usefulness. I expect that won’t do it for you, so what is your covenantal sign with the rest of creation?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
Hooray for light - a sign of connection with dark and all creation.
Hooray for rainbows - signs of light under particular conditions. In the midst of some storms we are connected with the storm and all through a rainbow sign. Other storms, without a visible rainbow, bring forest fires and tornadoes that raise questions about a distinction between destroying all flesh and the destruction of particular flesh.
Hooray for no light or otherwise mediated light - a sign present in no sign.
A sign of ashes or rainbows will at some time come up short. Will a promised fire next time also come up short? We either have an understanding of being a part of all that is, or we don’t. This goes beyond a sign or any other attempt at proof.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/genesis-98-17.html