Looking Ahead to February 18, 2024 -- Lent 1B

This Sunday we begin the season of Lent and our journey toward cross and tomb.

The Scripture reading this week is Genesis 8:20-9:17 (we will also be using Psalm 25 as our Prayer for Grace)

The Sermon title is Promises Made

Early Thoughts: We are people bound together by promises and covenants. We are people bound to God by promises and covenants.

There is a lot that can be said about rainbows, both from a scientific and a metaphorical/symbolic point of view. This article is just one example, there are lots of others. Humans have used rainbows as a way to talk about many different things within different cultural settings. In recent North American history two that stand out are Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition and the Pride flag.

However in the Scriptures shared between Judaism and Christianity the rainbow is first and foremost a sign of God's promise. After the flood God repents over the destruction and promises to never do that again. The rainbow serves to remind humanity, and God, of that promise.

This covenant, one of many we find in Scripture, is mainly God making promises to humanity. There are few things being asked of humanity in return. Humans are again, as they were in the Creation story a few chapters earlier, given permission to eat of the flora and fauna of the world -- in fact here there are no limitations, Jewish kosher laws will come later. All that is called for from humans in this passage is to be careful about the spilling of blood. (I wonder how blood sausage/black pudding fits with this limitation?)

What does it tell us to be reminded that God has pledged never to cause such mass destruction again (I have always noted God says nothing about preventing humans from causing mass destruction)? What does it say about God that God, knowing that humanity will continue to miss the mark, is in it for the long haul?

More importantly, how could or should we respond to this promise? Will we say that we can do whatever we want or will we be humbled? 

Next time you see the bow in the clouds will you think of God's promise to not destroy the earth? Will you be reminded of the God who is in it for the long haul?
--Gord