Saturday, February 21, 2015

First Sunday in Lent--Rainbow Time

photo by Mikey G  Ottawa / flickr
"It is up to God 
  to make 
 something 
out of the mud
 and mess 
of the flood."
   
          --Will Willimon



Today we begin that long journey of Lent. For seven weeks we will plod along.

Thinking about the One who first took that journey to the Cross. Thinking about once upon a time when we said yes--and meant it with all our hearts. But then...life happened.

    Disappointments...
    Joys...
    Pains...
    Laughter...
    Sinning...
    Confessing...
    Sinning...
    Confessing...
    Enemies...
    Friends...   
    Defeats.
    Victories...
    Love...
    Peace...
    Grace...
    Grace...
    Grace...

The Genesis text for today is that old story of Noah and the ark. And the rain that came and came and came. And after forty days a dove flew back with an olive branch in her mouth. And Noah and his rag-tag family slowly, tentatively stepped out on dry land.
And so the old Negro Spiritual is right on target:

God put a rainbow in the sky,
    a rainbow in the sky,
    a rainbow in the sky.
  It looked like the sun 
    wasn’t gonna shine anymore,
  God put a rainbow in the sky!”

And so on this first Sunday of our Lenten journey it’s rainbow time. It’s hopeful time. It’s faith time. One of my favorite books is William Armstrong’s Through Troubled Waters. One day he and his wife had three little children and were happy with their lives. His wife went to the Doctor with a sharp pain. She never came back. And young Armstrong was left not only with his own terrible grief, but trying to comfort three children who missed their Mama night after night. So the book is his story of how the flood came and washed so much of his family’s life away. But he tells  how slowly, so slowly he thought it would never be any better—the water slowly, ever so slowly went down and his own particular dove came with an olive branch in her little hand—and life went on. And so his book’s title, Through Troubled Waters.

His family discovered, like Noah that God really does put a rainbow in our lives. Overarching it all—and that covers a whole lot of territory—there is this rainbow.

And as I begin my Lenten journey—I hope I can remember the rainbow, not only for these seven weeks but also in the days that follow.

 “When God shut Noah
     in the prayerful hour,
  God put a rainbow in the sky.
    the sun grew dim,
    and the day was dark.
 God put a rainbow in the sky.”

--flickr

--Roger Lovette  / rogerlovette.blogspot.com





No comments:

Post a Comment