Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17 (NRSV)
Floods, snowstorms, earthquakes and other natural disasters are no respecter of persons, flora or fauna. The innocent and guilty, young and old, saint and sinner, wild boar and pet dog, all and without distinction, get swept up in the floods of life. And yet, we all know that almost always there are the “lucky ones” who escape with life and limb. For the survivors, life begins anew.
The Bible’s flood story invites us to consider both sides of natural disasters, or, as they are sometimes called, “acts of God.” What does it mean when we happen to be among those protected in the ark? Or among those who, indiscriminately, perish? The biblical writer, at first, argues that the flood was due to the fact that “the wickedness of humans was great on the earth and the inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually” (Gen. 6:5). Later, the writer, using identical language, argues that the survivors after the flood were, in the end, just as corrupt as those annihilated by the flood (8:21). In an upside down and inside out sort of way, the survivor most changed by the flood seems to be God. In a beautiful spirit of divine contrition, God promises never to resort to such an all-consuming act of punishment ever again (9:11). God decides to make a new covenant with Noah and his family, with all creatures great and small, and with all future generations, too (9:12). Thousands of generations later, St. Peter suggests that God remained consistent with God’s forgiving, expansive, all-encompassing covenant with Noah and all creatures of the earth by offering an even more sweeping covenant through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (1 Pet. 3:18-22).
The rainbow rising from the flood, then or now, sky-writes a sign of permanent warning that to blame victims of natural disasters as somehow deserving of their fate slanders “the everlasting covenant” made by God with “every living creature of all flesh” to never again make that judgment, ever. The rainbow rising from Lenten floods also proclaims that God, whose love is revealed in Christ, notices every wild sparrow that falls, grieves the loss of every family pet, abides with us through every heartache and defeat, and promises an Easter morning at the end of every rainbow.
Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17 (NRSV)
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9“As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”