As The Journey Begins We Gather to the Promise of the Rainbow
Lent 1, Year B ~ Genesis 9:8-17
Kenwood UMC ~ March 1, 2009
Each summer our family vacations at the same beach. We’ve gone there since 2003, and so it is a place our kids, who are 8 and 5, have grown up with. The journey there is always very exciting, but also very tedious, as journeys can sometimes be. And as we get near the end the anticipation is building. We have learned that it is helpful to have a sign, some sort of a marker so that everyone ones we are about to embark on the vacation journey, we are about to reach the beach. For us, that sign has become the bridge going over to the island. It’s a lot like the bridge going over to Nags Head which many of you may be familiar with. And when we reach that bridge, we put down whatever book we are reading, or whatever movie is on the DVD player, we turn down the radio, we open the windows and smell the beach air, and together as a family we experience that sign that tells us our vacation journey is about to begin.
Friends, our journey of Lent is about to begin—in fact, it has already begun. It started on Ash Wednesday, last Wednesday night, when we gathered here in the sanctuary to begin to come to terms with how we are separated from God. And this journey that we will share together, over the next 6 weeks, will be an experience of moving—sometimes forward, sometimes, backward, sometimes round in circles. But as we learn about ourselves and our relationship right now with God, we will not stay the same. And it is our hope that by the time Easter rolls around, we will be transformed.
But in order to be transformed, we are going to have to allow ourselves to change—to be different. So to accomplish that we are going to be looking at practices each week which can shape or transform us as disciples of Jesus. We don’t assume that transformation happens—that you just say, OK, God, transform me, and there you are. We assume that we have to do some things—change some behaviors—in order to open ourselves to transformation.
Now, I want to be clear that no one is going to force you into these practices. This journey is something you have to want to embark on. You have to feel the tug of God on your heart, inviting you to go closer. But I hope you will take the risk, I hope you’ll take the first step because I believe that the invitation is coming from God to all of us.
So, today, we begin by looking at the practice of gathering. Gathering, you say? The scripture was about the aftermath of the flood. There was no one left to gather with. Yes, there were. There were those on the boat. Noah and his family. The animals, two of every kind God had created. There was, in fact, quite a group to gather together—quite a noisy, smelly, raucous group.
But I think it is significant that they gathered before God before they went running willy-nilly off the boat. You know they had to have been excited. Dry land. Finally. After 40 days and 40 nights. The possibility was ahead of them that they might get more than 3 feet of distance between themselves and another creature. But before they begin to spread out, they get off the boat and build an altar, in Genesis chapter 8. And here in chapter 9 we see that God has been pleased by this, and that God makes a promise to them never again to destroy the earth. And God gives them a sign—not only for their hope, but for God to remember. It is the sign of the rainbow.
It was really important that they all received that sign together. It wasn’t one person telling the others about it, or the giraffes filling the elephants in on the news. They all saw it—they heard God say: this is the sign of the covenant—this rainbow is a sign of my promise. There was not going to be a mix up, because they had heard it together.
There is something about gathering, gathering with our community of believers, that strengthens our discipleship. We are not created to relate to God all by ourselves, but to relate to God within the context of a community of believers. And as we gather, as we worship, as we seek God together, we find strengthen in our relationships. And we are able to affirm for each other when and how we see God working in our community and in the world.
We gather at this table for another sign, not a rainbow, but a meal. And once again, something ordinary, something God has already created, takes on new meaning when we gather to receive it. In our gathering we invite God to be present, we invite God’s grace to be known to each of us and to the community.
As we begin this season of Lent, let us gather together. Let us be with one another as companions on the journey. Let us hold one another accountable, confess to one another, move forward with one another in faith. May God’s mercy and grace wash over us, and may we draw closer to God through the power of drawing closer to one another. Amen.
