First Sunday of Lent

First Sunday of Lent
March 5, 2006

"God said to Noah, "I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9:8-15). "This prefigured baptism, which saves you now... (I Peter 3:18 -22). "The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert... and the angels ministered to him." (Mark 1:12-15)

After a disastrous flood which nearly extinguished human life on earth Yahweh tells Noah that the rainbow will be a sign of the promise never to do that again. Discussions about whether or not this flood literally covered the earth or whether the ark literally contained every species of life miss the point of the story. God often in human history can be both impatient and endlessly patient with us. All creation was "buried" in water which should have annihilated it. Based on our track record it would have been richly deserved. Instead these waters of destruction and despair have been transformed into waters of life and hope.

A friend told me recently that being on and close to the ocean has always elicited a profound experience of peace and freedom which otherwise was often missing from her life. This is a case in point, a marvelous individual religious experience and fulfillment of the divine promise. As we hear in the letter of Peter, the waters of the flood are completed in the waters of baptism. All of us are "baptized" just when we think we will be inundated by fear and guilt. At the last moment, when all seems lost, we emerge in much better shape than we could have possibly hoped or imagined.

Jesus is "driven" by the Spirit into a remote and threatening place. The language used to describe this suggests his journey into the desert was more than a gentle nudge. We don't hear exactly what the nature of his temptation was. Our tradition of faith tells us that Jesus was "like us in all things except sin". Was he feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of facing the burden of his future? Like him, we are all driven to face our demons in a lonely place. But then we are, also like him, visited by our Father's heavenly messengers bringing word that we are in not alone. Another threat of annihilation, transformed into hope.

I have wondered, especially in the darkness of night time, about how much longer I have, how I will know when my time is up, how death will come, etc. Then morning comes, people who love me show up (a human rainbow) and: these questions and fears have evaporated. Life looks good and interesting. I have a future again. Something new and permanent can come out of isolation and hopelessness. In forty days we celebrate our hope of transformation. If every Sunday is a "little Easter", we don't even have to wait until then. This Lent would be a great time to look again for our rainbows, human and otherwise.