Once again the people of University Hill Congregation are creating a Lenten devotion. Each day through the season of Lent a scripture reading from the Lenten journey through will be accompanied by the response of a member of the community. Here is my offering this year ...
I don’t often use the word “antediluvian”. I know it refers to something really old. But once you think about it this old word is really two words meaning “before flood”. Now that is old. Here, in Genesis chapter nine, we are in the very first post-diluvian days. The waters have begun to recede. The dove has returned with an olive branch.
Now God makes a startling announcement. It is a post-diluvian pledge, an unconditional covenant between God and all of Noah’s descendants. These descendants number, of course, every human being. Noah is not Jewish. God has not yet called out Abraham and Sarah as a distinctive people. No, God’s post-diluvian pledge is a covenant with all flesh - all humankind and all animal kind. It is an extraordinary promise.
Never again will God send a massive flood to wipe out life. Has God been traumatized by the awful sights and sounds of such divinely ordained destruction? All we know is that God swears that it will never happen again. To ensure that God does not forget this solemn oath God disarms, setting the bow in the clouds as a permanent reminder - not to the creatures but as a reminder to God.
What are we to make of this all these post-diluvian centuries later? It was surely not the end of God’s struggles with a creation so easily overtaken by violence, greed and injustice. While flooding it out is no longer an option the task of redeeming a broken, sinful world is no less challenging.
But here, as the land dries out and the rainbow is set in the clouds for the first time God makes a stand. God stands on the side of life. God will never attempt to wipe out all but the last living pair of every species. God not only promises this to Noah and his descendants, not only to every creature on the face of the earth, but God also promises God’s own self.
It is a momentous event in the history of God. God is on a journey of salvation and will soon recruit human agents - a holy people - to live and carry the message of God’s Way. It starts with the promise as the waters recede: “Never again”.
“God of the flood and God of the rainbow, we stand on the solid ground of Your promise to be for all. We, too, need reminders of Your pledge to disarm. Disarm our warlike intentions, biases and ignorance. Turn us to You and Your Way of Life. Amen.”
Ed I agree God must be reminded of the promise made with the Rainbow. Anger often leads to violence. So does pacifist actions that placate a majority who have forgotten about the passion that creates and sustains life on this planet. Christ was and is a bridegroom and a bride whose passion separates and reunites them with the Help of the Rabboni and his resistance community of peace makers!
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