Sermon — February 18, 2024
The Rev. Greg Johnston
I know an avid golfer, and a couple years ago she told me about a great new system she had for working on her swing. There were all these small tips she’d gotten over the years from her coach that she wanted to internalize. So she distilled them down into sticky-note-sized reminders and then posted them on her bathroom mirror, so that as she got ready in the morning, she could be reminded of an important tip. You wash your face, and look up, and see, “Keep your hips loose.” Brush brush brush. “Keep your eye on the puck.” (Clearly golf is not my thing, but you get the point.)
Some of you might find, three days into Lent, that you need the same kind of reminder for yourself. A “DO NOT ENTER” sign posted on the handle of the liquor-cabinet door. An icon of a wagging finger in the place of your go-to social media app. A sticky note, perhaps, on your bathroom mirror, reminding you of this year’s Lenten discipline: “Do Not Yell at the Children.” (I’ll pray for you.)
If you find yourself embarrassed that you need a reminder like this, or else you’ll instantly forget, then: Don’t be! You’re in good company. Because as the Book of Genesis tells us today, even God needs to set a reminder on a post-it note on the proverbial bathroom mirror, something to see when God first wakes up: “Remember: ‘Never Again Make a Flood to Destroy the Earth.’”
After all, that’s where we begin Lent today: with this odd little aside above God’s invention of the rainbow. I don’t know whether the ancient Israelites would have taken this at face value, but it makes me laugh to think that God needs a sign like this, after the great Flood. We human being are apparently so frustrating, that every time it rains, God is tempted to just keep going and wipe everything out again, but God has committed not to do that, and so God puts a rainbow in the sky, so as to “see it and remember the everlasting covenant” that God has made, never to destroy all life again. (Genesis 9:15) At the very least it should give a whole new meaning to the phenomenon of the “double rainbow”: not just an extra-special moment of magic, but a sign that humankind is really getting on God’s nerves.
But there’s something serious in this image, too. And so I want to stay with it, this morning, and ask: What can God’s covenant sign of the rainbow tell us about the nature of our spiritual lives this Lent?
The most unusual thing about this covenant that God makes is that it’s entirely one-sided. You probably know the story of the Flood: Humanity has become so wicked that God decides to wipe us out and start over, but God saves one righteous man named Noah and his family. And Noah builds an ark, and loads in all the animals, two by two: and God floods the earth, and destroys all other life, and then God makes this covenant with Noah.
It’s not like the covenants that God makes in later times with the Israelites. Those covenants are treaties, two-sided agreements in which each side has responsibilities and rights. They’re conditional: over and over, God says, “If you obey the laws and commandments that I am giving you this day, then I will ____…” But this covenant is one-sided, unconditional. God gets nothing in return. God simply promises: “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the water of a flood.” (Gen. 9:11) God realizes, in this moment, that God can’t control what human beings do. We will sometimes do good. We will sometimes do evil. God can give laws, and send teachers and prophets; but we’re not puppets. God can’t control what we do. But God can choose not to destroy us in return.
And you can do this, too! You can choose how you act, on your own. In this season of Lent, as we focus on repentance and reconciliation, you might consider whether there are relationships in your life where this kind of one-sided covenant is exactly what you need to make. You can’t control how anyone around you behaves. Most of us can barely even control ourselves, but at least we have some influence over what we say and do. So ask yourself: Is there anyone in my life who just gets on my nerves? Anyone who tests me, intentionally or not? Anyone who, despite my best efforts, I simply cannot change? What would it look like for you to give up on that person changing and make an unconditional covenant, instead—to recognize that you cannot control their actions, but you can control your own, and to respond to them, not with destructive anger, but with restraint? In the same way, if there’s some sin, some toxic pattern in your life that you need to give up, you alone can give it up. It’s a one-sided choice. It’s not easy. It’s not always possible. But it is in your power, and your power alone, to commit to it.
What kind of sign do you need to set for yourself to remember to follow through?
God chooses a sign of great beauty. It’s not a wagging finger or an instructive post-it note that God sets in the sky, but a rainbow. The beauty of the sign is intimately linked to the force of destruction: the water vapor that would have flooded the earth, instead refracts light into beauty in the sky. And it’s as if this beauty jars God out of the path of anger: That’s right. This is what water is for.
Lent has its own strange kind of beauty. Fasting from something can feel like a chore, or a struggle. Repenting from some pattern in your life that needs to change can be hard. Reconciling with someone you need to forgive is always more appealing at another time. And yet there can be a beauty in these things. It’s not the beauty of the luxury vacation. It’s the beauty of the desert, of the wilderness, of life pared down to its essentials. It’s the satisfaction of a struggle won. And you might observe how it feels, in your actual body, to give up what you’ve given up, or to take on what you’ve taken on. It might turn out that the beauty of that rainbow is even greater than the satisfaction of destruction; that your Lenten practice this year is not all self-denial and discipline, but contains some gift for you as well.
But in the end, here’s the thing: Lent is about God’s work, not ours. We spend our forty days of temptation in the wilderness, and we may feed like we succeed or fail, but Jesus has been there before us. We try to turn away from our destructive ways, but it’s God who’s already pledged never again to flood the earth. The question of Lent is not how we can be more like God, how we can resist temptation, about what we have to learn from this sign of the rainbow. It’s about what God has already done for us.
Because Lent is not just forty days of giving something up with a celebration at the end. Lent is the path that leads to Good Friday. Lent is the road that leads to the Cross, where God fulfills the promise never again to the destroy all flesh, but to be destroyed, instead; the day on which Christ “was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit,” (1 Peter 3:18) as Peter says, and gave new life to every one of us.
And that is the ultimate beauty of Lent. It’s the beauty of the rainbow: God’s unconditional promise of love. If you succeed in “giving up” for forty days, well done; but still, Good Friday’s coming all the same. And if you fail, again and again and again, or if you never start at all: it’s okay. Jesus has already won the victory for you. Lent is not an achievement, or a way to earn God’s love. It’s just an invitation to learn about ourselves. It’s a way to experiment with our own willpower, always remembering that God loves us, whatever the results; that God’s covenant comes with no strings attached; that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near,” whether you repent or not, and whatever you believe about “the good news.” (Mark 1:15)