I Am Just Not Ready! Let's Just Move to Rainbows and Resurrection

 

I am just not ready!

It is an occupational hazard in those years when Easter happens early. March 31^st this year.

Ash Wednesday snuck up on me, us – it didn’t get advertised until the week before.

I am just not ready! My brain is working one season at a time; wanting to finish one season before putting the schedule together for the next.

 

The reading from Genesis has us standing outside with Noah, looking at the resplendent rainbow, and being told the significance of the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant. Hearing this story now has two affects – one I want to just skip to Easter (the rainbow) and forget Lent; and a feeling that the rainbow is a great sign, but I have missed an experience and deeper understanding.

I am just not ready – I am not ready to tackle the scriptures of the day.

How can one interpret and talk about God’s rainbow covenant without first hearing, re-living the story of the call of Noah, the building of the ark, the call to repentance, the destruction of the whole earth -its people, its creatures- by flood? How can one interpret and talk about the start of Jesus’ public ministry without acknowledging on whose heels Jesus follows and not the just the imprisonment but the beheading of John the Baptist? A humanity destroying flood and the beheading of a faith leader…I am not ready to wrestle with either --- let’s just move to rainbows and resurrection.

 

I am just not ready! Perhaps it is because as one of hymns in the new hymnbook says, “for the troubles and the sufferings of the world…” My mind and heart have been saturated by a ‘humanity destroying flood’ – climate change, unkindness, greed; a rise in aggression, threat, violence, displacement, war; the ‘beheading’ of leaders and advocates who champion a different way, who disagree, who are outspoken… I am tired and not prepared to wrestle with any of this---- let’s just move to rainbows and resurrection.

 

If I was to ask you to tell me a story about a rainbow, I suspect most of you would tell me of a personal experience of the phenomenon. You would be able to recount the moment including: the sights, smells, tastes, the feeling you had, who you were with, where it was, what came before. I am pretty sure the story would not be, I simply looked up and there it was; just simple like anything else you might notice while outside.

The memorable rainbows are those that follow a deeper experience where your senses and emotions have been invested. Most of my memorable rainbow stories begin in harrowing, fear-filled, anxiety ridden moments experienced inside a storm. The stories involve torrential rain, excessive thunder and lightening, fast moving mud and water, and the inability to get to safety. And after this, when that rainbow graces the sky in all its vibrance and vitality, shining in front of the bank of moody clouds…

..I can feel it… the great sigh of relief expelled and my shoulders relaxing away from my ears…

…that moment is abundant in gratitude, there is pleasure and joy in the beauty, and a sense that all is well, and that all things shall be well.

The rainbow means less without the experience before. The experience of the rainbow without the emotions and investment before hand makes the rainbow in all its glory less meaningful, less visceral; in essence empty.

 

Maybe that is the gospel for us this morning, to take heed, that we take time to wrestle with the troubles and the sufferings of the world, that we take time to settle into Lent and do some hard work, self reflection, cry tears of repentance, suffer cuts and bruises, so that when we arrive at the glory of the empty tomb of Easter; it is a joyous Christ is risen, and not an empty tomb within ourselves because we did not invest in 40 days of time to get ready.

I began by saying “I am just not ready.” That isn’t entirely true – It is how I feel, however, it is exactly why Lent is a season. Lent is the gift of time. It is a season of getting ready- a season of preparation. We have time to build an ark, to ready ourselves as a container to carry life and salvation – so that we may sail the troubles and the sufferings of the world – addressing and dressing them with compassion, hope, and life. Sailing to the ends of the earth with the Good News of Jesus Christ, we can leave rainbows in our wake.

 

The other day, mom and I were having a conversation and talking about phrases that connect colour and feeling. Phrase like: ‘feeling blue,’ ‘green with envy,’ ‘seeing red.’ Through history, in various cultures, colours have been associated with feelings. It is no surprise that centuries ago the seven deadly sins each had an attributed colour: red for anger, orange for gluttony, yellow for greed, green for envy, light blue sloth, blue for lust, purple for pride.  A rainbow of sin if you will.

 

This morning the explanation of the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant has been told to us.

For it to have a deeper meaning, let us take the symbol as a focus for our journey and reflection through Lent.

Let us take time with each colour and its corresponding sin and wrestle with how that sin affects our daily life and our relationships. By the time we work through and reflect on each sin, each colour of the rainbow, the hard work -the sweat, grime, and tears- should change us and our hearts; colouring our relationships in brightness and vibrancy. As we reflect on how specific sin affects our relationships with God, others, creation, ourselves – we sink deeper into understanding and come closer to living a colourful response to God’s covenant promise in the rainbow, the call to preserve life.

When the rainbow breaks out in front of the storm clouds, the vibrance of colour evokes a feeling of hope in a new beginning and joy in the possibility of the flourishing of life.

 

This year’s Lenten theme is lament and for Holy Week, the Valley of Tears.

We have a gift of 40+ days to immerse ourselves in the torrential rain of repentance and reflection on sin and our separation from the love of God and others.

We have a gift of 40+ days to journey through the tough stuff, the troubles and the sufferings of the world -so that we are ready for Easter, where the tomb being empty, is the rainbow of the Christ risen; and not simply an empty tomb in ourselves because we decided to avoid the storm.

 

 

Let us pray with a prayer from Julian of Norwich:

In you, Father all-mighty,

 We have our preservation and our bliss. In you Christ, we have our restoring and our saving. You are our mother, other, and saviour. In you, our Lod the Holy Spirit is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach u to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Amen.