by Rev. Herbert Nichols

The opening reading from Genesis is surely among the most familiar and well loved Bible stories. It is a story of change and of growth. The waters have receded and new plants are growing A rainbow spans the sky connecting heaven and the cleansed earth. God is present in covenant and in promise.

Think for a moment what a rainbow is; an arch of light that rises from the earth to the heavens and returns again--a powerful symbol of the unity of the earth with heaven. But this story of Noah carries it with much deeper meaning for people of mature faith and those attempting to be renewed and grow spiritually. The rainbow is just the first of many covenant signs which we will see in liturgical development during this season of Lent.

This is not just a story of a small arrangement between God and Noah's family. This covenant is explicit, unilateral, and universal. It is the story of people who then and now abused rather than used the beautiful gifts of God's creation. The reseeded world of today's proclamation is a second chance given by a patient God to a faithful man, his family and to all of us.

The first Letter of Peter also makes reference to this story of Noah and drawing analogy to the waters of Baptism. The original covenant of faith in which we were first washed of sin and empowered in faith to live a new life. This power of faith does not come out of the sky. It comes out of the water--the sign which God has chosen to make his people his own.

Peter who lived by the water, on the water, and in the water sees the image not as a killing deluge, but as that which supports and sustains life. In fact after Easter we will hear the gospel proclaimed where Peter plunges into the water, swims to the shore to meet the man at the charcoal fire; not for absolution of guilt which he has already received but for release from toxicity of shame which destroys life. Peter refers to water of salvation not death.

In the gospel Jesus attempts to tell his native people that reign of God is at hand. Like the fist two readings. That is the central issue. It is not about reminding of them of punishment and destruction; about bawling them out, or scaring them with fire and brimstone. He sets out first and foremost the promise and fullness of life as opportunity. Opportunity because is prayer is not so much what we do as what we allow God to do with us.

The reign of God is at hand, and we need only open our hands to seize it. As long as our hands remain closed fisted and white knuckled they are not open to receive new life. It is not an easy journey that Jesus invites us to make. The desert is fraught with challenges. There will be difficulties, struggles, sacrifices, and perhaps even surrenders of our will.