Going Over the Rainbow: Genesis 6:5-22; 8:6-12; 9:8-17 - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Have you ever had the sense that you were being called by God?

That God wanted you to help someone carry their groceries, or call up a neighbor who’s going through a hard time?

Have you ever felt that God was urging you to give by volunteering at the clothing closet or donating blood, or increasing your weekly offerings?

Have you witnessed a wrong being committed against someone, and you felt that God wanted you to stand up for them?

Has God ever challenged your priorities, calling you to give up something like a good paying job or prize possession, so that you can live more fully into God’s plan for your life?

Apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus, God never lays so much responsibility on one person’s shoulders than he does with Noah.

Not long after Adam and Eve, the earth had become so full of violence and corruption that God was actually sorry for creating humankind.

So, God commands Noah to build an enormous ark, nearly five stories high and as long as two football fields, and bring aboard two of every creature. Soon, God was sending floodwaters to wipe out humans and animals alike. But God makes a covenant with Noah, along with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law—a promise to be faithful to them, no matter what.

Without uttering a single word, Noah does as he is told, building the ark to God’s exact specifications.

rainbow by steve on flickr. CC BY-NC 2.0

Click here to read the Genesis text.

As someone who nearly needed divine intervention to assemble my daughter’s computer desk from IKEA, I cannot comprehend how Noah single-handedly built the ark, any more than I can explain how he managed to trap, transport, feed, and clean up after two of every wild animal without being eaten by any of them… Don’t forget that the humanity was descending deeper and deeper into violence and corruption while Noah built the ark. People likely talked about him like he was out his mind, and he may have felt compelled to agree with them. Noah likely needed many divine interventions, and every one of them that he needed, he received.

The people God sends to do his work, be they Noah, Moses, the prophets, Mary the mother of Jesus, St. Paul—none of them could have accomplished what they did without God’s help.

Do you know how old Noah was when he completed onto the ark? 600. More likely than not, his age is not to be taken literally; rather, this serves to demonstrate to us that building the ark was his life’s work.

Looking at all the violence and corruption in our world today, I can’t help but fear the future. I’m not worried about God destroying the world. I’m worried about us destroying the world. We certainly have that capability. But do you remember the remember the promise God spoke to Noah? When the rain stops and the flood waters recede, God puts a rainbow in the sky. It isn’t just a sign that God will never again destroy the earth by flood. It’s a sign that God will never forsake us, even when we forsake him.

From this point on, God will bring salvation to the world through the people he calls to himself, who receive his graciousness with faith, gratitude, and hope.

The rainbow is a symbol of hope. It’s God’s love shining through the storm. It beckons us to press on through the storms towards God’s promised future. It reminds us that God is still here—loving people, calling people, saving people…

Plenty of times in life, God will call you to do things that come easy for you. You’ll do them, and you’ll be glad you did.

But God will also call you do to things that are hard and demand great sacrifice. Even when you trust God and obey God, you’re still going to make mistakes. You will fail. People will reject you. They will take advantage of you. You yourself may hurt people along the way. And on plenty of occasions, you’ll feel like giving up—because nothing seems to be accomplished, and success is nowhere in sight. But you can’t have a rainbow without a storm.

Just the same, you’ll never learn to trust God inside your comfort zone. You won’t rely on God when your own strength is sufficient. When things go your way, you won’t seek God’s way.

In the Christian journey, you shouldn’t just expect adversity. You should welcome it, because it keeps you reliant on God. God’s strength takes over when your strength fails. When you sin, don’t deny it or ignore it; own it. Confess it, so that God can rid it from your life and make you a new creation.

Noah didn’t build the ark for God so much as God built the ark through Noah. And God saved the world through Noah and his family. Salvation isn’t something that happens to us; salvation is what God does in us for the sake of the world God loves.

So the next time you see a rainbow in the sky, remember that you are witnessing God’s love shining through the storms. Remember that God is calling you to help create a future that’s brighter and better for all. So don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Don’t hesitate to do what you’ve never done before. Take the risks to do what’s right. Embrace failures, mistakes, and rejection—trusting that God will use all of this to build you up in faith, hope, and love.

Onward, let us go with Jesus towards the rainbow and beyond.