TRACING THE RAINBOW

ASH WEDNESDAY 2011
Readings : Genesis 9:8-17, Matthew 6:1-6+16-21, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Our God is God of the Covenant. As our readings have reminded us, we are often guilty of breaking that covenant. Our Old Testament reading reminded us that though we are disobedient, God has established an everlasting covenant that stands as long as there are still rainbows in the sky. I came across an e-mail the other day that was titled “All I really need to know about life, I learned from Noah’s Ark.”

(1) Don’t miss the boat.
(2) Don’t forget we’re all in the same boat.
(3) Plan ahead—it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
(4) Stay fit—when you’re 600 years old someone might ask you to do something really big.
(5) Don’t listen to critics, just get on with what has to be done.
(6) For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
(7) Two heads are better than one.
(8) Build your future on high ground.
(9) Speed isn’t always an advantage; after all, the snails were on the same ark as the cheetahs.
(10) When you’re stressed, float awhile.
(11) Remember, amateurs (given directions by the master builder and teacher) built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.
(12) The woodpeckers inside were a larger threat than the storm outside.
(13) No matter what the storm, when God is with you, there’s a rainbow waiting.

No matter what the storm, there is a rainbow waiting! God does not abandon to us to our fate. God is with us. Yet a day like today reminds us that we are not as keen on keeping within the terms of the covenant as we should be. As our reading from Matthew reminds us, we have a tendency to do what we do for the benefit of self or as a show to others. Better to avoid that temptation and be sure that our devotion is not just something out in the open, where all can see, but is a matter of the heart, ‘in secret’, where nobody can see.

Sin is a wasting disease. It eats away at our souls, at our relationship with God and with each other. It causes us to do the right things for the wrong reasons and can corrupt the purest of intentions. And we are all victims of sins pervasive power. We all alike have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. We equally need the forgiveness, the strength, the healing, the restoration, the hope, the love that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

As Paul writes: “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.”

Let me tell you about George. George was a student in theological college, engaged to a beautiful girl, the love of his life. Though extremely gifted and talented George had a problem. His sight was failing him. When he told this to his intended, she dumped him. George was nearly destroyed. His health and his love – fading away.

A little while later George was invited to a wedding. Actually it was his sisters wedding. As he struggled through his conflicting emotions and sort to apply his faith in God to the situation in which he found himself, he found a song forming itself in his mind. So there and then, he wrote it down.

You can find it in our hymnbooks, as it was later put to music. The words, which we’ll sing to close our service say this:-

“O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee,
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths it’s flow may richer, fuller be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be.”

No matter what the storm, there is a rainbow waiting! As Paul entreats us, “Let us not receive the Grace of God in vain”. Here on Ash Wednesday, as we come forward and share in the communion service, we have an opportunity to renew our covenant with God. Such is a great way to start the Lenten journey towards Easter.


Rev Adrian Pratt