Homily for Sunday, February 22, 2015 Buck Mountain Church
Lessons:
Genesis 9:8-17
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Peter 3:18-22
Mark 1: 9-15
What is it about a
rainbow? The perfect semi-circular
arc, the glorious colors, whether spread above the ocean’s waves, extending
from ridge to ridge across a valley, or shimmering above an urban landscape, a
rainbow never fails to fill us with wonder and joy. And seeing a double
rainbow? Breathtaking! What could be a better symbol of God’s eternal promise,
“the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh
that is on the earth”?
In the places
where water, light, and air intersect, we encounter God in today’s lessons. In
Genesis and in Mark, God reveals himself to be a loving parent. In scenes where
the world and all of creation seem brand new, we are reminded by a rainbow of
childhood and that we are, like Jesus, the beloved children of God.
In the beginning
there was light…and the child experienced the bright, raw light of a windswept
March day…the butter-yellow light of a summer afternoon…the piercing dazzle of
sunlight reflected from snow-covered fields on a winter day…sparkling star-lit fall evenings…moonlight so
bright it casts shadows…the warm glow of lamplight when day’s work is done.
In the beginning
there was water, and the child experienced the dance of raindrops on a metal roof…the
music of a river as it rushes over its bed of stones…the darting of tadpoles
and minnows magnified beneath the river’s surface…sips of spring water scooped
in cupped hands…a sprinkle of Holy water running down the face.
Whether by the
fleeting appearance of a rainbow or the reminder of our own baptism, we are
brought back to the beginning of things when we experience the immediacy of
creation in water, in light, in each other, in other creatures.
St. Thomas
Aquinas, who is considered one of the church’s greatest teachers, believed that
creation itself was the first book of scripture. He wrote, “Creation is
the primary and the most perfect revelation of the Divine.” The idea that we
encounter and learn about God in God’s creation is no surprise to those of us
who love to garden, who love digging in the earth and releasing the soil’s rich
scent, who love to till and plant and watch things grow. Gardeners and farmers
find deep satisfaction in being co-creators with God.
For those of us
who love animals, including the ones we have domesticated and call pets, how
special it is that today’s lessons make reference to God’s creatures. God’s
covenant, of which the rainbow is the symbol, very carefully includes animals:
God says to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and
you and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” In promising
never again to destroy all living things, isn’t God also promising to sustain
them—and us? It is a good thing to be reminded of that sustenance, promised to
all God’s creatures from the beginning of time.
Today’s lesson
from the Gospel of Mark is also about beginnings—the beginning of the ministry
of Jesus, following his baptism in the waters of the Jordan River. As often as
I’ve read the story, the brevity of Mark’s version caused something to
leap out at me this time. As in the other versions (in Matthew and Luke), the
Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove, and the voice of God speaks
from above the clouds: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased.” Unlike in the
other gospel versions, where the baptism of Jesus is followed by a long story
of his temptation by Satan in the wilderness, in Mark we get two sentences:
“And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the
wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts,
and the angels waited on him.”
Matthew and Luke
say nothing about wild beasts. In Mark, since the clause “he was with the
wild beasts” is paired with and given the same weight as “and the angels
waited on him,” I had a vision of Jesus surrounded and comforted by friendly
animals, with a dove still resting on his shoulder. I could see a lion with its head on his lap, being stroked
by Jesus, or a wolf lying at his feet.
I was reminded of the prophet Isaiah’s foretelling of the Messiah’s
birth as the coming of a peaceable kingdom:
The
wolf shall live with the lamb,
the
leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the
calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and
a little child shall lead them.
The
cow and the bear shall graze,
their
young shall lie down together;
and
the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
They
will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain.
For
the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as
the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)
We have come full circle. Jesus is
with the wild beasts and the waters of the flood are contained in their proper
place, covering the seas. The
creatures, the elements, and humankind dwell in harmony, “full of the knowledge
of the Lord” and his merciful grace. Water now symbolizes the new covenant God
makes with all people, a covenant promising universal love for all who trust in
it. In the last verses from today’s lesson, Mark tells us what Jesus did after
his time in the wilderness: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the Good News
of God and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near.’”
Shall we join our Lord
and all of creation in His peaceful kingdom? He extends this invitation eternally.
Thanks
be to God! Amen.
