The story of God’s covenant following the Great Flood reminds us that, again and again, God meets us. God meets us and promises to stay with us. “This story reminds us to hope, to believe that even in the midst of the storms, a new tomorrow awaits” us. We hold to this hope because we know God meets us where we are…in the broken, the hurt, in the chaos after the flood. “God meets us with a promise sealed with a bow bursting with the endless spectrum of color light holds.”
March 9, 2025
Again & Again: A Lenten Refrain
“God Meets Us”
Genesis 9: 8-17
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Genesis 9: 8-17
God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “I am now setting up my covenant with you, with your descendants, and with every living being with you—with the birds, with the large animals, and with all the animals of the earth, leaving the ark with you. I will set up my covenant with you so that never again will all life be cut off by floodwaters. There will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”
God said, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I am drawing up between me and you and every living thing with you, on behalf of every future generation. I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. The bow will be in the clouds, and upon seeing it I will remember the enduring covenant between God and every living being of all the earth’s creatures.” God said to Noah, “This is the symbol of the covenant that I have set up between me and all creatures on earth.”
God Meets Us Genesis 9: 8-17
As people of faith, the word “and” is an important part of our story. It is an essential word for us, one we rely on to remind us of God’s promises, one we come back to again and again to remind us who we are and whose we are. As people of faith, the word “and” is important because it serves to remind us that two things can be true at the same time. For example, as people of faith, we know that our world is filled with brokenness AND we know that God is at work in this world, bringing healing and wholeness to all of God’s people. As people of faith, we know that the Beloved Community is here because we catch glimpses of it every single day. AND we know that it is not fully realized yet. So we hold to the vision of God’s Shalom coming to fruition here on Earth just as it is in heaven.
As people of faith, we know that there is so much hurt and hate in our world AND we know that love and light will overcome, that this world will not have the last world. As people of faith, we know we can bring our fears, our worries, our doubts, we can bring all that we are to God AND God will hear us, God will see us, that God will hold us in the palm of God’s hand. As people of faith, we know that there is healing in repeated refrains of our faith, meaning we can cry out How Long, O God AND we know that our mourning will turn to dancing. We can experience the dark night of the soul and we know that there will be joy in the morning.
As people of faith, we embrace the “and” because we know that sometimes the “and” is not only essential, it is necessary, especially when we come upon difficult texts and we struggle to find God’s promise among the verses. Our text for today is an example of such a difficult text. When we apply this essential and necessary “and” to this familiar story, we are invited to see the larger picture, to understand the context which surrounds this text. We are invited to see beyond just the verses on the page and find God’s wisdom and word for us as people of faith. In order to do just that, I invite us to hear again a few words of the essential and necessary “and” as it applies to this story of faith and promise.
“I have placed my bow in the clouds; it will be the symbol of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember the covenant between me and you and every living being among all the creatures. Floodwaters will never again destroy all creatures. The bow will be in the clouds, and upon seeing it I will remember the enduring covenant between God and every living being of all the earth’s creatures.”
See that whole “and” changes the narrative to promise and hope. Without the “and”, we are simply left with destruction and death. The “and” changes everything.
Now, please don’t hear me say that I am ignoring the context of this familiar story. To do so would not be authentic to the reading and purpose of this text. Just because we can does not give us permission to do so. Nor does it give us permission to ignore the fact that this story comes after God has just wiped out all of creation except for Noah and his family. No matter what, as people of faith, we cannot skip over this or try to reason it away. However, as we stated earlier, as people of faith, since we know and proclaim that more than one thing can be true at the same time, we can hold to the both/and of this text. We can hold to the context of this text and invite it to share with us God’s word and wisdom. And when we do so, we realize that in the previous chapters, God regrets. God grieves and God remembers. Let me say that again… God regrets. God grieves and God remembers. The “and” changes the narrative. It empowers us to see that this covenant which God makes with all creation is unusual. It breaks the typical protocol in such agreements. Yes, the covenant is between two parties but not necessarily two people.
In our text, when we apply the essential and necessary “and”, we realize that God makes the covenant with all of Creation, meaning present humanity, and all future generations as well as all animals, all plants, all birds, and all creatures of the sea. Through the “and”, God is expanding the covenantal relationship rather than narrowing it down.
Through the “and”, we also realize that all the obligations are on God in this convent which God makes with all creation. Again, this is not typical of covenantal agreements. Usually the agreements spell out what each party agrees to and will do, but not this one. This one only lays out what God will do, how God will limit God’s own self, how God will act now and forevermore. There is no mention of how Creation or humanity will respond.
The “and” of this story reminds us that again and again.love and light will overcome, that as people of faith, we can trust God’s promises, that we can hold God accountable. We can ask God why there is so much brokenness. We can ask God how long will hurt and hate seem to be what drives our world. AND we know that in the asking, God meets us, that God promises us the story will not end in death and destruction.
And all we have to do is look up in the sky to see the rainbow after the storm to know that this is true. As people of faith, the “and” in this story changes everything. It gives us hope. It lets us know that God meets us where we are…God meets us in the broken. God meets us in the hurt. God meets us in the chaos after the flood. And promises us that this world will not have the last world. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, March 9, 2025 – God Meets Us Genesis 9: 8-17.
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